Imagine Theatre Ltd receives lifeline grant from Government’s £1.57bn Culture Recovery Fund

Imagine Theatre Ltd has been awarded £245,000 as part of the Government’s £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund (CRF) to help face the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic and to ensure they have a sustainable future, the Culture Secretary has announced today.

Imagine Theatre Ltd is one of 1,385 cultural and creative organisations across the country receiving urgently needed support. £257 million of investment has been announced today as part of the very first round of the Culture Recovery Fund grants programme being administered by Arts Council England. Further rounds of funding in the cultural and heritage sector are due to be announced over the coming weeks.

Coventry based, Imagine Theatre is one of the leading pantomime production companies in the UK, delivering 15 festive productions every year and providing employment for around 400+ actors, creatives, technicians and freelancers. Pantomime is the backbone of the theatre industry bringing income of over £90m each year with over 3m attendees. Although this funding does not make it possible for their 2020/21 pantomime season to be delivered as usual, it does provide a lifeline for Imagine Theatre to retain its head office staff and premises, employ freelancers and to continue preparation for the planned tours for later in 2021. Most critically, it keeps the company afloat to sustain its place in the ecosystem of the theatre world so it can restart and ensure that next year’s pantomime season is possible.

Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said:

“This funding is a vital boost for the theatres, music venues, museums and cultural organisations that form the soul of our nation. It will protect these special places, save jobs and help the culture sector’s recovery. 

“These places and projects are cultural beacons the length and breadth of the country. This unprecedented investment in the arts is proof this government is here for culture, with further support to come in the days and weeks ahead so that the culture sector can bounce back strongly.”

Chair, Arts Council England, Sir Nicholas Serota, said:

“Theatres, museums, galleries, dance companies and music venues bring joy to people and life to our cities, towns and villages. This life-changing funding will save thousands of cultural spaces loved by local communities and international audiences. Further funding is still to be announced and we are working hard to support our sector during these challenging times.”

Sarah Boden, joint owner and Business Director of Imagine theatre said:

“The foundation of this grant is to enable us to keep our workforce together at our head office in Coventry.  These pantomime specialists are critical to the success of our organisation and we are able to provide on-going employment amongst our head office team.  In addition, we are able to provide much needed work to freelancers based in the region as we move into spring 2021.”

Steve Boden, joint owner and Managing Director added:

“We are incredibly relieved to receive news that our bid to the Cultural Recovery Fund has been successful.  We are now able to continue our mission to create some of the best pantomimes and children’s shows in the UK for 2021 and provide much needed employment across the region. Additionally, we can continue to create opportunities for young people to perform and watch live theatre and bring much needed income to the venues we work with.”

ENDS

ACE Boilerplate for notes to editors:

Arts Council England is the national development agency for creativity and culture. We have set out our strategic vision in Let’s Create that by 2030 we want England to be a country in which the creativity of each of us is valued and given the chance to flourish and where everyone of us has access to a remarkable range of high quality cultural experiences. We invest public money from Government and The National Lottery to help support the sector and to deliver this vision. www.artscouncil.org.uk

Following the Covid-19 crisis, the Arts Council developed a £160 million Emergency Response Package, with nearly 90% coming from the National Lottery, for organisations and individuals needing support. We are also one of several bodies administering the Government’s Culture Recovery Fund and unprecedented support package of £1.57 for the culture and heritage sector. Find out more at www.artscouncil.org.uk/covid19

Why postponement of some - but not all - of our 2020 panto season is our only option

Imagine Theatre has started to postpone some of its 2020 pantomime season by a year. Many of the shows which were planned for 2020 will now happen in 2021.

We completely understand the importance of pantomime to families, theatres and the local communities as well as the cast and crew members that we employ every year. It is a uniquely British collaboration. Panto is at the very heart of our community at Christmas time, with families all over the UK coming together to make memories that last a lifetime.

We know that the finances from panto are the lifeblood of many UK Theatres, from ticket monies to bar spend and merchandise, it is the single biggest production that many venues stage each year, often seeing more than 1/3 of their annual footfall over a 4 week period.  That’s why, alongside making these big decisions, we wanted to reassure everyone that where we are making these announcements, we are not cancelling completely but are POSTPONING the shows until 2021. In addition, we are also looking at whether there are any alternative options open to us. We will keep you posted as these thoughts develop and progress.

We’re sure many of you will be asking “surely it’s too soon to make a decision like this?” and “it’s only July, why are decisions being made so early?” so we thought we’d write another blog to explain why this is rapidly becoming the only course of action available to us in some venues, and the thoughts and reasoning behind it. We appreciate and understand that some of you will agree and some of you will disagree, but what we do want to explain is that these decisions took weeks and weeks to come to and were very carefully thought through from so many different angles and in full discussion and agreement with every single affected venue. Postponing a pantomime production is not a decision to be taken lightly, and we’re utterly heartbroken.

