Curve Annual Report 2016/17 by Curve Theatre

ANNUAL REVIEW 2016/17

2 Front cover:

Legally Blonde

Director Nikolai Foster Photography: Catherine Ashmore

â&#x20AC;&#x153;From the very beginning of the process I felt inspired, lucky and thrilled to be a part of such an amazing project. I am very lucky that a theatre like Curve has given me this opportunity.â&#x20AC;? Bugsy Malone participant

This page:

Bugsy Malone Gala Performance Photography: Creative By Wren

CONTENTS 3 4 6 8

Welcome A Year in Performance Made at Curve Curve On Tour & International Partnerships

12 Artist Development at Curve 14 Community Engagement at Curve 16 Learning Curve 18 Experience Curve 20 Curve Partnerships

22 Curve Facts & Figures 24 Curve Numbers 26 Curve Supporters 27 Curve People

WELCOME It is a great pleasure and privilege to present this annual report for Curve and Leicester Theatre Trust. It was an honour to be asked to succeed Prof. Philip Tasker as Chairman of Trustees and before doing anything else I’d like to pay tribute to Philip for the great contribution he made to this theatre. Curve has enjoyed some notable successes in the recent past but with the publication of this report we can look back on Curve’s most successful year since it opened.

Ian Squires Chairman

In the twelve months to April 2017 Curve’s turnover increased by £1.5m. The amount spent on shows increased too as we strived to attract even bigger and even more spectacular productions to Curve. We also invested more in creating new work and maintaining the steady stream of high-quality drama throughout our theatre spaces with Nikolai Foster’s productions of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest and What the Butler Saw. Both productions were particular highlights of the year for me. It is notable that both of those shows were co-productions with other theatres, demonstrating how Curve’s reach and influence grows. More and more people want to work with us and more and more people are coming to see our work. In the year covered by this report almost 1 million people engaged with Curve either by visiting the building, seeing a show in one of our spaces, or experiencing the magic of Curve on tour in either the UK or overseas. As always we are grateful to all of our sponsors, members and supporters and principally to our main funders, Leicester City Council and Arts Council England. I’d also like to thank my fellow trustees and the entire staff and management at Curve, under Chris Stafford’s leadership, for a memorable and outstanding year of achievement. I am delighted to report 2016/17 has been another record-breaking year for Curve. This was our most ambitious year to date with significant growth across many areas of our business. We welcomed over 350,000 visitors to Curve over the year and ticket sales remained at just under 250,000. In my first full-year as Chief Executive, we produced or co-produced a total of 11 productions striking a balance of drama, musicals, dance and work for children and young people.

Chris Stafford Chief Executive

In the last year we built on the continued success of previous Christmases at Curve. Nikolai Foster’s stunning production of Grease engaged a stellar cast and exceptional creative team. In addition, we continued our commitment to making work for young people with a co-production of Roald Dahl’s The Twits with the Rose Theatre, Kingston. Both of our Christmas productions were praised by critics and a combined total of over 65,000 people came through our doors – making it our most successful Christmas to date. Away from our building, Curve on Tour went from strength-to-strength with our co-productions of Hairspray, Sister Act, The Twits, The Witches and Breakfast at Tiffany’s all playing to theatres across the UK. We also continued to build on international partnerships with Legally Blonde touring to South Korea as part of the Daegu International Musical Festival, The Twits opening in the Lyric Theatre Hong Kong and Sister Act visiting Monaco in advance of a national tour. In addition we made our West End debut with our production of Breakfast at Tiffany’s playing a limited 12 week run at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. In the last year we were also able to invest more in our learning provision and talent development programmes. In 2016/17 theatre attendance and participation in learning events and workshops reached 75,000 and over 300 artists took part in one of our artist development initiatives. To echo Ian’s comments, I would also like to thank our funders for their continued support, our terrific audiences and participants and of course all of Curve’s employees and volunteers for a truly memorable year. Here’s to the next!

