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Bristol Old Vic Development Plan - Summary of Draft v1.2

An invitation to Bristol Old Vic’s Future

This summary is published to coincide with the public meeting on 10th July 2008 to promote informed discussion.

This document should be read as the first iteration of what will be an evolving and ambitious plan for the ongoing development of Bristol Old Vic.

It is not a story to be entered into half-heartedly – as it demands vision, passion, and doggedness to see it through.

We hope you are inspired to join us on this journey.

Appropriately this is a plan for partnership and as each relationship develops it will influence the delivery process and the future plan.

Prologue

An extraordinary theatrical resource is currently closed to the public.

Thus our short term goal is to reinvent the Bristol Old Vic (BOV) as a dynamic and sustainable producer and resource for theatre in Bristol. The long term goal is to create the conditions under which BOV can produce world class theatre for and with the people of Bristol. We expect BOV to display exemplary artistic leadership, reaching out into new territory to build a new model for theatre fully in tune with the creative world of 21st century Britain.

That BOV can deliver on these aspirations is not in doubt. Bristol Old Vic has some significant assets with which to achieve these tasks:

• The building, combining the most beautiful purpose built classical playhouse in Britain with an astonishing range of found and adaptable spaces for live performance of all kinds
• Strong public support and a broad desire to see BOV succeed among the industry, the funding system and a global network of potential benefactors and supporters
• A city which is alive with creativity and home to a high tech innovation cluster that can take BOV into the connected century
• A strong market need with Theatre Bristol’s recent report highlighting the need for BOV to play a leading role in realising Bristol’s theatre potential for audiences and artists

These assets combine to form a uniquely powerful opportunity to create a new kind of theatre in a new kind of relationship with its city. The possibilities for BOV are immense, both in terms of the open starting point and in the capacity to explore and innovate. A sense of exploration is vital to BOV’s ambitions and its modus operandi - the challenge is to learn through practice rather than theory, and to be alive to the modifications which practice will bring to our understanding at every step.

BOV will build a company with an international reputation, through a process that will be artistically driven, managerially achievable and financially sustainable.

Regeneration of BOV began with a public meeting in January 2008 and has been taken forward through discussion and consultation.  Targeted interventions from leading experts have injected new thinking and promoted active debate. The development will become ever more public and engaged through the ongoing process of practice-based development.

We have to re-establish BOV as a theatre company which is loved locally and respected internationally.  We have to start producing work and keep on producing work to respond to demand from audience and artist.  We have to take a lead in developing Bristol’s theatre landscape.  Theatre spaces are in short supply in Bristol so we will need to be inventive and bold.

BOV will burst back to life in 2009 with a year of work that demonstrates our future intentions.  Its range will include modern classics, experimental devised performances, collaborations with Kneehigh and Travelling Light, Mayfest and a Youth Theatre Festival.  The season will also see the launch of a new writing programme in collaboration with Aardman, a new partnership with Theatre Bristol to develop local work and a renewal of the close relationship with Bristol Old Vic Theatre School (BOVTS) which is currently enjoying huge national success.

The capital work being undertaken during 2008 will allow two vital first steps. Firstly it will make the fabric of the building sound to prevent decay. Second it will repair key elements of the theatre infrastructure to enable us to mount the 2009 season in the Theatre Royal and Studio which will be safe but not refurbished.

We will not move out of King St until we have a temporary home. We are in discussion with Bristol City Council and others. If successful this would mean that in late 2009 we will take possession of L Shed – a flexible space which several companies have used in the past and where BOV produced Up the Feeder Down the Mouth. From early 2010 this will become BOV’s temporary home while the Theatre Royal complex is re-developed.

What will really mark out the BOV as a new venture is the culture of collaboration, responsibility, openness and energy. It will be a complex journey of re-invention requiring determination and vision which can only be sustained through broad partnership in a spirit of enquiry, adventure and celebration.

The re-invention will carry inherent risk.  The trick is to work with the risk not against it, to build on the shared passion of audience and artist, to respect and include both while always pushing innovation and surprise. BOV will be the most welcoming, warm and stimulating space – physically and philosophically – attracting talent and originating new work for launch in Bristol and exploitation beyond. The brand, the alumni, the audience, the creative energy of Bristol, the unique home – the assets are waiting to fuse into a major power house again.