·         Surely it doesn’t take that long to prep for panto? Well, quite simply it does. Pantomime is on a constant 18-month cycle. Decisions about pantos 16 months away are taken in the August/ September of the previous year. What title? What dates? What ticket prices? What style of artwork? What profile of celebrities and performers do we need to approach? Etc This work is then completed ready for a show to go on sale as the previous year’s production opens.

The work on any particular pantomime really starts to ramp up from February of the year of the production and by the end of March, we’re firmly into the swing of pre-production meetings, casting, scripting, costumes, musical choices, marketing etc. But this year, that ground to a halt in mid-March and hasn’t been picked back up again. We’ve lost 4 months of the key preparation period and in line with all the majority of other producers and venues, have our entire team on Furlough.

·         No matter what we thought of, we found a barrier –  We drew up an enormous list of barriers and problems to try and solve, but no matter what we did, every single one of them, even with a solution in place, led to another barrier or potential problem. We touched upon many of them in our previous blog, but even the simplest of questions like ‘how do we keep actors and crew members socially distanced to the current government guidelines in the limited wing spaces theatres have whilst still fitting in all the scenery, props and special effects’ was a show stopper, without all of the same questions about social distancing in dressing rooms, in the auditoriums etc

·         The government has issued their roadmap but it has no timelines within it – As of July 2020, we have a roadmap of how we might return to theatres reopening and to full auditoriums, but there are no dates associated with these. We might start to prep for a full panto season, but then find that a theatre that we were due to perform in is unable to reopen for a number of reasons, or indeed the whole industry remains closed into 2021. We need guidance on timescales and rules to help us understand how the roadmap might be rolled out. There is a plan but we don’t know when it will be possible to go back into a theatre.

·         Social Distancing just doesn’t work for theatre - current guidelines state that social distancing will remain in place in auditoriums under phase 4. This means that capacity is currently believed to be cut to between around 30% to 40% of usual. Pantomime relies on playing to 80%+ capacities, 2 shows per day, 12 shows per week, to make it financially viable. With social distancing, that’s just not possible.

Plus, to make a venue Covid-19 compliant, it is looking like additional Front of House staffing will be needed for cleaning, temperature checking and so on – we’ve even heard one venue talk of the cost of their FOH staff and cleaners going up three fold. This actually makes the show more expensive for a venue to stage, but with less income coming in from box office. So quite simply, it becomes financially unviable for both the producer and the venue.

But most critically of all, we need to put the health and welfare of our casts, crew and audience members first – and if there were to be a breakout of Covid-19 in a theatre and it were to become a ‘hot spot’ then this could potentially be hugely damaging to the health of any individuals concerned. That is not a risk we’re prepared to take.

·         There is a financial rescue package that has been announced – but it doesn’t solve the problems that the virus presents, it simply provides what we hope will be enough money to help the industry survive. We don’t yet know how that package will be distributed and when.

·         “Panto Flu” does the rounds most years– with 2 shows a day, 12 shows per week there is an inevitability within the panto world that at some point within the run, someone in the cast will get ‘panto-flu’ and this can often spread to some other members of the company. Whilst we do our best to minimise this and all health and safety precautions are taken to minimise spread, usually the company keeps performing and battles through. We’ve known of star names with emergency dentists in their dressing rooms, isolation rooms for cast members who are not well, and swathes of juvenile ensemble not coming in because there is a sickness bug going round their school and we need to keep it out of the building, but up until now the show has always been able to go on.

But not this year. The moment anyone shows any sign of illness, we would have to send them home – and potentially the whole team working on the show. Once we lose 2 or 3 of the main cast or crew, the shows become unviable to run as there is only limited understudy provision possible on many productions. We’d be into a scenario of full ‘show stop’ for up to 2 weeks if someone were diagnosed with Covid-19, and no chance to recoup any investment and with the inevitable financial impact on the theatres themselves.

·         We can’t easily social distance backstage – ever been backstage in your local (or any) theatre? If so, you’ll know that the space is very limited.  At the best of times, its usually cramped and crowded. With social distancing, it’s impossible.

There is talk of casts going into ‘social bubbles’ but as well as all the logistical challenges this throws up, this could also mean everyone working on the production having to stay away from their families at Christmas.

·         Would the audiences come? - A company called Indigo is currently undertaking surveys of audiences to find out how willing they are to return. Numbers are currently indicating that 2021 seems to be the time when people would be confident to return. Plus, current guidance indicates that school trips may not be possible until 2021 and school groups make up a large percentage of our pantomime audience.