A YEAR IN PERFORMANCE

WIPERS

8 – 23 APR

A Curve, Belgrade Theatre Coventry and Watford Palace Theatre co-production Writer Ishy Din Director Suba Das

OUR DAY OUT

A Curve and De Montfort University co-production Writer Willy Russell Director Julia Thomas

SISTER ACT

28 – 30 APR

LEGALLY BLONDE

11 APR – 14 MAY

A Curve Production Music & Lyrics Laurence O’Keefe & Nell Benjamin Book Heather Hach Director Nikolai Foster

I’M SPILLING MY HEART OUT HERE

7 & 8 MAY

A Curve Young Company production as part of the National Theatre Connections Festival Writer Stacey Gregg Director John Berkavitch

30 JUL – 13 AUG

A Curve and Jamie Wilson co-production Music Alan Menken Lyrics Glenn Slater Book Cheri Steinkellner & Bill Steinkellner Director Craig Revel Horwood

BUGSY MALONE

19 – 28 AUG

A Curve Community production Play Alan Parker Words & Music Paul Williams Director Nick Winston

“We thoroughly enjoy the excitement and anticipation of visiting Curve. Always an adventure!” Audience Member

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST A Curve and Birmingham Repertory Theatre co-production Writer Oscar Wilde Director Nikolai Foster

6 – 29 OCT

UNTIL THE LIONS

A Curve and Akram Khan Company co-production Director Akram Khan

GREASE THE MUSICAL

26 NOV – 21 JAN

A Curve production Book, Music & Lyrics Jim Jacobs & Warren Casey Director Nikolai Foster

ROALD DAHL’S THE TWITS

A Curve and Rose Theatre Kingston co-production Adaptor David Wood Director Max Webster

3 – 5 NOV

10 DEC – 15 JAN

WHAT THE BUTLER SAW

A Curve and Theatre Royal Bath co-production Writer Joe Orton Director Nikolai Foster

3 – 18 MAR

6 2016/17 has been an extremely ambitious year for our Made at Curve productions. Drama continued to play a major part of our produced programme with productions of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest and Joe Orton’s What the Butler Saw. Our audiences’ met both productions head-on, responding enthusiastically to the guts and courage inherent in both writers’ works. Cathy Tyson led the young Earnest company and created a compassionate and unforgettable Lady Bracknell. In addition, this production also saw Curve Young Company alumni, Sharan Phull make her professional Curve debut.

MADE AT As well as familiar titles, we continued to produce new work in our 300 seat theatre and in late Spring we staged the world premiere of Wipers by Ishy Din. Suba Das’ production – a Curve commission – was based on the story of Khudadad Khan, the first South Asian soldier to be awarded a Victoria Cross. The production was also awarded with Best New Play at the Asian Media Awards. 2016/17 also saw us continue to produce musicals from our Leicester home. Our production of Legally Blonde played at Curve for four weeks before touring to the Daegu International Festival in South Korea, where it won Best Musical and Best Actress in a Musical, Lucie Jones. The production will also continue to be seen around the world, playing dates in Monaco in 2017. Following on from Legally Blonde, we were delighted to work with Jamie Wilson Productions on the musical comedy Sister Act. Craig Revel Horwood’s production continued our tradition of placing women centre stage in leading roles, featuring Alexandra Burke in an electrifying performance. Our Christmas production was Jim Jacobs’ and Warren Casey’s Grease. Associate Artists Nick Winston and Sarah Travis created new choreography and orchestrations, giving a nod to the period, with a contemporary vibe. This was also the first time a major new production of Grease had been created in the UK for over 20 years and saw the original 1970s Chicago script performed here. Designed by Colin Richmond, the production saw our entire 900 seat theatre transformed into a school gym, using every inch of our epic stage. Building on the success of The Witches last Christmas, we welcomed rising director Max Webster to direct Roald Dahl’s The Twits. Designed by Georgia Lowe, the production took its inspiration from the faded glory of the trailer parks of the American West Coast. Having opened in Hong Kong, The Twits completed a successful UK tour and season at the Rose Theatre Kingston, after playing in Leicester. In the last year we continued to programme work from a diverse range of artists and companies across all our stages. Well known and popular titles such as Of Mice and Men, The Shawshank Redemption and Rent, played alongside new work including Aditi Mangaldas’ Inter_rupted, the critically acclaimed Charles III and multi award-winning choreographer James Wilton’s Leviathan. We were also delighted to welcome back friends including Ballet Boyz, English Touring Opera and Northern Ballet. 2016/17 also saw Curve continue to open major work with the world premiere of Belarus Free Theatre’s Burning Doors and the new touring production of Million Dollar Quartet.

