A year ago Upstairs at The Western
had a change of management. The old guard of Off The Fence moved on to other
things and David Bell and his team stepped in to take over running the venue. I
met up with David to see how he thought the first 12 months had gone and what
his plans going forward are.
Paul Towers: So, how’s your first year been? To
start off artistically, how difficult has it been for you? Obviously there was
a gap before you actually took over in which the previous owners would have
David Bell: Yeah, so when we got told that
we’ve taken over the theater in January of 2017, we were told after the end of
October 2016, so we had two months basically to get ready for the spring 2017
season. Because Off The Fence knew they were leaving they hadn’t booked
anything. So, we had a manic run around to try find touring companies at the
last minute. Thankfully we inherited people like Jess Green for Find The Right
Words,
But I think in our first season,
the six months, January to June 17, I think we managed to get about 25 shows
and by and large they weren’t too bad. I think artistically there were a couple
in there that probably weren’t as good as we’d hoped they were going to be but
on the whole we managed to attract quality shows from the off.
PT: I am someone who is
here on a very regular basis and I thought you did amazingly well. I know that
first season was quite heavy on spoken words and poetry. I guess that was
because it was easy to book in at short notice.
DB: To get the high ranking
jobs and stuff like Gratiano and The Unknown Soldier we had to pay really high
guarantees which we didn’t meet. So that cost us money. I think our first
season was a bit of a scramble, we didn’t really get to the printers with a
good brochure because we didn’t have time. So we just had to get a pamphlet. It
was just really getting used to running the business and all the behind the
scene stuff, but I think, yeah, it’s got a lot easier. Autumn ‘17 has been a
lot easier.
PT: The lineup of stuff
that you’ve had this autumn, I think it’s been phenomenal. A very broad range.
I don’t know whether it’s a deliberate thing, trying to cater for everybody or
is it a question of working out what brings the punters in?
DB: No, I think the
difference is, I mean, Off The Fence were a larger drama-based company and they
are also a producing company that used to produce their own shows and toured
with them. But our bid was all about turning Upstairs at The Western into a
multi-genre arts venue for the West End of Leicester. So it’s a case of
widening the genres, branching out more into music, comedy, a bit more poetry,
film, those kind of things, but also increasing the volume. So the previous
owners did about 50 shows a year and our business plan aims for about 150 shows
a year. Because we are closed in July and August, that’s about 15 a month or 3
a week.
In the autumn 2017 season I think
we hit about 50 shows. Some of those are workshops, comedy workshops, but
around 40 to 50 shows over 4 months, that’s about 10 a month. Next season,
January to June ‘18, we are looking at about 100 shows.
PT: Wow!
DB: So we’re widening the
type of shows we’re doing. The type of thing we’ve gotten here is a lot broader
than it has been before, but we are expanding it in what can be a crowded marketplaces.
There is loads of comedy coming in. We’re coming back big time in the Leicester
Comedy Festival next year.
It’s all part of our expansion and
we have just got to go through the growing pains to kind of get there really.
The change in the nature of the place is deliberate to make it multi-genre art,
that sort of thing.
PT: Yeah, and I guess the
fact that you don’t have to consider putting your own productions on makes it a
little bit easier because it frees up a lot of time.
DB: It does, yeah. The
closest we are coming to that is in the second part of our bid was about
helping in the development of new artists and new companies. So somebody comes
to us and says, I’ve got a play and I want to put it on the stage. We will help
them as much as we can to develop and stage it. So we’ve got a writer who is
putting a play on in February 2018. She’s got a script which she wrote herself
and she’s doing all the auditions here.
We had a guy who wrote in and said I want to direct a play so we introduced the
two to each other and they are getting on like a house on fire and they are now
co-producing the show.
We will put it out for £5, we will
label it as a work in progress. We had a really young company last year who did
Voices of Reason.
PT: Oh yes, I liked that.
DB: And yeah, what they
lacked in kind of artistic expertise, they really made for it in terms of
energy.
PT: And enthusiasm.
DB: And enthusiasm and that
just needs channelling over the years.
PT: I said in my review for
that that the script needed a little bit of trimming, cutting the end off, but
there was lots of very good elements within it that work very well. They just
need a script editor, I think. But they make good use of the off-stage space.
DB: Yes, they did. It’s
what we would call a safe space. There’s a big difference between doing
something in your bedroom and getting on to a big stage which is really
intimidating and Upstairs at The Western is like a stepping stone between the
two, so it’s a nice safe space.
David and his team obviously have
huge ambitions for Upstairs at The Western with a great number of shows booked in for the Leicester
Comedy Festival (http://comedy-festival.co.uk/events/).
Full details of all future shows at this vibrant venue can be found at http://www.upstairsatthewestern.com/
Among the many innovations watch
out for the monthly Silent Film Nights when old b/w silent movies are shown.
The first is Nosferatu this Thursday 4th January. Another great novelty is the monthly
Choir Night, the first on Wednesday 24th January. Full details of
these and all shows are on the Upstairs at The Western website.
First published in Western Gazette
First published in Western Gazette
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