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OCTOBER 24 2024
NEWS
Theatre needs structural change to secure its future – Central School report
KATIE CHAMBERS
Theatres must stop “budgeting their way out” of individual disasters and instead collectively pursue structural transformation to stay afloat, according to research commissioned by the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
Entitled Institutional Transformation: Growth and Change in Post-Pandemic Theatre, the report’s executive summary, seen by The Stage, warns of a sector-wide emergency stretching from the cost-of-living crisis and cash-stripped local authorities to exhausted leadership and declining arts education.
However, it urges venues to avoid fixating on these “successive crises” and instead calls for policy action to overhaul a number of problematic frameworks, including the expectation that theatres produce a high volume of work with limited resources.
Other norms in need of transformation, according to the report, include precarious working models and “hierarchical divides” within organisations, as well as the way that arts funding is distributed across the country.
More than 60 theatre workers across the UK, from leadership to freelancers, were interviewed for the study.
Senior figures reported that, despite being keen to kick-start structural change, a lack of money, time and other resources was preventing them from looking beyond firefighting immediate disasters.
The report calls for changes to remove these roadblocks and begin the necessary transformation, including: • “Better comprehension” of the industry,
and how to fund it most effectively on the part of arts councils. • Giving theatres the freedom to do
“fewer things with more resources, rather than too many things with fewer resources”. • Greater support for regional theatres and touring companies.
The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama
• Greater transparency within organisations, with budget-setting and decision-making processes as well as “power structures” made publicly accessible.
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• Working groups for minority communities – the report cited the “lasting, structural” impact of Bristol Old Vic’s working group for artists from the global majority. • Affordable, accessible training for freelancers, focusing on making their careers “sustainable”. • Stronger links between theatres and academic researchers. The report’s conclusion highlights a level of disillusionment among interviewees that any policy developments would alleviate the emergency.
“Many of our respondents felt they have been detached from debates over policy and decision-making processes as the industry attempts to rebuild and recover from the pandemic, indicating there is limited trust that new policy development would lead to lasting structural change,” it reads.
However, it adds that the research had laid the groundwork for future lobbying for institutional change.
Equity investigating member ‘concerns’ around Turbine closure
GEORGIA LUCKHURST
Equity has confirmed it is supporting members who have “concerns” about their work with the Turbine Theatre, which announced its closure last week.
Artistic director Paul Taylor-Mills said he would be closing the venue in south west London because of a lack of “serious investment and philanthropy”, as The Stage exclusively revealed.
Equity is now “providing support” to members who have contacted the union regarding the Turbine’s operations, according to a spokesperson.
“A number of Equity members have come forward with concerns, which the union is providing support on,” the spokesperson said. “We hope we can resolve the issues of concern constructively with the Turbine Theatre and Paul Taylor-Mills, and we are in contact with them to that end.”
Equity did not say how many members it was supporting or what the specific issues related to.
Separately, a representative for Battersea Power Station Development Company, which owns the Turbine Theatre space, claimed its support for the venue had been considerable and that it was now assessing the property’s future.
The representative declined to go into specifics, but said it had been Taylor-Mills’ decision to close the venue and they would be considering how next to use the space to prioritise the area’s cultural offering.
A Battersea Power Station Development Company statement provided to The Stage said: “After five successful years of producing award-winning shows at Battersea Power Station, the operators of the Turbine Theatre have decided to close the venue. We are proud to have supported the Turbine Theatre since it opened, both financially and operationally, and we wish Paul Taylor-Mills and the rest of the Turbine Theatre team all the best for their future endeavours.
“We are currently looking at a number of different options for the space to complement the rest of Battersea Power Station’s cultural offering and we will update on our plans in due course.”
The Turbine Theatre will shut its doors after the run of its Christmas production, The Liar, The Bitch and the Wardrobe, from November 21 to December 22.
When announcing the closure, Taylor-Mills said: “As the landscape of making theatre shifts, without serious investment and philanthropy, a 92-seat space just can’t work and it’s time for me to focus my efforts elsewhere.”
Taylor-Mills has been contacted for comment regarding the statements by Equity and Battersea Power Station Development Company. Equity was expected to make a further statement as The Stage went to press.
‘Tourist tax’ must go, say heads of the Globe and Royal Ballet and Opera
GEORGIA LUCKHURST
Management at Royal Ballet and Opera and Shakespeare’s Globe are among more than 300 business leaders calling on the chancellor to axe a so-called ‘tourist tax’.
Alex Beard of the RBO and Stella Kanu of the Globe have added their signatures to a letter appealing to Rachel Reeves to reintroduce tax-free shopping for tourists ahead of this month’s budget.
Business leaders, including those who run department store John Lewis and make-up giant Charlotte Tilbury, claim the tax is deterring two million foreign visitors from coming to the UK, thereby diminishing their spend on products, hospitality and culture.
The letter reads: “In 2021, in the aftermath of the pandemic that had hit businesses like ours hard, the then chancellor Rishi Sunak scrapped the tax-free shopping scheme for tourists that had existed for decades. This decision came as a shock to those working
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Chancellor Rachel Reeves is being urged to remove a ‘tourist tax’ to boost culture spending in our sectors and many of us warned at the time that there would be a heavy price to pay. So it has proved. What has become known as the ‘tourist tax’ has turned into a spectacular own goal for the UK.”
Noting that the UK has become the only country in Europe not to offer tax-free shopping to tourists, the letter says British businesses have been left at a “massive global disadvantage”.
“The entire tourist economy is affected,” the letter states, “whether that be regional tourist centres or manufacturers down the supply chain, hotels and restaurants, taxis, galleries and museums, cafes... the list is endless. Every high street is seeing the impact.”
Calling on Reeves to show a willingness to pull “every available lever to promote growth”, the letter calls for “decisive action” on the economy – such as binning the tax.
More than 300 business heads have put their names to the letter, with signatures from figures including Arts Theatre Club co-owner Maria Constantinou, restaurateur Jeremy King, museum bosses such as Justin Maciejewski and hotel leaders including Ken Millar.
The letter references findings by the Centre for Economics and Business Research that suggest the tourist tax could be costing the country £11.1 billion in lost GDP.
Reeves is preparing to deliver Labour’s first budget on October 30 and has warned that it will involve “difficult decisions” on tax, spending and benefits.
The creative industries are included in Labour’s list of sectors it believes are ripe for economic growth, but no further funding has been promised.
