Theatre and Studio Consultancy for The Manchester College new build theatre and studio spaces
Located in the heart of Manchester city centre, City Campus Manchester opened in summer 2022 as a landmark creative and digital industries facility. Designed to provide state-of-the-art, industry-standard environments, the campus brings together performance, production and teaching spaces under one roof. It is home to the College’s Industry Excellence Academy for Creative and Digital Industries, as well as UCEN Manchester’s Arden School of Theatre and Manchester Film School.
Drama by Design was appointed as Theatre and Studio Consultants from feasibility stage through to project completion. Working closely with architects Bond Bryan and the wider design team, we developed the specialist technical strategies and designed all theatre, studio and performance systems throughout the building. Our role was to ensure that every space met professional industry expectations while remaining flexible, robust and appropriate for an educational environment.
At the heart of the building is the main theatre, designed to support teaching, public performance, assemblies and conference use. The theatre features a full-area tension wire grid, providing safe and flexible access for lighting and technical work, alongside two fly bars at the rear of the stage for backdrops. The lighting and infrastructure strategy was developed around LED luminaires, with sequential power and DMX distribution to maximise efficiency and adaptability. The space is equipped with front, mid and rear stage curtain tracks, side masking curtains on tracks, and an electrically retractable seating system to allow rapid reconfiguration. Integrated AV systems enable straightforward operation for film screenings, presentations and large-scale events.
Complementing the main theatre is a highly flexible black box studio theatre. This space incorporates a conventional internally wired barrel grid with perimeter curtain tracking, allowing multiple staging formats and experimental performance layouts. Both theatre spaces benefit from a comprehensive facility panel infrastructure, providing distributed access to audio, video and communications signals to support diverse teaching and production requirements.
The campus also includes two film studios and a dedicated TV studio, designed to professional standards to support Manchester Film School. These spaces integrate lighting, power and signal distribution systems that enable high-quality production while remaining adaptable for future technological developments.
Music facilities are provided for both Further Education and Higher Education programmes. Each suite comprises a series of music practice and recording rooms linked to control rooms, enabling multitrack recording and production. Integrated camera systems allow monitoring between spaces, supporting both supervision and recording workflows. The design ensures acoustic separation, technical reliability and ease of operation for students developing industry-relevant skills.
On the top floor, a range of singing, dance and drama studios provide flexible rehearsal and teaching environments. Some studios are equipped with active loudspeakers for music playback, while others incorporate full performance infrastructure including lighting grids, facility panels and sound systems. The building-wide loudspeaker system is centrally controlled but allows local input and level control, with connection plates enabling wired or Bluetooth connection of mobile devices for teaching and rehearsal use.
Communications systems throughout the campus were carefully coordinated to support operational efficiency and professional standards. These include front-of-house and backstage paging, show relay systems for the theatres, intercom systems serving theatre and music suites, and induction loop assisted listening systems to ensure accessibility and inclusivity.
Drama by Design worked closely with the main contractor during construction, overseeing the implementation of specialist systems and providing testing and commissioning services upon completion. Our continued involvement through to handover ensured that all systems were fully integrated, correctly configured and performing as intended.
City Campus Manchester now provides a cohesive, future-ready creative hub where theatre, film, music and digital production coexist within a single, technically sophisticated environment. Through early engagement, detailed system design and close collaboration with the design and construction teams, Drama by Design helped deliver a facility that reflects industry standards while supporting the next generation of creative professionals.
