As a result of the current Coronavirus
situation and the closure of theatres and art venues internationally, I decided
to ask James Haddrell, the Artistic and Executive Director of the Greenwich
Theatre if I could interview him to learn more about his role within the
theatre industry and how the Greenwich Theatre is coping during the current
crisis. He kindly agreed.
What does your joint role as Artistic
& Executive Director of Greenwich Theatre entail? Also prior to working at
the Greenwich Theatre, did you always work within the theatre industry?
I
started my arts career in cinema, working in marketing for the then independent
Harbour Lights cinema in Southampton. I moved from there to the Warehouse
Theatre in Croydon, a fringe venue with a strong focus on new writing. From
there I moved to Greenwich Theatre as Press Officer in 2001. I have worked
there ever since, first as Press Officer, then Marketing Manager and then in
2007 as Executive Director.
The ‘executive’
elements of
the job remain though, so my job is a fusion of running the business, leading
on strategic and commercial decision making (supported at all times by my
Commercial Director, Simon Francis), and leading the artistic identity of the
company.
Greenwich
Theatre occupies a very important position in the theatre landscape. In London
there are few venues of the scale of Greenwich where regional companies can
showcase their work. National touring companies looking for London dates have
limited options available to them. At the same time, fringe companies looking
to grow their work need a stepping stone up to the mid-scale. On the fringe,
financial risks are relatively low but the cost of presenting work grows
exponentially as you move to larger venues and that cost can be prohibitive.
Greenwich offers a low-risk platform for those small companies to try out their
work on a larger stage.
Throughout the years, I have attended
a number of productions at the Greenwich Theatre ranging from ‘The Tragedy of
Macbeth’ (which starred Mark Rylance and Jane Horrocks) through to more recent
productions such as Lazarus’ ‘Lord of the Flies’. Do you feel that offering an eclectic range
of short-run productions is important for presenting theatres? How do you select the productions that you
choose to stage?
It’s
always a balancing act for us. The short runs can be challenging in terms of
marketing, as the opportunity for word of mouth is limited. At the same time, a
diverse programme can be problematic – the notion that presenting a wide range
of theatre can bring in a wide range of audience members is often a mistake. A
venue needs an identity. That's certainly easier to achieve when you are a
producing house – we all know what a Royal Court or an Almeida show looks and
feels like - but it’s also possible when you are a presenting house. At Greenwich Theatre,
there is huge diversity in subject matter and style of work on stage, but
wherever possible the work divides into a small number of strands - work by
some of the country’s most exciting emerging companies, new writing for
children and families etc.
In
terms of selecting work, again, it’s a balancing act. I am naturally drawn to
new or young companies who display a strong artistic sense - but who may need
support in stepping up from the fringe to the mid-scale. Occasionally we work
with brand new graduate companies, but more commonly we present work by
companies who have made at least one or two shows already in a smaller space
and who need the opportunity to grow. When we produce our own work, I am
interested in a range of ideas - in recent years we have produced the new play
Gazing At A Distant Star, the rarely revived Michael Frayn play HERE, and the
European premiere of Tracey Power’s adaptation of The Jungle Book. In each case
the shows we selected satisfied a particular need - Gazing launched our new
studio and was suited to a small stage space and offered a chance for a gifted
writer who had so far only had short pieces staged; Here was produced for the
local festival Greenwich Performs and was designed to uncover a rarely performed
but significant piece of writing; The Jungle Book launched an aspiration for an
annual summer show for families.
I
guess, at its heart, our programme is about taking work which has huge
potential and giving it the chance, through mentoring, co-production, full
production or just access to a decent scale London stage, to fulfil that
potential.
In your recent article in the ‘South
London Press’ newspaper (24th April 2020), you spoke about the
economic problems facing presenting theatres (those theatres who primarily rely
upon touring productions rather than producing their own shows). Please can you talk a bit about how the
Greenwich Theatre is funded? Does the
majority of its income come through box office sales or through grants etc?
The story of Greenwich Theatre’s
funding is an important one. When I took over as Executive Director the venue
had debts of around £250k. The annual turnover was about £1.2m per year, and
60% of that came from grants - from the local authority, the European Social
Fund and various project funders. Now the company has virtually no debt, the
turnover still averages £1.2m per year, and less than 10% of our income comes
from grants. The grant income that we do receive comes from the local
authority, and we have just been awarded an Arts Council England emergency
response grant of £35k, but we have increased earned income and donations
exponentially to replace lost grant income over the past decade. That means
this period of inactivity is particularly challenging for us, with almost no
income.
In the light of the Coronavirus
pandemic, theatres internationally are being adversely affected by the enforced
closure of all venues; do you feel that there are adequate measures in place
i.e. Government grants etc to ensure that theatres and art venues of all sizes
will be able to survive? Also do you
believe as I am starting to feel that a centralised charitable fund could be
established to support the smaller theatre companies, theatres and their associates
who may not have sufficient resources to survive the prolonged closure?
