BROADWAY THEATRE WORKING PARTY

Report Title Venue Case Studies

Key Decision No Item No.

Ward Rushey Green

Contributors Executive Director for Community Services;

Class Part 1 Date 4th December 2015

1) Purpose of report 1.1 The purpose of this report is to provide the working group with a number of case studies of other venues to inform their understanding of the issues involved with venue management.

2) Case Studies 2.1 Information is provided in Appendix 1 on four venues, , Wilton’s Music Hall, and . The information has been gathered from their last set of published accounts for year end March 2014 and from the venue websites. In addition some information has been provided on three further venues for which separate full public accounts are not available, Churchill Theatre - Bromley, The Assembly Halls – Tunbridge Wells and Grand Theatre – Walthamstow.

3) Comments 3.1 As the case studies demonstrate, venues are all very different and influenced by a number of factors including their location, scale, management arrangements, levels of public subsidy and ability to raise earned income. 3.2 Bars/Catering – the amount earned from bars and catering varies dramatically but in the most successful cases can generate substantial income for the venue. The lack of full catering facilities has not impeded Wilton’s Music Hall from capitalising on this source of income generation as they have encouraged people to use local takeaways and actively promote this option. One of the factors that has limited Theatre’s ability to maximise the potential of bar income has been the operational difficulties of bars running for non-theatre goers whilst events are on and the potential noise disruption etc. An appraisal of the different options for maximising this income stream in the short to medium term needs to be undertaken. 3.3 Non performance based venue hire – hires for weddings, rehearsals and film location fees are an important revenue stream for a number of venues. This clearly has to be balanced against the need to continue a performance programme but is likely to remain as an important part of the income mix for the Broadway Theatre. 3.4 Subsidised arts programming – some venues have ongoing revenue funding from Arts Council England that enables them to promote a subsidised arts offer. Others work in partnership with arts organisations to deliver this type of programme or bid for project funding. Currently the emphasis at the Broadway Theatre is for hires to cover their costs without any subsidy from the council. This situation is unlikely to change and London based venues that are not already in receipt of ongoing arts council funding will not be considered for this type of support. However, it would be possible for the council to bid to Arts Council for project funding and a policy of maximising earned income from more commercial hires and ancillary activities could enable some cross subsidising of programming with careful financial management. A number of the case studies venues have been successful with this type of approach. 3.5 Competing with the West End – a couple of the case studies include venues that are seeking to be able to host large scale touring productions. These include, The Churchill Theatre, Bromley that was built to this level of specification in the 1970s and The Assembly Halls, Tunbridge Wells that currently has some similar infrastructure limitations to the Broadway Theatre. The cost of bringing the Assembly Halls up to a standard to receive large scale touring productions has been estimated at between £12.5 and £25 million. Other venues in the case studies operate at a smaller scale and with a different type of programme that is geared more to celebrating the heritage nature of the buildings. 3.6 Community Links – the venues in the case studies vary dramatically in the way they present their relationship with local communities. Some have extensive community programmes and strong voluntary support from local residents, this is particularly the case with Wilton’s Hall and Hoxton Hall. Where councils have chosen to contract out the management of venues the programmes tend to be more generic with the same offer across all their venues with much less local relevance. How we ensure that the Broadway Theatre continues to be a community resource rather than just another professional venue will be important in taking forward plans for its future development.

4) Conclusion 4.1 The case studies raise a number of interesting areas for further consideration as plans for the Broadway Theatre evolve.