A YEAR OF INNOVATION

In a year like no other, Lighthouse rose to the challenge showing creativity and innovation in how we supported artists and connected with our community. This entrepreneurial mindset saw many ‘firsts’, including an outdoor season in our amphitheatre, a socially distanced Christmas show, screening facilities installed in our theatre and a curated programme of digitally presented performances that took place online.

The challenge of COVID-19 has been a constant throughout the year, with only 10% of planned public events going ahead. 30 % of the programme was rebooked in to 2021/22. However, we are fortunate to have a range of spaces that can be adapted for different uses and decided that we would ensure we made the best use of this unique opportunity to keep people working, and audiences engaged. In the last twelve months, the Theatre has been adapted for the studio programme of music and comedy; it has also become a cinema, ‘Screen on Stage’, with investment in a state-of-the-art projector, surround sound and the largest roll-up screen in Dorset. The Concert Hall platform was extended to enable the BSO to be socially distanced and create a full digital concert season. We launched ‘Lighthouse Outside’ the first time the amphitheatre to the side of Lighthouse has been properly used as a performance space since it was built in the 1970s. The programme included Live & Unheard, Coastal Comedy and The Handlebards with Romeo and Juliet. This signalled the launch of our ‘fifth’ venue. Over Christmas, Happy Ever After, produced by Lighthouse and written and directed by its star Chris Jarvis, was an instant hit with socially distanced audiences who revelled in the panto jokes as children’s storybook characters shared their happy ever after tales. Sadly, covid hit the company, then the government closed venues again but we managed to deliver 15 performances. Artists and freelance workers have been particularly impacted and we honoured artists fees and opened our stages for artists to rehearse, create new work, and present it via live streaming. A priority has been the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, ensuring they could continue to work. While other concert halls and theatres announced year-long closures, the BSO was one of the first British ensembles to broadcast live performances to audiences worldwide. Truly pioneering. In celebration of the part popular music has played in the lives of generations of its audiences, Lighthouse commissioned Dorset-based artist, Lorna Rees of Gobbledegook Theatre, to write a song about it. The song, ‘And the Floor Bounced’ has been watched thousands of times online and generated a flurry of media coverage. We connected with Paines Plough theatre company and its ‘Come To Where I Am’ caller service that saw actors Fiona Wade (from Emmerdale) and Abigail Cruttenden (from TV’s Not Going Out) read ‘Quicksand’, a ten-minute play, to audiences in local care homes. Invisible Music by Platform 4 was a digital reboot of their unforgettable live event. Film and soundscape were blended to create an immersive and intimate meditation on hearing loss. ‘Super-Spies in Lockdown’ by Angel Exit Theatre, was an interactive performance game played out across two online sessions on a private, secure Zoom chat, bringing the action to the participants’ own homes. Lighthouse played a part in a ground-breaking new

music project by hosting an exclusive online concert, new collaborative work, and a music workshop. Making Tracks brought together emerging artists from the UK and around the world to showcase diverse music, initiate new collaborations and explore strategies for music-based environmental engagement We joined fellow Music Beyond Mainstream consortium members and the Music Venue Trust to participate in the #saveourvenues campaign by streaming a unique collaboration between American singer-songwriter John Grant and the Royal Northern Sinfonia. We invited percussionist Pete Lockett to spend a week in the theatre developing a new performance with pianist Peter-John Vettese. ‘Other Voices Other Room’s was subsequently broadcast online. The venue was also used as a set for a new escape room game. Lighthouse was a partner venue for an online sharing of Romantics Anonymous, Emma Rice’s delicious musical about the fragile love affair between a gifted chocolate maker and her socially awkward boss. This was live streamed directly from Bristol Old Vic to Lighthouse audiences at home. ‘With all the open space in the auditorium to play with, it gave us an amazing opportunity to blur the boundaries in every aspect of the production. it meant we could do things with the sound and lighting that would not otherwise have been possible and stretch what could be achieved in the Theatre.'