Development on upper gallery of Kings Theatre

Transcript

00:00My name is Richard Pearce and I'm the CEO of the King's Theatre and we're in this gorgeous

00:05theatre now, which we're extremely fortunate to have in Portsmouth, dating back to 1907.

00:12A Frank Matcham theatre, one of about 20 remaining in the country, and we're very fortunate that

00:18it's the sort of size of theatre that can accommodate the bigger West End shows that

00:23come on tour and the bigger acts that need the number of seats that we've got here.

00:28I mean, changes in the theatre, when I joined the theatre five years ago, which was just

00:31prior to the pandemic, we were in a position that we weren't actually creating any money

00:38so we were relying on grant income and funding to actually keep the theatre going and there's

00:45lots of the theatre that has not been well maintained over the last 20 or 30 years.

00:50Since the pandemic, a number of changes have happened.

00:53The biggest game changer for this theatre is that we have started to do our own productions,

00:59primarily of the pantomime.

01:02So now that we produce the pantomime, we also, at the time of the pandemic, decided as we

01:06were coming out of the pandemic, that there was very little opportunity for amateur performers

01:12and therefore we decided to put on our own show of the Titanic.

01:15That has now grown and this year we put on Grease, the prior year we put on Chilli Chilli

01:21Bang Bang, we're doing Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in October and we're doing Annie next

01:25year, which is giving great opportunities to local people, local amateurs to actually

01:29come perform on our stage in front of audiences of up to 1,400 people and by changing that

01:36model such that the money comes to the theatre rather than going to outside producers, we've

01:40now got ourselves in a position that we actually are creating annual surpluses and can invest

01:45huge amounts of money back into the theatre.

01:49This where I'm sitting now is a good example of that, so up on this level we previously

01:53had bench seating, which was pretty uncomfortable, and then over the last three months we've

01:58actually put in 200 new seats up here in the gallery with great legroom and a wonderful

02:05view of the auditorium, which just means that now we can attract people to come up here,

02:09which really takes, I'd say previously the capacity of this theatre was more like 1,100

02:13because people shied away from coming up here, but now we're a capacity of 1,400 and we've

02:18got shows that are coming right up into the gallery and regularly sounding out.

02:24We like to think that people have actually moved from outside to come, so we're still

02:27filling out down below, but yeah, it's been a challenge actually getting people to come

02:32up here because there is 84 steps, so I appreciate for some people it is difficult to get up

02:36into the gallery, but once they come up here and actually sit down and enjoy the seats

02:40and enjoy the view, and equally the acoustics are just as good up here because of the way

02:45that Matt's built this theatre as they are down there, and people love it up here, it's

02:49a great atmosphere.