Monday 24 September 2012

#Theatre4Exeter

There are often calls, in the local press and media as well as in discusions elsewhere, that what Exeter needs is a large commercial theatre to rival Plymouth's Theatre Royal.
As a councillor for the past 18 months I've been giving this some thought - but as a theatre practitioner [I'm a freelance theatre sound designer} I've been giving consideration of this subject from the time I arrived in Exeter in 2004. 
I've read the letters in the Express and Echo not only in recent weeks that the proposed development on the Bus Station site would afford a great position for such a theatre, but as far back as when there were ideas to site a theatre in the old Debenham building. I even wrote to the E&E myself suggesting that the Debenhams building was better suited to social housing than a theatre = oh how times change!

However, I believe that they are many, many barriers to this proposal being economically viable in the current climate.
 
What follows below is my own personal opinions, and in no way reflects the official policy of Exeter City Council. 
 
I hear and read residents of Exeter wanting a city centre theatre to rival Plymouth's Theatre Royal. 
So I can only assume that to achieve that objective it has to be able to offer a similar artistic programme? 
So that dictates it needs to have a capacity of around 1200 seats, certainly 1000+. To fill that auditorium 8 times a week on a tour would mean it would need approx 8% of the population of Exeter to attend each week [capacity = 9600, population = 119,600] 

As it happens, I spent 6 months on a No1 tour of 
An Inspector Calls which arrived in Plymouth in December last year. As a consequence, I am fully aware of the factors that enable such a tour to function. 

I tweet as @CllrPaul4Cowick
 
During that tour I entered into a discussion on twitter with the enigmatic @LonWon about my thoughts  for a theatre for Exeter under the hashtag #Theatre4Exeter to go alongside his[?] own thoughts on Exeter's theatres on their own blog.
 
These tweeted thoughts were brought together and combined into a Storify thread

A #Theatre4Exeter|Update Storify thread was posted over the weekend as a discussion with @CafeAt36 about #Theatre4Exeter following the interesting exhibition of the history of Exeter's Theatre Royal in Longbrook Street that was held at the Guildhall on Saturday 22 September.
 
A thousand seater venue 
During the we visited the Waterside in Aylesbury which opened in the autumn of 2010 - and so gave me a concrete idea of the sums involved. 
The venue [including overspends] cost £47 million to build 
And since a new artistic venture such as this is unlikely to survive without public subsidy, the local council pays a management company [ATG/Ambassadors Theatre Group] some £25,000 per month to run the venue on their behalf. 
That also highlights that the annual running costs paid to ATG [£288,000] are considerably smaller that Aylesbury Vale District Council used to spend on running their previous venue 
"But the council says the [Waterside] theatre is a vast improvement on its predecessor, the Civic Centre, which was losing more than £740,000 a year when it closed" 
It's also worth noting that recently ATG have announced that they couldn't make a profit for the theatres they ran for the council in Stoke-on-Trent and have sought the renegotiate their fee of £596,000 per year. 
At the recent exhibition about the history of the old Theatre Royal in Longbrook Street, someone overheard me mentioning these figures and commented "I'm glad it's not my money". If the city council started along these lines, it would be funded by Council Tax, so yes it would be your money. 
So back to Plymouth, and why do those big musicals and other productions open at the Theatre Royal. A major factor is the existence of a £8 million facility known as TR2. 

Here workshops make the sets, props and costumes for productions - both at the Theatre Royal and elsewhere - and have rehearsal facilities. These enable those musicals to rehearse on set [a rare luxury that saves on production time on-stage] and can accommodate the band/orchestra for those rehearsals [again leading to savings on costs and time]. 
Productions currently appearing at the Theatre Royal in Plymouth would likely to be subject to exclusion clauses - normally 50 miles. Since Exeter falls within that 50 mile radius, it would be highly unlikely that those shows would be able to perform in the city anytime during the initial tour(s). 
Back to cost. Arts Council England currently subsidise the venue to the tune of £1,178,579. Current ACE funding would be unlikely to assist a similar sized theatre in Exeter, and I am very fearful of future ACE funding across the country when the spending review is announced in December's Autumn Statement from the Chancellor. 
And let's not forget that even with that subsidy, the cost of top price tickets for Oliver were in the region of £50. 
This 1500 capacity theatre [coincidently owned and operarted by ATF] opened in 1961, not too long before the 900 seat Theatre Royal in Exeter closed its doors in 1963. If that hadn't happened back then, many of these conversations would be different now. 