To this point, no, there are not
sufficient measures in place to support arts venues through this period. The
furlough scheme is useful, and we are certainly making use of it, but our
industry also relies heavily on freelance workers and to date the government is
only offering income support for that group of artists to the end of June,
while the earliest any theatre is talking about reopening in this country is
September. We are not eligible for the government grants as our premises are
considered too large, and we are resistant to the idea of incurring additional
debt to get us through this period when we’ve worked so hard to clear our
inherited debts.
Arts Council England has made a major
commitment to the industry with their emergency grant provision, stopping all
project grants and awarding funds to artists and companies on an emergency
basis instead. However, the £160m set to be distributed can only go so far. It
sounds like a huge sum, but venues like us who are not part of ACE’s National
Portfolio of regularly funded companies could only apply for up to £35k - and
for us, £15k of that will be spent on audience engagement activities while
we’re closed, so the total of support funds is only actually £20k - and we estimate
losses to July of around £250k. There are obviously savings from being closed
as well, but still we are looking at a deficit for the period of around £100k -
and audiences are not going to flock back to venues when we reopen. Sales are
going to be slow as confidence gradually returns, so losses are going to
increase. This is not to suggest that we are disappointed with the ACE grant -
it is a huge testament to the faith that the funder has in our work - but it is
important to acknowledge the scale of the crisis that we’re all facing.
A central support fund is a great
idea. However, it’s worth saying (although I know this sounds brutal) there are
inevitably organisations that were already operating with business models that
put them on a trajectory towards failure. Bailout funding should be allocated
where it will genuinely save an artist or an organisation, not where it will
temporarily shore up an operation that is destined to fail anyway.
In your ‘South London Press’ article
on 11th May 2020, you talked about the current trend of providing
streaming media online of theatre productions such as the National Theatre’s
weekly offerings of their NT Live archives and you interestingly and validly
point out that many theatres, although they can offer archival recordings of
their productions, they will not match the production values of the National
Theatre’s output (owing to the fact that the NT recordings have been created
with the intention of cinema exhibition), so thus, most recordings may only be
of interest to a more limited audience, who can accept the limitations of a
single camera setup etc. Personally, I
feel that the NT Live productions and the other streamed productions offered by
the Globe Theatre, BBC and Hampstead Theatre etc at least enable shows that
would otherwise be forgotten to be shared.
One positive of the streaming phenomenon that you identify is the
possibility for a greater engagement between the audience and the producing
companies via social media. Do you feel
that there could be an argument to suggest that a larger number of shows could
be streamed or offered once their runs are completed, providing the theatres
and the production companies etc receive royalties for the productions? I
suspect that this could only work with the larger theatres unless the NT Live
and other pay-per-view streaming theatre channels would be prepared to support
the fringe theatre scene. But I would be
interested to hear what you think? Also
how has the Greenwich Theatre engaged with social media during the Coronavirus?
This is a really interesting
question, and something we’ve been thinking about ourselves. Providing access
to shows to people who can’t get to a theatre is a very valuable endeavour, -
one that theatres have been made to consider during the pandemic and one that I
suspect will continue beyond the reopening of venues. We are looking at the
mechanics of live streaming shows as they happen, so that audiences can either
attend in person or watch online. I also think that the costs of producing very
watchable recordings of plays has come down in recent years - I’m kicking
myself for not filming the work that I’ve directed over the past few years. I
think there’s an argument that all Arts Council England funded companies and
venues should allocate a percentage of their grants to making their work
available remotely - something for the industry to consider as we go forwards.
During the shutdown of theatres we’ve
been running Greenwich Connects - a programme of activity which uses social
media and digital platforms to reach audiences, actors and industry creatives,
to offer entertainment and structure. We stream a show every Friday but have
been exploring additional activity around the streams as you point out. We
challenge actors to submit monologues on twitter every Monday, offer industry
advice sessions on Instagram on Wednesdays, are part of a national Facebook
streaming of SK Shlomo’s family beatbox sessions on Thursdays and issue a
writers’ challenge every Sunday - and now that ACE have confirmed their
funding, there will be more to come, including the relocation of our annual
Greenwich Children’s Theatre Festival onto a range of online platforms in July.
Please can you talk about any
outreach or community programs/projects that the Greenwich Theatre is involved
in?
Because of the nature of our funding,
all community and outreach projects are dependent on both project funding and
partnership working. Last summer we supported a free outdoor production of A
Midsummer Night’s Dream which I directed, presented in Thamesmead with a cast
of professional, amateur and student performers. We run regular activities in
schools and were on the verge of launching an after-school club at Eltham Hill
Secondary School when the schools closed down (so that will now commence in the
autumn). We have plans for a range of online workshops, particular for children
and families, which are about to be announced…
As a regular theatre goer, I feel as
though I should be doing my bit to support the theatre industry during the
Coronavirus but it is hard to know where to start as I cannot support every
theatre and company whose work I have enjoyed over the years. As a theatre practitioner, what would you
advise?
