The Stage

Hastings deal paves the way for Qdos expansion

Published Tuesday 18 November 2008 at 17:15 by Alistair Smith

Qdos Entertainment has secured the management contract at the White Rock Theatre in Hastings, bringing the operator’s tally of regional venues to six.

The council-owned 1066-seat venue, which first opened in 1927 and is currently managed by Live Nation, will pass to Qdos from next February and will be run by the company’s venue arm HQ Theatres, which has secured a 15-year contract to manage the site.

Qdos is also currently in negotiations with four further venues - new builds in Aylesbury and Hemel Hempstead, as well as the Orchard Theatre in Dartford and the Watford Colosseum - about possible management deals. Results on those tendering processes are expected by March next year. If it secures all four, Qdos would move level with Ambassador Theatre Group, which currently operates ten venues in the regions.

Qdos chairman Nick Thomas told The Stage: “The White Rock is a nice place and I think we can do some things with it. I think we can upgrade the Christmas offering over time and we’re going to upgrade and refresh all the bars. We’ve got a good working partnership with the council down there and it’s another regional theatre, bringing us to six. So, we’re the second largest privately owned theatre operator in the UK [behind ATG].

“We’re working with Live Nation to effect a hand-over. This is the third time that we have taken over a theatre from them, after the Beck in Hayes and effectively Swindon [the Wyvern Theatre]. There will be a new general manager brought in and the remaining staff will be joining HQ Theatres.”

Thomas explained that the group also planned to revamp the programming at the White Rock, which receives in the region of £500,000 annual subsidy from Hastings Borough Council, with the focus moving away from tribute bands.

“The programme there is very modest at the moment. There’s an awful lot of tribute bands. We are going to change that, to a degree. It will mean utilising our other theatres. Because we have one or two other venues of a similar size, we’ve got good product going into the Wyvern and Wycombe and we can team it up with those,” he added.

The post of general manager or theatre director will be filled in the new year and they will be in charge of the White Rock’s programme in future.

Michael Ockwell, managing director of HQ Theatres, explained: “The biggest change between what Live Nation and we do, is that we don’t have a centralised programming department. So, there will be a theatre director who we will appoint who will be responsible for the artistic programme. Our aim is to broaden the artists who are currently touring into the White Rock Theatre.

“There is the capacity for it to support weekly touring product and we will certainly look to bring that in. The aspiration is to move away from the tributes and towards more original artists and the other area we are going to focus on is the pantomime. We’ve also had great success with classical music at both the Wycombe Swan and in Southend, so we would like to broaden the programme to include that. And we want to be a bit more aggressive in the marketing policy to get people from inside and outside the town to come and visit the theatre.”