30 posts
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Post by mortal on May 6, 2020 13:03:31 GMT
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Post by talkingheads on May 6, 2020 13:24:53 GMT
Really sad. Saw many shows there, Austentatious and Mark Kermode among them. I fear this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of regional venues.
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1,061 posts
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Post by David J on May 6, 2020 14:29:28 GMT
I wouldn't be surprised if they've been in financial straits, the virus making things worse
They've been moving away from the old venue in the Southampton Uni campus over the past years. The current season has no shows for the venue. All in the hope to replace it with the big new venue they've built in the city centre
Only for me the number of interesting productions, or anything produced by them making good use of their versatile venue, has been few and far between. And the times I've been there the huge venue was nowhere near sold out. Partly I'd put down to the dumb decision to locate it far from considerable parking spaces.
Mind you the campus venue was once a venue for the local amateur companies to put on shows, mainly for a few weeks around February. In the past years however they increased the fees, with only a discount for the university societies. Looking at the current season there's only a one night show for some dance academy.
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347 posts
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Post by Sam on May 6, 2020 14:48:20 GMT
Despite going to Uni at Southampton, walking through the Nuffield to get to the Law Building, using the toilets several times, and even having lectures in the Nuffield Building, I've never seen a show there, or even really known what shows were on there. Whereas I went to the Mayflower a number of times during my degree using their student offers and felt much more aware of what was going on there.
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1,743 posts
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Post by fiyero on May 6, 2020 15:09:52 GMT
I’m gutted. I loved the new venue as I travel by public transport it was much easier than campus. I saw 2 shows at city that did make use of the flexibility and numerous ones in more traditional staging.
I hope it can come back as it was, they had decent pricing compared to the bigger local theatre! I suppose that doesn’t help the bottom line though.
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3,578 posts
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Post by showgirl on May 6, 2020 15:36:01 GMT
Another public transport user here and I've only been once (and on the most diabolical day for travel, back in early March 2018 when most rail routes were literally snowed under) to see The Shadow Factory, which they were planning to revive. Lovely venue and the play deserves a wider audience too.
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1,061 posts
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Post by David J on May 6, 2020 15:53:20 GMT
Actually, I've been told they are being forced out of the university anyway so its no surprise they had to get a new venue. If only they had considered parking, especially for the elderly
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403 posts
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Post by altamont on May 6, 2020 16:12:43 GMT
We only went there once, to see The Shadow Factory, and parked at the West Park car park, no more than 5 minutes walk from NST City - so I have to admit to being a bit puzzled by the car park comments. I don't recall it being that expensive to park either.
It will be a shame if it isn't rescued - I recall it having a nice bar/restaurant, and lots of displays about the play around the foyer. We were due to be seeing the Merchant of Venice there later in the year
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115 posts
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Post by Sotongal on May 6, 2020 16:29:11 GMT
For anyone who doesn't know - there are two NST theatres in Southampton.
NST Campus is the original one, built in 1964, on the University of Southampton site and NST City, which is the new one, opened in 2018, in the city centre.
(Re parking. There's always been plenty of parking near NST City - within 5/10 minutes walk there is a carpark outside the Civic Centre, one next to BBC South and one near Watts Park. There's also Blue Badge parking behind NST City.)
NST Campus ‘is closing for much needed refurbishment from April 2020 for two years’, according to a university press release (but now indefinitely?) but the Campus building is owned by the University.
The NST City building is, I think, owned by the council.
Maybe questions should be asked of ACE, the University of Southampton and Southampton City Council, who have all withdrawn their support?
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30 posts
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Post by mortal on May 6, 2020 18:24:28 GMT
It's NST (Nuffield Southampton Theatres) who are in administration. They own both theatres, campus and city
From the news article
"NST, which has two venues at NST City and NST Campus is actively seeking buyers."
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Post by Deleted on May 6, 2020 18:25:37 GMT
The Square Chapel in Halifax has already closed, It was struggling with lack of funding but the virus gave it no chance. The buildings and equipment will still be there, the question is if someone sees them as a going concern and snaps them up when things do eventually change. Where there is a demand, it will be served. The same with any field of business, if people want it, businesses will provide it. If one company goes bankrupt, another one buys it up.
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Post by Jan on May 7, 2020 13:53:39 GMT
The only thing I can remember seeing which originated there and transferred to the Young Vic was “A Number” with John & Lex Shrapnel which had one of the best sets I’ve ever seen, probably the very best actually.
It is sad in theory when venues like this close but if they weren’t supported by local audiences (I don’t know if that’s the case here) then that’s life - maybe smaller more flexible venues and companies will take their place.
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30 posts
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Post by mortal on May 7, 2020 14:06:48 GMT
I have attended many performances at both venues and I think this would have happened sooner rather than later
I have been going to the campus venue for many years and it was desperatly in need of refurbishment which is why it was due to shut in april. The City venue was years late opening and massively over budget.
The only times I have seen either venue sold out was for big names (Ian Mckellen, and some stand up comedians) the rest of the time they were half empty
I feel desperately sorry for the people who have lost their jobs as they were always friendly and helpful but unfortunately, I don't think this is entirely down to this lockdown.
Just my Opinion
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Post by Jan on May 8, 2020 17:29:34 GMT
I see poor old Lynn Gardner is demanding that the government bail them out. I would have though that came close to the bottom of their list of priorities at the moment.
