Theatres Trust: Concern for small to mid-scale theatres

Director of the Theatres Trust, Jon Morgan, has warned small to mid-scale theatres are of “particular concern” to the national advice and advocacy body for UK’s theatres amid a series of “external headwinds” across the sector.

Morgan spoke to Arts Professional following the launch of the Theatre Trust’s new three-year vision, which will see the body focus on providing greater targeted support as the theatre sector deals with post-pandemic and rising cost challenges.

Under a new tagline, ‘Theatres fit for the future’, the trust’s work will be underpinned by four key principles: resilience, environmental sustainability, inclusion and placemaking.

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Morgan told Arts Professional changes to the trust’s work have been driven by external headwinds facing the theatre sector, such as national and local authority funding cuts, as well as internal drivers for change, such as sector-wide conversations around inclusion and environmental sustainability.

“I don’t think there’s any theatre in the country that would say it’s easy to run a theatre right now, it has become increasingly difficult, [but] if I was to point to a particular area for concern it would be small to mid-scale theatres and in particular those reliant on local authority support,” Morgan said.

“There's anything up to 40 or 50 theatres that we are currently talking to, who for various reasons are worried about their longer-term future.

“In the last year there were three theatres we were aware of that went bust, so that’s revenue issues. We’re aware of quite a lot of local authority theatres where the local authority is trying to sell off the theatre or retender it at a nil subsidy, where previously they would have subsidised it.

“And I think it's fair to say that unless it's volunteer run, theatres under 400, 500 seats generally need some kind of fundraising beyond their earned income in order to stack up. So I'm worried about the model for small to mid-scale theatres and how we make that resilient.

“It's an area where we're on a case-by-case basis trying to give advice to the individual theatre or to the theatre owner – whether that's a local authority or private owner – but also more widely trying to make a case for it, and for continued investment in theatres.”

Advice service extended

Central to the Theatres Trust support package will be the expansion of its free advice service.

The body plans to offer increased guidance to theatre owners and operators on a range of management issues including business planning, governance, building management, ownership or leases.

Morgan told Arts Professional theatres also contact the trust for advice around fundraising, governance issues and environmental sustainability.

The trust has a team of four in-house advisors and has also begun engaging with external specialists in fields including legal, governance, inclusion and community engagement, to allow the trust to outsource a theatre’s queries for additional advice when deemed necessary.

“We’re trialling [the additional skills bank] this year and it seems to be going well. It’s been an effective way to expand the support we can offer,” Morgan said.

He added most of the advice work is focused towards smaller to mid-scale and volunteer-led theatres: “These are the theatres I’m personally most concerned about and unsurprisingly they are the ones where we are doing a lot of our work”.

Theatre database

The trust is also set to build the UK’s first comprehensive database of its theatres.

Morgan said it became evident during the pandemic there was no easy access to good data across the theatre sector, specfically in relation to buildings.

It is anticipated the database will form a full picture of the country’s theatre buildings by documenting ownership and details of major capital projects undertaken and support information and knowledge sharing across theatres and the wider sector.

Touring companies will be able to use it to help widen their touring circuit, Morgan said, as it will be possible to search the database by theatre capacity and stage size to create a shortlist of potential venues.

Meanwhile, theatres will be able to use it to both engage with touring companies and facilitate peer-to-peer engagement with theatres similar to themselves.

It is anticipated the database will be a multi-year project, with the first iteration going live during summer next year.

The database has received support from leading bodies across the theatre sector, Morgan said, and he stressed that partnership working will be integral to the success of the project.

“We see ourselves as achieving our mission through working with other players in the sector,” he said.