“This production has glamour and grit, with superb dancing and showstopping choreography.” The Times on Grease

“Foster’s unsentimental version deserves credit for putting the grit back in Grease.” The Guardian on Grease

ARTISTIC OVERVIEW

“There are three words I would like to use to sum up this production of Grease which are; Quality, Quality, Quality… Made exclusively at Curve, everything about this production was beautifully executed from the design and music to the acting and choreography.” Mary Heller, Arts Council Assessor

Photography: Grease – Manuel Harlan

8 2016/17 saw almost 640,000 people see our work outside of LE1, travelling to 53 different cities and performing over 80 tour weeks across the world. Internationally Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Sister Act, Legally Blonde and The Twits delighted audiences far and wide by visiting Ireland, Monaco, South Korea and Hong Kong. Our production of Legally Blonde formed part of the Daegu International Festival and we were thrilled when we won Best Musical and Best Actress in a Musical at the festival awards. Closer to home our Made At Curve productions also visited a host of cities across the UK including Manchester, Newcastle, Birmingham and Southampton. It was also a year where we forged and developed new partnerships in order to produce and tour more drama, musicals and work for young people. In addition we were thrilled to be working with Curve Associate Artist Akram Khan on his latest production, Until The Lions. The show which was developed at Curve (and co-produced with us) visited countries such as France, Germany and Saint Denis (Africa). In the last year we also made our West End debut with our production of Truman Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s playing a limited 12 week run at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. Leading lady Pixie Lott was also nominated in the Best Actress category at the WhatsOnStage Awards. Curve on Tour was also nominated for a UK Theatre Award for The Renee Stepham Award for Best Presentation of Touring Theatre. In Autumn 2016, through the kind support of the John Ellerman Foundation, we appointed our first Touring Producer to lead and champion this vital area of our business. TOURING PRODUCTIONS: • Wipers (co-production with Belgrade and Watford Palace) • What the Butler Saw (co-production with Theatre Royal Bath) • The Witches at West Yorkshire Playhouse • The Twits (co-production with Rose Theatre Kingston) • The Importance of Being Earnest (co-production with Birmingham Rep) • Sister Act (co-production with Jamie Wilson Productions) • Hairspray (co-production with Mark Goucher) • Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr Fox (co-production with Nuffield Theatre and Lyric Hammersmith) • Breakfast at Tiffany’s (co-production with Colin Ingram and Peter Kane) • Until The Lions (co-production with Akram Khan Dance Company)

CURVE ON TOUR & INTERNATIONAL PARTNERSHIPS

ON TOUR & INTERNATIONAL PARTNERSHIPS “A ludicrously enjoyable show. Sister Act is simply divine.” Time Out on Sister Act

Photography: Legally Blonde – Catherine Ashmore

Photography: Catherine Ashmore, Manuel Harlan, Tristram Kenton, Pamela Raith, Creative By Wren

12 With a broad range of opportunities available, our artist development programme engaged almost 300 artists from across the region and reached as far as Africa with Akram Khan’s sensational Until The Lions. Under the direction of Curve Associate Director Suba Das, our third annual Inside Out Festival continued to provide a platform for local artists to showcase new work. In 2016/17 the festival presented 40 ticketed events, including four world premieres by local artists supported by Curve and four further work-in-progress first looks. Over 1,200 people attended shows at the festival, with a further 2,500 attending a programme of free music and spoken word by local talent. The festival culminated in a cross-generational project created by the renowned Common Wealth Theatre, taking over the top two floors of the NCP car park next to Curve. This performance was acclaimed as “a fragile and touching snapshot of the hopes and dreams of a city” by former Guardian theatre critic Lyn Gardner, who also chaired the A Nation’s Theatre Conversation as part of the festival programme. Three of the productions went on to transfer from Curve to Battersea Arts Centre in London as part of the Nation’s Theatre Festival.

