NewsletterNewsletter MayMay 20152015 In This Issue • Chairman’s Letter P3 • Marketing Strategies P4 • New Writing P6&7 • Voluntary Arts Report P8 • Our Heritage P9 Vol.29Vol.29 No.2No.2 MayMay 20152015 LTG Newsletter Vol .29 No.2 May 2015 The Little Theatre Guild represents 30, 31 October & 1 November 2015 108 member theatres that control NORTHERN REGION CONFERENCE & AGM Changes of Address and manage their theatre buildings. Grove Park Theatre, Wrexham HIGHBURY THEATRE CENTRE Our members are all amateur theatre Sheila Knapman companies with an audience of over 8, 9, 10 April 2016 NATIONAL CONFERENCE & AGM 45 Westminster Drive 650,000 patrons with a turnover of King Heath approximately £4 million. Visit us at Crescent Theatre, Birmingham 70th Anniversary Conference Birmingham B14 6BG www.littletheatreguild.org Tel: 017711 889347 New LTG Reps [email protected] KELVIN PLAYERS, BRISTOL CAXTON PLAYERS, GRIMSBY LTG Diary of Events Ralf Togneri Cathy Bennett-Ryan The Malt House, 41 Trym Road, 29, 30, 31 May 2015 49 Littlefield Lane NATIONAL CONFERENCE & AGM Grimsby Westbury-on-Trym, Bingley Little Theatre N E Lincolnshire DN34 4NU Bristol BS9 3ET Tel: 01472 231753 Phone: 0117 959 4064. 31 July, 1, 2 August Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] NATIONAL COMMITTEE WEEKEND Great Asby, Cumbria LINDLEY PLAYERS Ms Lucie Nash New Email Addresses (Date still to be confirmed) Flat 12 Lisa Court FORMBY LITTLE THEATRE CENTRAL REGION AGM 115 Northwood Road To contact Brenda Nicholl, use Rose Theatre, Kidderminster Whitstable [email protected] Kent 16, 17, 18 October 2015 CT5 2SD RUGBY THEATRE SOUTHERN REGION CONFERENCE & AGM Email: [email protected] Debbie Hibberd Studio Theatre, Salisbury Telephone: 07545 299952 [email protected] and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 (LOLER). Working at Height LOLER applies to all lifting equipment and the CofP is of interest to any theatre that uses flown lamps, scenery etc. The Theatre Safety Committee is concerned that most The new edition brings the document up to date with regulatory accidents in the theatre are either slips and trips or falls from a and other changes and guidance clarifies which equipment is height. Everyone working in the theatre should be aware of Code subject to the provisions of the regulations and the role of the of Practice for Working at Height. competent person. To reinforce this message a downloadable poster has been The context and examples have been expanded to show that produced for you to display backstage at your theatre You can LOLER applies across every sector using lifting equipment. download this from the backstage area of the LTG Website. The CofP can be downloaded from the HSE Website hse.gov.uk/ pubns/books/l113.htm Lifting Operations and Loading An Important Notice to all Electricians! Equipment Regulations (Loler) Changes to Wiring Regulations The Third Amendment to BS7671-2006 Wiring Regulations will The Health and Safety Executive has issued an Approved Code come into force on 1 July 2015. These include revised maximum of Practice and guidance is for those that work with any equipment earth loop impedances and new requirements for supporting wiring provided at work or for the use of people at work, those who employ systems in escape routes. such people, those that represent them and those people who act A fact sheet is available at http://www.3rdamendment.co.uk/ as a competent person in the examination of lifting equipment. It downloads/Amendment%203%20Factsheet.pdf sets out what you should do to comply with the Lifting Operations (This of course will only apply to NEW work of a permanent nature) Commons – was launched last October by 15th to 24th May 2015. Groups are Get Creative! Voluntary Arts and Arts Development UK in encouraged to showcase their work with order to collect evidence of local initiatives, events and workshops, and to reach out to Get Creative is a provide spaces for discussion, and new members, audiences and volunteers. major celebration empower local voices in debates on future Suggested ways to get involved are of the nation’s arts, cultural policies. The Guild has registered having a rehearsal open day, organizing culture and creativity. It is led by the BBC, to take part in these discussions. back-stage tours, hosting a performance Voluntary Arts, and a huge range of arts, workshop – indeed anything to increase cultural and voluntary organizations, and is Hopefully we will be able to keep all the awareness of your community in the inviting everyone to get involved. The LTG members informed of developments, and artistic work you do. is very happily supporting this initiative, also to contribute to the continuing debates and has registered as a ‘Get Creative on your behalf. (It would be helpful of course if these