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What Kind of Shows?

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What Kind of Shows? This festival is generously funded by The Carne Trust WHAT KIND OF Live on stage. SHOWS? Enjoy from home or at our theatre. We want small-scale work - this is not the moment for anything with a larger cast, high costs, or big technical demands FESTIVAL For 1/2/3 performances: We will reopen our doors this summer with a celebration of theatre and the people who make it. The Footprints Festival • One-person (or one-plus-pianist) cabarets or standup will celebrate LOTS of our freelance artists and their different • Solo/two-person shows - perhaps that have already had a life so stories. We are looking for pitches of small-scale shows we won’t take long to rehearse again could programme in the festival - if you have something that • Scratch nights or script-in-hand performances could be right, tell us all about it in the Google Form. Footprints Festival will take place at the theatre during the For 4-8 performances: early summer. With luck, this festival will welcome audiences back to JST, probably in small numbers with social distancing. • Very small shows with a bit more audience appeal, probably But additionally, every piece will be captured on film to a with casts of one/two/three actors - perhaps that have already 2020. high standard, and broadcast at specified times to a ticketed had a life and can be inexpensively remounted (or you are audience online. preparing to take elsewhere) 15 Heroines, We want to make this accessible to a diverse range of theatre This is NOT prescriptive. artists and shows, so we are making the terms as favourable as possible. We will do lots of the work, so you don’t need to Please fill in the Google Form to tell us all about your idea. DON’T have any experience of producing your own shows to make this WORRY too much about it - it’s a starting point. We will definitely come happen. back to you with questions. Most people who are part of this will not be experienced producers. Dona Croll being filmed during Photo by Shonay Shote You bring us • Your small-scale show We pay you • A guarantee of £500 per performance (plus a share of profit if it makes a profit - see below) You promise • Not to hire anyone to work on your show without paying them the National Minimum Wage • To abide by our Covid-safety protocols. We give you , 2020 • A stage manager who will run your tech, operate sound and lighting during performances, and make everything run smoothly The Tempest • Stage management support with props, venue liaison and scheduling (we won’t give you an SM for rehearsals except tech) • The festival is intended to be created ‘without decor’ - with Michael Pennington in Photo by Robert Workman simple set-ups of our theatre space, lighting (and sound where appropriate) designs. We will provide a lighting designer to create a (simple) lighting design so your piece looks good on camera and in the space. Please note that while small tweaks can be made both the lighting and sound rig need to be universal for all shows. • Some simple options of how to arrange the theatre space (black box, with drapes, etc) - to be discussed SOCIAL DISTANCING • A high-quality filmed version of your show (some details below) • Our upright piano, if applicable We expect to be performing with social distancing in place. That means • Full marketing support. We are relying on box office income a typical audience size of 20--25. to fund Footprints Festival, so you can be assured that we’ll be working very hard to sell lots of tickets for you. This includes a full PR campaign, online marketing, advertising etc. LENGTH OF RUN You’re responsible for • Casting, rehearsing and designing your show (with our assistance where needed) Maximum 8 performances; we expect some shows (eg cabaret • Costume and prop maintenance concerts) will do 1/2 performances; plays may do more. This is all up • Transport of props, costume, furniture and/or set pieces , 2019. for negotiation. to and from the theatre • Paying anyone involved in the show (apart from those listed above) • Securing the rights for your show if applicable All’s Well That Ends Well Well All’s FILMING We might be able to help with , 2019. • Limited rehearsal space in the theatre We will choose a way of filming appropriate to the style and scale of • Producing support (budgets, contracts if you’re hiring anyone to your production. We might live stream some productions using fixed help you, etc) remote-control cameras (possibly in combination with a live camera The Ice Cream Boys • Additional one-off ‘enhancement’ funding if you cannot make operator or two). Other shows will be filmed in advance, with