“Alf. 96,000 ticket buyers and over £1million pound in box office in ONE venue. Do the Assembly Rooms and Guildhall really only sell £300k of tickets? Some quite useful benchmarks for measuring performance of DL to be getting on with. Re grants i thought that DL receives the ACE and DL funding that used to go to the PLayhouse which as you pointed out were worth over a £1million per year - or have they managed to lose that as well as theatre audiences to other cities in the East Midlands as well? I would have thought as a DCC controlled venue they would be quite adept at measuring performance and best value and the like or do things like that not apply to the city council and ACE as they have to be seen to have succeeded at all costs ? What you fail to grasp is that audiences like myself who had bought tickets are the ones that have lost out big time. I don't care whether the old management are never coming back but I do care that DCC and ACE did not give any regard to me when they pursued their policy of cloing the theatre the night before the Christmas show. Especially as they agreed at least 2 months beforehand that they were going to do this. This makes me more not less curious about what has been done in my name and you simply trying to sweep the whole matter under the carpet without acknowledging that there is a real sense of injustice amongst tens of thousands of audiences explains why there is such underwhelming enthusiasm. This is precisely why DL need to be more transparent. Stop stickeing your head in the sand. Audiences were never consulted about the closure or what we want in the future you just expect us to blindly turn up to any old piffle and be greatful. Well sorry, it doesn't work like that.”

“In reply to Bob's response to my last posting (further explanation is required as you seem to have missed the point here)

So are you suggesting that if "public" money is available, (this is money that is exclusively earmarked for restoration or preservation of listed buildings),Derby should refuse any such grants and let another city make use of the money?

Arts Council grants are given to cities to support things like theatres, Leicester gets more than Derby, so does Nottingham - would you rather we received none and that Notingham and Leicester received all of the available money?
Although the Hippodrome is privately owned, the owner is appearing at the Derby Crown Court in February 2010 for carrying out "unauthorised work" on the building. The owner could even end up in prison. Read the archived stories within this website.

The law regarding listed buildings gives the City Council, or any other City Council, the power of compusory purchase of buildings which have received this type of treatment from their owners, and this could result in a listed building going for £1 (one pound) as has happened with other buildings in similar circumstances. this is about the City of Derby taking possession of the building on behalf its citizens with the full backing of the associated statutory organisations that were set up to protect our heritage.”

“Alf, of course I'm aware that the Pros, Cons and Screws and the Snow Queen are examples of produced theatre!
(But also how much a part of the whole programming year 'round?) Will the rest be all community theatre/am dram and touring shows?(excellent as I'm sure it will be.)

Maybe you've misunderstood my point too that it is the scale of professionally produced work, and in house craft of rep theatre that has been massively scaled down.
60 years of a nationally acclaimed theatre is not easily forgotten or dismissed by audiences or paticipants.

13 000 people signed a petition to save the theatre , following the last showing of Treasure Island.That to me shows the strength of feeling of audiences.

And Alf, please stop referring me as duck etc, as I'm not patronising you. This is meant to be a democratic forum for all views.”

“Sorry Joanne you're missing the point - you maintain that the new Playhouse has no produced theatre program, insinuating that it is only community and amateur work when clearly anyone who has been there or read the brochure knows this is not the case - so in essence you are defeating yourself and your credibility.

It is apparent you have not been to see any of the new shows (have you - please prove me wrong??) and so you are unable to make valid contributions.

Prove me wrong and go and see a show at the Playhouse.
Go and see Snow Queen - or try to deny this is the very produced theatre you wish to see at that theatre.

I'm sorry to point this out duck but your continued denial renders all your arguments invalid.”

“Well, good for you Alf!
However- doesn't entitle you to personally attack people for holding different opinions.

I am aware of complete animosity from some quarters towards previous DPH management and Board- and that there has been a history, long before the closure.

However- I have always stated my sole interest has been as an ex audience member, and the impact for audiences losing the Playhouse.
I was also a member of the Playhouse Community Theatre- so a big loss to many of us- not just the staff, but volunteers, loyal audiences, community and youth theatre etc.

I have remained a supporter, and taken the trouble to attend meetings and talk to many who were directly involved during the closure.

The injustice of the process has certainly not yet been redressed.

In the meantime- yes I do hope the theatre can find shows that will appeal to wider audiences.”

“Well it just goes to show you, I've just praised a touring professional show and a professional produced show at the Playhouse and I'm going to see Snow Queen, another professional produced show at the Playhouse, and someone is still using one eyed monochromatic rhetoric to actively damage both themselves and their supporting arguments as well as making a poor attempt to shout sour grapes and put people off going.

