Theatre Refurb.

[Jlamps]

I work in a council run theatre which, in the next couple of years, is about to have an extensive refurb that could take up to a year to complete. There are three full time staff working backstage and we've been offered possible redeployment oppurtunities elsewhere in the council whilst the building is closed. Personally working elsewhere in the council doesn't really appeal to me but if it means I'll have my job back when the theatre re-opens I may have no choice.

We are currently looking at oppurtunities to carry on our work, such as maintenance on our equipment and/or any other jobs that could be done in preparation for when we have access to the new building. I would be glad to hear from anyone who has had experience of theatres going through refurbs and what has been done during the time of closure.

 

 

James

[Ynot]

What does it say in your contract?

Depending on the small-print it may be that the council has to find you SUITABLE and SIMILAR employ whilst your normal job of work is unavailable. Yes, you could spend some time on routine and general maintenance during dark time, but if you have anywhere near enough to keep you busy for a year, then there's something seriously wrong with the scheduling there!! :D

Don't forget that councils do have other areas of leisure to support - may not necessarily fit your normal job description, but as long as it's not the bin man's round, you may find something entertaining....

 

Do you have a union? If so what do they say?

 

Tony

[Bobbsy]

My first thought on this was "who's overseeing the refurbishment?". On a job big enough to last a year, surely there's a need for a lot of planning and supervision to make sure the general contractors are kept on the straight and narrow in terms of theatrical needs.

 

Bob

[mikienorth]

A story told me frequently from a major theatre refurb round here is that the SMwas on site throughout and noticed the fly floor had been built too low to allow flats to be run beneath it one third of the way through it's construction. The level was raised, and money saved. Other stories abound from other major refurbs. Perhaps remaining on site and keeping an eye on the building in almost a caretakery role and making sure things are usable and how the resident techs need them would bea good use of your time.

[Ynot]

My first thought on this was "who's overseeing the refurbishment?". On a job big enough to last a year, surely there's a need for a lot of planning and supervision to make sure the general contractors are kept on the straight and narrow in terms of theatrical needs.

That can depend entirely on the refurb contract, as well as the actual position of the 3 tech crew in question. If (with respect) you're simply day to day crew, then the management are unlikely to take seriously any suggestions during the refit, regardless of how experienced the 3 are.

On the other hand, if one or more of this crew are in a position of specific responsibility, ie full time SM or chief electrician, then yes I imagine they would (or at least SHOUL) be involved throughout.

 

I get the impression that the latter is not the case.............

[Jlamps]

The three full time crew are SM, DSM and Chief Tech. Although we do have to carry out all the day to day tasks ourselves as well. As I said council venue!!

[Ellis]

What is the scope of your refurb? Is the whole building being refurbished? If not, there may be some projects that you can get on with during the refurb.

 

Also, look at your contracts - if your are not paid overtime, you will probably all end up with a lot of TOIL due to your attending planning and design meetings for the refurb. Then there is your get-out, vacating the building - it will take a lot longer than you expect - especially if you are scavanging any of the old fittings.

 

Once the theatre closes, you will need to start planning your customer fit-up, get-in and opening season. The builders will doubtless over-run and it will be your get-in time that suffers, you will need to forward plan the first three months technically because you will not have enough time once you get the building back. When you re-open, Parts of the building will be messy (concrete dust on the grid!) and you can guarantee that some systems will not work first time.

 

Try to work out how much time you will need to get the building ready and double it - If you are salaried and not paid overtime, convince your bosses that you are going to have very heavy pressures on your hours in the run-up to re-opening - Plan to have the time off in lieu of hours you expect to work during the get-in, fit-up and re-opening - aim to be hours neutral when the dust of the re-opening settles. That can reduce the number of hours available for 'other duties' significantly. Then you can think about those of your duties that acually continue during the year (do you have a youth theatre to support). And of course consider catching up on your training (because you will not have time when you re-open).

