The Stage

Derby Playhouse saved

Published Wednesday 30 July 2008 at 16:40 by Alistair Smith

Derby Playhouse will reopen this September after creditors voted in favour of proposals put forward by the board to take the company out of administration.

The result represents a remarkable turnaround for one of the UK’s major regional producing houses, after it was forced into administration last Christmas when Derby City Council refused to advance the organisation part of its annual grant. Its future looked even bleaker when Arts Council England removed its regular funding status as part of the recent spending round.

However, following today’s creditors meeting, the venue will now reopen on September 13 with a production of Killing Sister George. The new company will operate as a not-for-profit organisation and will not receive subsidy from either ACE or the local council. It is instead being supported by a group of unnamed investors, who have also helped to pay off £300,000 of debt which was owed to creditors. This represented around a third of the total owed - however, £500,000 of this was caused by the company going into administration.

Acting executive director Karen Hebden told The Stage: “It’s a weird feeling because we’ve now got so much to do to put it all back together. It’s a big job still. Now we have to get everything ready, all the insurance in place, a new licence, get the keys, those kinds of things.

“The aim is to get the keys back next week and we hope to have the box office open by the end of next week. Then the first scheduled performance is September 13, which is the tightest we could do it.”

For more on this story, see next week’s edition of The Stage.