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Dateline: 5th June, 2005
The Assembly Expands The Assembly Hall, the venue for the annual General Assembly of the Church of Scotland and the original home of the Scottish Parliament from 1999-2004, will, for the first time, be programmed as a major Edinburgh Fringe venue. To be managed by Assembly Theatre, the company behind the Assembly Rooms venue on George Street, The Assembly Hall will be the largest Fringe venue with a seating capacity of 790. Recently renovated, the debating chamber of the Assembly Halls has a horse-shoe shaped seating plan, the sides of which will be used as wings for the extended stage. The programme at The Assembly Hall will see a wide variety of both theatrical and comedy shows. Chris Barnes from Edinburgh First said, "we are delighted to be associated with Assembly Theatre in developing the Assembly Hall as a major Fringe venue. The Hall, one of the great heritage buildings of Edinburgh and now fully refurbished to provide a truly outstanding venue, presents a great new opportunity for a whole range of events and we're looking forward to even more visitors to Edinburgh seeing some great acts. The existing and very strong relationship between the University of Edinburgh, of which Edinburgh First is part, and many Festival and Fringe productions will, we are sure, be even further enhanced by this development." Assembly Theatre will also this year present a range of music, performance and comedy in the Queen's Hall every evening of the Festival, to run alongside the sell-out daytime classical concerts held by the International Festival at this major all-round concert hall. Adrian Harris, Chief Executive of The Queen's Hall said, "The Queen's Hall is delighted to be working with Assembly Theatre on bringing the best live music and comedy to Edinburgh at Festival time. As a major, year-round music venue in the city we are very excited about extending and developing our Fringe programme through this collaboration with Assembly Theatre." Assembly Theatre has run the Assembly Rooms Fringe venue for 25 years, with the first programme produced by a 25-year old William Burdett Coutts (who had originally only wanted to book the Wildman Room). In 2003 Assembly Theatre began to programme and run St George's West church as a Fringe venue, introducing new and successful acts such as Soweto Gospel Choir and Tao Drummers. Last year Assembly Theatre sold over £2million worth of tickets. Artistic Director of Assembly Theatre, William Burdett Coutts says, "2005 is a very special year for Assembly as it heads into its 25th programme. Adventurous as ever we are incredibly excited about adding the Assembly Hall and the Queen's Hall into our programming. The Queens Hall is well known as a wonderful space and the Assembly Hall will be magnificent as it is transformed into a performance arena. It's one of those places you walk into and just go "wow". I have no doubt that it will soon become a mainstay venue at the Fringe and we look forward to a long association with the Church of Scotland". Please note that all three Archive indices are very long and will therefore take some time to download.
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