Covent Garden Open House

An old corny joke goes like this: „What do you do for a living?“
– „Actor!“ – „And what do you do in the morning?“
…

Meanwhile, the view that nothing is going on in the theatres during the day is quite outdated. For some years now, theatres have been continuously putting their opening hours on agenda. However, hardly anything has changed in Germany.
In London, on the other hand, good experiences and interesting discoveries were made at the National Theatre a few years ago. Tourists, bankers, students and tourists spend daytime in foyer of the concrete building on the Thames, which is little loved for its architecture. A Russian emigrant regularly gives private language lessons.

St.Petersburg’s Aleksandrinskij II, a grandiose new building housing experiment stages, training and rehearsal rooms, has a library with foyer and cafe with W-Lan, which is well frequented every day.
Now also the Royal Opera House in London:
The foyer and the entrances were rebuilt, the glass and iron construction of the former flower market invites visitors.
More toilets, cloakrooms, restaurants, cafés, exhibition showcases and a modernised theatre for experimental performances – the Linbury Theatre – are part of the „Open Up“ reconstruction and renovation project, which began three years ago and cost 50.7 million pounds (57 million euros). The once crowded „back entrance“ of the Opera House, adjacent to the central large square in Covent Garden, has also been extended and opened. The aim is to attract opera and ballet lovers as well as passers-by.
From 10 a.m. the house is open daily, there are exhibitions, a café, internet access and tours behind the scenes of the house.