ARTIST DEVELOPMENT AT Curve’s flagship Breakthrough Programme expanded to include 20 local artists and companies, all creating new and exciting work all year-round with our support. Notable Breakthrough successes over the past year have included performance poet Shruti Chauhan being one of the first winners of a prestigious Michael Grandage Futures Award; and experimental theatre company 2Magpies receiving an Arts Council Strategic Touring grant to take Curve commissioned Ventoux, a piece about the Tour de France, to 50 cities across the UK. This year we also launched our new WritersLab programme, offering focused support for six local playwrights, and our WriteToPlay partnership with Graeae Theatre, nurturing five deaf/disabled playwrights from the region, and forming our first ever training programme specifically aimed at disabled artists and audiences.

“If anything has been a game changer in the trajectory of 2Magpies, it’s being a Curve Breakthrough Company.” 2Magpies Theatre Company

Main Photograph: Until The Lions – Jean Louis Fernandez

ARTIST DEVELOPMENT AT CURVE

14 Across our community engagement programmes nearly 3,000 participants accessed either a free or low-cost participatory activity at Curve. During the year our cohort of seven Affiliate Community Groups (Sidekick Dance, Little Movers, Moving Together, Nupur Arts and 2Funky Arts, Writing East Midlands, and Kainé Management) continued to offer a variety of weekly classes for everyone to enjoy.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT AT We made our 300 and 900 seater theatre spaces available for a further 29 community arts events across the year, ranging from the Lord Lieutenant of Rutland’s Happy And Glorious celebration for the Queen’s Birthday, to UniSlam, a national student spoken word competition.

We also continued to support the city’s varied festivals programme; welcoming over 30 shows for festivals including An Indian Summer, Spark and the Comedy Festival. In addition, we also made a significant contribution to Leicester’s world-renowned Diwali celebrations, by codirecting the stage programme for the Lights Switch On and programming the internationally acclaimed Aditi Mangaldas Company. The event was seen by over 35,000 people. Curve Associate Artist Nick Winston took the helm of our annual Community Production and directed a local cast of 51 in a new production of the musical Bugsy Malone. Bugsy Malone took over every corner of our 900 seat theatre, the action spilling out from the stage and was the first time we worked with a community orchestra, placing 30 local musicians centre stage. In addition, and during the run up to What the Butler Saw, we recruited a number of Audience Ambassadors from Leicester’s Saffron Lane Estate (one of the city’s most deprived areas). The role of the ambassador was to find new audience members who had socio-economic barriers for attending theatre. We then offered these audience members £5 tickets to see Orton’s play and come to the theatre for the very first time.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT AT CURVE

“Everyone was ‘buzzing’ on their return and one particular student who is harder to reach was enthusing over his experience – you know you have made a difference on these occasions. So, please do not underestimate how important your efforts and support are for our students.” Sue Whawell, Dorothy Goodman SEN School

Photography: All Out (Inside Out Festival – Creative By Wren

16 Under our new Head of Learning, Mel Knott, we continued to deliver a rich and varied programme of work for schools, young people and teachers. Throughout the year over 370 schools engaged with Curve through workshops, projects and performances and theatre attendance and participation exceeded 55,000 and 20,000 respectively. As an Arts Award supporter, we also actively supported a variety of schools and community groups through tailored workshops that complimented a show visit and enhanced the overall theatrical experience for the individual students.

LEARNING

Curve Young Company (CYC) programmes continued to grow and develop with almost 300 young people actively involved in classes, workshops and rehearsals over the course of the year. CYC Text once again took part in the National Theatre Connections programme with 24 young people performing in a new production of I’m Spilling My Heart Out Here directed by Curve’s Youth Theatre Director. We were also selected as a host venue for other NT Connection groups from across the region and over 59 young people performed in new dramas at Curve to an invited audience. In addition, many CYC participants took part in a range of sharings and performances throughout the year including the national Big Dance pledge (in both Leicester and London), representing Leicestershire at the Midlands Youth Dance Festival and regularly presenting work on our foyer stage and in our rehearsal spaces. We also continued to work in partnership with key organisations to support teaching and learning in the classroom. This included working with Leicester Schools English Teacher’s Hub on creative approaches to poetry, the Schools Development and Support Agency on raising attainment in literacy within primary schools, and collaborating with Fox Academy to develop workshops and programmes for looked after/vulnerable young people around our production of The Twits. As well as work in schools, our relationship with De Montfort University went from strength-tostrength and we continued to host student placements, deliver professional development sessions and co-produce an annual production with the Drama and Performing Arts department (Willy Russell’s Our Day Out – directed by Julia Thomas). In addition, two DMU students joined a team of creatives from Curve on a trip to India as part of the research and development process around Pink Sari Revolution.

