Application Pack Background information The Tricycle The Tricycle opened in a converted Foresters Hall on the Kilburn High Road, London, in 1980. Following a fire in 1987, the theatre was re-built and the front of house facilities were enhanced and expanded. In 1998 a new cinema building with additional facilities was completed alongside the theatre with the help of funds from the National Lottery. The Tricycle now comprises a 235 seat theatre, a 300 seat cinema, a large rehearsal studio (endowed by Sir Cameron Mackintosh), a visual arts studio for educational use - the Paintbox and two workshop spaces, the James Baldwin Studio and the August Wilson Creative Space, for educational and social inclusion workshops. There is an Art Gallery, presenting exhibitions of new work and which is well used by patrons of The Tricycle s Café/Bar. It is a flagship arts organisation in and funded by the London Borough of Brent and its only producing theatre. Brent, which has a population of just under 300,000 over 54% of whom are from black and ethnic minority communities, considers The Tricycle to number among its most important iconic assets which include Wembley Stadium and Wembley Arena. The Tricycle also enjoys an excellent relationship with Arts Council England and has recently been awarded the status of National Portfolio Organisation. Artistic Programme The Theatre The immediacy of The Tricycle s artistic response to the political and social environment has meant that the theatre can commission writers at short notice to write plays addressing topical themes of contemporary relevance such as the Dafur plays, or Guantanamo, and to pioneer its innovative Tribunal Plays such as the successful The Colour of Justice: Stephen Lawrence Inquiry and the more recent verbatim theatre play Tactical Questioning: Scenes from the Baha Mousa Inquiry. It also enables it to programme visiting productions that tackle topical issues such as The Traverse Theatre s Damascus. Visiting productions make up half the year of the theatre s annual programme and have included outstanding productions from abroad such as the recent Tiny Kushner from The Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis and plays from the Market Theatre Johannesburg. The 3-4 Tricycle produced productions each year account for the other half of the year. 1
As well as its matchless record in exposing injustice (The Guardian 2009) some of the other notable productions it has staged include the British premiere of The Great White Hope by Howard Sackler, the world premiere of Playboy of the West Indies by Mustapha Matura and most recently in 2009 its seven-hour trilogy The Great Game: Afghanistan. This Olivier Award nominated production premiered plays by Richard Bean, David Edgar, Amit Gupta, Ron Hutchinson Stephen Jeffreys, Abi Morgan, Ben Ockrent, J.T. Rogers, Simon Stephens, Colin Teevan and Joy Wilkinson and following a USA tour in 2010 returned to Washington to play two command performances for Pentagon staff, the military, policy-makers, aid-workers and guests. 2009 saw the success of a season of full-length plays by Roy Williams, Kwame Kwei-Armah and Bola Agbaje, entitled Not Black and White looking at 21 st Century London from a black perspective. Following the general election in 2010 The Tricycle presented Women Power and Politics, a season of twelve new plays which examined both the history of women s role in politics and the complex issues surrounding contemporary women s participation and role in government. The Tricycle also has a long track record of transferring its productions to London s West End including The Amen Corner by James Baldwin, the Fats Waller musical Ain t Misbehavin, Arthur Miller s The Price, Stones in His Pockets by Marie Jones, the still-running The 39 Steps and the recently transferred and highly acclaimed production of Arthur Miller s Broken Glass with Antony Sher. New Writing The theatre has an exceptional track record of commissioning new writing from a range of different writers based in the UK and from widely diverse cultural backgrounds. Writers such as Neil d Souza started out at The Tricycle, and the now well-established Roy Williams was given early opportunities at the theatre to develop his emerging talent. Its commitment to supporting new writing and writers is long established. Each year the theatre commissions between 8 and 25 writers a year, of which around 60% lead to productions. Additionally, it supports the Bloomberg Group of 20 new and emerging writers, many of whom go on to be commissioned by the theatre. The Cinema The Tricycle s cinema is programmed by Watermans cinema programmer. Last year it offered 994 screenings which played to over 43,000 people. These screenings represent a diverse range of films including the latest mainstream, arthouse, world cinema and family films. The cinema also recently produced two unique in-house film festivals as part of Women, Power and Politics and The Great Game: Afghanistan seasons, offering insightful documentaries and fictional films alongside panel discussions with filmmakers and experts. 2
