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4 NEWS Opera North to restructure following ‘challenging year’ GEORGIA LUCKHURST Opera North has confirmed it is pursuing a “leaner, more agile structure” with each of its departments under the microscope for “change”. The Leeds-based organisation is undergoing an organisational review as it admitted it was experiencing a “challenging period”, like contemporaries such as English National Opera. The revelations follow Opera North’s latest accounts, filed to Companies House on October 14, in which management acknowledged a “difficult year for box-office income and fundraised income”, with both “coming in under target”. A spokesperson for Opera North told The Stage: “Opera North is undertaking an organisational review that aims to put in place a leaner, more agile structure that will refocus the company on its core purpose and strengths and allow it to reignite growth. “Throughout this challenging period, the company will continue to focus its efforts on reaching communities across the North of England and bringing music and the arts into the lives of people of all ages and backgrounds.” The representative did not respond to the question of whether redundancies had already taken place – an allegation first reported by Arts Professional. But accounts shared by Opera North, which receives £10.7 million each year from Arts Council England, painted a picture of “challenging” expenditure, which the company attributed to “higher levels of wage inflation than budgeted”. Total income for the year, before tax relief, was £15,321,264 – with total expenditure hitting £20,043,918. As a result, Opera North’s net assets decreased to £28,183,902, with its overall, unrestricted operational deficit left at £725,780. Writing in the accounts, officials at the company were pleased to report the “likely extension” of ACE funding into 2027, but added: “Financial pressures have remained at the fore in 2023-24 and continue to be an area of risk.” Opera’s extreme funding pressures have been well-publicised in recent months, with ACE’s Let’s Create: Opera and Music Theatre Analysis report honing in on a number of areas troubling the sector’s survival. Meanwhile, proposals by management to streamline organisations such as ENO have also stoked concern, with Equity and the Musicians’ Union recently engaging in talks with ENO bosses to stem job losses. The Musicians’ Union expressed fears about the organisational review, with a spokesperson saying the union was “deeply concerned that these announcements represent a further shrinking of the opera and ballet sector, with a direct impact on musicians’ jobs and freelance opportunities”. WNO orchestra and chorus cuts would be a ‘disaster’ – stars KATIE CHAMBERS The loss of a full-time chorus and orchestra at Welsh National Opera would be a “disaster” for the organisation, the director and star of the company’s award-winning production of Death in Venice have warned. Director Olivia Fuchs and singer Mark Le Brocq were speaking to The Stage fresh from their triumph at the UK Theatre Awards, having picked up the trophy for achievement in opera for Death in Venice, created in collaboration with circus company NoFit State. Their comments come in the wake of a cost-cutting proposal that aims to reduce the full-time contracts of WNO musicians and singers. Equity has been campaigning against the cuts, with planned strike action remaining paused following “encouraging” discussions with WNO management. Chorus members took to the stage during a performance last month wearing T-shirts bearing the words “Save Our WNO”. “Welsh National Opera is an extraordinary institution and is creating wonderful work. For it to fail, or for it to be cut into something that isn’t a national opera company, would be an absolute disaster,” Le Brocq said. Fuchs added: “There are so few full-time orchestras and choruses in this country. The Royal Opera House gets a lot of funding, Opera North is just about hanging in there, and there’s the WNO – that’s it... If we don’t have these companies around, what are we training everybody for?” Fuchs and Le Brocq also commented on opera’s reputational issues, exposed by a recent report that found a high proportion of people surveyed perceived the art form as “expensive”, “pompous” and “not for them”. Fuchs suggested that fusions between opera and other art forms, as shown by the success of Death in Venice, might be a good way of inviting in new audiences. She also called for greater diversity in opera casts, adding: “If people can see themselves represented on stage, that helps.” ACE mulls gender advisory panel to tackle under-representation GEORGIA LUCKHURST Arts Council England is poised to launch a gender advisory panel following a “historic” meeting with theatre leaders including Stella Kanu. The talks followed on from initial discussions in March, with ACE saying it would write a “feasibility paper” for a group to advise on gender imbalance in the arts, and present this paper to its governing body. Partners on the five-year Women in Theatre research project including Kanu, chief executive of Shakespeare’s Globe, and former Equity president Maureen Beattie met with ACE on October 14 to discuss potential solutions to gender disparity in the arts. Others in attendance included ACE chair Nicholas Serota and director of theatre Neil Darlison, while Women in Theatre was represented by figures including Parents and Carers in Performing Arts chief executive Cassie Raine. Areas discussed included how to examine collected experience data – which highlights areas such as the well-being of those working at funded organisations – in a way that could illuminate how people of different genders might experience employment in the arts. It comes as partners from Women in Theatre revealed that they would develop their research focus into an organisation that provides events, awards, and mentoring, with further details to be announced. Jennifer Tuckett, lead on the Women in Theatre research project, said the team was delighted by the “watershed moment”. She added: “As ACE already has a race and disability advisory group, proposing a gender advisory group to the National Council is a historic moment to ensure women are also considered during decision-making processes. We are grateful to ACE for the seriousness with which it has considered these issues.” OCTOBER 24 2024 ALSO ONLINE Fashion house Mugler is to support seven scholarships in dance and music at London’s Trinity Laban Conservatoire. The style and beauty giant has launched its inaugural ‘social programme’, Mugler Creators, to broaden access to performing arts education. Tunbridge Wells’ Trinity Theatre is appealing for more public donations to fix its failing heating system and prevent closure. The venue – housed in a refurbished church that became a charitable arts hub in 1982 – has issued a call to its audiences via social media in a bid to secure