Skip to main content
Read page text
page 2
OCTOBER NEWS West Midlands to become home to UK’s first National Centre for Musical Theatre EXCLUSIVE MATTHEW HEMLEY Plans to launch the UK’s first National Centre for Musical Theatre have been revealed. The centre, which would aim to “grow skills and training to help fill the national industry skills gap”, is being planned for the West Midlands and developed as a joint initiative between Arts Council England, the Birmingham Hippodrome Theatre Trust, Birmingham City Council, West Midlands Combined Authority and the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. A business case is being drawn up by planning and consultancy firm Lichfields, alongside a report into where the project could be located. The partners said they were working together to “develop a first-class proposition” that would “stimulate economic growth, provide employment opportunities for young people from all backgrounds and help cement the UK’s position as a leader in a thriving international music theatre market”. “The aim is to create world-leading musical theatre facilities, supporting a new generation of creatives and the desire for the West Midlands to become a region renowned for R&D in the creative industries,” a joint statement said. Plans for the centre follow Birmingham Hippodrome launching the UK’s first in-house department dedicated to original musical theatre, aiming to make the venue the “UK’s national theatre of new musicals”. Birmingham Hippodrome artistic director Jon Gilchrist said: “Our audience loves musical theatre, and of the 600,000 tickets we sell every year, more than half are for musicals. This partnership will work to harness the incredible creative talent of the West Midlands to make a genuine destination for the art form. We hope that one day soon our stages will be filled with the work of artistic talent developed here in Birmingham.” ACE chief executive Darren Henley said the UK had a “strong reputation for Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Birmingham Hippodrome I M O N H A D L E Y I T Y/ S I V E R S I T Y U N I N G H A M C I R M S H U T T E R STO C K / B : P H OTO S ‘This partnership will make a genuine destination for musicals’ Jon Gilchrist ‘The centre will help drive the growth of this important art form’ Darren Henley ‘Nurturing talent will help the region meet the industry’s skills gap’ David Mba creating and producing musicals that delight audiences across the country and around the globe”. “Birmingham’s far-sighted plans for a new National Centre for Musical Theatre will help drive the growth of this important art form nationally and internationally, as well as nurturing the next generation of creative talent in the West Midlands,” he added. David Mba, vice-chancellor of Birmingham City University, said “bringing musical theatre education to Birmingham would mean nurturing even more creative talent in the West Midlands, helping the region meet the industry’s skills gap and, in turn, harnessing the arts to power the region back towards prosperity”. “By bringing together the educational excellence of Royal Birmingham Conservatoire with the reputation of the Hippodrome, and the support of the Arts Council, City Council and West Midlands Combined Authority, we can make Midlands musical theatre into a force that will command attention nationally and internationally,” he added. Caption here Zero-hours ban CONTINUED FROM FRONT intended to usher in the demise of zero-hours contracts, which the bill labelled “exploitative”. Although workers would be able to remain on zero-hours contracts if they prefer, Stafford warned that the move would still curtail zero-hours contract opportunities, with venues encouraged to facilitate guaranteed-hours agreements. Speaking to The Stage, Stafford said the ban failed to recognise how zero-hours contracts function in the theatre industry, in which a high proportion of creatives work second jobs front of house, in the box office or at the bar in order to sustain a living. “The suggestion that this way of working is exploitative undermines the benefits this flexible arrangement brings to thousands of people working in our sector,” Stafford said. “It is hard to see how this bill will not have a financial knock-on for theatres and producers at a time when we are continuing to grapple with managing increasing costs and sustaining our businesses.” Sofi Berenger, acting chief executive of London’s King’s Head Theatre, called for an exemption from a ban on zero-hours contracts for the arts, calling the contracts “vital to the ecology of the sector”. Meanwhile, Nicola Hurst, actor and frontof-house worker at Southwark Playhouse, said that while she agreed with Labour’s principles, it was “short-sighted” to assume that banning zero-hours would benefit employees across all industries, saying that permanent contracts could never offer her the flexibility she needed to pursue her creative work.