initiatives Champion’ on the BBC website – www.bbc. could be promoted much further in advance, so co.uk/getcreative . One such event is Voluntary Arts that they could be given greater prominence. Week which is a celebration of amateur Last minute notification in the LTG world is not Another initiative – Our Cultural creative activity across the UK from likely to have a significant effect – Ed.) Little Theatre Guild of Great Britain www.littletheatreguild.org Newsletter Editor: Michael Shipley National Secretary: 121 Darwen Road Caroline Chapman Bromley Cross Satley House Bolton Satley Lancashire Near Bishop Auckland BL7 9BG County Durham Tel: 01204 304103 DL13 4HU Email: [email protected] Tel: 01388 730042 Email: [email protected] The contents of this newsletter are not necessarily the official views of the Little Theatre Guild. Contributions are always welcome. Last date for copy for the next issue: 15th July 2015. 2 LTG Newsletter Vol .29 No.2 May 2015 Letter from the Chairman Well, here we are enjoying some when it matters. To have a Patron rather unexpectedly long spells of who has taken the trouble to visit spring sunshine, and I hope that, so many theatres and who clearly like me, you are very much looking believes in the whole notion of the forward to our 2015 National LTG has been a fantastic bonus for Conference hosted by our wonderful all of us - and those of you who friends in Bingley. I do hope to see have been lucky enough to get a lots of you of there - the programme looks inviting! visit from Ian do not need me to The conference also marks the end of tell you what a morale boost it is for my own three-year tenure of office as your members. We will, of course, your Chairman - and what a delight miss him, but quite understand that and privilege it has been! I have to he wants to spend more time on his thank all of you for your support, your companionship, and career now it appears to be just taking off - only joking! - and most of all, your obvious unbounded enthusiasm for our I know he will always follow all things LTG with great interest. lovely theatres, the people in them, and, in the case of the Anyone who pauses to reflect for a few moments on theatre LTG, the notion that over 100 theatres scattered across the in the UK over the past three years cannot fail to have noticed UK and beyond, are always stronger together than apart. that the picture has changed quite a lot. There is justifiably I would like to thank in particular those theatres who have greater emphasis on social inclusion, on theatre reaching hosted regional and national conferences - and in doing so, a much more diverse audience, and in gender- and colour- have created an awful lot of extra work for themselves! - blind casting when we make our plays. And, of course, we but also those theatres too, who have hosted our regular National Committee meetings which take us all around the now inhabit a theatre world of ‘live streaming’ and ‘relaxed country, and which, invariably, are hosted on Sundays (which performances’! are usually very busy days for theatres), with warmth and I am certain that this not only sends out important tremendous hospitality! messages about what we are and what we do, but increases In the last three years, making theatre has not got easier - the likelihood that our communities will see us as vital in but I am certain that I have detected a much more professional enriching what it means to live a happy and fulfilled life in the attitude in our theatres, not just to running our buildings, but UK today. It has certainly become more difficult, however, to to the way we make our work, and its amazing diversity. Many get people of all ages to become involved in drama - there of us have continued to build on our wonderful youth theatre are a whole range of issues connected with changes in work work - in a world where issues around safeguarding have patterns, educational provision and leisure choices of which taken a tragic and disturbing turn that few of us would have we are all aware, and which make the viability of our theatres predicted - and we now have an agreed LTG youth strategy, more hard to maintain. as part of our ongoing raft of new policies. We have updated, and checked the relevance of our Grey papers, we have a To this end, I strongly urge you to have a look at the long-awaited and fresh new website. We have forged a far 2015 Report by the University of Warwick called: “Enriching better relationship with literary agents like Samuel French Britain: Culture, Creativity and Growth”. It is easy to and Nick Hern than we have had for years! Some of you I locate on the internet and to download - and it will confirm know continue to have problems getting the amateur rights your fears, surprise and inform you in equal measure.