Small Spaces
The fact that there has been complaint from existing Edinburgh theatres about the proposal to make the Assembly Rooms a year-round venue for professional productions (see our news story) has excited quite a debate in Scottish (and particularly Edinburgh) theatre circles. The general consensus seems to be one which has resonances throughout the UK, that what is needed is not another large- or even mid-scale receiving house but small spaces (such as the Garage Theatre which the city council closed down) which can be used by emerging companies to experiment with new writing or new approaches.
Glasgow, we are told, has such places, and of course there are a lot in London too, but Edinburgh is not alone in lacking them. Indeed there are very few suitable spaces throughout the UK and those which do exist often struggle daily to survive and depend upon the hard work, commitment and often money of dedicated individuals and groups. Funding - either from under-pressure Arts Council or local authority sources - is hard to come by.
Yet a healthy theatre scene needs a firm foundation of experiment and innovation and much of this comes from small companies which are pushing the boundaries, whose work will not fill even 200-seater venues, who have to take the risk of using often totally unsuitable non-theatre spaces
Clearly funding such spaces is not attractive to big companies - they want maximum advertising exposure for their money - and funding organisations and local authorities have lots of demands on what they have available, so what chance does small-scale theatre have?
Not a lot, actually, unless the companies do it themselves. Here’s a suggestion: a group of companies get together and, together, approach a central pub which has a spare room of the right size. They pool their resources and approach the pub’s management to ask them to make the room available free of charge, pointing out that this will attract new customers into the pub who will spend money on drink, in just the same way as a lot of pubs offer their “function room” free. They approach the local Arts Council office to fund (or part-fund, if they have some cash or can get small-scale funding from local - possibly even in the same street - businesses) a basic conversion - some blacks and a simple sound and lighting system - and they then collaborate to programme the space. Perhaps the companies may need to pay a percentage of their box office take for the mainenance of the equipment/ insurance and so on.
Worth thinking about? I’d be interested to hear from anyone who’s tried this, who can point out the pitfalls and would be willing to share their experiences.