“Today is the last day of my placement. Thank you all, it has been an amazing experience. I’ve had a wonderful time working with you all for the last six months.” DMU Frontrunner Internship

Photography: Our Day Out – Redpix

LEARNING CURVE “Curve brings a wealth of opportunities to our students giving them the chance to experience how a theatre works and to immerse themselves in productions at every level from performing, to building, to promoting. Curve’s commitment to diversify its audiences chimes with both the values and the experience of the university ensuring that in partnership new audiences can be reached. DMU and Curve in partnership brings an increased level of creativity for both organisations and will undoubtedly have a positive impact on the city of Leicester increasing its ambition and securing a greater national profile.” Prof. Dominic Shellard – Vice-Chancellor DMU

Photography: – Pamela Raith

18 During 2016/17 we attracted bigger brands and organisations to Curve for a conference, major event or meeting. Over the course of the year, four clients (Cycle City, Local Offer, Mortgage Advice Bureau and Premier Foods) used the whole of our building to host a major event, and to accompany this we also welcomed Next Homeware, Mars, Datacom and Saatchi PR to Curve for the very first time.

EXPERIENCE Our relationship with the local business community within the East Midlands continues to remain a vital part of our work and we were delighted to once again work with the organisers of the Leicester Business Festival to host their opening event, the Leicester City Council inward investment team on Gateway to India and in October TedX Leicester treated over 500 delegates to a number of Ted talks interspersed with artistic performances from Associate Artist Aakash Odedra and De Montfort University’s Gospel Choir. In August we were proud to be able to support the Leicester Fencing Club by being the venue that helped them set the World Record for The Most Fencers in Team Exhibition Match, and in addition to this we were also the chosen venue to host the 2016 Street Choirs Festival. In late November, and just in time for the Christmas period, our front facing Café also had a major costume change. The newly refurbished Green Room Café, can now seat an additional 60 people for either a pre-show meal, catch up coffee or business meeting.

“Curve has successfully combined a shrewd mixture of commercial nous and artistic excellence that is helping to drive our ambition for Leicester to be recognised as a Great City.” Sir Peter Soulsby, Leicester City Mayor

Photography: Stage Door – Pamela Raith

EXPERIENCE CURVE “Passionate, provocative and inspiring conversations at #diversityintheatre we all collectively need to follow up aspirations with ACTION.” Abid Hussain, Conference Attendee

“Curve proved itself to be a truly excellent and unique venue, helping inject our conference with the drama and creativity of theatre.” Gavin Darby CEO, Premier Foods plc

Photography: Premier Foods Event – Creative By Wren

20 As a registered charity (number 230708) we actively seek to develop new and existing partnerships both locally and in the wider region to generate additional income streams to support our work within the community.

PARTNERSHIPS

Over the course of the year we saw a continuation of our long standing relationship with De Montfort University, offering opportunities for students across all of DMU’s arts and creative faculties. In addition, a sponsorship from both Toyota Farmer & Carlisle and Cummins solicitors enabled us to offer 30 children from Birkett House (a local school for children with special educational needs) a free workshop by our affiliate company Bamboozle, ahead of coming to see our Relaxed Performance for Legally Blonde The Musical. Partnerships such as this really allow us to work closely with disadvantaged groups who otherwise may not have been able to attend a live theatre performance.