the your sums add up opportunity for a short editing process, before being broadcast ‘as live’. Gavin Fowler and Hannah Morrish in Gavin Fowler Photo by Matt Pereira • Funding applications if you need them Bu Kunene in Photo by Robert Workman FINANCES/ GUARANTEES We have structured this to eliminate your risk, so if things don’t go well and the show doesn’t make lots at the box office, you still get your guarantee. But if it goes well, you get a share. TICKET PRICES If your show makes a profit, ie if its box office returns exceed the guarantees we’re paying you, you will take a 50% cut of all the income above that breakeven point. Are set by JST. We expect a range of £10-£30 in the theatre and £5- £20 online, depending on the show, the length, who’s in it, what it’s The following examples are not binding or contractual but should about, etc. We may also do Festival Tickets, which we’ll apportion on a demonstrate roughly how the finances work. per-performance basis across the Festival box office returns. Financial You do 4 performances. Example 1 VERY SHORT SHOWS We pay you a (ticket prices TBA and for non-refundable guarantee: 4 x £500 = £2000 guidance only) We may struggle to charge full prices for very short shows. If your It sells out at the theatre: 100 tickets x £20 = £2000 production is very short, do apply anyway, but we may come back to It sells 175 tickets online: 175 tickets x £10 = £1750 you to discuss a reduced guarantee, and/or including you as part of a Box office total of £3750 double- or triple-bill programme. JST keeps the first £2000 (equal to your guarantee) JST takes 50% of the £1750 profit. We give you 50% = £875 Your total income for the four SCRIPTS performances is £2875. If there is a script for your show, please send it to [email protected] Financial You do 2 performances. Example 2 We pay you a FILMED/ADDITIONAL (ticket prices TBA and for non-refundable guarantee: 2 x £500 = £1000 guidance only) Disaster! Another lockdown! MATERIAL No live audiences, but filming still allowed (as now) If you have archive footage of your show, please send it to At the theatre: £0 [email protected] It sells 80 tickets online: 80 tickets x £10 = £800 Box office total of £800 JST keeps the £800 (losing £200) (less than your guarantee) TELL US ABOUT IT You keep your guarantee so your total income for the 2 Please fill in the Google Form we’re circulating - if you cannot find it, performances is £1000. please email [email protected] Nathalie Armin in 15 Heroines: The Labyrinth, 2020. Photo by Marc Brenner OVER THE YEARS During the 1930s, the basement of 16b Jermyn Street was home 1930s to the glamorous Monseigneur Restaurant and Club. The staff changing rooms were transformed into a theatre by Come Howard Jameson and Penny Horner (who continue to serve as early 1990s Chair of the Board and Executive Director today) in the early 1990s and Jermyn Street Theatre staged its first production in 1994 August 1994. on in... Neil Marcus became the first Artistic Director in 1995 and secured Lottery funding for the venue; producer Chris Grady also 1995 made a major contribution to the theatre’s development. “ I hope many In 1995, HRH Princess Michael of Kent became the theatre’s others will Patron and David Babani, subsequently the Artistic Director late 1990s of the Menier Chocolate Factory, took over as Artistic Director have the until 2001. Later Artistic Directors included Gene David Kirk and opportunity to Anthony Biggs. work in such In 2012, the theatre won the Stage Award for Fringe Theatre of 2012 the Year. an important theatre – it’s In 2017, Tom Littler restructured the theatre to become a full- time producing house. an incredible 2017 place.” The Rosalie Craig WHO WE “ Unerringly , 2018. Photo by Robert Workman. directed ... no Stitchers ARE one in this tiny theatre dared Jermyn Street Theatre is the transferred to the West End Rattigan, Lillian Hellman, West End’s smallest producing and Broadway. Henrik Ibsen, Stephen breathe. theatre. Led by Artistic and Sondheim, Tenessee Williams The Observer” and Andrew Dennis in Victoria Yeates , 2020. Photo by Robert Workman; Executive Directors Tom We’ve premiered plays by and Noel Coward. Emerging Littler and Penny Horner, Howard Brenton, Lorna French, talents mingle with the likes of the programme includes Alice Allemano, Steven Berkoff, Trevor Nunn, Sinead Cusack, Beckett Triple Bill Triple Beckett outstanding new plays, rare Timberlake Wertenbaker, Olivia Williams, Patsy Ferran, revivals, new versions of Juliet Gilkes Romero, Esther Nadine Marshall, Tuppence European classics, and high- Freud, Gail Louw, Chinonyerem Middleton, David Threlfall, in Jermyn Street Theatre, 2020.
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