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Dateline: 22nd March, 2007
Saving BAC As part of a long-term plan to keep BAC going, it and Punchdrunk are to co-produce The Masque of the Red Death. The show will be directed by Felix Barrett and created by Punchdrunk who recently won the Critics’ Circle Award for their production of Faust. The Masque of the Red Death will be based on the short stories of Edgar Allen Poe and will take place at BAC this Autumn.
The Masque of the Red Death will re-imagine BAC’s spaces in the Old Town Hall on Lavender Hill. Artistic Directors Felix Barrett (Punchdrunk) and David Jubb (BAC) will work with architect Steve Tompkins (Haworth Tompkins Architects) to develop new ways of using the building for artists and audiences.
The co-production with Punchdrunk is BAC’s first Playground Project and part of a longer term plan for BAC to develop its building. The theatre is planning one of these projects over each of the next three years. Each project is designed to create a relationship between artist, architect and audience to explore and reveal different parts of the building.
This plan is made possible by the Council accepting BAC’s proposal for a lease extension until March 2008 and BAC establishing a Building Preservation Trust with the aim of taking over the building on a long lease. The Council and BAC continue to be in negotiations regarding the lease. This is a challenge BAC will take on alongside the co-production with Punchdrunk. WBC also decided in a meeting on 19th February to offer BAC funding of up to £85,000 per year for Young People’s Theatre work. The Masque of the Red Death will run from 17th September to 27th October. BackgroundWandsworth Borough Council informed BAC on 10th January 2007 of its intention to cut BAC’s grant from £100,000 per annum to nothing with effect from 1st April. In the same letter WBC announced that it would charge the organisation over £270,000 annually in rent and running costs from May. These cuts would have totalled an annual value of £370k (30% of BAC’s annual turnover) and would have rendered BAC’s present operation unviable. If these cuts were to proceed, BAC would have been forced to close.
BAC receives funding from the Arts Council England, which currently stands at £506,800 for 2007/8
The threat to BAC was raised in the House of Commons on 17th and 31st January with questions to Tony Blair in Prime Minister’s Question Time and to Jack Straw on 25th January. The threat was also raised in the House of Lords on 1st March 2007.
On 19th February Wandsworth Borough Council approved a proposal to offer BAC £85,000 funding in 2007/8 and 2008/9 subject to an agreement being reached between the council and BAC regarding a new lease on the Old Town Hall.
BAC has been in ongoing talks with Wandsworth Borough Council since January and in February submitted proposals for the Building Preservation Trust. Please note that all three Archive indices are very long and will therefore take some time to download.
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