|
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 29, 2016 22:25:49 GMT
And rather bad form to be slagging off another company's management decisions, one might suggest. It's a Board decision, not a management decision. |
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 29, 2016 22:29:42 GMT
You omit to mention that Rice's spending on lighting etc. has depleted the funds available for the educational department - you can't absolve her of all blame for this shambles. That claim doesn't seem entirely credible. Every other theatre in the UK has lighting, sound and scenic design. How could it possibly be that the Globe Theatre is the only theatre in the country to be plunged into financial crisis by following universal practice? |
|
17 posts
|
Post by kryz1000 on Oct 30, 2016 8:04:36 GMT
That claim doesn't seem entirely credible. Every other theatre in the UK has lighting, sound and scenic design. How could it possibly be that the Globe Theatre is the only theatre in the country to be plunged into financial crisis by following universal practice? err - because the Globe didn't use (and therefore own) that sort of equipment before? They would have had to hire/buy it. That's money that could have been spent elsewhere. No-one's said that a financial crisis was precipitated but there will have have financial consequences. It's good to see that the papers, social media and message boards have started to take a somewhat calmer, more measured tone as the end of the week arrives. I'd imagine that the reduction in Twitter-chatter will give the Globe a bit of space to get things sorted out future-wise! |
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 30, 2016 8:35:34 GMT
No-one's said that a financial crisis was precipitated but there will have have financial consequences. The alleged employee, named in honour of a chocolate bar, did. |
|
1,119 posts
|
Post by martin1965 on Oct 30, 2016 9:26:05 GMT
Has she been a long-time collaborator ? They hosted the Kneehigh "Cymbeline" - anything else - if he's so bothered then why doesn't he invite her to become an Associate Director at the RSC ? (not holding my breath on that one). Also Don John, adapted and directed by Emma Rice and co-produced by the RSC and Kneehigh, and The Empress by Tanika Gupta and directed by Emma Rice for the RSC at the Swan. Greg Doran appointed Erica Whyman as Deputy Artistic Director, a new RSC post which has replaced the previous structure of a small team of Associate Directors. Yeah well there is a reason why Jan and i didnt recall those productions!! |
|
433 posts
|
Post by DuchessConstance on Oct 30, 2016 11:03:35 GMT
Apropos of nothing, but the RSC apparently invented some new and revolutionary kind of stage light. Lady Gaga used them for one of her tours.
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 30, 2016 11:06:21 GMT
That claim doesn't seem entirely credible. Every other theatre in the UK has lighting, sound and scenic design. How could it possibly be that the Globe Theatre is the only theatre in the country to be plunged into financial crisis by following universal practice? err - because the Globe didn't use (and therefore own) that sort of equipment before? They would have had to hire/buy it. That's money that could have been spent elsewhere. No-one's said that a financial crisis was precipitated but there will have have financial consequences. It's good to see that the papers, social media and message boards have started to take a somewhat calmer, more measured tone as the end of the week arrives. I'd imagine that the reduction in Twitter-chatter will give the Globe a bit of space to get things sorted out future-wise! The eqiupment is not that expensive, not for a theatre like the Globe. One look at their accounts and it brings into question the veracity of everything they say. It isn't credible. That person may have been lied to by someone else and are passing that on but the fact is that you could buy that equipmemt and leave only a minor dent in their finances. This is not going to go away and nor should it; the next year and a half are the perfect chance for Rice and her team to put forward her contrasting vision. |
|
353 posts
|
Post by cirque on Oct 30, 2016 13:36:53 GMT
Really depressing dialogue ......my perspective after thoughts etc
Audiences are not stupid and can enjoy classical,contemporary,site specific and digital enhanced productions if they are made with care and understanding. Therefore OP can sit alongside Imogen in the same building .
Globe was always a revolutionary house and this discussion seems to place Rylance and ?Dromgoole in the trad camp.Not true the extensive touring,outreach and site specific projects were thrilling and won new audiences.I have been to Globe many times this year and many,many attendees are the same as before.There can be an artificial picture of new audiences.