Again, exclusion clauses could and would cause programme difficulties with those shows that people want to see. 
And how often do they appear at the theatre? Between now and the New Year, the programme doesn't have any of those blockbuster events, just one-off events. 
There is nothing wrong with this, but I want people to be clear that a city centre theatre may not be able to offer the blockbuster shows week-in, week-out for 52 weeks a year. And then will that give rise to the venue being called an expensive white elephant when it isn't full or showing those prestigious productions. 
It also must be remembered the Princess has received constant funding since opening, whereas Exeter's funding has been directed towards the Northcott since it opened. Funding a new theatre from a standing start is a tall order. 
So all this us to the house on hill - the Northcott. I understand that many would prefer it not to be there, but we have to live with the fact that it is. 

The history of late is a little chequered but it has to said loud and bold that it is open for business.

There is a myth that transport links are poor.

Although there is now only limited
car parking space [55 spaces] adjacent to the theatre, there are now additional car parks within 5 mins walking distance  
And there is the option of public transport - the D service is regular service from the city centre to Exeter Northcott Theatre. 
For evening shows Monday to Saturday it is possible to catch the one timetabled at 7pm from the City Centre and arrive at the Northcott in time for a 7.30pm show. And getting back to the city centre is just as convenient - the D bus leaves for the city centre at 21 mins and 51 mins past the hour after 6pm and continues until 11.51pm (Mon to Sat) and 11.21pm (Sundays) 
I've heard comments about the bitty nature of the programme, and the fact that they no longer have shows that run for 3 weeks. That's because they no longer produce their own shows. But that's not unique to Exeter - even the theatres that still do produce their own work rarely survive on that model. 
Probably the Royal Exchange in Manchester is one of the few that still does, but the major repertory theatres of the 1980s and 1980s [Coventry Belgrade Theatre, Leicester Curve and Northern Stage in Newcastle to name some of those that I've worked at in the past] now have home-produced productions supplemented with in-coming tours. 

But what the new format at the Northcott means is that it can put on diverse programme of events to appeal to different audiences. 
For this new regime, it receives money from ACE South West. In January 2012, the Northcott was awarded £125,000 per year for the next three years from the strategic fund for theatre in Exeter and one of the aims of this fund is to support mid-scale touring productions in the city.  

This means that the Exeter Northcott is now able to present the best in mid-scale theatre - productions that are often not seen elsewhere in the SW peninsula. 
I'm already looking forward to Footsbarn's Indian Tempest later this week as they were one of the companies that inspired me as I was growing up in Plymouth in the early 1970s. I was disappointed to find that this production was opening in Dublin the day I was flying back to Exeter earlier this year - and would have travelled long distances to see it in the UK. Now here it on my doorstep. 

The same goes for Shobana Jeyasingh's Classic Cuand the modern retelling of the Medea myth by one of the UK's exciting new playwrights Mike Barlett 

I've heard the charge that the programming is "too arty". It may apply to my choices, but surely not to Mansfield Park or the wide range of music, comedy and family events they are now putting on?  

Indeed the Christmas show, Tall Stories The Snail and The Whale gained great reviews in Edinburgh this summer and follows on from the success the same company had with their tour of The Gruffallo. 

And in recent months we've seen ETT's production of Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing and the Northcott often plays host to our very own Theatre Alibi, including the recent tour of The Crowstarver which opened at the Northcott 

I reiterate that each of these productions may not attract everyone, but over the course of a season there is probably something for most audiences. 
Other venues 
I maintain that we offer a wide range of live events in the city - indeed a wider range than exists in Plymouth. We've the Bike Shed, Cygnet's New Theatre, the Barnfield, Exeter Phoenix and the Corn Exchange offering up fare that misses Plymouth. 

