Aberdeen City Council's Arts and Recreation Department commissioned Paul Iles and Peter Booth (Positive Solutions, Liverpool) to review performing arts venues, including His Majesty's Theatre, Aberdeen Arts Centre, The Music Hall, Cowdray Hall, Lemon Tree Arts Centre, the Tivoli Theatre, City Moves Dance Agency and the Council's Box Office. The 1999 study considered structures for ownership and operation of the venues, performance and programming policy, and the extent to which the venues were serving commnuity needs, and possible gaps in provision. We developed a new performing arts strategy, including an action plan. Recommendations included transferring operation of the Council managed venues to a new trust. We were subsequently involved with planning for the Aberdeen Performing Arts Trust that took control of the venues in 2004. Paul was a retained consultant until 2005, during which time he assisted the chief executive, Duncan Hendry, on business planning, including education and personnel matters, the funding campaign for the £7.8 million refurbishment and extensions to His Majesty's Theatre (architect, Frank Matcham, 1906) that were realised in 2005, and recommending its twinning with His Majesty's Theatre in Perth, Western Australia.
Download Aberdeen Performing Arts Venues 1999
Aberdeen theatre: a select bibliography
Jim Pratt, The Music Hall: A Short History, City of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, 1993.
J.H.Littlejohn, Aberdeen Tivoli, Rainbow Books, Dyce, 1986.
J.Keith Angus, A Scotch Playhouse, The Historical Records of the Old Theatre Royal, Marischal Street, Aberdeen, Wyllie, Edinburgh, 1878.
John M. Bulloch, The Playhouse of Bon-Accord, Robert Arthur Theatres, Aberdeen, 1906.
Aberdeen City Council, His Majesty’s Theatre 1906-1996, Anniversary Souvenir, Aberdeen City Council, Aberdeen, 1996.
Edi Swan, His Majesty’s Theatre: one hundred years of glorious damnation, Black and White Publishing, Aberdeen, 2006.
See the Tivoli Theatre, Aberdeen website. See Aberdeen Arts Centre website.
We have undertaken external reviews of many local authority and non-profit trust operated theatres and concert halls. Methodologies keep pace with contemporary research; we can help you get the best from your theatre. References available upon request.
