Regal Trust Report Sept 2015

Regal Trust Report Sept 2015

Attendance figures

Sept 2012 1703 patrons

Sept 2013 975 patrons

Sept 2014  1026 patrons

Sept 2015  993  patrons

A slightly disappointing month.  The final film of the school holiday failed to deliver significant audiences.  Again this was a major blockbuster and the feeling is many families saw the film on release at the beginning of the school holidays.  We had a poor response to our school advertising this summer holiday so have checked with all the local schools and they have all asked us to continue to supplying them with leaflets.

This month we had some interesting live broadcasts, with the Rocky Horror show bringing in a better than expected audience for a Thursday evening, including some in costume.

The Battle of Britain at 75 broadcast and the Romeo & Juliet ballet were also well supported.

Live music events again showed a reduced audience.  The local appetite for this kind of event seems to have waned.

Almost all the cast for Jack and the Beanstalk have now been selected, and ticket sales remain strong.  The marketing effort is being stepped up and leaflets will be delivered to 30,000 local households in the next few weeks.

There will be a lot of effort expended in the next couple of months upgrading the technical infrastructure to enable us to deliver this very challenging production. We are investing thousands of pounds in new wiring and equipment.

We are also converting much of the remaining halogen lighting in the foyer and auditorium to LEDs.  This will return savings in power usage, replacement lamps and labour.

Plumbing problems remain an issue, with some of the taps installed during the refurbishments already having to be substantially overhauled and replacement parts installed.  Random flooding events also occur in the function room toilets.  

Regal Trust Report July/Aug 2015

Regal Trust Report July/Aug 2015

Attendance figures

July 2013 786 patrons

July 2014  898 patrons

July 2015  1287  patrons

Aug 2013 1352 patrons

Aug 2014  1398 patrons

Aug 2015  1117  patrons

Two very different months.  July saw a leap in attendance, with a good number at nearly every event.  The August numbers were primarily affected by a poor choice of new family films this summer and the Blockbuster Minions which was so popular many people had already seen it before it came to Tenbury.  We did have some very successful events during the holiday season.  MiniCineMonkeys attracted record breaking numbers each week, and two Musical Theatre Workshops were well supported and greatly enjoyed.  The Frozen sing along party was also extremely successful.

The Trust has made good progress with plans to redevelop the service block in the function room.  This will provide additional toilet facilities by allowing separation between public and backstage areas.  The upgraded facilities will make the room more attractive to hire and improved sound proofing will enable two events to be held simultaneously.  The provision of two dressing rooms will make the theatre more acceptable to incoming shows and the provision of a fixed bar will allow smaller shows to be booked into the function room, and make it a better facility to use when large audiences are expected.  Additional storage has also been procured so excess tables and chairs can be stored outside of the room

The stage curtain motor has been replaced and will now hopefully give problem free service.  The security shutters that secure the auditorium fire doors when not in use have also had a replacement motor.

The latest programme (Number 13) has just been released and details a very ambitious and wide ranging programme of events for the Autumn.  We have relatively few live shows as we struggle to find good original content, but the variety of Broadcast content continues to grow.  Over the next few weeks we have live feeds from the Albert Hall, the Playhouse Theatre, Biggin Hill, the Royal Opera House, the Donmar Theatre, the Vaudeville Theatre, the Barbican,  the London Coliseum, the Courtyard Theatre Stratford upon Avon, the Garrick Theatre, and possibly Manchester’s Exhibition Centre.

Live highlights are the Here to There productions staging of Much Ado About Nothing and the Baroque Theatre Company’s The Great Santa Kidnap.  Both of which should be great fun and should not be missed.

We are in the countdown towards our pantomime Jack & the Beanstalk.  This year we have twice as many performances than last year and have already sold twice as many tickets per show as this time last year.  This is a major event for Tenbury and with 50% of the performances being matinees this should also have a positive effect on the whole business community.  Hopefully they will step up to the challenge of providing linked shopping, and dining opportunities to capitalise on the increased footfall.

Regal Trust Report June 2015

Regal Trust Report June 2015

Attendance figures

June 2013 1438 patrons

June 2014  726 patrons

June 2015  789  patrons

Another quite disappointing month with low audience figures.

With the exception of Far from the Madding Crowd the film programme this month failed to excite.

