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Dateline: 9th December, 2003 Gala's Future Looks Brighter, Says Council In an unexpected U-turn Durham City Council has announced that the Gala Theatre's future is now looking brighter, even though it needed £460,000 in subsidy for the first seven months of the current financial year. The budgeted shortfall for the first six months was £200,000 and just last week the council announced that a full investigation is to be made into the theatre's management systems. In June the council had announced that the Gala was meeting its financial targets. October was a particularly bad month, with shows failing to sell and one pulling out at the last moment. However the theatre's first panto, which opened last Saturday (5th December) is selling well, with over £100,000 already taken at the box office. According to Brian Spears, the council's deputy chief executive, major changes are being made in the way in which the theatre operates. The theatre will now book shows on a box office split basis (where the theatre and the incoming company take a fixed percentage of the box office "take"), rather than on a guarantee basis (in which the theatre guarantees the company a fixed sum, regardless of the ticket sales). "We've been putting too much on," Mr Spears went on, "rather than looking at issues of quality. Now we'll put on a show twice a week rather than four or five times." The bar and the cinema already profitable, he added, and he expects the theatre to turn around by the end of the financial year. A board of councillors and council officers will oversee the theatre and the council is considering the possibility of bringing in consultants to keep them on the right track. There will also be a bigger focus on marketing. A review of staffing is also under way but, he says, there is no threat to jobs at the present time. Please note that all three Archive indices are very long and will therefore take some time to download.
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