page 3
OCTOBER 17 2024 3 thestage.co.uk/news Vault team relaunches Waterloo venue in bid to ‘plug festival gap’ GEORGIA LUCKHURST The former producers of the Vault Festival are to relaunch their Waterloo-based bar cafe, and performance space the Glitch in a bid to make it the “most affordable venue” in London for fringe artists. The Glitch is being relaunched as an enlarged 55-seat, in-the-round theatre, building on its current 30-seat offering, with the team behind it hoping to fill a gap left by the closure of the Vault Festival earlier this year after a new home for the event fell through. The Glitch, run by Vault Creative Arts, has secured funding from the local council, the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and central government to aid the transformation, with newly appointed artistic director and chief executive Oli Savage telling The Stage that the team would be staying true to the ambition of the Vault Festival by offering performance hire out at a 70/30 box-office split. “We’re acutely aware of the loss represented by the festival, and we’re keen to plug that gap,” he said. In addition, Vault Creative Arts has promised a new script development scheme, networking opportunities and the continuation of its residency programme to provide free rehearsal and performance space to young companies. Savage explained that the Glitch would mirror the “enticing, vibrant, electric atmosphere” of the defunct Vault Festival all year round, presenting up to three shows each evening and maintaining the festival’s “pay less/pay more” scheme for audience members. Upstairs, the building retains its bar, cafe and social area, with organisers also promising a “rethink” in programming strategy. “The big thing with the Vault Festival was the quantity of opportunity – that’s why it had such a big impact on the industry. There was so much space in an affordable context for artists to throw spaghetti at the wall,” Savage explained. “The priority for me was trying to find a way to deliver that same impact, all year round.” In the new year, Savage hopes to publish a fresh callout for the Glitch’s residency programme, which currently supports more than 20 people. His script development ambitions, which follow a similar timeline, revolve around connecting early-career writers with actors, to workshop writing. But programming for the spring season, currently in progress, is the first port of call, with applications closing on November 15. Savage said: “We’re open for expressions of interest and that’s the first way for people to get involved.” “The headline is a combination of programming work with queer themes by queer creators, and we’re expecting that to make up maybe 50% of our work,” he continued. “But the Glitch is interested in a wide range of style, theme and concept. I want to make sure we have that representation but also that we’re presenting great work.” Mrs Doubtfire success gives owners of Shaftesbury bumper turnover GEORGIA LUCKHURST The owners of the Shaftesbury Theatre in London enjoyed a turnover of £26.2 million last year, a jump from 2022’s £17 million. Theatre of Comedy Company Limited, founded by actor and director Ray Cooney, reported that its pre-tax profit rose from just over £1 million to £1.5 million over the same period – with the success of the Shaftesbury’s musicals repertoire partly credited for the leap. In accounts filed to Companies House charting up to December 2023, the directors M A N U E L H A R L A N Mrs Doubtfire the musical of the Theatre of Comedy Company wrote that the venue was only left dark for five weeks of the year in the second financial quarter of 2023. The business noted that 2023 was “the start of a new collaborative relat ionship” between the West End theatre and the producers of the 2023 musical Mrs Doubtfire, Jamie Wilson and Kevin McCollum. That relationship, Theatre of Comedy Company directors wrote, resulted in “an agreement reached for the presentation of a range of musicals at the theatre for a set period beyond 2024”. As previously reported by The Stage, the relationship means that Wilson will lead on programming the venue for the next decade. Mrs Doubtfire, which is scheduled to run until April 2025, was approvingly recorded as a “popular” show in situ, while the company’s management “continues to build strong relationships within the industry” to ensure the Shaftesbury is occupied with other “high-quality productions”, the accounts said. Approved by the board on October 7, the accounts paint a picture of a strong showing for the theatre’s owners. Despite “competitive pressures from other theatre-owning groups in London”, the report stressed that the Theatre of Comedy Company is always on the lookout to “select the production we think is most suitable and likely of being successful”. After Mrs Doubtfire, the theatre will host musical Just for One Day. 128 x 167 mm

