Blog: Reflections on 2022 and a look forward to 2023

As 2022 draws to a close, Theatres Trust Director Jon Morgan looks back over the key issues and achievements of the year and forward to priorities in 2023.

At the turn of the year, there were still Covid-related restrictions in place across the UK, including capacity limits in Scotland and Wales and work from home advice in England, impacting the theatre sector’s peak festive season. Although restrictions were soon eased, it continued to be a difficult year for theatres with average audiences outside of London’s West End down 17% on pre-pandemic levels.

Theatres Trust has continued our work to support all the UK’s theatres as they emerged from the pandemic and faced the new challenges of the cost-of-living crisis and rising energy costs. As well as providing advice directly to theatre operators on a whole range of issues, we advocated for more support for the sector, including an extension to the energy price cap beyond March 2023.

We continued to be a strong voice for theatres in the planning system, commenting on local and national policies and plans as well as responding to 124 planning applications, 58 applications for listed building consent and 18 pre-application proposals. We also played a key part in the successful listing of a number of theatres including Imperial Theatre in Walsall, Queen’s Theatre in Hornchurch and Dundee Repertory Theatre.

The impact of the pandemic was evident when we published our Theatres at Risk Register 2022, which included a record 10 new additions. We provided support throughout the year to the owners, operators, community groups and local authorities concerned with all 41 theatres on the list including successfully objecting to a planning application which would have mean the loss of Walsall Imperial and supporting Spilsby Sessions House Ltd to buy Spilsby Theatre. We will be announcing the 2023 list in early February.

We were delighted to secure funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the Pilgrim Trust and the Swire Charitable Trust to run a new programme Resilient Theatres: Resilient Communities. This will enable us to provide in-depth training and grants to Theatres at Risk or those in danger of becoming ‘at risk’, as well as training, mentoring and specialist support to the wider sector to increase its resilience. There will be more updates on this project early in 2023.

During 2022, we distributed more than £227,000 in grants to 31 theatres to improve accessibility, viability and sustainability through our Small Grants Programme with The Linbury Trust and the Theatre Improvement Scheme with the Wolfson Foundation. We were pleased to receive an additional donation from The Mackintosh Foundation for the Small Grants Programme, which along with funding from The Charles Michael Holloway Trust and Judy Craymer CBE means we will be able to support more projects.

In October we brought the sector together for our conference Theatres Fit for the Future to explore key issues of inclusion, placemaking, resilience and sustainability – key themes for the sector and priorities for Theatres Trust’s work this year and into the future. A definite highlight of the conference was being able to offer a higher number of free bursary places, increasing the diversity of voices in the room.

On sustainability, the Theatre Green Book, a project in which we are a lead partner, continued to be an invaluable resource for the sector, which was recognised as it won The Stage Award for Innovation. The Home Survey Tool was added to its resources in 2022 and we continue to work with the other project partners on how the Theatre Green Book will develop in the future.

In what has been another busy year for Theatres Trust, we were grateful for the support of our fantastic board, with new Chair Dave Moutrey appointed in March along with four new Trustees, James Dacre, Suba Das, Stephanie Hall and Lucy Osborne who all bring invaluable skills and perspectives to our work. We will be looking to recruit further board members in 2023 as existing Trustees’ terms come to an end. We are excited to have successfully applied to the Boardroom Apprentice Scheme and have been matched with Manpreet Gill, who will join our board sessions in 2023.

As we head into 2023, Theatres Trust will continue to support the sector to be more inclusive, resilient and sustainable and to play a central role in placemaking. Although undoubtedly there are still challenging times ahead, we look forward to working together with colleagues across the theatre sector and beyond to ensure our wonderful theatres don’t just survive, but thrive. 

Photo credits:

Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch courtesy of the theatre

Audience at Theatre Royal Wakefield. Robling Photography

Bursary recipients and sponsors at Conference 22. Sharron Wallace Photography