More than a half a century has passed since the Victoria Theatre’s doors closed.
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But the curtain will rise again at the revered Newcastle venue on Tuesday night when the theatre’s glory days come to life in virtual reality.
After months of painstaking historical detective work, the University of Newcastle’s IT Innovation team will launch their recreation of what the theatre looked like in 1891 at a booked out function at the venue.
“We’ve had to work backwards from the 1921 floor plans, and essentially unwind the 30 years of changes,” project team member Gaute Rasmussen said.
“We’ve gotten a lot of clues from newspaper articles describing the theatre in the early days, as well as references from other buildings which we know were built in a similar style. Our main point of reference there has been the Villa Alba in Melbourne.”
In addition to the virtual reality project launch, the building’s owners, Century Venues will open the theatre to the public on Wednesday and Thursday.
Almost all of the tours have been booked out.
Musicians have also been rehearsing and recording snippets of concert music performed at the Victoria Theatre to accompany the the virtual reality model. The pieces of music include Evangeline’s Song and Dance, Country Girls and Three Little Maids.
“We have done everything we can to make the experience as magical and truthful to the original as we can with the time and resources we had,” Mr Rasmussen said.
Mr Rasmussen said he hoped the virtual reality project would become accessible to the wider community over time.