contributions. A conductor sacked from his post at the National Opera Studio amid allegations of bullying has won a case of unfair dismissal against his former employer. Mark Shanahan was dismissed in September 2021 from his decade-long tenure as head of music – but an employment judge has since ordered he receive compensation. English Language and Literature GCSEs are “not fit for purpose”, a summit co-hosted by Shakespeare’s Globe and the English Association has decreed. “Burdensome” assessments and reading skills lagging behind were among the concerns raised. APPOINTMENTS Rob Watt is to step down as artistic director of Theatre Centre after five years in the role. Watt, who has led the company since January 2020 – first on an interim basis, before taking the role full time – is leaving to pursue freelance opportunities. Dubheasa Lanipekun has been appointed to the new role of associate director of Actors Touring Company. The director, producer and writer has worked across stage and screen. Mercury Theatre has made Kenny Emson its inaugural literary associate, in a move that cements the stage and screen writer’s 16-year association with the building. Emson, who has crafted work for companies such as the BBC and Bush Theatre, will help lead the expansion of the Colchester venue’s writer development.
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OCTOBER thestage.co.uk/news NEWS FEATURE How to thrive in immersive theatre Georgia Luckhurst reports from this year’s Immersive Experience Network Summit on the key concerns for the growing sector Connecting different cultures, ensuring audience comfort and making use of the most up-to-the-minute technology have all been flagged as key issues for the immersive sector, at a summit held in London this week. you this incredible and powerful story, about black excellence.” Flexing creative muscles Meanwhile, an event called In Conversation with Punchdrunk Senior Producers had a line-up featuring the 24-year-old company’s team members Lauren Storr, Sophie Hewlett and Sarah Georgeson. More than 35 speakers and about 700 attendees from the UK, Europe and the United States joined the Immersive Experience Network Summit at Woolwich Works on October 21 to discuss the creative, operational and commercial questions of developing live immersive work. Those who shared their experiences included head of narrative at Boomtown festival, Megan Clifton – who discussed facilitating “collaborative narrative” to create “large-scale immersive worlds” – along with Disney theme parks designer and director Sarah Thacher and The Key of Dreams founder Ivan Carić. The event, which combined sessions, panels and networking opportunities, was the latest industry open day organised by the Immersive Experience Network, which was founded in 2021. Hiring the right team Sessions included a reflection led by chief executive and producer of Rematch Live, Les Seddon-Brown, on how his team helped audiences travel back to Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) in 1974, to witness the most famous boxing showdown in history, between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. The trio discussed Punchdrunk’s role as one of the first big names in immersive theatre, and the role of producers in a less “traditional” medium. Georgeson, who prior to Punchdrunk worked at London’s Royal Court Theatre, said: “I loved working at the Court but I started to be very frustrated by budgetary limitations and particularly the limitations on design possibilities and being within one space.” For all three, immersive experience allowed them to flex their theatrical chops while also being at the forefront of new media, format and technologies – including artificial intelligence. Justifying the format The creative director of Les Enfants Terribles suggested “less successful” immersive shows may have failed to justify their own format. James Seager, who co-directed his company’s original production Alice’s Adventures Underground, said: “I think that’s a really important question: why should this show be immersive? “I think less successful immersive shows don’t ask that question.” Punchdrunk senior producers were among the speakers at the Immersive Experience Network Summit In contrast, Strickland said: “We are in a really fortunate position where [immersive work] is not a new art form, but we are just starting.” The Immersive Experience Network was established by performance-maker and scholar Joanna Bucknall, project manager Nicole Jacobus, creative producer Sheena Patel, production consultancy Entourage’s director Andy Barnes and Parabolic Theatre artistic director Owen Kingston. It has received funding from public bodies including Arts Council England and UK Research and Innovation, and works to represent the interests and commercial growth of immersive experiences within the creative and cultural industries. ■ Over 78 shows, Rematch’s Rumble in the Jungle created a “part-immersive theatre, part-festival” experience, engaging a higher-than-average attendance by firsttime immersive theatregoers of all ages and global-majority audience members. Seddon-Brown said the secret to their success was seizing upon stories that “connect generations and communities”, and finding the right people to sharpen those experiences. “What I can’t stress enough here is to give yourself too much time to hire the right people for the job,” he said. “It was very, very important to us with this story that we had a black writer telling I D G E R A H P E T H E R B R Discussing the 2015 launch of Alice’s Adventures Underground, which has since been seen by more than 400,000 people around the world, Seager revealed he had initially hoped to make an immersive Roald Dahl adaptation, before landing on the Lewis Carroll text. When the rights to Dahl’s work proved too hard to win, Seager said: “Then we thought, what other world is applicable to immersive work?” For Les Enfants Terribles, Seager explained, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was a prime example of a story that presented a real “narrative journey” worthwhile of audience engagement, interaction and participation. In one of the final sessions of the day, DaDaFest digital producer Joe Strickland led a discussion on creative accessibility within immersive practice, featuring contributions from the team behind Choosing Children – a dramatic and interactive live spectacle that aimed to be “fully inclusive”. Philippa Hogg in Alice’s Adventures Underground at the Vaults, London, (2017) Ben Fredericks and Laura Wilkinson, who led on the project, explained how they incorporated British Sign Language, audio description and captioning into the experience. For Strickland, immersive work offered the opportunity to be at the vanguard of accessibility, as a relatively young and still-evolving art form. He explained: “Theatre has hundreds of years of etiquette and tradition and ableism and of doing [access] wrongly.”

