DERBY PLAYHOUSE

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The Playhouse has gone into administration after the board rejected an emergency loan of nearly £300,000 from the personal account of the theatre's artistic director. The city council objected to the loan being secured against the theatre's lease and the venue had earlier admitted to "short-term" funding problems. The city council is a major stakeholder in the theatre but recently refused to advance a £140,000 loan to deal with the financial problems. The council is in contact with the Arts Council to assess the future prospects for the theatre.

In a statement, the city council described the move as a "great disappointment". It said, "Now that the Playhouse Board has taken the difficult decision to take the company into liquidation, the council will do all it reasonably can to ensure that the Playhouse building continues to play a crucial role in the cultural life of the city." Theatre managers has blamed recent poor attendances on the opening of the new Westfield shopping centre next door. (Source: BBC News, Nov/07)

Tenon Recovery, brought in as liquidators to sell off assets, said their role had changed to administrators for a viable business. A spokesman said it was even possible that the current production, Treasure Island, could be restarted. Sixty people lost their jobs when the theatre went into voluntary liquidation after the board was advised the Playhouse was insolvent. It had been feared that liquidation would mean the Playhouse and contents being sold off piecemeal. But the theatre's board, which includes members of the city council, said that after looking at the business they decided administration was a better option.

Dillip Dattani from Tenon Recovery said, "Liquidation would have effectively been a burial situation where assets would have been sold off. Administration would be a rescue of the business in its entirety if possible. Reopening the venue with the current show is a possibility but we are looking at the options. If there is a viable strategy or proposition that enables it to open again then we will consider that option." A spokesman for the city council denied they wanted to demolish the Playhouse and committed itself to providing a theatre "in some form". (Source: BBC News, Nov/07)

Former chairman of the theatre board Professor Jonathan Powers said the Playhouse needs up to £2m a year to become successful and is trying to raise a fighting fund to reopen the venue. He said the long-term future could only be secured with private investment of £1m to £2m every year. The council and theatre bosses have blamed each other for the crisis. The city council said the Playhouse was a victim of bad management and losses made were unsustainable. In turn, the board said the building of the Westfield shopping centre put off audiences and the council forced them to open when attendances were likely to be low.

Professor Powers said, "It needs a massive public campaign to raise the kind of money to run the theatre on the line of our friends in Philadelphia where there are 56,000 subscribers. We are talking about the theatre coming into itself, every year, £1m to £2m from private money. This can't be done by the council, it needs to come from the people." Councillor Philip Hickson said that there were now two options for the Playhouse, either it was sold to carry on as a theatre or disposed of to pay creditors. Council leader Chris Williamson said that the council would not sell the lease or turn the building into anything other than a theatre. (Source: BBC News, Dec/07)

Hundreds of people have protested outside the council house against the closure of the the Playhouse. Actors Ben Roberts and Glenn Carter, a Playhouse regular who travelled from his home in London, were among the protesters. Mr Roberts, who starred in a production of Treasure Island before it was cancelled, said there was no financial reason to close the theatre. He said, "If the council had a problem with the management of the theatre, why didn't it get rid of the management?"

Mr Carter, who played astronaut Buzz Aldrin in the previous Playhouse production Moon Landing and who has appeared on Broadway and in the West End, said the closure was a "travesty". He said, "It has the best reputation now that it's ever had. It's commanding West End actors and well-known celebrities to come up from London and work here, which is rare for actors of that calibre. The quality of work that's been put on here is second to none. I've done six or seven plays and shows here and it is without question if not the best certainly one of the top five regional theatres in the country." (Source: BBC News, Dec/07)

A £700,000 grant has been held back from Derby Playhouse. In a letter, Arts Council England said it intended to continue funding a theatre but bosses said they had reservations about how the theatre was being managed. A spokesman for the administrators said the decision would have no impact on the theatre's current production Treasure Island. Peter Knott, Arts Council England East Midlands director of arts and development, said, "We've had concerns over the ability of the current organisation to construct an effective model which means that theatre can go forward in Derby. There would need to be an extraordinary change to persuade us that the current organisation could take theatre forward in Derby."

Dilip Dattani from Tenon said, "It is a disappointment. Having said that it's better we know at this stage so that the consortium can plan accordingly." He added the council had ring-fenced funding for a theatre in Derby but whether the previous management would be involved had not yet been decided. The theatre's artistic director Stephen Edwards said the council could have simply stopped funding the Playhouse altogether. he said, "Ten regional theatres are not getting a grant at all. We could have had a letter telling us we were out of the funding loop. With the theatre in administration I thought we'd be on that list, so we leapt when we got this letter. We were delighted." (Source: BBC News, Dec/07)