Network was an affiliation of middle-scale touring theatres which, in 1998, produced its first play, Claire Luckham’s Trafford Tanzi. This performed in seventeen theatres, with financial assistance from Arts Council Touring and Barclays New Stages. There were nineteen member theatres in this unincorporated consortium.
The theatres sought to work in partnership in order to solve some trenchant problems in middle-scale provision. The basis of Network’s activity was to produce its own tours, and to conduct a coordinated, long-term relationship with selected touring companies. A partnership of this kind would help to create a fresh identity for touring theatre, by:
· Actively ensuring that gaps in provision were filled
· The theatres pooling all resources, financial and human
· Allowing theatres and their staff to feel a sense of artistic ownership of the material they present
· Encourage companies to grow and be more creative, and have deeper relationships with the theatres
· Developing new audiences, by initiating the missing work and letting middle-scale knowledge work nationally as well as locally
Paul Iles was engaged by the consortium to write an evaluation. He was responsible to Murray Edwards of Wakefield Theatre Royal & Opera House and other venturesome theatre managers, such as Colin Blumenau at the Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds. These are examples of presenting theatres that have gone on to produce much more of their own work.
Paul’s report sets out to discuss four main questions for the future of the Network consortium:
· Objectives and Philosophy
· An evaluation of Trafford Tanzi
· Funding
· Production management and marketing
Many factors in the changing touring theatre scene have made extension into the entrepreneurial and producing field a matter of enlightened self-interest and expediency. Also obvious is the necessity for the widest possible service to the public by keeping the theatres, which are usually significant public buildings, working at full-blast all the time.
This study compares Network to larger theatre partnerships, including The Touring Consortium and some European models. During the 2000s, these affiliations have matured, witnessed by the No 1 theatres’ programming international ballet and dance through the successful Dance Consortium, or the Dance Touring Partnership.
In 2010, there are immediate new contexts for considering partnerships: your theatre or producing company may be facing abrupt change forced by anticipated reduction in core funding from local government and the arts councils. The challenge will be for the boards of directors and senior management to make efficiencies by selecting the best new partnerships and making them work. Please contact Paul for assistance.
Jack Phipps CBE MA, 24 Dec 1925-6 Aug 2010
It was with sadness that I learnt of the news of the death of Jack Phipps. He began his career as a Director of Harold Holt Limited, from 1953 to 1969, before becoming the first Director of Touring at the then Arts Council of Great Britain, from 1972 to 1979, going on to be their Regional Director. His influence on touring theatre and partnerships was immense; from helping to negotiate the purchase by local authorities of several ailing independent touring houses, to managing DALTA – the Dramatic and Lyric Theatres Association – which arranged national tours by leading subsidised companies, to propelling the establishment of Opera North at Leeds Grand Theatre.
He was Chairman of Opera 80, the forerunner of English Touring Theatre, and a trustee of Southill Arts Trust. He was Special Projects Director of the Theatre Royal Bath and General Administrator of the Aldeburgh Festival, 1981-1983.
He supported many theatre managers’ programming ambitions; for instance, when I was at Blackpool Grand from 1988 he emboldened me to book contemporary dance companies. This theatre has never been strategically important in Arts Council circles, but Jack put a good word in for us, to sceptical tour managements.
In semi-retirement he went on to chair and coordinate The Touring Partnership Limited. Jack was also instrumental in the planning and establishment of the Milton Keynes Theatre and, in
Some of Jack's very helpful comments about touring partnerships are included in my evaluation of Network.
