Annual Report 2009/10
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Welcome A theatre company is more than the work it produces, it is also about the impact it has on those who share in it. The Nuffield’s work takes place not just on stage, in the street, in schools, but in the head and in the heart. It is characterised by variety, inventiveness, imagination and skill. And it is growing – both the programme and the audience for it – as this report admirably attests. How is this possible in a recession? Because we have creative and resourceful people working for us and with us, because we are adaptable and always determined to provide our community with the best we can offer, and because we are supported by enlightened and committed funders. We know we face a challenging time ahead as public funding reduces. We know we may have to be even more enterprising in our approach. Nevertheless, we remain dedicated to providing a diverse programme of quality theatre, on the Highfield campus, in the city centre and further afield. We are wholeheartedly behind Southampton City Council’s plans for a revitalised and expanded cultural quarter and we are committed to continuing to work in partnership with other arts organisations and artists. It is a pleasure to present this report which reflects the vitality at the heart of The Nuffield.
Stephen Boyce Chair, Board of Trustees
Highlights of 2009/10 Key role in the cultural development of Southampton
Acclaimed artistic and educational work
• Development of Southampton's New Arts Complex (SNAC) with Southampton City Council and the SNAC arts partners • Co-creation of Art at the Heart, the City Animation Project • Production of Midsummer Dreams, the first ZEPA/ Art at the Heart project attracting 7,000 people • Influential role in Southampton Heritage and Arts People (SHAPe), and development of the City’s Cultural Olympiad plans • Delivery of a Southampton Cultural Olympiad event, and two PUSH4Culture (Hampshire, Southampton, and Portsmouth’s Find Your Talent programme) projects
• Excellent critical acclaim: The Guardian’s Pick of the Week, 4 stars in The Times – The House of Bernada Alba, The Independent’s top 5 Christmas shows – Wind in the Willows, The Guardian 4 star review and Pick of the Week – The Winter’s Tale • Nuffield Writers Group 2009 ‘graduates’ early success including two with fringe productions, another as runner up for the BBC’s prestigious Alfred Bradley Award, a fourth developing a sitcom • Forces, Forces, Everywhere and Blood on the Library Floor – two ground breaking education projects delivered with the University of Southampton’s ISVR department and local schools • Apprenticeships for 3 theatre trainees under the InterACT scheme and one young director on the ITV Director scheme
National and international collaborations • Southampton’s artistic partner in ZEPA – a partnership of four French and five English outdoor arts companies • British Council funded artistic exchange project with Wan Smol Bag Theatre in Vanuatu, Massive Theatre in Auckland and Conch Theatre in Wellington NZ • Circus audience/programme development relationship with Crying Out Loud including involvement from Jeunes Talents Cirque Europe • Host organisation for Apples & Snakes South East office, and sold out launch event • Co-production of The Winter’s Tale with Headlong and Schtanhaus and collaboration with Platform 4 on Starlight Picture Palace • Collaboration with Hampshire Constabulary to produce Peeler, an educational production about honour based violence
More facts and figures for 2009/10 • Year end surplus of £29,850 • Total audience up by 4.7% and adult theatre audience up by 7.4% • Nuffield audience development project set up new links with 164 local groups • Arts Council commendation as one of the country’s most successful theatres for the delivery of the Free Theatre scheme • 325 professional performances at the theatre, 98 performances on tour, and 526 participation opportunities • 13 Nuffield Theatre productions, including 4 new plays • 68 visiting productions at The Nuffield Theatre
Patrick Sandford Artistic Director Kate Anderson Executive Director This Annual Report is sponsored by Carswell Gould. Supporting the arts since 1996. www.carswellgould.co.uk
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Strategic Developments 2009/10 was a challenging year for the arts. The recession affected income, and at year-end changes in government policy and funding levels were anticipated as the country awaited the elections. In Southampton, this position of uncertainty was further impacted by Southampton City Council’s major review of its grants and Arts Council’s awaited decision about its funding of the Southampton New Arts Complex (SNAC). For The Nuffield this unstable external environment has come at a time of significant strategic growth, requiring an intelligent, flexible and creative approach to ensure our ongoing healthy development.
