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Professor Jonathan Powers (Chairman, Derby Playhouse) has released a newsletter for the friends and former employees of the Derby Playhouse.

Download the Newsletter (.pdf file in .zip archive. Left click > Save File As / Mac Users CTRL Click > Download Linked File)

Derby Playhouse Newsletter No 1

This is the first newsletter for friends and former employees of Derby Playhouse. The company is still in administration and there is a lot still happening to rescue the company some of which you may have seen in the local press. We want to be able to keep in touch with you while the building is closed so please feel free to pass this on to other friends and supporters of the theatre.

The Playhouse Board is continuing to fight to keep Derby Playhouse as a professional producing theatre and rescue the company in partnership with one or more commercial co-producers. Derby Playhouse could become an independent creative engine generating work for touring or the West End, giving Derby audiences the benefits of seeing such shows premiered, and maintaining Derby as a centre of creative excellence.

When we re-opened Treasure Island the Derby Playhouse Fund, supported by generous public donations, paid out a total of £305k including £110k from ticket sales. It discharged obligations of £196k in advance ticket sales and paid £62k of contractual obligations to actors and musicians. The Fund’s Financial Year will end on 31 July to correspond with the end of the normal theatrical year and at that time the audited accounts will be published.

Following the closure of the theatre when the Arts Council (ACE) transferred its funding to Derby City Council, the first Creditors Meeting was held by Tenons at the Playhouse on 25th February. The Board had submitted a rescue plan which was put verbally to the meeting, although Tenons had not included the written version in the creditors’ pack. There was popular support for the Board’s plan, which was described by one creditor as a ‘no brainer’. However allowing ACE’s claim, for the repayment of £1.074M Recovery Grants, overwhelmed the votes of the smaller creditors. Price Waterhouse Cooper (PWC), carrying a proxy for ACE, presented a demand for the immediate liquidation of the company with PWC replacing Tenon as liquidator. It subsequently emerged that the offers made for the assets, presumably by DCC, did not provide Tenon with enough to action Creditors Voluntary Liquidation as there was not even enough on the table to pay the fees. So the company remains in administration and is still operating. The Board are still working to rescue the company, pay off the creditors, and take back control of the Playhouse building.

A series of complaints have been submitted to the Arts Council by the Board and have not yet been concluded.

The Board registered an objection to ACE’s claim (apart from £10,564 of the revenue grant for March) which was therefore marked as “disputed”. Stephen Edwards, as one of the major creditors, has taken out a legal action to have the claim struck out on the grounds that under ACE’s conditions of grant they could only ask for the money back when the company had been liquidated and ceased to operate. They should not be able to use this claim to give them the voting strength to force liquidation. The Board has supplied a Witness Statement in support of his case. ACE and Tenon have until 11th April to file a response, and Stephen Edwards will then have 14 days to submit additional evidence, after which the case would be ready to be heard at the High Court in London. It is not known when this will be.

The Chairman has written to the Chief Executive of ACE urging him to accept that ACE’s claim was premature and that the consequences of ACE forcing liquidation would be that either ACE would be accused of robbing the other creditors and themselves of the chance of getting their money back, or else they would find they had forced the sale of the Playhouse building to pay the creditors including themselves.

This has been a difficult time, but the Board hopes that in due course it will be possible to re-establish good relations with both Derby City Council and the Arts Council England and that proposed changes to the company Rules will leave the door open to this, but will also make possible relationships with commercial co-producers. The intention is that Derby Playhouse Limited will be independent of DCC and ACE and as a charitable arts organisation that exists for the benefit of the people of Derby and Derbyshire will be able to form “adult” relationships with future partners and funders.

This is now even more urgent with the loss, at least for now, of the prospect that the Hippodrome might once again become a working theatre.

Concern has been expressed following the arson attack and subsequent partial destruction of the Hippodrome about the security of the Playhouse building. The Administrators are continuing to pay the rent, the building is insured by them and they are making regular inspections. Post addressed to the theatre is being forwarded to them.

Finally, a Benefit Event is being planned to raise money for the campaign. This will take place during the summer at a Derbyshire location, and will be likely to include a showcase for the youth and community theatre, masterclasses and other activities during the day, with a Gala Performance in the evening. Anyone interested in helping or taking part please get in touch – details below.

This newsletter is being distributed electronically. If you would like to be added to the distribution list, please send your name and email address to Anne Powers at the address below or via Facebook.

To contact us by post please write to:

Professor Jonathan Powers
Chairman, Derby Playhouse
The Quandary
100 Church Road
Quarndon
Derby
DE22 5JA

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 8th, 2008 at 10:42 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.