 

Use the extra 'leave' to unwind, refresh your batteries, sort out your house and get your life in order - but don't get too used to the 9-5 Monday- Friday routine - keep your hand in with some casual work.

[Jlamps]

The refurb is likely to produce a theatre almost unrecognisable from the old one. Although the shell of the fly tower and auditorium are staying. We don't have a youth theatre to support. Thanks for some good advice, if anyone has any more knowledge about refurbs I look forward to hearing from you

[mac.calder]

If you are entering an almost unrecognisable space, risk assessments and paperwork will all need to be redone and a number of other administrative things. And do you need to source equiptment?

 

To facilitate a speedy "re-insertion", and to make your lives easier in the future, try and get all those inventories and stuff done. And clean your equiptment etc.

[Suzette]

Are you re-using any of your current equipment? If so, this is the time to completely strip it down and maintain it - those lanterns that only get a cursory wipe over when PAT testing, can be taken apart, throughly cleaned and repaired.........

Stage weights get scrubbed with a wire brush, painted with black hammerite paint and your theatre logo stencilled on...........

Cables get cleaned, checked, and if you haven't done it yet - measured and labelled with their length......

 

An inventory needs to be made of everything that is going into the new building, for insurance purposes as well as for your own records.

 

You will certainly need to be in touch with your local licensing officer as he/she will need to re-license the building when the builders have left - you will need to make sure the builders stick to what the licensing officer has specified! The fire brigade will probably want to be involved somewhere as well..........

[lamps galore]

the venue I work in has been open for a year now after 2 and a half years refit. I was kept on a part time retainer as we kept on promoting shows in other venues. Unfortunately, part time hours were not enough - taking into account the general lantern maintenance that I needed to get done - I didn't have much time to look over plans and get involved with the general building :(

 

Now I'm living with a cans system that has a very nasty buzz :huh: and picks up the induction loop from the cafe :blink: among other issues that are very slowly being resolved...

 

if possible, get your employers to keep all three of you on - two doing maintenance and one dealing with plans, etc - and all three of you going on training courses - health and safety, coshh, pasma,etc

 

looking back on it, if I'd noticed a very thick mains cable any where near communications cable I'd have screamed...

 

and if you've got lots of money - well, you can always use the time to research all the new toys you'll get!

 

Ricardo

 

ps feel free to get in touch if you need more info

[thelightbulb]

[I hear you, it's mark here just in case you wondered but that cans system- it only now works between two now rather than the all four? hmmmm

and also what did you do in the dark time cause you were working there before? I guess you were on that inside out project?

 

M

 

 

:) - Mark, please don't post personal chatter in the open forum - use e-mail or the PM function instead. The Blue Room terms & conditions state :

Please avoid using the forums for personal conversations, or two-way discussions which will only be of interested to the two people taking part - instead use the private message function.

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[opman]

Two responses [having been in charge of a Local Authority Theatre which refurbed two years back]

Have you thought about talking to Education / Community Depts. There are loads of school and community halls which are looked after at best by a caretaker. Having inspected some of these the standard of gear, infrastructure, access etc is pretty shocking, so maybe a rolling programme of visiting all venues owned or operated by your council might be worth investigating. After all, they are probably all covered by the same insurance policy as your own venue regarding public liability etc.

 

We transferred shows into alternative halls and venues but it was a struggle, but I didn't have top redeploy anyone, there was just a reduction in some activities.

 

Secondly - don't believe the timescales being discussed. We were unfortunate [asbestos discovered] but having refurbed several venues over the years, the operation never runs to timescale. You need a contingency plan if your management are booking shows from a certain date, plus, as mentioned, as much time as possible to recommission the space.

[thelightbulb]

Apologies....

[Jlamps]

Thanks again everyone for the information!! Anyone else who has experience with refurbs or any ideas to do with this subject feel free to share your info as we're trying to collate a case from all the things people have said to get the ball rolling with the council and see how far we get.