"INSERT FOUR CANDLES JOKE HERE..."
My Leith Theatre-versary
As a year comes to an end, I think it is normal to become a little reflective – and this year, as the clocks swung into December 2022, I realised that it was also my four-year Leith Theatre-versary! We like to celebrate all our wins at Leith Theatre, no matter how small, as we relish the journey on the way to the fully refurbished destination, so I could hardly let a four years celebration pass without doffing an LT blog cap to it!
It’s not only my work anniversary, but it is also a really interesting time for the venue as we plan ahead to our next steps. Only this year we celebrated 90 years of Leith Theatre and library and what an honour it is to play my part in its history; I am so proud of how far we’ve come as an organisation during the little slice of the Theatre’s life that I have been in post for. It has been a rollercoaster ride for sure, where our business journey has had to weather not only all of the wild external uncertainties that are affecting the country; at the same time we have to manage and protect the internal uncertainties that are all part of this majestic, but decaying venue.
Four really does seems to be the magic LT number at the moment – we are now a mighty staff team of four (Lynn, Anna, Douglas and Gordon); we work to four pillars of strategic development; and it is currently approx. 4 degrees inside the building (I am writing from a chilly office space wrapped in a blanket with my new BFF, the hot water bottle).
Back in 2018 my very first meeting was a presentation by Collective Architecture who walked us through a 2018 Feasibility Study about the building. This was a product of its time and by its nature had to use some guess-work and assumptions. Now that we have had a full raft of building surveys and health-checks carried out in 2021, we have an updated Feasibility Study 2022 with a few more knowns. This building “roadmap” now guides future plans and renovation works and Collective Architecture have been on site with us many, many times!
Of course major works such as the new electrical sub-station bringing power to the main stage in time for August EIF in 2019 is an obvious highlight but so many of the tiny maintenance improvements across the years have each made an impact and given us a feeling of another step forward. Turning on a tap and having hot water is just one example of a little essential joy. (Told you we celebrate our wins!)
Community and wellbeing have always been at the heart of Leith Theatre and are the very essence of our charitable aims as we strive to restore and preserve the building for the public at large. Even during the pandemic, we nurtured and hosted some incredible partnerships and worked with others for the good of the community to do what we could against the odds. Supporting Empty Kitchens Full Hearts to fight food poverty in the city during Covid, and housing so many volunteers who gave their time and commitment to cook and deliver 1.3m meals from our kitchen, was one of our most important and one I feel very proud of.
More recently, we were so pleased to open our doors and welcome folks inside to see our Sarah Muirhead painting of the recently passed Queen of Leith, Mary Moriarty. It was lovely to share tales about Mary over tea and biscuits. I regret that I didn’t record her spontaneous piano playing in the Main Auditorium when she dropped in for a pre-pandemic visit! To note, we have temporarily relocated Mary’s portrait and book of condolence to be with our neighbours at Leith Library to allow more people to see and enjoy this wonderful painting and pay their respects to Mary.
Of course, there is nothing that ticks our Wellbeing Box more than being out in the front garden, working with our gardening volunteers. Some may say the best part is the tea and cakes afterwards but I truly can’t wait until Spring to see the fruits of our recent bulb planting efforts; almost 200 if we’re counting!
Not surprisingly, it’s the creative and cultural programme that is always the most exciting and it has been a delight to have our creative communities in the building where we have played host to the some of the finest of local to international filmmakers, musicians, artists and cultural collaborators. Even in the depths of the pandemic and under strict Covid protocols, we were wrapped up at the back of the main auditorium watching over shoulders and gazing into camera screens as sound and lighting filled the venue. Of course it wasn’t just bands and music makers, filming brings with it a whole spectrum of creative industries expertise and I never tire of the bustle of backstage spaces cluttered with costume and make-up departments, production teams and edit suites. Of course having Selkie Productions and NTS in the venue shooting the feature film ‘The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ was a cherry on the film and TV cake but so many others - from BBC’s wonderful team at ‘The Bidding Room’ (can’t wait to see us on TV in the New Year!) to being a tiny part of Amazon Prime’s ‘The Rig’, out Jan 6.
Some of the most memorable days have been some of the smaller scale ones where a band might be in recording for a day or two before heading off on tour. There is something so comforting about hearing live music in the auditorium as we work hard to be able to bring a full-time programme back to the stage in future. It reaffirms our ambitions and we follow the sound like the bisto kids advert of old, keen to soak it all in.
Our networks have grown enormously in the last four years as we spread our influence and visibility across the city and it’s lovely to realise that I have laid down roots and built my own network in the city whilst sharing and connecting with the Leith Theatre story.
Four years in and I am ready for the next phase of this building’s journey. We have a little more business development to do and I need to keep my eye on the long term prize but suddenly conversations are moving closer to refurbishment and safety works and it is so satisfying to see how far we have come. We have some big goals mapped out for 2023 so let’s see what can be achieved! I’m so looking forward to seeing who we can meet and share our journey with on the way but one thing is for sure, it’s going to be exciting!
Do look out for our Heritage Tour opportunities where I would very much like to welcome you to join the team for a short tour and a celebration of our journey so far. Here’s to the next 4 years!
Very best wishes, Lynn.
Lynn Morrison
Chief Exec