Following the decision of ACE not to fund his rep company at the Piccadilly, Sir Peter Hall is to leave the UK and set up an American Shakespeare Company in Los Angeles, according to reports in The Guardian. The company had asked for a grant of £500,000.
Although no official announcement has been made, Hall says that the new LA company's first productions will include A Midsummer Night's Dream with Kelly McGillis, Coriolanus with Kevin Kline, and King Lear with Christopher Plummer.
Hall used his acceptance speech at the Olivier Awards (where he received the Lifetime Achievement Award) to attack both the government and ACE for their confused arts policy and lack of funding. He has also announced the setting up of a "Shadow Arts Council" along with Tom Stoppard, Harold Pinter and others, a "new and cheeky" organisation which will attack the government and ACE over their handling of the arts in the UK.
RSC not on stabilisation funding
In a letter to The Stage Peter Hewitt, Ace's Chief Executive, says that, contrary to last week's reports, the Royal Shakespeare Company has not been placed on stabilisation funding. It has, he says, been nominated, both by ACE's own Drama Department and West Midlands Arts, but "the council will not decide which companies will form the first cohort for assessment until the end of March, with the final line-up for the full programme being agreed in the autumn".
Bolton's Octagon Theatre is to receive a £250,000 rescue packed from its four funding bodies, thus cutting its deficit in half. The theatre, however, will have to deal with the other £250,000 itself, but the new deal prevents the possibility of immediate closure and provides some time for the cost-cutting measures (such as reducing in-house productions from nine to three) to work.
The National Lottery has given a £1m grant to enable Nothampton's Derngate and Royal Theatres to merge. The money will be used to set up an new umbrella organisation and carry out a study to determine future staffing structure.
The Polka Theatre, Wimbledon, the only purpose-built children's theatre in the country, has had its grant from Merton Council cut by 30% and has been told that the council is considering phasing out its grant completely. The theatre has no reserves and needs £100,000 to wipe out its deficit and fund the programme for the coming financial year.
Westminster City Council has reduced its grant to the arts by 15% (£230,000), blaming the goverment for not funding the £7m the council has had to spend on looking after asylum seekers. Companies affected are the Soho Theatre Company, Unicorn Theatre, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, English National Ballet and English National Opera.