Bristol Old Vic Vision

‘To delight, surprise and inspire the people of Bristol with excellent live theatre in an environment of creativity, welcome and adventure.’

To achieve this vision BOV has three primary ambitions that will drive its activities:

• To produce and showcase world class theatre
• To support the development of talent in Bristol
• Play a defining role in the regional creative economy

Bristol Old Vic Programme

Bristol Old Vic must become a place of continuous, visible activity.  A place that is used not only to enter and exit two auditoria, but one where people connect with each other and with the live performance world.  In the refurbished building, much more space will be public facing and have a permeability to the public.

Programme Strategies

The programming strategy will be led by artistic quality and innovation. It will run across all the public spaces of the theatre and beyond such that its building has a continuous buzz and its presence is felt throughout the city. The programme will focus on origination of work and the exploitation of success. It will lead with theatre but include music and dance. It will programme 7 days a week and at different times of day and evening. It will engage with the many communities of Bristol building relationships and developing inter-cultural dialogues. It will showcase international talent and promote Bristol talent to the world.

We will offer a balanced programme in which audiences will find familiar theatrical forms running alongside experimentation, new approaches, music and dance. We will take up the artistic challenge of engaging with both text based and alternative forms. The programme will have a ‘showcase’ element (inviting world-class artists to create live performances for and with the people of Bristol) and a ‘development’ element (that fosters and develops world-class artists in Bristol).

Young People

BOV will provide a pathway for a young person to develop their talent that allows them to move from their initial contact with theatre to becoming a creator and consumer of it in an environment that creates and showcases the best theatre by and for young people.  This pathway can be joined, or left, at any point with each contact adding value to the young person’s life, their skills, confidence and knowledge.

It is essential to the success of this strategy that the BOV regularly produces work (of all kinds, not just that focussed on young people). Young people engaged in BOV programmes then become involved with a world-class working theatre its professionals and its processes, not with an empty training space.

The focus to realise the education strategy will be on practical activity led by a team  of practitioners that involves theatre staff as well as young people. Activity, wherever possible, will lead to the creation of a performance and should reflect and be part of the everyday work of the building.  Continuing to build on work already underway with the Local Authorities will be a key pillar of the education offer in Bristol, South Gloucestershire, and North Somerset.

BOV Theatre School – a unique partnership

A major development for the future of professional theatre in Bristol will be the renewed partnership between the Theatre School and the Theatre Company.

In BOVTS Bristol has a unique centre of excellence in training for the Arts and Entertainment Industry. A new vision is offered of the only Conservatoire level regional drama school working in partnership with the excellence that Bristol Old Vic will offer as a producing theatre.

Building on its own artistic and creative success, BOVTS will move its rehearsal and much of its theatre production and performance base to King Street, creating a significant presence of professionals in training – actors, stage management, directors and other production students, learning and working alongside the professional life of the Bristol Old Vic Company. Further links will be made with BOVTS other resources eg. Christchurch Studios, its radio, music and TV drama recording studios in Clifton.

The vibrancy, freshness and level of activity at the BOV will be greatly enhanced by strong relationships with theatre students and the students’ contact with the practitioners making theatre in the BOV. Dedicated space within the theatre will enable BOVTS to bring life to the theatre and draw on the life of the theatre with its work.
This will become a unique working relationship within UK theatre.

Writers

One specific element of BOV’s contribution to the future of  drama will be support for new writing.  The written and devised word is the very cornerstone of theatre, film, radio and TV – our creative industry is often dependent on the creativity and vision of writers.  Investment in the role of the writer is vital to keep our creative industries world class and to develop a confident regional cultural voice and creative identity for the South West.

Bristol Live

Bristol Old Vic is a massive influence in the local theatre scene.  It has a scale, history and position that is unrivalled.  This position gives the BOV a potential, but more importantly a responsibility, to lead and drive forward theatre by developing an effective, living model for engaging, supporting and nurturing local talent.

This engagement with the Bristol theatre community can be best achieved through partnership with Theatre Bristol and a redefinition of its role.  The outcome of this engagement will be a theatre community assisted in producing world-class theatre in the city – through provision of spaces in which to rehearse and perform, access to world-class inspiration and advice, and development of an audience that has a sense of adventure.

