Detailed description of BATS
Welcome to Bats Theatre! This is an explanation of the various landmarks and areas within bats.
The front doors
The front entrance has stairs with rails on both sides. These are smooth and wooden up to a set of double doors. When you enter the double doors you arrive in the foyer of Bats, which is a hangout and bar area. On the left as you walk through the doors are a collection of round chairs and tables in a square area out to the left and on the right there is another section of window seats, armchairs and low tables. Both the left and right sections are shaped like a 3 sided rectangle. As you walk through the doors the final side of the rectangle on your right is the bar. You can reach it if you walk diagonally, on your 3’o clock from the door. This is a fairly high countertop bar and behind that should be a BATS staff around. Just beware there can be a bunch of glasses on the bar, so go gentle as you reach for it.
The stairs and water station
Now if you walk past both of the hangout areas, to your left is a staircase. It’s not a spiral staircase because the flight of steps are straight, but it’s like a spiral staircase with corners so you turn right a lot as you’re heading up and left a lot as you’re heading down. For the festival we don’t need to go upstairs unless you need the kitchen. On your right hand side as you come past the stairs there is a little hole in the wall that is a slot to get water to refill your drink bottles or fill a glass from the bar. Please don’t take any glassware into the theatre spaces.
Box Office
Opposite the bottom of the stairs, on your right as you walk from the doors, is the box office. Often in the middle of the space is one of those things with posts and a looping barrier like they have in banks, to make people line up for the box office. The box office counter is on your right. As you carry on along you will find the door to the office just past the box office on your right. Further on there will be a pair of double doors which may be closed or open, if they’re open, you will feel a door on the right hand side and a door on the left hand side - these might feel like they’re doors to other rooms but they are open double doors. If the doors are shut, push through the open doors and they will open away from you.
Hallway before theatre
This is when you will find the bathrooms. There is a sign on the wall saying you can use whatever bathroom you are comfortable with but they are still gendered. One the right hand side we have the bathroom that was/is the women's toilet and has sanitary bins in it, and on the left hand side is the accessible toilet and the bathroom with the urinals in it. As we carry on along, on the right hand side there is a bench against the wall next to the toilets, then we go through, the floor changes to a more echoey wood, and you go through the doors at the end of the space and that is the theatre space.
Theatre Space
As you come into the theatre space on each side there’s wooden walls, if you reach upwards you’ll discover that these start to give way to railings at first above your head and then beside you as you walk along, sort of sloping railings up above. The theatre space in front of you is a great big rectangle, when you enter you are coming down the middle of the seating block essentially. Once you’ve come through the seating block, to your left on the wall is the fire door, and at your left and right are the seats at the front row. In front of you is a big open stage space with three doors along the back wall and one door up high along the back wall with no way to get up to it except behind the stage.
If you’ve walked down the corridor between the seating blocks, and take a few steps out and turn around, you’ll see the seating blocks rising up on either side of the corridor you just walked down. Those are the main features of getting through to the theatre.
Other floors
If instead you’ve walked up the staircase in the foyer, you’ve found the other floors of BATS. If you go all the way up, you’ll turn right, until the first time you can turn left, you’ll know that you reached the next level up. If you were to go up to your left there’s some more stairs and the dome space, and then if you turn right at the top of that flight of stairs you’ll find there’s more toilets. If instead you turned away from the dome, you’ll find a railing across a couple of items blocking the way and on the left there’s a table and some chairs to sit at and the BATS' kitchen, on the left in the middle of that wall just after the chairs and tables. So if you’ve climbed the stairs and turned right, the kitchen is on your left.
The Kitchen
The microwave is very temperamental, sometimes you have to turn it off at the wall and on again. Within the kitchen, the microwave is up high and to the left, the sink is in front of you on the opposite wall, and the rubbish and recycle bins are to your right. The green room space which may or may not be available is a door on the right hand side of the kitchen if you’re standing in the door way.
Accessible Entrance
The accessible entrance, instead of going up the flight of stairs at the front, move to the left of the building i.e. with the building on your right side, until you reach the far wall and turn right down the side of the building. This takes you down an alley between BATS and the fire station. Down this alley to the left of the theatre, there is a door on the right, this will take you through the fire door, into the theatre. e microwave is up high and to the left, the sink is in front of you on the opposite wall, and the rubbish and recycle bins are to your right. The green room space which may or may not be available is a door on the right hand side of the kitchen if you’re standing in the door way.