·         Can we get the insurances we need? – Part of the work behind the scenes is on making sure that the all right insurances are in place at the right times. This year, some of the usual insurances we take out are not available to us. This makes the financial risk even greater than usual. If we have to stop the show for any reason or there is a local lockdown, the losses we would incur are enormous with no way of recoupment.

·         We just can’t make the finances stack up – Pantomime works the same way as any production. There is a set of pre-production costs and a set of running costs. For a West End production, there is usually a relatively long period of time to recoup the pre-production costs alongside the running costs. For Pantomime, we have a fixed short amount of time for recoupment, a maximum of 6 weeks. And there is a real danger that we may lose some of that time to the show being closed due to illness should one of the cast test positive for covid-19 and we have to close for deep cleaning or other cast and crew go into quarantine.

Like many businesses, producing theatre is always a risk – but usually it’s a calculated risk and one which has consistent patterns year on year. This year is so different. We just won’ t be able to calculate the risk, either health wise or financially, and that’s not a risk we can take in the current circumstances – and we can only work with the information we currently have to hand on the day we have to make any decision.

So, the safest option for us seems to be to postpone some of our shows for a year and suffer short term loss to ensure our long-term future.

·         The producers have been talking to each other – These are not a decisions we have taken on our own. The pantomime producer’s community has really come together over this, with regular calls and chats with each other. We have all supported each other and worked together to collectively understand what all of this means for all of us and we find ourselves all facing the same problems and dilemmas regardless of scale of the production or venue.

·         There’s hardly any product to programme for the Autumn of 2020 and into early 2021 – for some venues it’s actually going to be easier for them to keep their venue mothballed until the spring of 2021, as there aren’t many shows for them to open for until then. Bigger tours take months to rehearse, and even smaller productions are reluctant to tour when there is no guarantee of an audience. Its more cost effective and safer for theatres to stay closed until the product is there for them to open with.

And we haven’t even mentioned the possibility that there could well be a second spike come the Autumn/ Winter of 2020 which may see us return to some of the lock down restrictions should there be the need, or the localised lockdowns which have started to take place…

The loss of some of our 2020 pantomime season will have an enormous effect on so many people and venues. We are truly sorry that decisions like this have had to be taken – but please rest assured that a huge amount of work has been and is still going on behind the scenes. What was, at the start of all of this, our worst-case scenario of not producing panto has now become the safest and best-case scenario in many places.

We believe that this solution is a short-term pain for a long-term gain. The truth is if all the pantomime producers take enormous risks this year and all go under at the same time, that could potentially be more catastrophic to the theatre and pantomime industry than one Christmas of us not producing some of the shows. It is safer for us to batten down the hatches this Christmas and produce again in 2021 – and pray the support we need is forthcoming.

We are sending all our love and best wishes to everyone who is involved in, performs, loves, creates and/ or watches panto. This year, more than ever, we are one big pantomime family and we will weather this storm and pantomime will come back bigger and stronger than ever in 2021, oh yes it will!

And we hope there will be an alternative offering coming - watch this space…

Take care everyone and stay safe and well.

Sending our best wishes to you all,

Steve and Sarah x

What is it like being a pantomime producer during the Covid 19 pandemic?

These are strange times. Usually by mid-May the Imagine Theatre Head Office team would be flat out with casting, scripting, preparing sets , wardrobe, props and marketing campaigns would be in full swing. With the planning for 16 shows all happening at the same time to manage, our days would usually be full to over flowing at this time of year with emails constantly pinging in, and the phone ringing constantly.

But this year it’s completely different.

Those usually busy phone lines have been transferred to Steve and Sarah’s home, and they are quiet. Many of our staff are currently on furlough and our inboxes are busy dealing with a multitude of emails never even considered in normal times. COVID-19 has turned a usually hustling and bustling company into a rather quiet one at the moment.

Our days are spent considering budgets and their impacts and meaning, speaking with theatres, listening to webinars from UK Theatre or such organisations, thinking a lot and listening to the government’s daily briefing, trying to understand what this means for our industry as a whole, as well as for pantomime come Christmas 2020. What we do know is that personal health, well being and welfare is paramount in this situation – for our staff, the theatre staff and for any potential audience members.

And the honest answer is that right now we just don’t know what this all means. There are more questions than there are answers. How can social distancing work in a theatre – for the audience? Front of house? Back stage? Do actors have to be 2 meters apart on stage? Can a wardrobe manager help with a quick change? What is the capacity of a socially distanced auditorium (word on the street is approx. 20% of usual capacity – slightly more in some venues, slightly less in others)? Will the finances stack up if we have to limit audience numbers but our production overheads remain almost the same? What happens if a cast or crew member becomes ill with Covid-19 during the rehearsal or performance process – does the rest of the cast have to isolate and are we in a ‘show stop’ scenario? How do we ensure that actors are 2m apart backstage if the dressing room area is limited? How do we manage social distancing backstage and side of stage where space is notoriously limited? The list goes on and is utterly endless.

