Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport Minutes of Evidence


Memorandum submitted by Birmingham Repertory Theatre

BACKGROUND

Birmingham Repertory Theatre, founded in 1913 by Sir Barry Jackson, was the first purpose built repertory theatre in the UK. Since 1971, when it moved from its original theatre, it has occupied a prominent site in the city's premier civic square, next to Symphony Hall and the International Convention Centre.

  The Rep (as it is known) has an 812 seat main auditorium with the largest stage of any producing theatre outside London and a 140 seat studio theatre, The Door that is wholly dedicated to the development and production of new writing. This new writing policy is reflected and complemented on the main stage through a programme composed mainly of large-scale contemporary and new work. In both auditoria, the year-round programme is delivered through a combination of in-house productions, co-productions (with both subsidised and commercial partners) and visiting work. The majority of the work produced on the main stage has a life beyond Birmingham either through touring or transfer to the West End. The three specific areas in which the Rep aims to specialise, and which strongly inform all of its programming decisions, are New Writing, Work for Young People and Cultural Diversity.

  The theatre has very strong Literary and Education departments creating and delivering both a programme of work related to in-house productions and a variety of discrete projects delivered in communities throughout the city and wider region.

THE CURRENT AND LIKELY FUTURE PATTERN OF PUBLIC SUBSIDY FOR THE THEATRE

  The Rep's revenue funding for 2004-05 is:
Arts Council England 1,551,018
Birmingham City Council991,165
Total2,542,183


  This revenue funding forms approximately 45% of the theatre's total annual turnover with the other 55% being earned through ticket sales, sponsorship, catering, touring and co-production income.

  The Rep's funding from Arts Council England rose by approximately £500,000 between 2001 and 2004 as a result of the Theatre Review settlement. This additional investment together with the valuable ongoing support of Birmingham City Council, has had an extremely beneficial effect on both the artistic and the financial performance of the theatre over this period. Artistically, it has enabled the Rep to consolidate and expand the year-round programme of New Writing in its studio theatre and to produce more shows of a larger scale and greater diversity on its main stage, as illustrated in the following comparisons of annual seasons:
2000-012003-04
Productions:
  Main House  9   19
  The Door  7   15
Total  16   34
Performances:
  Main House277 322
  The Door161 196
Total438518


  The increase in the quality and diversity of the work that the theatre has been able to produce with the additional funding has resulted in a spectacular response from the public over the period:
2000-012003-04 %age incr
Attendances:

  Main House80,644 158,835+ 97%
  The Door12,454 17,590+41%


Total
93,098 176,425+90%
Ticket Sales Income:

  Main House711,927 1,482,489+108%
  The Door56,329 86,812+54%
Total768,256 1,569,301+104%


  The £500,000 increase in Arts Council England subsidy has thus led to an increase in ticket sales income of £800,000, in turn enabling the Rep to be more adventurous in its commissioning and programming policy and to expand greatly both its literary development and education & outreach programmes over this period. New diverse audiences have been attracted through the theatre's participation in the Eclipse project and by being able to risk producing and promoting work of particular appeal and interest to black and asian communities within the city.

  All of these achievements are put at risk by the threat of standstill Arts Council funding from 2006-07 onwards. Costs of overheads, materials and salaries will undoubtedly continue to rise in line with inflation, with the inevitable result that the necessary savings will have to be found in the work produced on stage and in the community. The positive spiral of increased quantity, quality and diversity leading to higher attendances and income can quickly turn into a very damaging downward spiral of fewer shows with lower production values attracting smaller audiences. It would be a tragedy and waste of public resources if the stability and success that the Theatre Review funding has brought to the Rep and other regional theatres were now to be put at risk through a failure to keep funding levels in line with inflation over the next three years.

THE PERFORMANCE OF ARTS COUNCIL ENGLAND IN DEVELOPING STRATEGIES AND PRIORITIES AND DISBURSING FUNDS ACCORDINGLY

  The restructuring that Arts Council England has undertaken recently has undoubtedly led to considerable improvements in clarity of purpose, accessibility and efficiency in delivering and monitoring funds. There is a much clearer and more harmonious relationship between the national office and the regional offices; the grant application process is simple and clear; and the monitoring and reporting systems are user-friendly. In general, there is now less unnecessary paperwork and bureaucracy than at any time in the last 20 years.

SUPPORT FOR THE MAINTENANCE AND DEVELOPMENT OF: THEATRE BUILDINGS; NEW WRITING; NEW PERFORMING TALENT

  The shrinking of the lottery funds available to Arts Council England poses a real threat to capital investment in theatres in the UK. Whilst the Theatre Review funding increase has stabilised the revenue operations of most regional theatres, it has not addressed the ever-present need for maintenance and improvement of the buildings. No subsidised theatre company is able to establish sufficient reserves to meet its maintenance and capital needs in full. The whole sector will always be reliant on assistance from public sources to meet the costs of maintaining what are substantial public buildings. It is vital that a strategy and funding source is established for major maintenance and development if the sector is going to be able to meet the growing legislative and public demands of its theatres.

  New writing and the nurturing of new performance talent are essential to the future health and vitality of all the performing arts in the country, and our television and cinema industries would be considerably weaker without the development work undertaken by regional theatres in this area. The Rep is currently able to devote around £120,000 per year to its literary development operation—training, nurturing, and commissioning writers from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds from the age of 13 upwards. Not all of these young people will go on to become full-time professional writers but all will benefit in some way from the unique opportunity for self-expression offered to them. It is vital that regional theatres continue to be given the resources to enable this important developmental work to flourish.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE THEATRE AS A GENRE (A) WITHIN THE CULTURAL LIFE OF THE UK; (B) IN THE REGIONS SPECIFICALLY AND (C) WITHIN THE UK ECONOMY, DIRECTLY AND INDIRECTLY

  By particular virtue of its concentration on contemporary and new writing, the Rep has a significant role to play in allowing artists and public to examine and debate together issues that reflect and affect their daily lives. The theatre's extensive education and outreach programme serves to strengthen this dialogue between artists and the diverse communities of Birmingham. As the recent experience of Behzti has so dramatically demonstrated, the ability of live theatre to stimulate discussion and debate is alive and well in this country. This should be celebrated and vigorously protected for, whilst the results of such debates may not always be comfortable, they are a vital aid to the creation of an open and inclusive society in which individuals can explore their selves and relationships with each other.

  In addition to playing an active part in Birmingham's cultural life, the Rep contributes to the city's economy through employment, trading with local suppliers and additional spending in the city by its visiting artists and its audiences. The theatre employs 89 permanent staff and, over the course of a year, offers employment to a further 360 actors, directors, designers and technicians.

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF PUBLIC SUBSIDY FOR THEATRE AND THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE SUBSIDISED SECTOR AND THE COMMERCIAL SECTOR—ESPECIALLY LONDON'S WEST END

  Much of the Rep's artistic and financial success over the last three years has been the result of maximising the return on the increased funding through collaboration with other subsidised companies and with those from the commercial sector. Co-productions of this sort enable the Rep to reduce its origination costs of productions, to increase the "life" of shows, and to attract actors and directors who would not otherwise come to work solely in Birmingham. The vast majority of shows now produced at the Rep are done in collaboration with a partner company and either tour (nationally and internationally) or transfer to the West End following their opening in Birmingham. Such partnerships, whether commercial or subsidised, can, if they are based firmly upon shared artistic aims, only serve to strengthen the theatrical life of the country as a whole.

15 January 2005





 
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