Our Story

PAST Residence was first dreamt about at an Open Space meeting organised by Theatre Bristol in December 2006. Residence’s future co-founders stood at the tea and coffee table and bemoaned their lack of a home. Each one of us spoke about our need to have somewhere we could store our materials, produce our work and most importantly create theatre and performance. So we decided to join forces. At a series of meetings in a cafe we mapped out what we would need. We worked out how we could share resources and support each other and create a new type of live artists studio space. In April 2007 we moved into The Old Horfield Police Station. We quickly found that sharing a creation space had benefits we hadn’t envisaged. The communal space where we hung out, drank coffee and hosted conversations around theatre became central to the joy of being part of Residence. The suspicion and competitive attitudes were dropped and replaced with support, advise, gossip, consolation, sharing and celebration. Rather than being simply a space – Residence was working as a home. Instead of scurrying away in our bedrooms and snatched rehearsal spaces we felt like we were part of a community with a legitimate place where we could be and make our work. In June 2008 we lost our home at Horfield (the building is to be converted into a public toliet!) and we moved into the Old Bridewell Police Station where we stayed for sixteen months. Our space in Bridewell was derelict when we moved in and although we worked hard to bring it up to a decent standard its chronic damp and lack of central heating and hot water proved to us that more important than just a space, was a space that we could socialise in.

PRESENT We moved to The Milk Bar on St Nicholas Street in October 2009, and we share the building with Simon Games. The building has been empty for six years but we have re-painted it, reconnected the gas and electricity and installed central heating. We are all really excited to see some of Residence’s strengths in operation again as its members are able to use the space to the full, populate the building and initiate new events and ideas. For more information on what we are up to browse through the events and projects section of this website.

FUTURE We are working with Theatre Bristol to develop Residence so it can become self-sufficient and sustainable. We would like to be able to afford a more ‘fit-for-purpose’ space with better facilities. We envisage being able to invite national and international artists to come to live and work in our space so that we can share and develop our practice in both formal and informal ways.