The Tricycle attracts and engages with locally based audiences, and its screenings include collaborations with local community groups and London based organisations for special screenings and takes part in film festivals. Last year it was part of the Kilburn Film Festival, the BFI Times London Film Festival, the UK Jewish Film Festival and the Images of Black Women Festival. It also collaborated with the National Schools Film week and hosted the North West London Cine Club Final, screening films made by children in the region. Throughout the year The Tricycle presents a series of Q&A nights with high profile celebrities from the film and theatre world. These prove both popular and also generate valuable additional income for the theatre. The Gallery The Gallery, like the rest of The Tricycle, is open to the public all day, seven days a week. The Gallery provides a platform for contemporary artists, particularly from the Brent area, to showcase new and innovative visual art. It holds ten exhibitions a year, including one from its Artist in Residence, funded by David Cohen and John S Cohen foundations. As well hosting a range of visual arts activities in The Paintbox, mainly facilitated by the Tricycle s Artist in Residence, The Tricycle also supports visual arts awareness among young people, and helps to develop the skills of local artists through its education programme. Education The Tricycle has one of the largest primary, secondary and community education programmes of any London theatre, designed to open up the arts to all young people, regardless of their economic, cultural or social background. It has delivered performance, creative and visual arts activities for children and young people for over 30 years. In addition to its core programme of workshops for participants aged from 18 months to 26 years, youth theatre, student nights, children s festivals and children s and schools theatre shows The Tricycle hosts productions by companies that specialise in theatre for the very young. Other non-core activities, that rely exclusively on funds raised from the private sector and from Trust and Foundations, include projects that have addressed issues around peer pressure, weapon carrying and financial literacy for young people aged 11-16 years; around tackling debt-related poverty amongst young adults; specially devised projects for young people with special educational needs including those who are deaf and hearing impaired. Last year The Tricycle raised over 48k from external sources to support this work, and an additional 37k to support its Social Inclusion Programme. There were more than 32,000 attendances from Brent and the surrounding 3
area for Education Programme events. A further 14,000 people attended The Tricycle s social inclusion activities. The Tricycle s Social Inclusion Programme provides specially devised artsbased activities to targeted groups including young people aged 12-16 years newly arrived to the UK and not in mainstream education (Minding the Gap project), young people at risk of exclusion, young people from the Traveller community, looked-after children and older people aged 60+. As with the Education Programme, the vast majority of these projects cannot take place without raising significant additional funds largely from the private sector and Trusts and Foundations. Many of the Education Department s activities take place in partnership with a range of local community organisations including Brent Education Welfare Service, Brent Alternative Education Service, Brent Citizens Advice Bureau, Brent Ethnic Minority and Traveller Achievement Service, Brent Young Carers, Greenway Project and Network Stadium. All projects aim to stimulate young people, give them enhanced self-esteem and confidence, transferable skills and help them improve life skills by encouraging communication, co-operation, trust and team-working. Audiences In 2009/10 Tricycle events attracted over 153,000 attendances. Paid attendance at the theatre achieved 68% of capacity representing 55,286 attendances. Having affordable ticket pricing and a wide range of concessions is key to The Tricycle s accessibility policy, in which it takes great pride, and which it recognises is important to the Borough of Brent, one of the most deprived in London. The Tricycle is committed to attracting the widest possible audience for its work, particularly from amongst those people living in Brent. Its marketing strategy aims specifically to develop audiences of young people under 26 years of age, people from the local community particularly those from Irish, Black and Asian communities, current one-time attenders of all ages and backgrounds. The Tricycle subsidiary companies The Tricycle also has two subsidiary companies for which the Artistic Director & Chief Executive has lead responsibility: Tricycle Screen Ltd, and Tricycle London Productions. Tricycle Screen is the commercial arm of The Tricycle in-house activities, and Tricycle London Productions is its commercial exploitation company. Fund-raising 4
