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The Junction Dubai

The Junction Dubai is only one of its kind performing arts' space. This is the only black box style theatre of this size, which is completely independently owned in the UAE.

The Junction opened its doors to the public in November 2015 with an in house production called The Vortex. Since then it has hosted numerous events for the community and by the community.

The Junction is a space where local and regional theatre artists, comedians, poets, dancers, actors, musicians, writers, directors, producers, composers are encouraged to share and create their art in form of workshops or shows. The Junction encourages creativity to thrive. It is also a host of many shows and entertainment actsThe space can be hired by any performing art's group at nominal charges or on partnership basis to stage their event. The Junction is located within the heart of Al Quoz area, within the Alserkal Avenue. the hub or art and creativity. It is surrounded by like minded creative concepts.

Most local performers have made it their home. Many have quipped that it reminds them of Mumbai's legendary Prithvi Theater.

The Founders
Rashmi Kotriwala who has been part of the theatre community as an actor and director brought together a few like minded theatre enthusiasts like Akansha Goenka and couple of others to help fund the project.It took nearly 2 years from conceptualisation to opening day.

The Investors
The Junction was brought to life by a group of women investors which included Rashmi Kotriwala and Akansha Goenka

The Story
Rashmi hails from Kolkata and grew up close to the stage and with her heart  and around the performing arts. She got involved with Backstage (non profit theatre group in Dubai) in the year 2011 and after the initial success in directing she wanted to launch a space of her own where she could have a cafe and have small workshops and performances. When that idea was explored in greater depth it became out of budget. She rememebered that her friend and Backstage colleague Akansha and other Backstage members had been trying to make a performing arts venue of their own. She reconnected with them only to be told that they had lost their investors. Rashmi and Akansha brought in two other investors and got in talks with Alserkal Avenue to rent a space within the new expansion of Alserkal Avenue which was still under construction.

Initial hiccups included the fact that the community was under construction and the delivery dates kept getting delayed. Then the space was in an industrial area where a theatre space was not going to be accepted.

Ultimately with the support of the entire theatre community in Dubai and from support from the Alserkal Avenue who wished to have the Junction as

Within just two years The Junction tied up with the founders of Backstage, Gautam Goenka and Arjun Burman, and turned into its resident theatre group rebranding it as H72 Productions ( based on their Warehouse number)

In 2017 The Junction started hosting Indian celelbrity Stand Up comedians like Amit Tandon,Atul Khatri, Jeeveshu Ahluwalia, Sorabh Pant, Vipul Goyal.

It became the first to host a regional stand Up comedy acts in Tamil and Gujrati by Praveen Kumar and Manan Desai respectively.

By end of 2017 The Junction holds the rights to UAE's largest theatre festival called Short+Sweet Thetare festival which runs in 15 cities across the globe.

Almost all theater groups in Dubai host their events and plays at The Junction. .

The Space
The space has been purpose built with proper accoustic panelling and theatre style comfortable seating, There are 159 foldable seats in the theatre. And 360 degree rotating wings.

Spacious 12.7m x 7.8m stage with seats arranged using stadium-rise concept with accessible line of sight for all. Two side stage rooms (6.1m x 5.3m). All seats equipped with a collapsible writing table making it just perfect for theatrical shows, workshops and corporate trainings, live musica and dance related events.

Technical Rider
The Junction is equipped with state of the art technical equipment including a Sony VPL-CH350 projector system with motor driven 5M x 4M projector screen.

The Junction is equipped with 1 Eurolight LC2412 Digital Light mixer with 2 LSC-Redback 6-channel dimmer systems, 16 PAR56 Black CAN stage lights, 6 Chauvet Ovation LED Spot Light.

Audio
The Junction uses 2 sets of Behringer Eurolive BG12D for top speakers, Behringer Eurolive B1500D-Pro Active 15” for subwoofer, DBX Drive rack VENU 360 for Speaker Management system and Soundcraft FX16 channel analogue Audio mixer for quality sounds.

The Junction is also equipped with 2 Shure QLXD4 cordless microphones with true diversity receivers.

Events
The Junction has hosted over 40 events