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1,250 posts
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Post by joem on May 9, 2020 12:42:35 GMT
It won't be the last. They will kill the industry unless bold decisions are taken soon.
In a few years perhaps sites like this will be for nostalgics. "Remember when we used to go to the theatre?"
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Post by Jan on May 9, 2020 14:55:19 GMT
It won't be the last. They will kill the industry unless bold decisions are taken soon. In a few years perhaps sites like this will be for nostalgics. "Remember when we used to go to the theatre?" It will come back but it will come back differently, like many other industries will. There is no point spending money to try to make it come back exactly the same as it was, that is gone. |
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Post by David J on May 10, 2020 0:40:34 GMT
I stand corrected on points I've previously made.
I was talking with a friend today lives in Southampton and is involved in the arts. He brought up that the City Theatre was built as part of Southampton's bid to be city of culture in a few years.
But in his opinion the problem they have is that Southampton is not a cultural city through and through, and therefore there isn't an audience to fill the theatre every night.
Of course there is the Mayflower Theatre where panto, big musicals like Lion King, Les Mis and Wicked and stand ups sell out. Well known shows with names. Those are more attractive and I think I remember reading a comment on the old board about the fact Southampton is a touring stop not far from London with direct transport connections so there is an audience coming in to see the touring shows
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115 posts
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Post by Sotongal on May 11, 2020 14:55:45 GMT
I stand corrected on points I've previously made. I was talking with a friend today lives in Southampton and is involved in the arts. He brought up that the City Theatre was built as part of Southampton's bid to be city of culture in a few years. But in his opinion the problem they have is that Southampton is not a cultural city through and through, and therefore there isn't an audience to fill the theatre every night. Of course there is the Mayflower Theatre where panto, big musicals like Lion King, Les Mis and Wicked and stand ups sell out. Well known shows with names. Those are more attractive and I think I remember reading a comment on the old board about the fact Southampton is a touring stop not far from London with direct transport connections so there is an audience coming in to see the touring shows The Mayflower Theatre used to be known as The Gaumont and in the Seventies was a major stop for concerts - I saw Elton John and Kate Bush there. Once or twice a year it was used for a local drama /singing group to put on musicals like The Sound of Music. It had terrible access at the rear for productions needing good access. A couple of times Rank, the then owner tried to get permission to turn it into a bingo hall but were luckily refused. The council ended up buying it (and painting the interior a disgusting turquoise!) Since then it’s been run as a charity, been refurbished a couple of times, inproved the rear access and now luckily with an audience keen to see touring musicals is doing well. The council used to be much more pre culture in the Sixties and Seventies. I don’t think the current council could organise a p*ss up in a brewery. The museums only open a few days a week, there’s no vision from the council to join up the cultural events or cultural/historical places of the city and promote them . They’d been trying to get a theatre in the city for years, not just for the City of Culture bid. When the council handed over the City Theatre building to NST after a very short time both passenger lifts plus the theatre dock lift broke down and there were wrangles over getting the council to sort it out for months. With the theatre being on the first floor and the studio on the second this caused problems for access for customers and crew. The design of the City theatre meant that only the entrance is visible even though it’s opposite the main Civic Centre in the city, so many didn’t even notice it. The fact both theatres have the same prefix -NST - meant customers, not checking properly - sometimes went to the wrong one. As the original NST Campus theatre is on the University of Southampton site, over the years it’s not been very accessible if you don’t know where it is, have got a car or some other form of transport. It’s too far to walk to from the City Centre. So the original one never really figured in locals minds as a place to go to. Calling the second one NST City just added to the confusion and comprehension. Southampton City Council and ACE have a lot to answer for in this saga which will hopefully come out one day. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayflower_Theatre |
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115 posts
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Post by Sotongal on May 13, 2020 10:21:10 GMT
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115 posts
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Post by Sotongal on Jul 17, 2020 16:01:52 GMT
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7,189 posts
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Post by Jon on Jul 17, 2020 16:13:44 GMT
I suspected that ACE washed their hands with NST and the article somewhat confirms it.
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115 posts
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Post by Sotongal on Jul 17, 2020 16:45:40 GMT
The word to describe ACE, Southampton City Council and the University of Southampton handling of NST Theatres is...disingenuous.
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5,159 posts
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Post by TallPaul on Jul 17, 2020 18:11:10 GMT
It becomes a good, well written article, but what Will Gompertz conveniently forgets to mention is that along with The Guardian and The Stage, the BBC also ran with the Covid angle on 6 May, so if they are at fault, his employer is too.
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Post by oxfordsimon on Jul 17, 2020 18:55:07 GMT
What an unholy mess.
We need urgent reform of arts funding in our country.
First to go must be ACE.
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115 posts
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Post by Sotongal on Jul 18, 2020 11:06:17 GMT
It becomes a good, well written article, but what Will Gompertz conveniently forgets to mention is that along with The Guardian and The Stage, the BBC also ran with the Covid angle on 6 May, so if they are at fault, his employer is too. Think they didn’t know what had been going on then - but journalists seem to be keener on asking how people how they feel than digging out facts and properly interviewing people these days. ACE, Southampton City Council and the University of Southampton have together obfuscated the facts on this closure. It suited them at the beginning to use Covid as something to hide behind. It would have been more obvious something odd was going on if it hadn’t coincided with Covid. On rereading the article a couple of times, the nuances of what went on become a bit more obvious... |
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