The First 40 Years: 1992 - 1993

This is part of a series of articles looking at the first 40 years of the Stephen Joseph Theatre (1955 to 1995) from the perspective of the theatre's Archive. The articles were first published in the SJT Circular newsletter.

1992 - 1993: Fundraising For The Future

by Simon Murgatroyd

When writing about the Stephen Joseph Theatre during the first half of the 1990s, there really is only one major topic which dominated the theatre. The move to the Odeon and the fund-raising and work to enable this.

As we’ve previously noted, in 1990 the lease to Scarborough’s former Odeon was secured by the ADMirable partnership of Alan Ayckbourn, Lord Downe and Charles ‘Mac’ McCarthy. Compared to the task ahead, that was the simple part.

Now the Odeon had to be transformed into an ambitious, state-of-the-art theatre and the money found to fund this conversion.

As negotiations for the lease took place in 1990, Alan Ayckbourn spoke about his hopes for the theatre and how Harry Osborne of the architects Osborne Christmas Associates had already been hired to design the building. Rather optimistically he announced the company could be in its new home within two years and that the cost of the conversion would be £3.5m.

Raising that amount of money was always going to be a challenge and Alan hoped for two to three major sponsors to help cover the cost alongside encouraging local people to contribute to the scheme.

Ironically, the official fund-raising for the SJT would not be launched until 1993 - some time after Alan’s original hoped for opening date.. The first major contribution to the theatre was £200,000 from British Telecom, given as a goodwill gesture to the town following a fire which destroyed the town’s telephone exchange in 1990. This was followed by £500,000 from the Foundation for Sport and the Arts in 1992.

By August 1992, Alan had pushed the revised opening date of summer 1993 back to 1995 and the cost of the building had risen to an estimated £4m; in interviews he also admitted that finding major sponsors and funding was proving to be more difficult than expected in the current financial climate.

Although it had previously suggested that the theatre would only launch the public fund- raising campaign when two-thirds of the target had been reached, the decision was made to launch the fund-raising appeal earlier presumably to both raise awareness of and kick- start the appeal

The fund-raising appeal took place over two dates with the appeal being initially launched at Scarborough Town Hall on 24 May. Here the plans for the theatre were confirmed and publicly announced along with its new price-tag of £4.35m; it was also confirmed that £2m had already been raised.

A notable part of the fund-raising launch was a poem written by Alan and read, on the day, by the theatre’s Associate Director, Malcolm Hebden.

A WORD FROM A MEMBER OF THE MISINFORMED MINORITY

I've never been one for the theatre I've never been there in my life.
I'm not one for drama and suchlike - I leave all that stuff to the wife.
I much prefer drinking to theatre
Theatrics go over my head.
While she sits there through Becket and Pinter - I sit in the Shakespeare instead.
I did see one show by Lloyd Webber - Les Miserable thing - what's its name? -
That's more what I'd term entertainment Not theatre, it's hardly the same.
By theatre I mean all that talking.
And actors declaiming in tights.
And Mary and Joseph in cowsheds And angels and shepherds with lights.
While punters in bow ties and ball gowns Are downing a quick G and T,
And laughing at jokes in Old English. That sort of thing isn't for me.
I like a good laugh, that's what I like - A thriller, a show with a band.
A drama with plenty of passion,
A story that I understand.
You always get that on the telly, Remember some shows that they've had - They're brilliant them, those commercials, And some of the programmes aren't bad.
So open your theatre by all means,
Thank the Lord, this here country's still free - But until you do shows more like Brookside, You won't get a visit from me.

A key part of the fund-raising campaign was contributions from the general public and, to that end, a series of opportunities to ‘buy’ aspects of the theatre were offered. For £25, the public could ‘buy’ a square foot of the theatre. For £1,250, a seat could be named after the contributor. From here there was the opportunity to name or sponsor various areas of the building such as the two auditoria and the name of the building itself - which was priced at £800,000.

This was probably disingenuous as apparently the name of the theatre had already been settled and Alan Ayckbourn paid £400,000 to ensure it remained the Stephen Joseph Theatre; suggestions it should be named the Alan Ayckbourn Theatre were quickly quashed by the playwright who said it was “the sure sign of a tombstone.”

This was followed in June by a more star-driven event when a second launch took place at the National Theatre, during which Alan said he hoped Scarborough could become “the Stratford of the North.”

One of the key items held in the Bob Watson Archive is two sheets autographed by the many people who attended the London event with famous faces from stage and screen alongside theatre staff (our own press officer Jeannie Swales has always been amused by the fact her signature is sandwiched between the unlikely combination of composer Stephen Sondheim and film director Michael Winner!)

With 40% of the fund-raising target raised, work officially began on the conversion in August 1993 by Shepherd Design & Build. The phased opening was set for July 1994 with the opening of the Studio Theatre and restaurant with the rest of the building expected to open six months later.

However, it soon became obvious this was both extremely optimistic and impractical. By June, it was announced Phase One of the building was taking longer than expected and would be delayed to February 1995 with Phase Two postponed until another £1m had been raised.

Fund-raising events began to be organised over the next two years, which notably included a concert by the comedian Victoria Wood, Maureen Lipman bringing her show Re-Joyce! to the Spa Theatre, a village fete at Wykeham Abbey and a Lindsay String Quarter concert. Theatre-goers of the period will also probably remember Malcolm Hebden taking ton the stage after every performance with his bucket appealing for contributions from audiences!

By 1995, it was announced the cost of the theatre had risen to £5.25m and that, optimistically, it could open by December 1995. The theatre was still approximately 2.25m short of its target. And the question was, where would the rest of the funding come from? Where indeed.

Article by and copyright of Simon Murgatroyd. Please do not reproduce this article without permission of the copyright holder.