Apples & Snakes
The cultural growth of the city and the cultural confidence of its people are vital to our long term artistic strategy and audience development plans, and therefore as we look forward, it is encouraging that despite the funding challenges Southampton City Council has remained determined in its vision to develop a cultural quarter with an arts complex at its heart. Throughout the year we worked closely with Southampton City Council and the SNAC arts partners (John Hansard Gallery, Art Asia and City Eye) on this project and significant achievements have been made in the areas of design, governance, vision, audience development and fundraising. Most crucially, Grosvenor was appointed as the preferred developer and Southampton City Council raised its financial commitment to ensure that the arts complex could be achieved. The Arts Council’s decision on funding is anticipated as this report goes to print.
The development of outdoor arts and audience development activities has become a significant part of our work this year. The Nuffield is working with the other SNAC arts partners as co-curators of Art at the Heart, an audience development and City Animation Project which launched in spring 2009. We are leading Southampton’s artistic work as part of ZEPA, an Interreg funded Anglo-French outdoor arts project. Our first ZEPA project, Midsummer Dreams, involving Transe Express and Walk the Plank took place on 27 June 2009 and attracted an estimated 7,000 people. We were also involved with other key projects in the city this year including the Cultural Olympiad and PUSH4Culture. The Nuffield was appointed as one of the theatres to deliver A Night Less Ordinary, the Free Theatre scheme for under 26 year olds. This project fitted well with our audience development strategy, and it has proved extremely successful with 2,728 members signed up to the scheme at The Nuffield.
We recruited for a new role of Audience Development Officer and developed an audience development strategy for the Free Theatre scheme, SNAC and The Nuffield’s core work. Through this work, we have made links with 164 local groups new to the Nuffield, including 74 groups supporting disabled people in the region and 36 youth service projects. We are also delighted to report that our total audience has increased by a further 4.7% this year. We refurbished our offices in the summer, to better accommodate our staff including the new Audience Development Officer, and Apples & Snakes South East office (see Collaborations and Visiting Companies below). We also invested in coaching, mentoring and training for our staff, and development opportunities for our Board. Finally, despite being a difficult year financially we are delighted to report that we managed to achieve a small surplus of £29k at year end.
“ Katherine Tozer is outstanding as the crippled Martirio, so eaten up by longing it is as if she is being consumed from the inside out. Best of all, though, is Ann Mitchell’s superb Bernarda Alba, who presides over her daughters like a malevolent mother superior” The House of Bernarda Alba
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The Guardian on The House of Bernarda Alba
Midsummer Dreams
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Nuffield Productions and Tours Our own productions continued to focus on new writing and emotionally rich classics and we produced a total of 13 new productions including 7 shows on the main stage (2 more than in recent years). Production highlights included The House of Bernada Alba with Ann Mitchell in the leading role (Guardian Pick of the Week, 4 stars in The Times), Wind in the Willows (one of the top 5 Christmas shows, The Independent), Peeler, a new play by Maggie Neville funded by Hampshire Constabulary (their first foray into using the arts to help in crime education), and our critically acclaimed co-production (with Headlong and Schtanhaus) of The Winter’s Tale which received a 4 star review and Pick of the Week in The Guardian, and which toured nationally. This was part of an ongoing collaboration with Headlong to give young gifted directors a chance to work on major classics. This project continues in 2011 with The Gate’s Natalie Abrahami directing A Midsummer Night’s Dream for us.
Peeler
All of our work aspires to excellence, our challenge is to develop audiences for the more demanding end of the spectrum and the delicate balance of excellence and accessibility is an ongoing and rigorous focus of our programme. This year, with the recession affecting the box office we programmed a number of more immediately popular titles such as Wind in the Willows, Alice in Wonderland and a new one-man thriller. This work helped support our more ‘challenging’ productions and was complemented by our significant audience development activities. We were delighted that again this year our audience numbers rose and our attendance for adult theatre increased by 7.4%.