On top of this we've seen the emergence of the Ignite Festival from the Exeter Fringe Festival, capable of holding its own among the great number of similar enterprises springing up around the country in recent years. 

I mention these not as an example of complacency, but as a reflection of the great wealth of live performance that already exists in the city - and may be as deserving of City Council support as the holy grail of a large commercial [but unviable?and unattainable?] city centre theatre

Theatre Envy

I've recently returned from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and I'm still seeing letters in the Express and Echo suggesting that Exeter is a theatrical desert.

Now I grew up in a cultural desert. In the Plymouth of the 1970s there was almost no theatre - only an old run-down tin shed on the Hoe and the small Atheneum Theatre in Drake's Circus.

The only professional theatre I saw when growing up was a Northcott touring production of Julius Caesar for my O-Level English Lit . I still remember it - the star was Brian Protheroe [who later went on to have fame with hit single Pinball] and carrying a spear in his theatrical debut was Robert Lindsay [now what did happen to him?].

In 1974 I headed up the line to Manchester [well, Salford really] to study Biology with the ambition to become a research [marine?] biologist - and to follow my then passion, Manchester United [no need to link!]. But here I discovered an new passion, theatre.


There were many theatres in and around Manchester, but the best was the Royal Exchange Theatre Company, whose performances took place in a 7-sided, glass walled space-ship module, suspended from the huge marble pillars in the Great Hall of the historic Victorian Cotton Exchange Buildings in Manchester City Centre.

Here I saw Edward Fox, Vanessa Redgrave, Albert Finney, Tom Courtney,  Lindsay Duncan [how could I forget her first appearance in Twelfth Night dressed only in a white bath towel?] and Robert Lindsay [yes, him again!].

It inspired me enough to use my interest in sound to give up the microscope and use the microphone to forge a career as a theatre sound designer.

Throughout my career, which started in 1978 at the Octagon Theatre in Bolton, there's always been a discussion about whether the arts provide a useful service to society - and the unspoken question of "should it be subsidised?"

So what a pleasure on arriving in Exeter in 2004. The E&E letters page was awash with demanding a city centre theatre [as the Northcott was too far from the city centre] - and the old Debenhams building was suggested as a site for the new venture. My own letter on the subject to the E&E was published in April.

The city landscape has moved on and the Debenhams building is currently rising phoenix-like as the restyled John Lewis buidlng, But the siren calls remain and new site being suggested is on the soon-to-be redeveloped Bus and Coach Station.

The letters have reappeared in the E&E - as have articles like this one from Steve Bloomfield. But i'm still convinced - as a theatre practitioner - that these calls are flawed, and a city centre theatre cannot be delivered as an economic reality.

I've also moved on,  and am now an Exeter City Councillor representing the West of Exe Ward of Cowick as well as continuing my career in theatre. So in my next post I want to try and explain why I don't think a large-scale theatre is feasible for Exeter.




Friday 7 September 2012

Co-operative Schools


Earlier today, I presented the following motion at the Co-operative Party Annual Conference held in Manchester.

Public Services
Motion 15      
G South Western Party
This Conference is very alarmed at the pressure that is being put on schools maintained by local authorities to become academies with the consequence that there will be no local accountability.
Children could be refused admission and schools could become part of chains of schools which are based on faith and ideology or commercial organisations.
Conference, therefore, calls on the NEC and the Parliamentary Group to work with the Co-operative College to ensure that all schools facing this pressure understand the benefits of becoming a Co-operativeTrust or Academy school to ensure schools remain accountable to their local communities.

Co-operative Education
PAUL BULL  - Labour and Co-operative Councillor on Exeter City Council and delegate 
from South Western Party Council

I’m a busy district councillor who, as well as dealing with ward casework and council business, is trying to make sense of welfare and benefit reform, as well as ensure that developers deliver the social housing that Exeter desperately needs [and following yesterday’s Government announcement is extremely worried about getting those developers to meet their obligations]

I’ve tweeted to preserve the NHS and petitioned to conserve the forests.
 
