What Theatre Producers do when they can’t do Theatre…

On 12th October 2020, at the end of a very long 7 months post theatres closing, Imagine Theatre were fortunate to hear that we had been awarded a lifeline grant from the Culture Recovery Fund. This supported us from 1st November 2020 to 31st March 2021.

 We were then fortunate to be awarded a second lifeline grant which supported us from 1st April to 30th June 2021.

 These two grants have been an absolute lifeline for us. To put it into perspective, our turnover plummeted overnight, dropping over 95%, with our staff (except Steve, Sarah and Laura) spending almost 8 months on furlough. The grant meant that, although we did have to sadly lose some staff, our core team could return back to work on 2nd November and we were able to undertake lots of ‘behind the scenes’ organising and sorting, ready for restarting.

 The funding provided by those two lifeline grants comes to an end today and so we wanted to look back at what we’ve done during COVID, with grateful thanks to DCMS, the Arts Council and Warwick District Council.

 Although one of our main focuses has been on scenario planning the roll out of our 2021 Christmas season, there’s so much more that we managed to fit in. So, here is our A-Z of what we did when our theatres were closed…

 Artwork – with head space and time to think, we redesigned all our marketing assets (including design and a new website). And we love them. Thanks to Harry Neal Creative and Char.

Barcoding – a project we’ve wanted to do for a long time is to photograph and catalogue absolutely everything in our warehouse (approx. 40,000 items!) and upload it all onto our data management software, “Current” and we’ve almost done it – literally the last few wardrobe items are being finished off as you read this! It’s been utterly epic and a massive team effort from the Ops team of Dave, Cal, Dawn and Roz with support from Karen, Esther, Aaron and Arran.

Christmas off – it was our first one in years and years (more than 30 years for Steve, 20+ years for Sarah and Laura and 15+ years for Louise and Dave), and we don’t want another one…

Data management – setting up new software systems to support our hires business (see Barcoding!)

EDI project – We’ve had time to really hone down on our Equity, Diversity and Inclusion project. More information about what we’ve done, and “Imagine Cares” will be out soon.

Furlough – many of the team got to enjoy the wonderful 2020 sunshine with an unplanned summer off. Let’s hope we get more of the same in 2021. (More sunshine not furlough!!!)

Grants – Thank you to the Arts Council, DCMS, CRF and Warwick District Council. You’ve kept us going when we weren’t able to earn any money, when the theatres were all dark.

Hiring – Who would have thought we’d have had an entire year with no scenic and costume hires…. Well, apart from the phone call asking us for almost 400 costumes. When do you need them? In 7 days, you say? No problem…… cue the entire team moving into the wardrobe department.

Insurance – or lack of! One of the biggest challenges to reopening will be the need for some form of government backed cancellation insurance. Fingers crossed!

Justin Live – our Autumn 2020 / Spring 2021 tour starring CBeebies superstar Justin Fletcher was postponed. We’re optimistic for a smooth roll out now in Autumn 2021/ Spring 2022.

Knowledge – We’d always wanted time to write an in-depth history of panto article, to provide a detailed resource of where people could learn more about where panto came from. Katie has duly obliged with something quite fabulous which we release next week.

Lighting the building in red – Lighting theatres in red became a symbol of the crisis that our industry has faced. So, solidarity with the rest of the industry, we lit our building in red from 2nd November 2020 to 9th January 2021, marking the period of what would have been our 2020 pantomime season.

 Marketing Network – we have formed a network of the marketing departments of the venues we produce panto in. It’s a chance to share knowledge and to support each other. We cannot wait for the next meeting.

New Offices - OK, well not really ‘new’, more redecorated (but we’d already got something for R!!)

Online Pantomime – 2020 was the year panto moved online, and we worked alongside the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry on their online production of Jack and the Beanstalk.

Podcast – we launched our podcast “Just Imagine”. Thanks to the amazing Martin Ballard, and all our guests so far… and there is more to follow.

QR codes – This has definitely been the revival of the QR code, with sooooo many check ins on the NHS app! (This could also be “Quite a few viewings of children and pets on video calls”!)

Remote working – and the fun of setting up everyone working from home.

Santa streaming – Santa moved ‘online’ too, and our production of Santa’s Christmas Rescue which should have toured across the UK was beamed around the world into people’s homes instead.

TV interviews – many different channels and programmes came in to visit during 2020, especially after our blog detailing why we were having to postpone our 2020 pantomime season.

Undoing our 2020 plans – the unthinkable became reality when we had to postpone the entire of our 2020 pantomime and Christmas season.

Virtual learning – With a little more time on our hands, we have been able to attend a number of webinars to build and support our learning.

Workshop – One of our goals came true when we launched Mi Workshops along with Matthew Jacques. We can’t wait to see what we get to build next. There’s some really exciting projects in the pipeline.

Xmas tree replaced – The last one had been with us for quite a while! It was like saying goodbye to an old friend.

Youth group rehearsed in our car park - Coventry’s own Youth Operetta Group, YOG, rehearsed their showcase on our carpark – socially distanced following all the rules and regulations of course

Zoom meetings – Who’d heard of zoom before Corona hit? Now it’s one of life’s essentials! There’s been copious amounts of saying ‘you’re on mute’ – that along with ‘Sorry if you can hear my washing machine’ ‘excuse the cat on my desk’ and ‘bear with me, that’s my front door with a delivery.’

It’s been quite a different 16 months, full of highs and lows. We still can’t believe we lost the entire of our 2020 Christmas and pantomime season, But the shows WILL go on again, and we will be back in theatres really soon. Oh yes we will!

And thank you again to Arts Council England, DCMS and Warwick District Council. You literally have been life (or company) savers.

Best wishes

Sarah and Steve