However, the most important question of all is, if theatres do re-open, how confident will our audiences be to return before social distancing ends, or a vaccine is found? That’s the million dollar question.

With every person and organisation we talk to, there is a sense of the unknown. However, what we do know is that there is a huge amount of work going on behind the scenes and so we give a big shout out to the many organisations championing our cause including Equity, UK Theatres, SOLT, The Federation of Scottish Theatre, The Arts Council and absolutely everyone involved in trying to build a structured and co-ordinated approach to the situation from the theatre industry’s perspective. Thank you for all you are doing to help present our collective case to the Government and for working with us to try and understand the impact that all of this will have on us in the immediate, short and long terms.

So, while there are so many questions at present, what we do know is that it won’t be long until the right answers naturally presents themselves and whatever they are, we as an industry will be ready to pick up the panto baton again.

Stay safe and well everyone – because we really do mean it.

Sending you all our very best wishes

Steve and Sarah x

Casting – Everything you need to know

This blog is relevant to adults who are looking to apply for one of our principal performance roles whilst our main casting window is open. For ensemble roles, the same process applies, but please be aware that even though you will apply during the same window, we normally cast our ensemble once our main principal line up is in place due to the need for ensemble to pick up understudy tracks.
 
For children’s casting please click here and for production/creative teams and crew, please click here
 
Imagine Theatre welcomes applications from everyone and all applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, or disability status.. Indeed, we are very lucky to receive thousands of applications each year from performers, creatives, stage management etc who want to work for us and it is therefore essential that we have a fair process which allows us to give every CV or spotlight link we receive the time and consideration it deserves.
 
The request on our website of HOW and WHEN to apply to us is part of that process, and we’d really appreciate it if you would help us to help you. 
 
We understand that applying for roles can be laborious and that you may want to try make your application stand out by doing something a little different. However, rather than sending us a message over social media or phoning in, please apply via the method stated on the website. Applying to us via a method that’s not listed on the casting page on our website, or applying outside the window of when we have casting open may affect the outcome of your submission. Your application may not get considered and we don’t want that to happen to anyone.
 
We are extremely active on our social media channels, therefore appreciate that we may appear old fashioned by not accepting applications via social media. Facebook and Instagram are not user friendly in allowing us to move messages about employment into any other format. We can’t move them into our casting database, and as a result they may not be processed and could get overlooked. In addition, these platforms don’t make it easy for us to download photos or CV’s. Our company ethos is to give everyone a fair chance and fair consideration and by sticking to the method stated at the end of this article we can ensure that this happens, we know we’ve not missed anyone who wants to be considered, and you know your application has been treated as you would like and expect it to be.
 
We wish we could audition everyone who applies to us, but with the sheer volume of applications it’s not feasible for that to happen. Therefore, as stated on our website, we only contact those we want to audition. We aim to post the dates of the principal auditions on our website and if you’ve not heard from us by the audition date, then you’ve not been selected for an audition with us. 
 
It’s also worth bearing in mind that, although you may not hear from us in a particular year, that doesn’t mean we aren’t interested in receiving your CV again in subsequent years. Some years the balance of roles means that we might be looking for more Dames and comics, or another year we might need more principal girls and father roles. It all depends upon the mix of titles we’re producing and what casting may already be in place. A breakdown of the roles that we are casting for will be posted on our website and spotlight ahead of the audition calls going out. If there isn’t anything that fits your casting bracket this season, please keep applying in following years. Never say never! You never know what a casting team saw in you or your initial application and what they might want later down the line. 
 
What we will do is make a commitment that if you have an audition with us, we will let you or your agent know the outcome, however this may not be straight away. Due to the fact we are usually casting for multiple productions all over the country, casting is a huge jigsaw puzzle that sometimes requires 3 or 4 key people to fall into place before we can cast the rest. If they don’t accept straight away and we’re left waiting for a little while, this can have an impact on the rest of the casting. It might be waiting for a ‘name’ to confirm, resident dames/comics or just that someone is waiting to hear if something such as a touring contract is going to happen for them. We promise we try to do things as fast as we can, but as you can now appreciate, it’s not that simple. 
 
Thanks for taking the time to read this, and we look forward to hearing from you.
 
The email to apply for both Principal and Ensemble Understudy roles to is casting@imaginetheatre.co.uk – this inbox is manned during the time that we say casting is open on our website. This date will also be announced on social media, so please keep an eye out on our channels for opening and closing dates. It may feel like you’ve not heard back from us, but so long as you apply at the right time and get our email bounce back reply then your application will be being considered by us. Please DO NOT apply to individual emails within the company, we only accept applications sent to the casting email as stated above.