Leaky Buckets & Big Leaps: an update from our Chief Exec.
Fresh off zoom after being invited to be part of today’s panel session with Theatres Trust, I am sitting back with a cup of tea on what is my first working from home day since the start of the new year.
Today’s event was the official online launch and announcement of the venues who remain on, or are new additions, to the Theatres at Risk Register for the coming year. Leith Theatre has been part of the register since 2016 and remains on the list this year alongside only 2 other Scottish theatres and a total of 41 venues across the UK.
The timing is not lost on me as I consider where we are as an organisation on our business journey.
We have started this year with a bang. The National Theatre of Scotland (NTS) and Selkie Productions inhabit every corner of our building with an inspirational mix of creative industries and expertise bursting out of every room (more on that in a separate piece!) This all means that later this month we will show the world how this beautiful semi-derelict building can also be home to the most incredible and innovative hybrid production… but for now, it’s all about the Hyde to our Jekyll; or is it the Jekyll to our Hyde?
Today I don’t need to think about production solutions, inductions or building safety. I don’t need to find distribution boards, or water, lighting solutions or consider access – right here today on screen I have been surrounded by stories of renewal, restoration and regeneration. Partners and peers who just like me, manage their time between leaky buckets and business plans, funding applications and thermals; each venue a treasure and a challenge.
Behind the eyes looking back from the screen, I loved the support and the breadth of expertise, all connecting and sharing tales which resonate with our own experiences at Leith Theatre. Maybe we’re not out here all alone? Maybe this isn’t such a crazy job after all?
My LT colleagues joined online to listen and afterwards we briefly revelled and exclaimed together as we shared and celebrated other people’s successes. “Small steps, big leaps,” was one stand-out quote which we all liked, probably because it describes much of our progress too.
We have many challenges ahead as a business and as a fragile and semi-derelict building. Yes, we remain on the Theatres at Risk Register for now, but we have taken many small steps and big leaps since our inclusion last year. And so today as I work from home, I am just soaking up our very own Leith Theatre Jekyll and Hyde story. We will soon shine a spotlight from our stage, and beam live to cinema screens across the UK. Our little Theatre, Live in Leith, telling its own story of survival; a story of contrasts – the challenges and the wins. And we very much celebrate each and every one of those wins.
Lynn