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Dateline: 17th February, 2008 Derby's Plans Steve Orme talks to the men charged with fulfilling Derby City Council's vision for the performing arts in the city. The imminently expected winding up of Derby Playhouse Ltd means that Derby city council has had to move quickly to secure the future of producing theatre in the city. The authority has done that - in reality councillors and staff were working furiously behind the scenes in anticipation of the theatre company's demise. The council scoured the world, members of the press were informed, to find a suitable model on which to base its programme plans. But there simply wasn't anything already in existence which made use of the five indoor venues and a few outdoor locations which the council can call on if it takes over the Playhouse and the Playhouse studio. So the council formulated Derby LIVE which will put producing theatre, dance, music, poetry and mime by everyone from amateurs to internationally renowned practitioners on the most appropriate stage. Factors to be taken into account will be technical requirements, likely audience and intended impact.
A unique modelAfter a press conference to announce the plans, cabinet member for leisure and direct services Councillor Alan Graves commented, "It's extremely exciting. "This allows us to bring a unique model not only to Derby but to the UK and worldwide. I'm expecting a great deal of interest from the art world and the theatre world in particular as to how we go on and what we do. "I believe it's going to be very successful and we've got a very good team behind us. It's going to be absolutely stupendous. "It's going to be different in how it's organised, it's going to be different in the fact that we can put different shows on different stages in the performance spaces. We're going to be able to expand produced theatre so rather than it being just held within the Derby Playhouse building, we can actually expand that to all the other auditoria and it's going to give us a greater scope in bringing quality acts to Derby." If administrators allow the council to take over the Playhouse building, the authority will be able to make use of venues with the number of seats ranging from 70 to 2,000. Councillor Graves welcomes that possibility. "There are some things that we've put on at the Assembly Rooms that didn't quite fit because of the way the Assembly Rooms is. It's not designed for some of the theatre shows that we put on. They would have been more suited to the Playhouse. "And I think the converse is true as well. There are certain things that have gone on in the Playhouse that would have suited the Assembly Rooms. But this does give us a greater opportunity." Councillor Graves agrees that Derby LIVE may not be copied despite being a ground-breaking programme. "I'm sure that other cities, towns, will have other spaces but they're not joined in this way. The downfall of Derby Playhouse Ltd is sad but it has given us this opportunity to present this new, unique model. Maybe it will give other cities and towns the opportunity to look at what they're doing." The Playhouse as focal pointMost of Derby's theatregoers will be anxious to find out what the future holds for the Playhouse building and Councillor Graves was quick to point out that it will continue to be a focal point. "The quality (of productions) will not change. I do believe that the Playhouse did put on a lot of quality shows and I expect the quality to remain high. "To the average attender there'll be very little change in that respect. But to the performer and the theatre groups that come in there'll be a huge change. It's a behind-the-scenes change." The first show will be the Akram Khan Company and the National Ballet of China in July. The council is hoping to have a full programme of events organised for the autumn season at the Playhouse which will include touring productions, co-produced theatre and the return of amateur productions which were not allowed by the previous Playhouse management. The authority's aim in the second year of Derby LIVE is for 330,000 people to attend events which will raise £2.5m at the box office. Playhouse must stand on its own feetCouncillor Graves insisted that even though the Playhouse would be part of a group of venues, it would have to stand on its own financially. "I can't afford the Derby Playhouse building to be making serious financial losses as Derby Playhouse Ltd have been doing because that will affect all the other auditoria. So it's very important that the financial management of the Derby Playhouse building is sound and sustainable and that is what will happen. "The Arts Council are fully on board. As soon as we realised that Derby Playhouse Ltd were in serious financial difficulties, we had discussions with the Arts Council and we presented our ideas to them, our vision, and they are very excited about the proposals that we're putting forward. "We need to increase the audience numbers and I think with the range of shows that we're putting on, I have no doubt we can do that. Our current staff, particularly Peter Ireson (head of the Assembly Rooms and Guildhall Theatre) has year on year increased audience attendances at the Assembly Rooms and I'm sure he can replicate that within the Playhouse and the other auditoria." The council has yet to finalise who will be in charge artistically although Ireson and Pete Meakin, the council's head of arts and events and a former associate director (education) at the Playhouse, will jointly run the programme initially.
Touring shows at the PlayhouseMeakin has no qualms about bringing in touring shows, ending Derby Playhouse's status as the only wholly-producing theatre in the country. He said financially it had been proven "time and time again" that it was very difficult to sustain a theatre that didn't take in outside productions. "So what we've come up with is a model which is much more diverse, much broader and far more balanced both in terms of its artistic programme but also in terms of the ability of economies of scale and income strands to operate across a much bigger picture. "In terms of the initial programming outlines that we've laid down, there will be every bit as much producing theatre going on in Derby as there has been for the last however many years. The difference is that home-grown produced theatre will not be the sole preserve of the Playhouse main stage. "Home-grown, home-produced theatre by Derby for Derby will go across a range of venues and may even go out into the open - wherever the venue fits best the art and the technical requirements and the audience size. "You can't get the Darley Park concert (a free, classical concert staged by the council) in the Derby Playhouse studio but nor would we want a piece of cutting-edge artwork to go on at the Darley Park concert. It doesn't work like that. So best fit is our motto for how we programme across this range of venues." A sustainable businessMeakin dismisses the argument that Derby Playhouse needs to fill a far greater number of seats than other Midlands theatres to break even. "If you've got a show that requires to sell out a 1200-seater auditorium in order to be financially viable, then you should not be programming it in an auditorium that has only 535 seats (the number at the Playhouse). "It's no good saying these shows cost this much and we need a bigger auditorium in order to make it work, which we haven't got; the reality is that if you're going to put on shows which even if you were to sell out 100% of the seats that you've got available, you would still be making a loss, that business model is probably not sustainable. Expenditure has to be commensurate with potential income. "I don't think anyone has ever doubted the quality of the artistic product which has gone on on the Playhouse main stage for decades and we're going back here over a whole range of artistic directors. The difficulty comes with how much it costs to put that show on and how many people are prepared to come and see it. "You have to strike a balance across the entire programme and with consideration to individual product in order to make that balance work. I don't want to take examples from the last year or so but certain shows for whatever reason did not sell well. However, they still cost an awful lot of money to stage and that isn't sustainable." On the face of it, the city council appears to have pulled off a dramatic rescue from what will no doubt be recorded as the tragedy of Derby Playhouse. Now it's up to the authority to prove it can succeed where many others have failed.
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