Opera House to close for 3 months

rebel girl 15

Eoin English, Irish Examiner wrote:

ONE of the country’s largest theatres is to close for three months as part of a cost-cutting survival plan.

The board of Cork Opera House has also warned staff of wage cuts and redundancies if it is to survive as a viable business.

Draft accounts show it recorded a loss of roughly €300,000 for the year ended March 2010. The board has been advised it must cut costs by €500,000 from a total spend of €3.5 million last year.

Staff were told yesterday that the doors of the 1,000-seat venue will be closed from July 4 to September 29 to help stem the losses. But the theatre will have to reduce costs further through a combination of "significant payroll reductions" and redundancies.

The decisions are based on recommendations following a review of the theatre’s books by Deloitte and Touche.

The theatre’s interim executive director, Padraic Liston, who has been in place for eight days, said he supports the outcome of that review. He briefed staff yesterday afternoon.

He said the cost-saving measures are essential to address the financial situation.

"The summer is traditionally not a profitable period," he said. "The losses would have been compounded, which led the board to take the unpalatable decision to close."

The theatre’s 31 permanent staff will be fully briefed on the possible pay cuts and redundancies within the next two months.

SIPTU official Paul Depuis, who represents most of the full-time staff, said they were shocked by the news.

"We have sought a meeting with management, which should take place next week," he said.

Mr Liston stressed the theatre’s management team is working to address the financial crisis and he said he is confident it will be business as usual after the temporary closure.

"The board is actively engaged with turning this around," he said. "We must stop the losses, reduce costs, restructure and look at revenue sources from shows, and funding to develop a sustainable model."

Board chairman Damien Wallace said he is confident the tough measures will ensure the viability of the company.

"We are grateful for the support of Cork City Council. Without it we would be in a difficult situation. It has allowed us to move forward," he said.

The board has set up a task force to engage with promoters and attract quality acts, and a sub-finance committee has been set up to review, among other things, ticket prices, he added.

Events that will be honoured during the temporary closure include Daniel O’Donnell concerts and an Aprés Match show.

The theatre will reopen in September with Fame: The Musical and with a full autumn and winter schedule, including the traditional Christmas pantomime.

Yesterday’s announcement follows the sanctioning last week by the city council, the theatre’s largest shareholder, of a €1m interest-free loan.

thats sad to hear - hope they manage to get around it

excuse the silly question but when there is no act on what exactly does the place open for ?

Cavehill Red

Ah, Delight and Touch, the expensive 'consultants' who always propose cuts and redundancies to fund their own payday.

glanman

what I don't understand is that the opera house got this loan but the kino couldn't get the same backing...

evilivor

RoverJames wrote: »

excuse the silly question but when there is no act on what exactly does the place open for ?

Cafe staff, box office, pr, marketing, and management all work whether or not there is a show in or not. Backstage crew work for weeks in advance of their own shows and for days for get-ins of rentals. The theatre operates a full-time technical crew as it is a full time venue.

hmm...

From what I've hear they've cancelled a number of local shows that were due to be taking place early July....

Despite debts, the OH must realise that they are a theatre and not just a venue. This could be a very worrying time for the arts in Cork

rebel.ranter

Is it just that it is not a big enough venue or that the catchment area is not bug enough to attract a enough of a crowd for the current capacity?

The Grand Canal theatre in Dublin has just opened & seems to gave gotten off to a good start, it has a bigger catchment & more capacity. Perhaps you could go too big as well & that could end up being counter productive.

Outkast_IRE

Im always checking whats on in the opera house and in the last 3 years only 3 gigs have caught my interest .
Gigs that used to be in the opera house seem to have gone to the savoy or other venues in the last two years , christy moore being one example he always had a opera house gig , now hes down the marquee instead .

To me it seems they are losing a battle to get more lucrative events , losing out to the savoy, cork school of music , the marquee to an extent.

outsourced_ire

Outkast_IRE wrote: »

Im always checking whats on in the opera house and in the last 3 years only 3 gigs have caught my interest .
Gigs that used to be in the opera house seem to have gone to the savoy or other venues in the last two years , christy moore being one example he always had a opera house gig , now hes down the marquee instead .

To me it seems they are losing a battle to get more lucrative events , losing out to the savoy, cork school of music , the marquee to an extent.

I couldn't agree more. I'm constantly on the lookout to see if anyone decent is doing anything there. When they do get the big acts they seem to do well so maybe herein lies the problem. In the past two years I've only been to one act out of maybe two or three that caught my eye. They're just not getting in the good shows.

Outkast_IRE

I have been to dara o briain twice there and Neil Delamere once , in the last few years all sold out good bit before dates .
There are a few comedians doing gigs all around the country and they dont come to cork that often and when they do its only the odd one in the opera house , good comedy gigs sell tickets like mad, they should team up with a few other venues and try and get a comedy festival in Cork going during the Summer months which they say perform so poorly.