Artistic Director must have total passion for Shakespeare and his contemporaries without doubt..to explore expertise not find a way to make fully accessible to everyone.We can't all enjoy Bach,Mozart,Montiverdi,Taverner,Oasis,Bowie,Smiths,Whitacre etc ...the beauty is we can choose and select to taste.Max Richters take on Vivaldi is genius yet we can still enjoy original side by side and without condemning those who prefer either version.
Our theatre right now is under the vocal influence of quite a close group.....you see the same names hovering around boards and exec offices.Do the exercise and you can work out how Emma Ruce got the job.The perspective of these people is important and should be heard but they should not be able to dictate how our wider theatre is developed and executed. A commitment to change whether it be casting,gender diversity,style and execution should respect the wide reasons why theatre is loved and is no ones property.
Emma Rice believes that amplified sound etc wins over young people...ok.,if it's good it's great but many young people visiting theatre love the costumes,the design ,the other world outside of their own experience.Take current Marvel films packing them in.....fantasy,costume,other worlds...Superman does not live in Hoxton and would not find much of an audience if he did.Emma has proved herself a storyteller of imagination and style in many ways....let's not believe it all has to be at street level for new audiences.
The appointing commiitte should resign as they have cause this awful mess by misunderstanding and not seeing how a vision was going to work out.Emma Rice is on a mission in the arts and it is mismatched with a venue that needs to play to all audiences...street,tourists,Theatre lovers,scholars and dreamers.They should go this week and let a new appointment panel seriously and without political correctness or desire to be in the zone make the decision on who..male or female...can take the place forward for everyone.My God....they must have the passion for Shakespeare or don't even bother to interview.Imagine the music director of CBSO saying,I don't like classical music or......National Gallery director saying...ok,boys out with Caravaggio and Titan lets convert the spaces for graffiti art.
A careful consideration will spot names out there,all of which will be under the microscope in next months.Of course,the freelance life may be much better than being tied to a house.Lucy Bailey threw us all into a gladiatorial arena with her Titus....was that not radical experimentation....? Eve Best,a fine actor and director whose passion could unite all wings of Shakespeare production,and it may be folly,sure it is,yet Michael Boyd is the man who revitalised RSC and created one of the finest ensembles in Stratford for years also with an ntelligence and understanding of form.
So there we are,thoughts of today but deeply concerned about next 12 months and if this continues we may face wreckage on Bankside from which it will takes years to recover.
|
|
|
|
Post by partytentdown on Oct 30, 2016 16:05:23 GMT
From my understanding of events passed on by a friend, the lights etc are hired but still expensive - the Globe is fairly well off but this has left a bit of a hole in finances. However, this is nothing new for the Globe - things like the world tour last year cost a fortune and left a gaping hole in the budget that Emma Rice inherited. Don't be surprised to see ticket price hikes or reductions in show budgets in the coming years.
Plus the rumours of.........
internal rifts between some long term employees who believed the Globe's mission/unique selling point revolved around the shared light experiment and that had fundamentally been removed, thus 'null and voiding' a lot of the work carried out by the internal education/research teams, visiting scholars, etc
the 'digging up' of evidence from the archives that suggested Sam Wanamaker's 'vision' banned the use of lights and amplification in the theatre, and a sense of going against his will
a drop off in membership renewals from long term supporters
an initial sense of unhappiness from staff and volunteers in the way the new management were ignoring the successes of previous seasons i.e. most previous actors have not been welcomed back, old photos and posters have been removed, so called 'benefits' for staff like after shows parties have been slashed etc
grumbles from some board members, here and abroad, many of whom had pledged money to the upcoming building project
grumbles from volunteers, who refused to work on the 'new style' shows, hated new uniforms, hated the new direction, and made it very well known to the management team
pressure on the CEO/board to stand up and either support or go against the new artistic direction to stop further in-fighting
loud shouting from particularly vocal critics and social media people including a sustained letter writing campaign and 'trolling' of every social media post
...all of which basically came to a head last week.
