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The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) revealed details Wednesday of a sweeping transformation of its home theatre in central England to create the best venue in the world to experience the bard's plays.
A new Royal Shakespeare Theatre in the legendary playwright's home town of Stratford-upon-Avon will replace the art-deco 1932 auditorium with a modern design based on the courtyard theatres of his time.
The revamp will cost 100 million pounds (185 million dollars, 145 million euros).
The new "thrust-stage" auditorium, seating just over 1,000 people, will reduce the distance from the stage to the furthest seat from 30 yards to 15 yards (27 metres to 14 metres).
The RSC hopes that by bringing actors and the audience closer, the new theatre will create more engaging shows and help keep Shakespeare's plays fresh for a new generation.
"We want to move away from the 19th-century proscenium 'picture frame' to a theatre which celebrates interaction," said RSC artistic director Michael Boyd.
"Our commitment to bring an immediacy and clarity to Shakespeare means we need to bring the audience to a more engaged relationship with our actors.
"The best way we can achieve this is in a bold, thrust-stage, one-room auditorium -- a modern take on the theatres of Shakespeare's day."
Work is due to start next year and the theatre will reopen in 2010.
The RSC is part-way through "The Complete Works", its biggest-ever festival that will see all the Elizabethan dramatist's plays staged in one year.
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AFPEntertainment-Britain-theatre-Shakespeare
AFP 141436 GMT 06 06
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