Back in Black: RSC Hits £1.7m Surplus in 2004/5Date: 24 November 2005
In its Annual Report, released today (24 November 2005) at its Annual General Meeting in Stratford-upon-Avon, the Royal Shakespeare Company has reported an operating surplus for the second consecutive year under artistic director Michael Boyd. The better-than-expected operating surplus of £1.7 million for the 2004/5 financial year, ended on 31 March 2005, on top of last year’s surplus of £2.4 million (See News, 12 Nov 2004), has enabled the company to completely eliminate the deficit of £2.8 million accumulated under Boyd’s predecessor Adrian Noble and also to set aside £3.6 million to cover the added costs of the year-long Complete Works Festival which launches in April 2006 (See News, 11 Jul 2005).
Programming-wise, the year comprised 13 new main-stage productions as well as the RSC’s first New Work Festival with ten premieres, presenting 1,197 performances for a total 623,801 theatregoers. The year also covered the first West End residencies – with the Tragedies at the Albery Theatre and the Spanish Golden Age season at the Playhouse – under the RSC’s own flag (rather than being presented by external commercial producers) since Noble’s controversial, and costly, decision to withdraw the company from the Barbican Centre. Boyd’s search for a permanent London home continues, while an interim agreement with impresario Cameron Mackintosh will see its seasons at various West End playhouses over the next five years, starting next month at the refurbished Novello Theatre (formerly the Strand) with the transfer of this year’s Comedies (See News, 7 Jun 2005).
During the past year, the RSC has also finalised plans – and begun preparations – for the £100 million transformation of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre at its home base of Stratford-upon-Avon (See News, 16 Dec 2004). The redevelopment of the RST into a more intimate thrust-stage auditorium, which is due to be completed in 2009, overturns another controversial Noble plan to demolish the Grade II-listed building in favour of a modern complex.
In the Annual Report, RSC chairman Sir Christopher Bland described the year as one of “growing confidence and considerable achievement” thanks largely to “sustained and improved financial control”. The past two years of savings and cost reductions have provided a boon for production investments. Of the 2004/5 operating expenditure, 60% (£18.3 million) was spent directly on production-related activity, including longer rehearsal periods and more in-depth artist development programmes.
All of which, according to Boyd, is crucial for fulfilling one of the RSC’s key raisons d’etre: the ensemble. “We have the critical mass, the resources and the skilled practitioners to make ensemble work,” Boyd stated in his foreword to the report. “In the K, it is what marks us out form other regional and national companies…. There was a time when the fear of being old-fashioned and a desire to be nimble led to short contracts, shorter plays, stars who were looking for short runs and under-investment in our actors. We are more confident now.” He added: “Two years into a refreshed commitment to ensemble at the RSC, I feel the ship is turning – and our work on stage is beginning to reflect our raised ambition.”
- by Terri Paddock
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