Award Winning Theatre Transforms into TV Studio

Artistic Director Iwan Lewis announced the creation of ‘Behind the Barn Door’ on March 19, after the venue went dark due to the coronavirus outbreak. It has already seen viewing figures of over 100,000 for its ‘Tweedy’s Lost and Found’ show, which has featured celebrities such as Hugh Bonneville, Helena Bonham Carter and This Country’s Kerry Mucklowe.

Other content includes ‘Disco Fitness’, ‘Live from the Clinic’ with Dr Dawn Harper from Embarrassing Bodies, and ‘Cool Conversations’ with mountaineer Kenton Cool; episode four’s cool conversation was with former soldier and television presenter, Ant Middleton!

Iwan says, “We are a registered charity which operates a small 200 seater producing house in the Cotswolds. Like all other theatres, the Barn has had to close its doors to the public and as an unsubsidised charity we face the prospect of a substantial loss of revenue from ticket sales, which was a hammer blow to our core business model of live theatre.”

He continues: “We have thought for a while that the future is pushing towards live broadcast. Because of that, it was important we invested in good quality kit that would serve us for a long time. We hope to continue our digital offering long after the lockdown is lifted.”

The theatre-come-studio currently uses LUMIX mirrorless cameras, with special guests joining via Zoom. The production hub consists of an ATEM 2 M/E Production Studio 4K switcher, ATEM Advanced Panel, HyperDeck recorders and UltraStudio units to create full-featured live programming with minimal crew, along with Teradek encoders and the Restream platform to reach their online audience.

“We wanted to do these live broadcasts to try and keep the charity alive, but are continually surprised at the success this project is reaching,” concludes Iwan. “We never would have imagined that our content from Cirencester would be watched by people all around the globe.”