In short, I am a fully aware and fully connected person, acutely tuned in to most – if not all – of the current concerns and topics.

Well, at least I thought I was .

Somehow I missed out on the 2011 Education Act that received Royal Assent on 15 November last year.

I am ashamed to admit it was only a couple of months ago that I finally discovered the true extent to which this Tory-led Government, propped up by an increasing irrelevant Lib-Dem 
contingent are dismantling OUR education service.

I was horrified to discover that one of the main provisions of the Act contained within section 37 [schedule 11] amends the Educations and Inspections Act 2006.

This means that Local Authorities, when they considered  a new school was needed in their area,  are now REQUIRED to hold 'competitions' to decide on the type of school - so that now [and I quote] 
"If a local authority in England think a new school needs to be established in their area, they MUST seek proposals for the establishment of an Academy"  

That would, of course, allow for free schools, as they are simply (in overall legal terms at least) a type of academy. 

Only if no proposals come forward (or if the Secretary of State gives consent) can the local authority then set up a new  community, community special, foundation or foundation special schooll.

It is my belief – and a belief that I hope is shared within this conference – that education cannot be relegated to pure economics.

Education should NOT be a means for private firms to make profits from academies

Education should NOT be subject to the whims of ‘interest groups’ setting up free schools.

EDUCATION should be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It should promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.

That’s a right guaranteed under article 26/section 2 of the UN Declaration on Human Rights.

So, are there viable alternatives to profit-making academies and free schools?

I believe there is…and it’s a CO-OPERATIVE alternative.

One that can reflect my – and your – values and  principles.
The co-operative and ethical values that we already subscribe to.

And with our principles we can put those values in action in the creation of a viable alternative to profits in education.


Co-operative Schools place a high emphasis on schools, teachers and the community working together to provide the best environment they can for young people.

They concentrate on the development of young people into active global citizens, which is at the core of tour co-operative philosophy.
  
Schools could just adopt and use Schools by adopting and using Co-operative Values and Principles, but many are looking at a more legal structure which effectively turns their school into a locally owned co-operative in its own right.
These schools use a range of legal frameworks to build democratic elements into their governance structures.
By legally becoming either a co-operative trust school or co-operative academy they ensure :-
·     their school serves the needs of their community by staying locally run             
·     there is a long term commitment to good values through a co-operative ethos
·     there is a long term strategic commitment to engage all the key stakeholders, such as parents, staff, learners and members of the local community

The big question I am asking when a school is looking at conversion to another status, is why would you NOT consult these groups?

By becoming Co-operative, schools make these aspects a normal part of the process!

I’m pleased to say, in Cornwall 70 schools have converted to – or are looking at converting into Co-operative schools. 

Similarly in Devon we have model schools and more are considering the option.

We all need to became advocates for this exciting model and I call on conference to support this motion

With that, it gives me great please to move the motion.

For reference, here's Article 26 from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights   

Article 26.
            (1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.

            (2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.

            (3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

Wednesday 5 September 2012

NO hunt for health

The text of the open letter to the new Health Secretary from supporters of 38 degrees


Dear Jeremy Hunt,

Our NHS is precious, and worth protecting.

We want Britain to always have a public health service we can all rely on.

As you begin your new job as Health Secretary, we want you to know that we’re watching you.

We’ll challenge you every step of the way if you try to do our NHS any further harm.

to which I've added:

I want a strong NHS reflecting the early promises of Lord Beveridge and implemented by Aneurin Bevan

To remind you those principles were:
services were provided free at the point of use;
services were financed from central taxation; and everyone was eligible for care (even people temporarily resident or visiting the country).

I am aware that what was possible in 1948 may need to be modified for the 21st century, but those overriding aims must prevail.

The NHS should not - and never should be - for sale

I should not need to hunt for health

You too can sign the petition