Press Release: 25 April 2017
A joint venture between Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus and The Montgomery is solving the problem that stairs can cause to both audience members and performers with mobility impairments. Due to the style and age of The Montgomery and the Chorus’s home venue of the City Hall, both venues have some tricky steps to negotiate that can’t be solved by adding lifts or ramps.
“We have been successfully using our stair-climber backstage at the City Hall to reach the choir risers since 2012 when we were thrilled to receive Big Lottery funding for our Singclude project” explained Anne Adams, Administrator of the Chorus, “And, in keeping with the project’s aim to improve accessibility to performance spaces, we are even happier to announce that we are now in a position to share the use of the climber with The Montgomery. With 35 steps to reach the auditorium, the climber will be a welcomed addition to the facilities of the theatre.”
The climber will next be put through its paces on Saturday 6th May, smoothly aiding singers up to the performance level of the City Hall when over 270 singers from both the Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus and the Hallé Choir will be performing Tippett’s A Child of our Time. “This powerful work is large and dramatic so we need a huge number of voices, hence the welcome collaboration with the Hallé Choir. And we 2 certainly wouldn’t want any of our less mobile singers to have to sit out for the sake of not being able to negotiate a few flights of stairs,” said Chorus Chairman Paul Henstridge.
Dawn Reynolds, Managing Director of The Montgomery is equally keen that audience members to The Montgomery’s shows benefit from the stair-climber sharing arrangement. “We realise that the steps can be daunting for some people so we are thrilled to be able to provide this new facility to help more theatre goers enjoy our performances”.
If you’d like to join the Chorus for A Child of Our Time, call 0114 2 789 789 or visit www.sheffieldcityhall.co.uk for ticket details. And if you’d like to attend a performance at The Montgomery using the stair-climber, give them a call on 0114 272 0455 prior to booking your ticket.