For example last year i went to Rodrigo y gabriella in cork school of music, it was sold out , this gig could of easily sold out the opera house so why arent they chasing them ??

Faith

Outkast_IRE wrote: »

I have been to dara o briain twice there and Neil Delamere once , in the last few years all sold out good bit before dates .
There are a few comedians doing gigs all around the country and they dont come to cork that often and when they do its only the odd one in the opera house , good comedy gigs sell tickets like mad, they should team up with a few other venues and try and get a comedy festival in Cork going during the Summer months which they say perform so poorly.

For example last year i went to Rodrigo y gabriella in cork school of music, it was sold out , this gig could of easily sold out the opera house so why arent they chasing them ??

The comedy festival is a great idea actually.

Rodrigo y Gabriella played in the Opera House before Christmas.

Outkast_IRE

Faith wrote: »

The comedy festival is a great idea actually.

Rodrigo y Gabriella played in the Opera House before Christmas.

Oh ya remeber that now actually , i was at the gig earlier in the year so didnt go but you get the point .
Ya if they are complaining about lean months then go out and do something about it , its the summer the best time for festivals of any sort.

They could easily sort that spiegel tent things out in front of the opera house for smaller gigs during a festival!!
They need to forget these auditors and get out here and start putting together something special to draw people in and make it worthwhile .

hmm...

I think people are forgetting that the OH is a THEATRE and not just a VENUE.....

It can't and shouldn't just put on gigs etc imo

Some of the acts mentioned, I imagine would have gone to the OH if it wasn't so expensive to hire......but it's a very expensive venue to hire

Outkast_IRE

Everyone knows its a theater but lets be honest the way they are going to balence the books is by getting competitive and getting more sell outs gigs and getting people in the door .
I dont know the costs of the Opera House versus other similar sized venues but they should be getting the acts in and selling more tickets.

Every additional night they have a show on there will have a big impact between bar sales and shop sales they will all help balance the books.

For anyone that actively follows where gigs are etc its plain to see that venues such as savoy and cork school of music are being used more often now and the opera house needs to step up in order to survive.

hmm...

Outkast_IRE wrote: »

Everyone knows its a theater but lets be honest the way they are going to balence the books is by getting competitive and getting more sell outs gigs and getting people in the door .
I dont know the costs of the Opera House versus other similar sized venues but they should be getting the acts in and selling more tickets.

Every additional night they have a show on there will have a big impact between bar sales and shop sales they will all help balance the books.

For anyone that actively follows where gigs are etc its plain to see that venues such as savoy and cork school of music are being used more often now and the opera house needs to step up in order to survive.

That is exactly what they are doing. They are now only interested in attracting commercial acts who will pay 8000 a night to rent the theatre.

The problem is they now have no interest in investing in theatre productions. If they continue down the route they are going they will loose Arts Council funding and that would be disasterous for Cork

Papa_Lazarou

As others have said ive only ever seen a handful of things that i would remotely interested in seeing there but even at that it always seemed to be quite expensive.

Outkast_IRE

Papa_Lazarou wrote: »

As others have said ive only ever seen a handful of things that i would remotely interested in seeing there but even at that it always seemed to be quite expensive.

Tickets for the comedy gigs were always the 25-30 mark ... Thats quite high but it was for dara o briain , so was worth it .

hmm...

Papa_Lazarou wrote: »

As others have said ive only ever seen a handful of things that i would remotely interested in seeing there but even at that it always seemed to be quite expensive.

What would people like to see?

Average tickets are 25 - which I don't think is bad, if you think of how many people are involved in most productions.

Outkast_IRE

Outkast_IRE wrote: »

Thats quite high but it was for dara o briain , so was worth it .

lol :rolleyes: Of all the sh1t comedians of today (foul mouthed bearded t0sser that Jordan made to look a retard and the f**ktard yank inlcuded) Dara has to be the worst imo (as in simply not funny at all). He has certain comedy value in so far as he can't talk properly and is a fat bastad though.

Outkast_IRE

RoverJames wrote: »

lol :rolleyes: Of all the sh1t comedians of today (foul mouthed bearded t0sser that Jordan made to look a retard and the f**ktard yank inlcuded) Dara has to be the worst imo (as in simply not funny at all). He has certain comedy value in so far as he can't talk properly and is a fat bastad though.

good for you!! im sure his sell out tours prove hes not the worst comedian ever !! nothing to do with the thread though

castie

RoverJames wrote: »

lol :rolleyes: Of all the sh1t comedians of today (foul mouthed bearded t0sser that Jordan made to look a retard and the f**ktard yank inlcuded) Dara has to be the worst imo (as in simply not funny at all). He has certain comedy value in so far as he can't talk properly and is a fat bastad though.

Next time I see you avoiding the filter to throw abuse at someone Im taking action