CHAIRMAN’S REPORT TO THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING ON 8^th NOVEMBER 2003

It is, of course, only eight months since the last AGM, on 8^th March 2003, but it was the decision of the directors to bring the date of the AGM forward so that it was nearer to the end of the theatre’s financial year, the end of July, and therefore discussion at the meeting would be more relevant to the current situation.

Having succeeded Lord Petre as chairman in March, I have found him a hard act to follow, but we are very pleased that he has maintained his connection with the theatre as our President, attending several events and being a source of valued counsel. He will also be hosting the celebration of the theatre’s tenth anniversary on 30^th November. I find it hard to believe that the theatre has existed for ten years and that it is nearly twenty five years since we started planning and raising funds to build it.

As you will hear from the treasurer, our financial situation is very satisfactory, showing a surplus for the year after putting away our usual £l500 for major repairs and redecoration. Inside and out, the building is in an excellent state, thanks to the efforts of our staff, David Zelly and Mark Reed, backed up by the technical team and the other willing volunteers, among whom John Dobson is pre-eminent, who give up time to paint and repair as necessary, and who excelled themselves during the summer break. The result is a theatre which is an attractive and welcoming place to visit and perform in. The portakabin dressing rooms are as good as we can make them, and the new carpet leading to them is an improvement, but of course they need to be replaced by a purpose-built, permanent building attached to the theatre itself.

Negotiations with Essex County Council to extend our lease, to cover the land at present occupied by the portakabin and garage, have been slow. David Fairman has had much correspondence with County officers, and while the matter is agreed in principle, it appears that extending the lease would involve the Trust in considerable expense, and this before we can even start fund-raising for the building itself. David will be happy to answer questions later in the meeting.

Lord Petre mentioned at the last AGM the projected building work at the Hermit and Hermitage, which involves opening up the front wall to give better pedestrian access to the site. This is now going ahead, and will make the theatre entrance, with its attractive awnings, more visible from the road. We hope that the work will be done in January, and that it will reduce the number of Brentwood residents who say, “I didn’t know there was a theatre in Brentwood”. Our profile will be raised further by the theatre notice board to be put up in the High Street. After many meetings with the Borough Council officers, permission has been given for this to be erected on the pavement in front of NEXT. We hope that it will not be too long before the board actually goes up, together with an electricity supply, and we hope that much of the cost will be met by hirers who will use it regularly.

Good press publicity also raises the profile of the theatre, and we are grateful to the Brentwood Gazette for the coverage they give us, particularly for the ‘Brents’, the awards they sponsor each year. We must also express our warm thanks to Mary Redman for her championship of the theatre at every opportunity she has. We also appreciate the inclusion of the theatre programme in ‘Culture Bites’, published in the Borough Council’s newspaper, and the interest shown in the theatre by last year’s and this year’s Mayors and Deputy Mayors, who have all seen a number of productions.

We have had some excellent productions and performances this year. Most were by hirers who use us regularly, but we have welcomed others new to us. For the second year running we have hosted the Havering Drama Festival, and they have booked us for next year also. The new regular hirers include the Helen O’Grady Drama Academy, and the existing ones include the young people of the Brentwood Performing Arts Group, who recently reprised very successfully the show they mounted here nearly ten years ago, ‘School Journey to the Centre of the Earth’. We have some popular productions still to come this year, culminating in our own Christmas musical for children, David Wood’s ‘Nutcracker Sweet’. His ‘Meg and Mog’, which we presented last year, was acclaimed as an excellent show, and as a result, bookings for ‘Nutcracker’ are very promising. It is fully booked for schools’ week, and tickets for public performances are doing well. It should be a financial, as well as an artistic, success. Civic Night, which will be attended by the Mayor, Mayoress and Lord Petre, is on l7th December, and we hope to see trustees, together with children or grandchildren, on that night. On the subject of audiences, we are actually on target to have had more people to the theatre by the end of December than we had last year by the end of February, and we are fully booked by hirers for 2004.

We co-operated with the Youth Service in the Brentwood Blues and Beyond Festival on 19-21 September, when bands played in both the Hermit and the theatre, and which gave us some excellent bar profits. Relationships between the Youth Service staff and the theatre staff are very good indeed, with informal meetings over lunch each week and regular formal business meetings, at which matters affecting the whole site are discussed. I should like to thank Gaynor Sproul, Jeff Merrifield, Paul Green and all their staff for their help and co-operation. There is some overlap of staff, in that Mark Reed, employed as Administrator by us for three days a week, now works at the Hermit for the remaining two.

It only remains for me to thank all those connected with the theatre: firstly, Jenny Jobbins, who after nine years as Company Secretary is standing down. She has been a pillar of strength to the directors, and we are grateful to her for staying on to initiate Lesley Balkham, our minutes secretary, in the complexities of Company Secretaryship. We thank Lesley also for her commitment and hard work.

We are very grateful to David Zelly and Mark Reed for everything they have done for the theatre. They work many more hours than we pay them for, and are constantly seeking to improve the service to hirers and audiences alike; we cannot thank them enough for their dedication. Thanks also go to the technical team, particularly Steve Bearpark and Scott Norman, whose expertise is so valuable, to the friendly and efficient bar staff and to the many volunteers who work front of house and in other capacities, such as maintenance.

Special mention must be made of Sandra Tipper, who has been working in the office one day a week, covering box office calls when the Tourist Information is closed, and whose work as Schools Liaison Officer has resulted in such a good response to ‘Nutcracker Sweet.’

The trust directors have met five times since March, and have been very hard-working and supportive. Rob West became a director at the last AGM, and we subsequently co-opted Peter Mayo, who had a significant input into the building of the theatre. We welcome the expertise of both these new directors, who are already contributing greatly to the work of the trust. Alan Ablewhite, our deputy chairman, has now fully retired, and has been helping in the theatre office one day a week, as well as wielding a paint brush very effectively during the August break, and I thank him for his support. The sub-committee comprising Sam White, Rob West, Glenda Abbott and Jackie Bier have met many times to discuss our business plan, which we hope to have in place soon, and David Fairman, with the help of Peter Mayo, David Zelly and Alan Ablewhite, has worked hard on the building project. I thank them all for the time and effort they have put in, and also thank Joan Scott, director representing Brentwood Arts Council, for her, and BAC’s, support.

Above all, we thank Richard Lambourne, our treasurer, for his expert care of our finances; he provides very full figures not only for directors’ meetings, but for the monthly theatre operations meetings, which he also attends. His prudent but sympathetic stewardship of our funds is beyond praise.

I can assure trustees that with people like those I have mentioned, and all those there is no time to mention, the Trust is in safe hands, and the future, while it may have its difficulties in relation to the dressing rooms building project, is looking bright.