“ Simon Slater’s storytelling is superb... Bloodshot combines outstanding acting and a gripping plot, resulting in one of the best plays I have ever watched” The Daily Echo on Bloodshot
“ Relentlessly gripping and intensely thought-provoking... an outstanding example of how theatre can make an important statement about a volatile issue, while simultaneously entertaining an audience” The Daily Echo on Peeler
Alice in Wonderland
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Bloodshot
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w w w. n u f f i e l d t h e a t r e . c o . u k The Wind in the Willows Betrayal
In response to the recession, we also adapted our touring strategy and undertook a trial short tour of a midscale children’s piece at Easter. Alice in Wonderland played at The Haymarket Theatre, Basingstoke and Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford. The production was well received and next year we plan to develop this model further. Our touring also took us abroad this year when we received British Council funding to take The Rime of the Ancient Mariner to Wan Smol Bag Theatre in Vanuatu, Massive Theatre in Auckland and Conch Theatre in Wellington, NZ. The Winters Tale
“ This is a really terrific touring production: uncluttered, good at storytelling, neatly designed with a nod to the 1930s, and full of nifty touches”
Rime of the Ancient Mariner
The Guardian on The Winter’s Tale
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Collaborations and Visiting Productions Artistic collaborations are increasingly important to our strategic development, and stimulating to our staff and audiences. We rigorously choose companies whose voices, production styles, and audience appeal are different from our own and we have long term relationships with a number of specialist companies such as Crying Out Loud and The Comedy Bar in order to develop our programme and audiences for key areas of work such as circus and comedy. We also have excellent co-production relationships with, for instance, Schtanhaus, Headlong and Forest Forge, as well as international artistic relationships. Our ZEPA partnership of four French and five English outdoor arts companies has been a rich area of development for our artistic, production and administrative teams this year.
Spymonkey’s Moby Dick
“ There is an eccentric playfulness to proceedings... the show may not be Grimm, but it is full of merry grotesquerie” The Guardian on Hansel and Gretel
“ Brilliant, slippery, deliciously sharp and witty” The Guardian on If That’s All There Is Circo de la Sombra
Art at the Heart, the City Animation Project (ACE funded) is curated by The Nuffield together with the other SNAC arts partners, and has provided more opportunities for the development of our artistic partnership and work with other Southampton artists. This year we also became the host organisation for Apples & Snakes’ South East office. Pete Hunter, a highly respected performance poet, was appointed as Apples & Snakes coordinator and the company’s South East base launched in October with a two day event at the theatre.
“ Must be the funniest show on any stage in Britain at the moment” Birmingham Post on Spymonkey’s Moby Dick
“ Sharp, witty and poignant... a beautiful pipe dream of a show” The Guardian on A Western
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Hansel and Gretel
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w w w. n u f f i e l d t h e a t r e . c o . u k Midsummer Dreams
What if...?
During the year, we presented 30 adult theatre companies whose work included new writing, physical, aerial, circus, site-specific and puppet work, as well as performance poetry and live art. We choose visiting companies carefully and include the best national and international work (including this year Circo de la Sombra, Kneehigh, Out of Joint and English Touring Theatre), together with smaller-scale and emerging companies/artists (including Stan’s Café, Shunt artist Layla Rosa, Claire Dowie, Look Left Look Right, Action Hero, Jon Haynes (Ridiculumus), Inspector Sands, You Need Me and Publick Transport, plus South East based Still Point Theatre, Other Place Productions and The Maydays). The Asian strand of our programme, presented with Art Asia, is an important ongoing part of this work and is in constant development. As well as Peeler, this year we programmed Tamasha’s Wuthering Heights, Hathi Productions’ Kahani Sapnon Ki and Out of Joint’s Mixed Up North. We now have a regular and highly successful programme of stand up comedy which attracts young people, adds to our income and extends our reach to non-theatre-going audiences. This year the comedy programme achieved 89% capacity. We also programmed 20 children’s productions playing on a Saturday morning.
“ Look Left Look Right’s The Caravan makes small beautiful... bursting with warmth, charm and honesty” Time Out on The Caravan
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“ We were absolutely gobsmacked – it was quite the most amazing spectacle. I felt very proud to be a resident of Southampton. It was lovely to see so many people, both young and old, enjoying themselves.” The Caravan
Audience member – Midsummer Dreams
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Artist Development, Education and Community Development and learning are at the heart of The Nuffield’s ethos and activities. The more visible aspect of this work includes The Nuffield’s acclaimed Writers Group, a two year course for professional writers. Eleven members completed the course in December 2009, and 13 new members, chosen from a field of 90 candidates started in January 2010. The outgoing group has already started to make its mark – two with fringe productions, another as runner up for the BBC’s prestigious Alfred Bradley Award and a fourth developing a sitcom.