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NEWS

Opera North to restructure following ‘challenging year’

GEORGIA LUCKHURST

Opera North has confirmed it is pursuing a “leaner, more agile structure” with each of its departments under the microscope for “change”.

The Leeds-based organisation is undergoing an organisational review as it admitted it was experiencing a “challenging period”, like contemporaries such as English National Opera.

The revelations follow Opera North’s latest accounts, filed to Companies House on October 14, in which management acknowledged a “difficult year for box-office income and fundraised income”, with both “coming in under target”.

A spokesperson for Opera North told The Stage: “Opera North is undertaking an organisational review that aims to put in place a leaner, more agile structure that will refocus the company on its core purpose and strengths and allow it to reignite growth.

“Throughout this challenging period, the company will continue to focus its efforts on reaching communities across the North of England and bringing music and the arts into the lives of people of all ages and backgrounds.”

The representative did not respond to the question of whether redundancies had already taken place – an allegation first reported by Arts Professional.

But accounts shared by Opera North, which receives £10.7 million each year from Arts Council England, painted a picture of “challenging” expenditure, which the company attributed to “higher levels of wage inflation than budgeted”.

Total income for the year, before tax relief, was £15,321,264 – with total expenditure hitting £20,043,918. As a result, Opera North’s net assets decreased to £28,183,902, with its overall, unrestricted operational deficit left at £725,780.

Writing in the accounts, officials at the company were pleased to report the “likely extension” of ACE funding into 2027, but added: “Financial pressures have remained at the fore in 2023-24 and continue to be an area of risk.”

Opera’s extreme funding pressures have been well-publicised in recent months, with ACE’s Let’s Create: Opera and Music Theatre Analysis report honing in on a number of areas troubling the sector’s survival.

Meanwhile, proposals by management to streamline organisations such as ENO have also stoked concern, with Equity and the Musicians’ Union recently engaging in talks with ENO bosses to stem job losses.

The Musicians’ Union expressed fears about the organisational review, with a spokesperson saying the union was “deeply concerned that these announcements represent a further shrinking of the opera and ballet sector, with a direct impact on musicians’ jobs and freelance opportunities”.

WNO orchestra and chorus cuts would be a ‘disaster’ – stars

KATIE CHAMBERS

The loss of a full-time chorus and orchestra at Welsh National Opera would be a “disaster” for the organisation, the director and star of the company’s award-winning production of Death in Venice have warned.