Thanks to funding from Arts Council England we were pleased to launch our Cultural Leadership Programme for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnicity cultural managers, artists and early career leaders in partnership with De Montfort University. The programme combined both classroom-based study with hands-on professional development and each of the seven participants received a bespoke plan to enable them to develop the necessary skills and competencies required of the 21st Century cultural leader. A key focus throughout 2016/17 was the reintroduction of our Name a Seat campaign – an opportunity that allows key partners and audience members the chance to become part of the fabric of Curve and directly support our work with Children and Young People. In addition to the productions on our stages, we hosted our very first Fundraising Gala dinner in November. The Gala was a success with nearly 200 guests enjoying a night of theatrical entertainment whilst being seated on our theatre stage. Guest performers included Janie Dee, Sam Bailey, Tom Lister, Danny-Boy Hatchard and Verity Rushworth.

“I was incredibly impressed with the members of the BAME Cultural Leadership Programme. Smart, committed, eloquent and passionate. They are already exceeding in what they are doing but it was clear that they had much more to give and much more to be. Very impressive and inspiring.” Martin Green, CEO and Director of Hull 2017 City of Culture

CURVE PARTNERSHIPS “Curve is an essential part of the local economy. As a standalone business its innovative approach to production, marketing and community engagement make it an attractive proposition to support further economic growth for our city centre, it is a major asset for Leicester with an international profile that makes us more attractive to new investors and in holding on to graduates who might be thinking about leaving after university.” Corin Crane, Former Director, Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership

Photography: Fundraising Gala – Creative By Wren

FACTS & FIGURES Performance Tickets Sold

247,006 Total Bookers

46,482

Number of Performances

649

Ticket Yield

£20.28 Discounted Tickets

76,235

“This is perfect entertainment for anyone over the age of five.” British Theatre Guide on The Twits

69%

Our average theatre attendance was and for Made at Curve productions.

73% Over 22,000 attenders for a Made at Curve production were from a BAME background

97% of audiences said that they enjoyed their experience at Curve

We had our most successful Christmas to date with over seeing either Grease or Roald Dahl’s The Twits

66,000

We welcomed almost first time attenders

22,000

“A spectacularly staged musical revival bursting with energy” The Stage on Grease

GEOGRAPHIC REACH

638,000 tickets were sold for

a Made at Curve production on Tour Hong Kong

DIGITAL ENGAGEMENT

114,000

Over people viewed a video on our YouTube Channel

Ireland South Korea

France

Monaco

Germany

68,000

We have over people follow us on either Facebook, Twitter or Instagram

74% of audiences booked their ticket online

Africa

“Director Nikolai Foster is on his usual excellent form.” The Reviews Hub on Legally Blonde

“Light as a soufflé and never Earnest, Wilde would be delighted.” The Times on The Importance Of Being Earnest

Photography: The Importance Of Being Earnest – Creative By Wren

NUMBERS 2016/17 saw growth across artistic activities contributing to our highest turnover to date of £11.7m, an increase of 15% on the previous year and 50% up on 2014/15. Our Made at Curve productions combined with a strong visiting programme and the successful launch of our touring work generated 66% of turnover totalling £7.7m, £1.9m above 2015/16. Although slightly lower than the previous year Commercial, Sponsorship, Fundraising and Ancillary activity contributed a further £1.4m and Grant levels remained on the same level as 2015/16. Whilst operational costs rose in proportion to the increase in revenue streams, fixed costs were maintained on prior year levels reducing the percentage against turnover from 44% down to 37%, helping to produce a surplus at the year-end of £196k which will be reinvested in our programme of activity, learning and education and capital replacement.

SUMMARY BREAKDOWN OF INCOME 2015/16 & 2016/17

3% 3% 1% 1% 21% 21%

4% 4% 1% 1% 25%25% 2015/16 2015/16 58%58% £10,199,257 12% 12%

Ticket sales

Commercial

Grants

2016/17 2016/17 £11,728,000 66%66% 9% 9%

Sponsorship and fundraising

“Please pass on my thanks to all involved in another fantastic Dementia Friendly performance. Everyone had a great time and the extra touches including the meet & greet made it a special day for all. Social inclusion is so important to our group and this is a great opportunity for our service users, their carers and our Trustees to have a great day out together.” Andy Hartshorn, Treasurer, Dementia Harborough

Ancillary

Photography: Catherine Ashmore

SUPPORTERS CURVE APPRECIATES THE ONGOING SUPPORT AS PRINCIPLE FUNDERS OF