The Tricycle has an outstanding track record in raising additional funds. Last year alone, 583k was raised through philanthropic giving and fund-raising which includes 85k that was spent on education and social inclusion projects. The Tricycle s success in fund-raising is in large part due to the hard-work and skills of its Artistic Director aided by the theatre s Development Department. Additionally, the theatre benefits from a highly experienced, committed and proactive development committee. Grant-in-aid The Tricycle s principal funder is the Arts Council of England (ACE). In 2010/11 it received a grant as a regularly funded organisation of 770,021 which was reduced in line with all funded organisation by 6.9% to bring its funding for 2011/12 to 725,315. In January this year, The Tricycle applied for National Portfolio Status which it achieved. However, the additional funds it applied for, prompted by historic underfunding and the loss of an ACE Sustain grant amounting to 361k over two years, were not awarded. Like so many other arts organisations The Tricycle received only standstill funding for 2012/13 with inflationary increases for the subsequent two years which in real terms amounted to a cut of 11%. In the Summer of 2011, The Tricycle s other main revenue funder, the London Borough of Brent announced that despite having to make extensive cuts to its budget it would continue to fund the theatre, although its present subsidy of 218,000 would decrease in 2011/12 by 20k. The Tricycle is a major and national resource. The challenge now is to secure new and more diverse streams of income as well as continue to make the case for increased subsidy so it can continue to be, in the words of the January 2011 leader in The Times Britain s leading political playhouse. Board of Trustees The current Board of Trustees meets four times a year and consists of 17 people with a range of skills, expertise and experience. The Board has recently agreed to reduce its number to 14 early in 2012. Full details of the Board are attached on the following page. Staff The Artistic Director/Chief Executive is supported by The Tricycle s General Manager who, while line-managed by the Artistic Director & Chief Executive, also reports to the Board at its meetings on the administration, financial management and general operation of the theatre. An organisational chart can be found on the last page of this document. TRICYCLE THEATRE CO LTD 5
PATRONS Sir Cameron Mackintosh Jon Snow BOARD OF DIRECTORS Baz Bamigboye Fiona Calnan Kay Ellen Consolver Lucy Freeman Tim Foster Sarah Gavron Barbara Harrison Pam Jordan Jenny Jules Journalist and writer for the Daily Mail. Appointed CEO of UK Specialist Hospitals Ltd in 2007 having moved to healthcare from the financial services sector where she worked for Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein as CFO for Corporate Finance & Equity Capital Markets and Head of Financial and Regulatory Reporting. Former executive with Mobil Oil Corporation, is the founder of KLN Productions, a London based theatrical production company, specialising in new writing and innovative interpretations of classics. Researcher at Amnesty International on Nigeria and Ghana. Formerly Education Officer at the Tricycle, coordinating the Social Inclusion Programme. Principal of Foster Wilson Architects. He was the Architect for all stages of the Tricycle s development, including the original 1980 conversion, the re-build after the fire in 1987 and the cinema extension in 1998. He is a member of the Council of the Association of British Theatre Technicians and chairs their Theatre Planning Committee. Film Director. She has an MA in film studies from Edinburgh University and then worked for the BBC for three years. She went on to study feature film directing at the National Film and Television School in London. She was nominated for the BAFTA Award and BIFA Award for Best Director in 2007 for BRICK LANE. Former Chief Executive Officer of the Girls Day School Trust, now freelance International Education Consultant, and Trustee of the New Schools Network. Former Councillor representative for London Borough of Brent & Chair of Board the College of North West London. Actor. Started with the Tricycle Youth Theatre and has since appeared in several productions at the Tricycle. 6
Hilary Kirkham Judy Lever Jonathan Levy (CHAIR) Jeremy Lewison Janet Mokades Andree Molyneux Philippe Sands, QC Simone Warner Jon Catty Cllr Ann John Cllr Mary Arnold Cllr Reg Colwill Business Consultant. Freelance journalist, author and documentary Producer/Director for Thames TV before founding "Blooming Marvellous", the maternity wear specialist. Now Executive Chairman of Collier Campbell, a fabric design company. Accountant. Property developer and Director of a number of Property companies. Independent curator and art consultant, art historian. Former Tate Director of Collections. Recently stood down as Her Majesty s Inspector, Office for Standards in Education. Now freelance Education Consultant. Freelance television producer. Formerly BBC Producer - Drama. Amongst others produced the film DANCING IN THE DARK. Currently Artistic Director of PAWS (Public Awareness of Science & Engineering) and visiting lecturer at University of Westminster. British lawyer at Matrix Chambers, and is Professor of International Law at University College London. Formerly worked in Theatre and Film as actor/director. Qualified Psychotherapist, and works with refugees abroad. OBSERVERS Auditor for the Tricycle. Council representative London Borough of Brent. Council representative London Borough of Brent. Alternate to Ann John. Council representative London Borough of Brent. 7
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