In 2009/10 we also mentored two actors and a theatre director on the InterACT scheme and Jack McNamara, a new theatre director, completed his one year placement with us under the ITV Director scheme, directing his first main stage production of Betrayal by Harold Pinter.
Alice in Wonderland
We continued to produce a prolific education and community programme in 2009/10 including four educational touring shows, Nuffield youth theatre groups and Saturday drama groups, regular workshops and a number of significant educational and community projects. During the year there were some key changes to the department staffing. After 15 years our Youth and Community Director, Fran Morley, left in September and Tim Ford, our new Participation Director replaced her in March 2010. We also extended the hours of our Producer of Community and Education Projects, who now also produces the ZEPA outdoor work.
“ A wonderful cast of eight are superbly augmented by an abundance of talented youngsters and the mix is a joy to behold. Matthew Cullum is an exuberant and energetic toad and his antics delight the audience” The Stage on The Wind in the Willows
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Betrayal in rehearsal
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Key work in the year included two PUSH4Culture (Find Your Talent) projects. The first involved 30 young people from Thornhill Plus You and Hampshire Youth Options IMPACT and the second project was part of The Lost Hour which took place simultaneously in Southampton, Gosport and Portsmouth. We undertook two collaborations with the University of Southampton, Forces, Forces, Everywhere – an arts and science project involving teachers and students from Salisbury High School, and Blood on the Library Floor, part of National Science and Engineering Week. We also ran Hampshire Drama Conference, a day-long workshop for 30 Hampshire drama teachers, the Nuffield Teachers Focus Group, Website Challenge for local schools, regular schools workshops and INSET sessions. For a second year we were awarded a grant by Children and the Arts, to work with Vermont School for children with challenging behaviour, Bassett Green Primary School and Newlands Primary School in Millbrook (both serving areas of significant need/deprivation). Other work in the year included Medical Humanities, a project we have pioneered with the University of Southampton whereby a unit of drama work is incorporated in the first-year for medical students, and Starlight Picture Palace, a collaboration with Platform 4, to help them deliver a creative project with Southampton’s Alzheimer’s Society and The Connections Club.
Titus Andronicus
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The Lost Hour
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Nuffield Theatre Company Productions The House of Bernarda Alba by Federico García Lorca, directed by Patrick Sandford The Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare, directed by Simon Godwin – The Nuffield Theatre Company and Schtanhaus in association with Headlong The Rime of the Ancient Mariner adapted and directed by Russ Tunney Betrayal by Harold Pinter, directed by Jack McNamara Peeler by Maggie Nevill, directed by Patrick Sandford Coral written and directed by Russ Tunney Great Bleak Expectations written and directed by Russ Tunney The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame, directed by Patrick Sandford Bloodshot by Douglas Post, directed by Patrick Sandford Alice in Wonderland adapted from Lewis Carroll and directed by Russ Tunney
Nuffield Education Projects Nuffield Writers Group InterACT and ITV director’s scheme Nuffield Teachers Focus Group Forces, Forces, Everywhere – an arts and science project Website Challenge for local schools Blood on the Library Floor – project for National Science and Engineering week Regional centre for Artsplan Schools workshops and INSET sessions Hampshire Drama Conference Two PUSH4Culture projects One Creative campus project Four youth theatre and four drama groups Hampshire Youth Theatre Medical Humanities – University medical students project Starlight Picture Palace collaboration with Platform 4, Children and the Arts project Half-Term Workshops for 3-15 year olds Adult workshop programme