It is clear in the CEO statement that he is distancing himself from the decision made from the board but I fear the after-effects of this decision were not anticipated and may be felt for many years to come.
|
|
1,502 posts
|
Post by foxa on Oct 30, 2016 16:15:58 GMT
The above makes sense - it sounds like it was more than just the lighting/mics.
Poor Globe. This is just the year of polarisation, I reckon.
I also read that a charity which gives small but regular amounts to the Globe (I can't remember the name of the charity - it wasn't one I'd heard of) was now withdrawing its donations in protest at Rice going. So sounds like, no matter one, a large number of people are going to be unhappy.
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 30, 2016 17:18:38 GMT
It is clear in the CEO statement that he is distancing himself from the decision made from the board but I fear the after-effects of this decision were not anticipated and may be felt for many years to come. When the RSC's artistic director, executive director and deputy artistic director immediately publish a statement condemning the action of the Board of Shakespeare's Globe, it must be obvious to everyone that this is utter disaster for the credibility of Shakespeare's Globe from an artistic point of view. I suppose it will remain a leading (shared) light in the fields of academic research and authentic keyrings and tea towels. |
|
|
|
Post by Jan on Oct 30, 2016 17:22:06 GMT
err - because the Globe didn't use (and therefore own) that sort of equipment before? They would have had to hire/buy it. That's money that could have been spent elsewhere. No-one's said that a financial crisis was precipitated but there will have have financial consequences. It's good to see that the papers, social media and message boards have started to take a somewhat calmer, more measured tone as the end of the week arrives. I'd imagine that the reduction in Twitter-chatter will give the Globe a bit of space to get things sorted out future-wise! The eqiupment is not that expensive, not for a theatre like the Globe. One look at their accounts and it brings into question the veracity of everything they say. It isn't credible. |
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 30, 2016 17:31:01 GMT
The exact cost doesn't matter. Every other theatre has light, sound and scenic designs. Yes, they incur costs which must be budgeted for, but every other theatre manages to do this. |
|
|
|
Post by Coated on Oct 30, 2016 18:50:43 GMT
New employee doesn't work out. Everybody has a grumble and moves on. The world does not end.
|
|
4,153 posts
|
Post by kathryn on Oct 30, 2016 22:39:36 GMT
The exact cost doesn't matter. Every other theatre has light, sound and scenic designs. Yes, they incur costs which must be budgeted for, but every other theatre manages to do this. That's a bit of a silly thing to say. Of course it matters - if the cost of a production is more than the revenue then it makes a loss! Every other theatre will be amortising the capital investment they make in lighting rigs and sound systems across a number of years, because they will be used on every production, and setting ticket prices accordingly to cover those costs. Every other theatre does not sell large numbers of tickets for a fiver, or subsidise an educational arm. |
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 30, 2016 22:49:19 GMT
Did Shakespeare subsidise an educational arm? How inauthentic.
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 30, 2016 23:22:17 GMT
The eqiupment is not that expensive, not for a theatre like the Globe. One look at their accounts and it brings into question the veracity of everything they say. It isn't credible. You can check places such as below for hire or sales costs. Anyone know what specific lanterns they were using? hire.hawthorn.biz/catalogue/category.aspx?id=1037shopwl.com/lighting/ |
|
|
|
Post by Jan on Oct 31, 2016 7:33:43 GMT
Oh. I thought you knew. There is no way I can work out the hire cost and rigging cost from a website. The argument that whatever it is it is a tiny percentage of the overall Globe budget is weak - reading the NT Story book it is notable how even relatively small production budget overruns (a few tens of thousands) on individual productions caused financial problems and the NT overall budget is vast, because they lead to a deficit on the year which was unplanned. Of course the renting of these lights should have been in the Globe budget and someone should have been monitoring that - it seems they weren't if it was really a problem. |
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 31, 2016 12:59:53 GMT
Oh. I thought you knew. There is no way I can work out the hire cost and rigging cost from a website. The argument that whatever it is it is a tiny percentage of the overall Globe budget is weak - reading the NT Story book it is notable how even relatively small production budget overruns (a few tens of thousands) on individual productions caused financial problems and the NT overall budget is vast, because they lead to a deficit on the year which was unplanned. Of course the renting of these lights should have been in the Globe budget and someone should have been monitoring that - it seems they weren't if it was really a problem. I know that White Light provided the system (as per the link below), Northern Light the infrastructure, for which the main costs have now been covered. They hired the fixtures so that's the main ongoing cost.