This is a tough one. I read your blog
about the challenges you face in deciding who to help, and I found it really
useful as someone sitting on the other side of the table seeking donations. For
me, a donation or act of financial support should be linked to a sense of
future engagement or involvement - don’t reward the theatres or companies
you’ve loved in the past, help those that you are most likely to engage with in
the future. I know that probably won’t narrow down your list much! I’d also
say, where you can, instead of making a donation, look at purchasing a membership
or a season ticket for future work. We would clearly all value your support at
this tough time, but the value of that to us and to you increases dramatically
if it’s linked to a commitment to future visits. We want to see you again!
Once the Coronavirus has passed, how
soon do you anticipate that theatres will be able to reopen and do you feel
that the whole experience could open up more useful dialogues concerning the
Government’s support of smaller provincial companies and fringe theatre? Also a more thorough investigation into
ticket pricing, particularly in relation to West End theatres? I am starting to feel that by imposing
Broadway pricing onto many West End shows, less tickets will be purchased by
the average audience member. I have seen
seats for future West End shows being offered at £150 plus for ‘premium’
seats. Even allowing for theatre running
costs and casting etc, is it ever possible to justify charging that amount of
money for seats? I will not pay those
prices but it worries me that smaller venues will suffer as the result of
audience members spending that amount on a West End show, when essentially they
could see six or more shows for the same amount if they focused on local and
fringe theatres. Is there a sense of
community between the fringe theatre scene or does it feel like every theatre
fighting their own corner to survive?
The reopening question is an
interesting one, and won’t be the same for all theatres. The challenge is
making the economics stack up between the number of people in the audience and
the cost of the show on stage. The West End will likely be closed until next
year, as running a typical West End show to 25% capacity, which is the best we
can hope for with socially distanced seating, doesn’t deliver enough to pay the
rental on the venue and the costs of the activity on stage. For smaller venues,
the same challenge exists but the margins are more navigable. At Greenwich we
are reopening in September with small shows, rehearsed and performed with
social distancing rules in place - some on the main stage, and some in the
studio with cabaret style table seating. You would be pushed to run a show like
that in a 1000 seat venue as it would be lost, but for us it will work well. I
think that may bring more focus onto smaller theatres, as they’ll be up and
running before the major venues, and the importance of investing in the grass
roots of theatre production will become very clear.
West End ticket pricing has been an
issue for me for a long time, and it has even been raised in the House of Lords
as a concern, well before COVID-19. The reason prices are so high is often that
a lot of money has been spent in creating the show, and the recoupment can take
years. Producers know that a multi-year run is always far from guaranteed, so
they need to protect their investors by making the recoupment period as short
as possible. However, you’re right - if people spend £150 to go to see a West
End show it’s going to use up their budget fast. I hope that the period of time
when smaller venues are open will attract new audiences to try out those
smaller spaces and then balance their theatregoing between the two in future,
where previously the huge marketing investments of the major theatres grabbed
the attention of most people and used up the money they could realistically
spend on going to the theatre.
The fringe theatre scene has always
had something of a community spirit but I think that has grown as a result of
COVID-19 and it will be interesting to see whether that continues.
At Greenwich I am looking forward to
getting the venue open again and seeing our audiences, albeit in a new way. We
had to postpone an in-house family show that was fairly well developed but that
will return next year, and we have started looking at plans for a small-scale
in-house production for this autumn. We are also interested to see what we can
keep as a legacy of this period - in terms of online engagement, streaming
capacity etc.
Outside of Greenwich I produce,
direct and project manage on a freelance basis and have a new musical, a
community play and a sonic arts installation all in the pipeline for next year
- more news on those in the future!
Thanks, James for letting me interview you and good luck for the future!
Photos (Thanks to James for providing two photographs of him at work).
James Haddrell
James Haddrell
Greenwich Theatre
Afterword.
Many thanks
to you, James for letting me interview you.
All productions, companies, plays, publications and organisations are
copyright to their respective owners.
The
Greenwich Theatre has a website which is listed below:
Smooth Faced Gentlemen who produced the excellent 'Titus Andronicus' have a website too:
London Classic Theatre also have an excellent and informative website exploring their past, present and future work:
Lazarus Theatre Company produced the astounding 'Lord of the Flies' and continue to imbue classic plays with a Brechtian slant:
Please
continue to support your local and fringe theatres when the current Coronavirus
has passed. Creativity and artistic
expression are not limited to the West End!
Barry
Watt – 30th May 2020.
