Doughty supplies Farnham Maltings with Easydeck
- Details
In September 2015 the venue began an association with the University of Creative Arts (UCA), which now bases its acting and drama degree course on site. With investment from the University, Farnham Maltings has begun an upgrade of its technical facilities over a three-year period, with Doughty Engineering being brought on board to supply its Easydeck flooring during year one of the project.
Easydeck is a modular performance system, perfectly suited for smaller venues like Farnham Maltings, thanks to consultations with drama teachers, amateur groups and rental companies during its development, enabling Doughty to create an efficient, cost effective solution to temporary staging.
Julie Birkin, general manager at Farnham Maltings, explained: "Initially we contacted Doughty with the intent that they would just supply the kit; Laurence Dyer of Doughty offered to carry out a site visit in order for us to trial the Easydeck in situ. Whilst on site, we tested it for noise, deflection, different surface finishes; and ease of build, handling and storage."
She continued: "Laurence was able to add insightful tips on configurations, and weight loadings, so when we started conversations with UCA about the creation of multi-level platforms to distinguish between scenes without the need for a full production set, Doughty were able to direct us. It proved difficult to ascertain how much staging would be required. We found the price to be in our favour and so doubled up on the quantities to split this over our two main performance spaces."
To date, the main use of the new kit at Farnham Maltings has been to create audience seating in-the-round in the venue's Great Hall. Julie concluded: "We are so pleased with the flexibility that Easydeck offers us. Doughty Engineering’s attention to detail on this project was excellent."
(Jim Evans)