www.whitelight.ltd.uk/244240/theatre/white-light-provides-shakespeares-globe-with-first-ever-theatrical-lighting-rig/
The ETC Coloursource Pars are about £500 each to buy, Mac Vipers £7000 each (I believe these were over the stage), SGM G Spot £4000 or so each (these latter two are movers, hence the cost), GLP X4 Battens about £2300 each (LED strips, you can see them above the stage on the Midsummer Night's Dream video).
Amounts is an absolute guess apart from the battens where they used twelve. Maybe six each of the Macs and G Spots, twenty four of the pars. So an absolute guess to purchase is around about £100,000 (as a charity can you knock VAT off that?). As I say, they appear to have been hired instead.
Bottom line is they paid for an infrastructure as it would be used frequently. Now they say it won't. That is just plain stupid.
|
|
353 posts
|
Post by cirque on Oct 31, 2016 13:38:58 GMT
you need to stop the nonsense re cost of rigs etc..thats not really anything to do with all this.much more about the future direction of the work and clearly the need to reemphasise Shakespeare and his contemporaries.Rigs etc can vary with deals,discounts etc etc......do see beyond the statement and to the heart of the issue.
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 31, 2016 13:42:55 GMT
you need to stop the nonsense re cost of rigs etc..thats not really anything to do with all this.much more about the future direction of the work and clearly the need to reemphasise Shakespeare and his contemporaries.Rigs etc can vary with deals,discounts etc etc......do see beyond the statement and to the heart of the issue. Which was my point, that cost was not the issue.*
What we have now is a battle of wills (no pun intended), when that happens it doesn't resolve quickly.
*Partytentdown's post is a really good listing of the various issues on the previous page.
|
|
4,153 posts
|
Post by kathryn on Oct 31, 2016 14:04:40 GMT
It's the idea of that infrastructure being used frequently in the future that - presumably - worried people. Many people have expressed the thought that some experimentation with light and sound could sit alongside original practice and more traditional productions, but making a sizeable investment in equipment suggests it would have been used all the time. So it's either poor financial planning or a long-term change in the nature of productions that struck people as contrary to the Globe's purpose. The whole situation really could have been managed better. There certainly seems to have been a lack of communication internally and even basic financial planning. |
|
|
|
Post by partytentdown on Oct 31, 2016 20:15:41 GMT
Something interesting I just noticed, the Globe is advertising for a Membership Manager!
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 31, 2016 20:25:33 GMT
A new post, with an annual cost of just under half a lighting rig.
|
|
|
|
Post by Jan on Nov 1, 2016 14:54:42 GMT
you need to stop the nonsense re cost of rigs etc..thats not really anything to do with all this.much more about the future direction of the work and clearly the need to reemphasise Shakespeare and his contemporaries.Rigs etc can vary with deals,discounts etc etc......do see beyond the statement and to the heart of the issue. It's not nonsense. An employee posted elsewhere that the cost of this equipment meant the education budget had been cut, so it is relevant in so far as Rice was plainly making enemies on the inside of the organisation in several areas. Posters here, who it turned out had no clue what the costs involved were, then said the costs were negligible and the original poster was probably wrong anyway. A key point is Zoe Wannamaker obviously agrees with the rest of the board's decision as they could not survive if she spoke against it in any way. |
|