Page Text

View plaintext

OCTOBER

NEWS

West Midlands to become home to UK’s first National Centre for Musical Theatre

EXCLUSIVE MATTHEW HEMLEY

Plans to launch the UK’s first National Centre for Musical Theatre have been revealed.

The centre, which would aim to “grow skills and training to help fill the national industry skills gap”, is being planned for the West Midlands and developed as a joint initiative between Arts Council England, the Birmingham Hippodrome Theatre Trust, Birmingham City Council, West Midlands Combined Authority and the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.

A business case is being drawn up by planning and consultancy firm Lichfields, alongside a report into where the project could be located.

The partners said they were working together to “develop a first-class proposition” that would “stimulate economic growth, provide employment opportunities for young people from all backgrounds and help cement the UK’s position as a leader in a thriving international music theatre market”.

“The aim is to create world-leading musical theatre facilities, supporting a new generation of creatives and the desire for the West Midlands to become a region renowned for R&D in the creative industries,” a joint statement said.

Plans for the centre follow Birmingham Hippodrome launching the UK’s first in-house department dedicated to original musical theatre, aiming to make the venue the “UK’s national theatre of new musicals”.

Birmingham Hippodrome artistic director Jon Gilchrist said: “Our audience loves musical theatre, and of the 600,000 tickets we sell every year, more than half are for musicals. This partnership will work to harness the incredible creative talent of the West Midlands to make a genuine destination for the art form. We hope that one day soon our stages will be filled with the work of artistic talent developed here in Birmingham.”

ACE chief executive Darren Henley said the UK had a “strong reputation for

Royal Birmingham Conservatoire

Birmingham Hippodrome

I M O N H A D L E Y

I T Y/ S

I V E R S

I T Y U N

I N G H A M C

I R M

S H U T T E R STO C K / B

:

P H OTO S

‘This partnership will make a genuine destination for musicals’ Jon Gilchrist

‘The centre will help drive the growth of this important art form’ Darren Henley

‘Nurturing talent will help the region meet the industry’s skills gap’ David Mba creating and producing musicals that delight audiences across the country and around the globe”.

“Birmingham’s far-sighted plans for a new National Centre for Musical Theatre will help drive the growth of this important art form nationally and internationally, as well as nurturing the next generation of creative talent in the West Midlands,” he added.

David Mba, vice-chancellor of Birmingham City University, said “bringing musical theatre education to Birmingham would mean nurturing even more creative talent in the West Midlands, helping the region meet the industry’s skills gap and, in turn, harnessing the arts to power the region back towards prosperity”.

“By bringing together the educational excellence of Royal Birmingham Conservatoire with the reputation of the Hippodrome, and the support of the Arts Council, City Council and West Midlands Combined Authority, we can make Midlands musical theatre into a force that will command attention nationally and internationally,” he added.

Caption here

Zero-hours ban

CONTINUED FROM FRONT

intended to usher in the demise of zero-hours contracts, which the bill labelled “exploitative”.

Although workers would be able to remain on zero-hours contracts if they prefer, Stafford warned that the move would still curtail zero-hours contract opportunities, with venues encouraged to facilitate guaranteed-hours agreements.

Speaking to The Stage, Stafford said the ban failed to recognise how zero-hours contracts function in the theatre industry, in which a high proportion of creatives work second jobs front of house, in the box office or at the bar in order to sustain a living.

“The suggestion that this way of working is exploitative undermines the benefits this flexible arrangement brings to thousands of people working in our sector,” Stafford said.

“It is hard to see how this bill will not have a financial knock-on for theatres and producers at a time when we are continuing to grapple with managing increasing costs and sustaining our businesses.”

Sofi Berenger, acting chief executive of London’s King’s Head Theatre, called for an exemption from a ban on zero-hours contracts for the arts, calling the contracts “vital to the ecology of the sector”.

Meanwhile, Nicola Hurst, actor and frontof-house worker at Southwark Playhouse, said that while she agreed with Labour’s principles, it was “short-sighted” to assume that banning zero-hours would benefit employees across all industries, saying that permanent contracts could never offer her the flexibility she needed to pursue her creative work.

read next page

My Bookmarks

Buy this Book
Skip to main content