As a major building-based theatre, BOV can act as an important resource for local talent.  Beyond the provision of rehearsal spaces and the prestigious showcase venue for new works, the theatre has a role in using its assets to attract world-class talent alongside whom local people can work, learn and develop.

People and Structures

Strategy, governance and leadership are key factors in regenerating and sustaining the BOV. The range of skills required for both governance and management will change as the project develops. The three primary tasks at the start of the venture will require people skilled in developing a new theatre company model; delivering the capital project; and creating an effective fundraising and relationship building capability.  To develop new working models we need to remain flexible, using practice to explore new ways of working at both governance and management levels. We will consult and evaluate as an integral part of practice and seek to learn from every experience.

The culture of the BOV as it develops will be of a learning enterprise, seeking to experiment and progress at all times. The starting point is not neutral and a confident entrepreneurial approach will be necessary in all roles. Building on the consultative approach we are researching governance models to explore mechanisms for giving a voice to key artistic and audience constituencies while maintaining an effective board to own and manage strategic direction. BOV and TRT will jointly review their relationship to ensure it is the most appropriate for the sustainability of the new operating model.

Through the development programme the staff team will be led by a Managing Director working closely with the Board and sub committees. The Managing Director will have overall responsibility for the development of the BOV with two core teams led by the Artistic and Business Development Directors.

Financial Model

Theatre in Bristol is at a cross roads, current funding is inadequate to meet the aspirations expressed in the Bristol Live report. Historically there has been a divide between those who backed the traditional building based producing company and those who said it meant that too large a slice of the funding cake went to one organisation. This plan is based on the clear understanding that for many historic reasons BOV receives less funding than similar companies in other English core cities and that overall there is less grant money available in Bristol than in those cities. The intention is to address these issues head on and seek to develop an operating model which can support both traditional and emergent theatrical forms and producing arrangements. The BOV model will therefore be innovative from first principles.

The most important principle of the finance model is that it should create flexibility in programming by designing in the capacity for artistic risk taking without risking the financial future of the whole organisation. During the period of development this will be achieved through containing core ‘fixed’ costs at a level which is as low as practical, probably more like the staffing of a touring production company than a building-based company. This will allow us to build a creative risk fund.

The Capital Project

The biggest and most pressing task in assessing the path forward for BOV has been to review the capital project.  The Theatre Royal complex is a unique asset and a key component of the theatre landscape in Bristol. The redevelopment project builds on the previous refurbishment plan and is now designed to deliver the infrastructural needs of a Bristol Old Vic reinvented as an engine-house at the heart of an ambitious plan for ‘Bristol Live’ as described in the Theatre Bristol report.

The new Extended Theatre Royal complex will provide up to 10 spaces which can be used for performance, teaching, commercial exploitation and creative development from reading to rehearsal with extended public spaces, improved audience comfort and access:

• Five public performance spaces of which four will double as making and rehearsal spaces;
• Three dedicated rehearsal rooms;
• Two dedicated Bristol Old Vic Theatre School studios

The programme will be delivered across multiple public spaces so that there is real diversity of scale, producer, audience-artist relationship and theatrical experience. The principle performance spaces will be the Theatre Royal, Studio, Basement Bar, Paintshop and King St itself. Performances will also take place in other spaces front- and back-of-house while none of the primary performance spaces will be used as such all of the time thus creating the capacity to make work ‘on stage’ with attendant artistic benefits and more adventure for audience and artist.

Flexibility will be a theme throughout, allowing all of the spaces to be busy hosting theatre-making by BOV, its associates, Theatre Bristol companies, BOVTS and BOV Youth Theatre while the performance programme will move around between spaces, be at different scales and at many times of day and evening. On any day there will be more than 50 artists developing, making and performing works. King Street will be the vibrant hub of live performance culture. The range of artists will place young people, BOVTS students and established professionals alongside each other, learning and sharing together.

Conclusion

The redevelopment of the BOV is an opportunity to create a new kind of theatre.  The strength of this opportunity is derived from the physical spaces, the location in a city with creative vigour, the ardour of those involved in the development and the loyalty of the artists and people close to the theatre.  The nature of this new theatre is one characterised by generosity, a spirit of adventure and a doggedness to see the challenge through.

We hope this plan inspires you to work with us.