Director Olivia Fuchs and singer Mark Le Brocq were speaking to The Stage fresh from their triumph at the UK Theatre Awards, having picked up the trophy for achievement in opera for Death in Venice, created in collaboration with circus company NoFit State.

Their comments come in the wake of a cost-cutting proposal that aims to reduce the full-time contracts of WNO musicians and singers.

Equity has been campaigning against the cuts, with planned strike action remaining paused following “encouraging” discussions with WNO management.

Chorus members took to the stage during a performance last month wearing T-shirts bearing the words “Save Our WNO”.

“Welsh National Opera is an extraordinary institution and is creating wonderful work. For it to fail, or for it to be cut into something that isn’t a national opera company, would be an absolute disaster,” Le Brocq said.

Fuchs added: “There are so few full-time orchestras and choruses in this country. The Royal Opera House gets a lot of funding, Opera North is just about hanging in there, and there’s the WNO – that’s it... If we don’t have these companies around, what are we training everybody for?”

Fuchs and Le Brocq also commented on opera’s reputational issues, exposed by a recent report that found a high proportion of people surveyed perceived the art form as “expensive”, “pompous” and “not for them”.

Fuchs suggested that fusions between opera and other art forms, as shown by the success of Death in Venice, might be a good way of inviting in new audiences.

She also called for greater diversity in opera casts, adding: “If people can see themselves represented on stage, that helps.”

ACE mulls gender advisory panel to tackle under-representation

GEORGIA LUCKHURST

Arts Council England is poised to launch a gender advisory panel following a “historic” meeting with theatre leaders including Stella Kanu.

The talks followed on from initial discussions in March, with ACE saying it would write a “feasibility paper” for a group to advise on gender imbalance in the arts, and present this paper to its governing body.

Partners on the five-year Women in Theatre research project including Kanu, chief executive of Shakespeare’s Globe, and former

Equity president Maureen Beattie met with ACE on October 14 to discuss potential solutions to gender disparity in the arts.

Others in attendance included ACE chair Nicholas Serota and director of theatre Neil Darlison, while Women in Theatre was represented by figures including Parents and Carers in Performing Arts chief executive Cassie Raine.

Areas discussed included how to examine collected experience data – which highlights areas such as the well-being of those working at funded organisations – in a way that could illuminate how people of different genders might experience employment in the arts.

It comes as partners from Women in Theatre revealed that they would develop their research focus into an organisation that provides events, awards, and mentoring, with further details to be announced.

Jennifer Tuckett, lead on the Women in Theatre research project, said the team was delighted by the “watershed moment”.

She added: “As ACE already has a race and disability advisory group, proposing a gender advisory group to the National Council is a historic moment to ensure women are also considered during decision-making processes. We are grateful to ACE for the seriousness with which it has considered these issues.”

OCTOBER 24 2024

ALSO ONLINE

Fashion house Mugler is to support seven scholarships in dance and music at London’s Trinity Laban Conservatoire. The style and beauty giant has launched its inaugural ‘social programme’, Mugler Creators, to broaden access to performing arts education.

Tunbridge Wells’ Trinity Theatre is appealing for more public donations to fix its failing heating system and prevent closure. The venue – housed in a refurbished church that became a charitable arts hub in 1982 – has issued a call to its audiences via social media in a bid to secure contributions.

A conductor sacked from his post at the National Opera Studio amid allegations of bullying has won a case of unfair dismissal against his former employer. Mark Shanahan was dismissed in September 2021 from his decade-long tenure as head of music – but an employment judge has since ordered he receive compensation.

English Language and Literature GCSEs are “not fit for purpose”, a summit co-hosted by Shakespeare’s Globe and the English Association has decreed. “Burdensome” assessments and reading skills lagging behind were among the concerns raised.

APPOINTMENTS

Rob Watt is to step down as artistic director of Theatre Centre after five years in the role. Watt, who has led the company since January 2020 – first on an interim basis, before taking the role full time – is leaving to pursue freelance opportunities.

Dubheasa Lanipekun has been appointed to the new role of associate director of Actors Touring Company. The director, producer and writer has worked across stage and screen.

Mercury Theatre has made Kenny Emson its inaugural literary associate, in a move that cements the stage and screen writer’s 16-year association with the building. Emson, who has crafted work for companies such as the BBC and Bush Theatre, will help lead the expansion of the Colchester venue’s writer development.

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