Redundancies

[Dicky]

My point about the Storyhouse press release was that it is an example of how that venue has made a deliberate move to open up and engage with their audiences and local community.

A couple of quotes in that article that stood out to me are:

 

"We will open in any way we can to safely serve our community with great stories and joyful shared experiences. We will relentlessly pursue our mission at this time when our diverse communities need us most."

"There are plenty of headlines about theatres going into hibernation, we are a diverse business so that's not for us. We will be open and supporting our community from day one, just as they are showing such support for us right now. It's time for the country's theatres to think about how they can re-open to serve their communities"

 

This response by Storyhouse to the COVID-19 situation is in stark contrast to some other venues, who have announced closures for the foreseeable future; some of which have huge spaces inside, not just their auditoria. It's times like these when some 'out of the box thinking' helps you open up.

Every venue is different, and Storyhouse is unusual in that it has a public library as part of it's operation, as well as a restaurant and bar, which perhaps makes opening up, easier than other venues.

 

So if at the very least, Storyhouse opens their library and bar, they have got people coming into their venue, creating income. You have to start somewhere.

 

I was hi-lighting what I thought was a good news story, in a pretty bleak place for theatres at the moment. Not every theatre can re-open like Storyhouse is planning to do, but should they be applauded for their drive to reopen in any way they can? Damn right they should, and good luck to them.

[Ynot]

Yes, but the problem is that until we are TOLD that those big spaces can be used - effectively and financially viably - then there's not a lot of point investigating different uses. Even if social distancing gets to be 1m (and that's only likely to be under specific circumstances) then anything with an audience is going to be very hard to organise - especially indoors.

And many of the big houses tend to have their space concentrated on the auditoria, surely?

 

It's great that one house is doing something public - that doesn't mean that those in charge of the rest aren't at least thinking of ways to move forward.

 

I am, however, curious to see what ALW has got planned for the palladium next month...

 

 

 

[kerry davies]

86 redundancies at Nuffield Theatres Southampton, no takers found for cut-price sale. Anyone any idea how many self-employed and casuals are affected.

[J Pearce]

Unfortunately I'm not surprised that there was no buyer. You'd have to be rather bold on a long term investment (or have a lot of cash to burn quickly as a vanity project) to take on a performance venue at the moment.

[alistermorton]

Sadly, it will probably end up in a developer's hands, and that will be another performance venue lost forever.

[Brian]

One assumes (dangerous I know) that the theatre they ran on the Uni campus is actually owned by the Uni?

 

And the one in the city centre is probably owned by the developer of that part of town?

[kerry davies]

Both have closed, both were for sale, neither raised any interest..... AFIK.

I just wondered whether they were overstaffed as 86 seems a lot, or whether "redundancy" covered cassies and freelancers as well.

[pjb304]

One assumes (dangerous I know) that the theatre they ran on the Uni campus is actually owned by the Uni?

 

Yes, the one on campus is owned by the uni, but I've yet to hear any rumours about what they plan to do with it.

I've no idea who owns the one in the town centre.

I assume it was the remaining leases that were included in the potential sale.

[timsabre]

Both have closed, both were for sale, neither raised any interest..... AFIK.

I just wondered whether they were overstaffed as 86 seems a lot, or whether "redundancy" covered cassies and freelancers as well.

 

According to the BBC story on this there were several organisations interested but "none of the offers met the requirements of the stakeholders".

[ImagineerTom]

The "sale" here was of the entire business and staff as a going concern with one of the criteria that the bulk of the staff and financial responsibilities be taken on by the new owner - right now no-one is going to spend a million quid on some leases / rental agreements and a potential 2 year wage underwriting for a complex that won't be even close to profit for several years.

[Bryson]

I hope that in the end these places just get mothballed and reopened down the line by a new operator, rather than demolished or worse, poorly converted into something else.

[Junior8]

Both have closed, both were for sale, neither raised any interest..... AFIK.

I just wondered whether they were overstaffed as 86 seems a lot, or whether "redundancy" covered cassies and freelancers as well.

 

The Nuffield Theatre Trust was broke anyway. Without £1.8m public/charitable funding it wouldn't stand a chance at the best of times. Like too many of these places it didn't have a commercial bone in its body. It had 52 admin staff in the last full year accounts. These accounts by the way are the usual mixture of lists of aspirations mixed with critical acclaim for productions from the one group who never pay to see anything - the critics! And a balance sheet to chill the blood. It had enough in the reserves to close down tidily - which is what it should have done.

 

I suspect one effect of all this will be that the prudent companies will realise just how bloated their non- production linked payrolls had become and do something about it. About time too.

Edited July 5, 2020 by Junior8

[ImagineerTom]

I have been shocked at just how bloated some venues staffing is - there's a few mid-scale receiving house only venues with 200 employees and a couple of quite well known receiving house's with 100 full employees plus their network of show related casuals. At those sorts of numbers it's no wonder they're going bust.

[gareth]

The current trend for a surfeit of 'associate producers', 'community arts practitioners', 'assistant directors' and so on, at the expense of the skilled technical staff who actually make the theatre happen, is a blight on the theatre business.

[callumb]

https://www.nme.com/news/music/government-announces-1-57-billion-support-package-for-uk-arts-industries-2701834

 

 

Possible light at the end of the tunnel for the industry or it could be a train...