I rest my case and if you lose the theatre this time round because you're staying away arms folded and noses missing, shame on you!

By the way, if the old Playhouse Ltd is now a touring company, that means they're on the same footing as all the other touring shows that travel the country and come to us? How do we judge their work now? Also, who do we want to see these shows again Joanne, I've seen them before already and yes they were alright - surely you're not proposing we should run Christmas Carol again for the third time?

Have you seen the new shows at the Playhouse? If not I refer to my earlier comments that you have skipped around and the sentiment applies to you.

I expect you will now run for cover under a flurry of excuses and poorly constructed reposts.”

“I find it interesting that some of the critics who post on here, and have received mailings of the accounts- were also invited to the AGM this week- and yet never turn up to ask direct questions from the Board members?
This is a democratic forum- so every opportunity to ask questions rather than posing rhetorical ones on here.
As far as I understand, we are all waiting for the outcome of formal complaints, and weighty evidence.It may take time- but hopefully more comes to light ASAP.”

“Sid, thankyou for filling in some of the facts.There has been an awful lot of speculation and innuendo- also vested interests; I suppose understandable.

I too am relieved the Derby Playhouse Board initially saved the theatre as a theatre- but injustices still left to be redressed.

I hope we will hear more of the factual events that led up to the closure to understand more; I also think ex audience members have every right to keep asking the questions.
(I believe this process to have been unprecedented, considering the Playhouse was rated as one of the best in the country.)

In the meantime- am glad Derby Uni are looking after the building- but am personally greatly missing the type of shows like Sweeney Todd, Amadeus, A Christmas Carol, etc. why this type of prefessionally produced theatre couldn't have been retained ALONGSIDE community theatre, amateur drama, and touring shows, is a great mystery.(After all- there is provision for all of this is most other cities.)

In the end of course, it will be the audiences that dictate their preferences.

I am a great supporter of community theatre and am dram, but not without a rep theatre producing awe inspiring work.It is that that brings the wider audiences in surely?!”

“Sid

I have briefly perused the accounts recently submitted and I am no expert but there a couple of aspects of the document that worry me.

You mention ticket sales of 96,000 tickets. Were they actually sold at the full price? Apparently £740,000 was made through box office, so correct me if I am wrong, but that equates to around £8 a ticket. That seems cheap for a night out at a theatre.

Secondly, this box office figure doesn't sit well when you look at the fact that around £2.5m was spent on staging shows. That figure isn't broken down.

Thirdly, and this is particularly interesting to me, the Arts Council gave over £700k in annual support, plus an additional £454k recovery programme money, plus £100k for refurbishment, plus £75k for one production. That equates to around £1.3m worth of subsidy, and that's not even taking into account the Council's input of £407k. So over half of the turnover was taxpayer's money and I know a lot of arts organisations who would love to be funded to those levels. This doesn't indicate to me that the Arts Council was unsupportive which is an accusation that has been levelled at them time and again.”

“My wife and I have been to see two shows at the recently re-opened Playhouse; The Grass is Greener and The Pros, The Cons and a Screw.

Both shows had great audiences on the nights we went, the Playhouse was staffed with friendly people, good audiences, professional actors and brilliant shows.

Anyone who has not been and has no intention of going and yet writes long and complicated rubbish about the past is a hypocrite. The Playhouse is back open, the shows are terrific and professional and my wife and I are delighted.

My advice to all of you who complain and bicker about what did or did not happen in the past is do your selves a favour, get away from the keyboard where you use every story about the Playhouse that this paper publishes to dwell on self aggrandising piffle about the past failed management and if they fell or if they were pushed - I do not give a flying figgo about them or your axe grinding. The old management have gone and will not be coming back.

Go and see the shows. My theatre is back open again, it's putting on professional shows and if you have no intention of going while you continue to harp on about how rubbish it must be you expose yourself to all and sundry as nothing more than a good old fashioned hypocrite and deserve all the ridicule you attract.

Oh, and I seem to remember someone in the past defending the old Playhouse management when their ticket sales were not very good, saying that they had to do risky work and how difficult it was to get Derby folk to go to unknown shows so it strikes me nothing has changed.

To those of you commenting who have been recently I apologise, to those of you commenting who have no intention of going - shame on you. You have nothing valid to contribute to this debate.

ps the Hippodrome was abandoned by all of us when it was closed as a failing theatre and sold and turned into a Bingo hall, then closed as a failing Bingo hall and bought by a developer. Surely there's a lesson in there for those able to understand the irony?”