The theatre world has reacted angrily to the news that the new ACE Executive Director of Arts, Kim Evans, is to be paid in excess of £100,000 a year, more than any ACE staff member was paid in 1998, a third more than what is pad to the other three executive directors and four times more than the director of a medium scale regional theatre earns.
ACE defended the salary, saying that it was necessary to pay this kind of money to get the best person for the job. In an interview with The Stage, Executive Director of Communications Wendy Andrews said, "It says we are taking this really very seriously. It is sending out a very good message. We have the right person and we are willing to pay to get the right person."
In the last year restructuring at ACE has led to a reduction of 113 in the staff, from 320 to 207, a move aimed at saving £2m in administration costs.
Evans will be paid more than Chief Executive Peter Hewitt.
A new Usenet group, devoted entirely to theatre in the UK, was launched this week. Its charter is as follows:
uk.culture.arts.theatre is for the discussion of all matters pertaining to professional and amateur theatre in the UK. These would include management, promotion, direction, casting, acting, agents, stage management, plays, musicals, play writing and other topics. If traffic becomes heavy then subgroups may be created.
Advertising is forbidden, with these exceptions: Suppliers of goods and services relevant to professional and amateur theatre in the UK may post, not more than once every 3 months, an invitation of four lines or fewer, to visit their web site or request details. The subject line should begin "ADVERT " except for vacancy adverts, when it should begin "JOB " or if relevant "CASTING "
Encoded binaries (e.g. pictures, compressed files, etc.) are forbidden. Such material belongs on a web or ftp site to which a pointer may be posted. Cryptographic signatures (e.g. PGP) may be used where authentication is important and should be as short as possible.
Posts must be readable as plain text. HTML, RTF and similarly formatted messages are prohibited. To see how to make your news reader comply with this, read http//www.usenet.org.uk/ukpost.html.
Culture Secretary Chris Smith has not been open enough in his dealings with quangos, the Select Committee for Culture, Media and Sport has found. They said that he had ignored their earlier demands that all letters and dealings with the quangos - which include ACE - should be made public.
In general, however, the Select Committee (which is made up of members of all parties, under the chairmanship of Labour MP Gerard Kaufman) was supportive of the Culture Secretary, praising the restructuring of ACE, devolution and the appointment of Gerry Robinson as chair of AC.
Artisitc Director of the troubled Edinburgh Fringe venue, the Observer Assembly, William Burdett-Coutts, has cleared his outstanding debt to the City Council after a fund-raising campaign during this year's Fringe. It is understood that in excess of £1m was raised, making the Assembly the first ever Fringe venue to obtain £1m in funding.
Burdett-Coutts will be tendering for the management of the venue again next year.
Next year's Edinburgh Fringe could be missing four of its best-known venues. The lease on the Gilded Balloon II runs out this year and the site is to be developed for housing. Already a considerable amount of building work is going on around the venue.
Cafe Graffiti, best known as a music and comedy venue, is to be sold by the Ciy Council after the Hogmanay celebrations, and the future of the Bongo Club (a mainly music venue which also presents some theatre) is uncertain. Owners of the Palladium, used for the last two years by the Gilded Balloon, have confirmed that it will not be available next year. The Palladium is one of the bigger venues and, according to Fringe director Paul Gudgin, there is no other space of its size available.
In addition, the lease on the Gilded Balloon on Cowgate runs out in 2004 and artistic director Karen Koren has indicated that she may leave the building then. The Gilded Balloon, which includes a number of performance spaces and a popular cafe/bar, is one of the main centres of the Lighten Up comedy festival and has been moving increasingly into theatre in the last few years.
The West Yorkshire Playhouse's property store, converted into a 350-seater performance space for live music and theatre, opened on 2nd September. The premises are leased by property developers Yorkshire Design Developments but the theatre retains some input into the programming. The new venue, named The Wardrobe, will host a substantial part of the Leeds Jazz Festival this autumn.
Equity to target "appalling" working conditions
Equity is aclling for urgent talks with theatre managers after a survey revealed a "catalogue of horrors" backstage at many theatres. In the West End several theatres are infested with fleas, dressing rooms are dirty, toilets broken and conditions cramped. In some London Fringe venues there are not even any dressing rooms, with actors having to change in toilets, and when it rains, buckets have to be placed on the stage to catch drips.
Equity is calling for public funding to be withheld from venues which do not agree to make immediate improvements.