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Visiting Company Productions Circo de la Sombra | Produced by Crying Out Loud Hansel and Gretel | Kneehigh and Bristol Old Vic Home of the Wriggler | Stan’s Cafe Spymonkey’s Moby Dick | Spymonkey and The Royal & Dearngate, Northampton Mixed up North | Out of Joint and Octagon Theatre Bolton Paperweight | Top of the World Voodoo Vaudeville The Art of Catastrophe | Still Point Theatre Wuthering Heights | Tamasha and Coliseum Theatre in association with Lyric Hammersmith The Caravan | Look Left Look Right Dreams of Violence | Out of Joint and Soho Theatre We Can Be Heroes | Company F Z Viva Voce | Apples & Snakes How it Ended | You Need Me What If..? | Layla Rose presented by Crying Out Loud The Family | Rogue Theatre Kahani Sapnon Ki (Our Dream Story) | Hathi Productions Buy Little Buy Less | Claire Dowie The Hypochondriac | English Touring Theatre and Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse Daily Echo! The Musical! | The Maydays The Haunted Moustache | Other Place Productions 451 | Apples & Snakes Andersen’s English | Out of Joint and Hampstead Theatre The Department of Smelling Pistakes | Publick Transport If That’s All There Is | Inspector Sands A Western | Action Hero The Poof Downstairs | John Haynes In the Shadow of Picture Frames | Green Eyed Zero
23 Saturday Children’s productions 17 Stand-up Comedy performances
Artistic & Administration Artistic Director Executive Director Assistant to the Directors Theatre Administrator Script Executive Accountant
Patrick Sandford Kate Anderson Alison Thurley Samantha Potts John Burgess John Auger
Accounts Manager
Julia Jaggard
Marketing & Development Marketing Manager Gillian Allmark Development Officer Deborah Edgington Audience Development Officer Tracey Woolmer Marketing & Press Officer Tamsin Withers Marketing Assistant Katie Topp Box Office Manager Rhiannon Hewitt Box Office Staff Charlotte Aughey Vic Fabian Eileen Harding David Hurlock Patricia McCoy Lizzie Pollard Vanessa Taylor
Production Production Manager Technical Manager Company Manager Chief Electrician Theatre Technicians Technical Associate Wardrobe Mistress (Seasonal) Casual Technicians
Funded by
Graeme Whiteside Stuart Harrison Julie Bisco Greg Head David Fancett Rob Jones Joseph Kennion Chip Mead Aly Fielden Sam Baker Carl Chandler Mike Frost Lara Henry Andrew Jaggard James Mitchell Dan Moore Clayton Peters Ben Wilkinson Darren Willis
Touring & Projects Associate Director Participation Director Touring & Projects Administrator Producer – Community and Education
Russ Tunney Tim Ford Annie Reilly Sharon Lawless
Front Of House Front of House Manager Assistant Front of House Manager Catering Manager Front of House Staff Duty Firefighter Sign Language Interpreters Audio Describers
Claire Griffin Clare White Alex McPherson Charlotte Aughey Kate Aughey Julia Baker Toby Bakare Rebecca Ball Kathryn Booy Sarah Booy Peggy Churcher Glyn Eves Bethany Hickton Shaun Hobbs Alice Jaggard Chris Lawrence John MacFadyen Alex Matthews Sophie Napleton Emma Nias Anne-Marie Mendonca Harriet Oughton Judy Paddock Jess Pearce Luke Pollard Marilyn Ramsden Beth Ruddock Raksha Sharma Alex Smith Vanessa Taylor Imogen Tong Alex Snook Ann McAllister Tony Oliver Lesley Kirby Ken Spencer
Nuffield Theatre Trust Board Hemi Bhatt Stephen Boyce (Chair) Richard Cutler Alex Darbyshire Cllr Edward Daunt (SCC) Fiona Dorman-Jackson Jo Doyle (University of Southampton) Cllr Peter Edgar (HCC) Christopher Gordon Lynne Lockyer (Vice Chair) Cllr Jeremy Moulton (SCC) Jenny Palmer Pam Robertson (Vice Chair)
The Nuffield Theatre gratefully acknowledges the support received from: ADAPT Ernest Cook Trust Ford Britain Trust Garfield Weston Foundation John Lewis Partnership Prince’s Foundation for Children and the Arts Ronald Duncan Literary Foundation The D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust The Foundation for Sports and the Arts
All photographs for The House of Bernarda Alba, The Wind in The Willows, Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Alice in Wonderland, Peeler, Great Bleak Expectations, Betrayal and Bloodshot by Mike Eddowes (www.theatre-photography.co.uk). Midsummer Dreams by Laura Hensser; The Winter’s Tale by Sheila Burnett; Hansel and Gretel by Steve Tanner; Circo de la Sombra by Richard Haughton; Spymonkey’s Moby Dick by Corn Van Der Stelt; The Hypochondriac by Robert Day; What If... by Ludos des Cognets; Missing Since Monday by Stuart Allen; Soundscape Workshop by Fang Gleizes; Titus Andronicus by Ian Morley; The Lost Hour by Ricky Tart.
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Š Nuffield Theatre Annual Report produced by www.carswellgould.co.uk July 2010 1,000
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