During June we hosted the WI National Centenary AGM live streamed via the internet from the Royal Albert Hall.  There were a few technical problems early on in the broadcast, but unlike some other local venues our transmission settled down and most of the broadcast was seen and heard without problems.

We also hosted the volunteer recruitment fair organised by Malvern Hills Volunteering.  More people attended during the first 90 minutes than during the whole event in 2014, but the attendance ceased after mid-day.

A well attended information evening for volunteers was also held this month, where feedback of the trust’s performance over the last six months was shared.  The volunteers also watched some short video clips shot at the Musical Theatre School, which was met with delight and a round of applause.

Regal Trust Report May 2015

Regal Trust Report May 2015

Attendance figures

May 2013 1516 patrons

May 2014 1358 patrons

May 2015 1061 patrons

A disappointing month with audience figures down on previous years.

With the exception of Cinderella the film programme this month failed to excite.  We are of course governed by what is available and there have been complaints across the industry about the large number of very similar 15 rated films which were released in close proximity to each other.  

The national trend is a reduction in audience sizes as we come out of recession and people spend more on large ticket items such as cars and holidays.

Two highlights this month were a ballet from the Royal Opera House and Pirates of Penzance from English National Opera.  The later having broke all worldwide records as the biggest ever “Opera” event ever.

Representatives from the Trust met with the Conservation Officer from MHDC to discuss the proposed improvements to the building. (full details of these will be submitted to the Council later this month)

There have been a number of personnel changes at the Trust recently.

Management Assistant Danni Wiggins has been replaced by Julie Cox.

Play Leader Karen Wallace has been replaced by Leah Williams.

Relief Cleaner Emma Little has been replaced by Danni Fisher.

Grateful Thanks

Dear Ian and all the team

                

                             On behalf of Tenbury Town band I would like to convey our grateful thanks to everyone at the Regal for all the hard work and support given to us towards our annual concert. The evening was once again a great success and it’s clear that everyone at the Regal played an important part from the front of house to the technical staff. This year we needed additional sound and lighting which was delivered professionally and with enthusiasm. We have had so many good reports from our audience that everything came together so well and a good night was had by all.

          We are extremely lucky to have this amazing facility in such a small town and we will continue to support the Regal as I’m sure it will go from strength to strength.

Thanks  to you all and we look forward to our next function in December.

Best regards

Mark

      

Mark Yarnold

President of Tenbury Town Band

Tel 01584 811831

www.tenburytownband.co.uk

Regal Trust Report April 2015

Regal Trust Report April 2015

Attendance figures

April 2013 1298 patrons

April 2014 1902 patrons

April 2015 1497 patrons

A steady month but with audience figures down on April 2014. This April only two titles stood out.  The Second Best Marigold Hotel which accounted for more than 50% of the month's audience and Still Alice.  The second half of the Easter holiday this year produced

very poor audiences.

About 50 children have come along for trial sessions at the Saturday morning Musical Theatre School.  30 have paid up and joined for this term and have completed sessions in Drama, Dance, Prop Making and Scenery design and a Matilda workshop.

Many of the Technical Volunteers took a trip to Cwmbran to attend a stage lighting training session.

All of the insulation jobs have now been completed and we have seen an improvement in being able to maintain heat in the auditorium.

An additional radiator has been added in the foyer and an additional power circuit installed to enable the installation of a door “heat curtain”

Plumbing problems still continue with both the cisterns in the Ladies toilets.

The trust has engaged an architect, to consider changing the layout of the Community Centre toilet, kitchen and dressing room facilities, and alterations to the stage roof.

Regal Trust Report March 2015

Regal Trust Report March 2015

Attendance figures

March 2013 3074 patrons

March 2014 2058 patrons

March 2015 2164 patrons

A good month with audience figures up 5% on last year, but still down on 2013 where we saw 1650 attending for just two titles, Les Miserables and Quartet.

The Easter selection of films failed to produce audiences of the size we had hoped, the best being Shaun the Sheep which played to 460 people.

The new Regal Musical Theatre School launched in March, and the three sessions held to date have been a great success.  The emphasis is on fun, and we have received great feedback from children and parents alike.

A session on stage makeup saw the first group of younger children making each other up as skeletons and the older children applying bruises and lacerations and emerging streaming with blood to shock the shoppers in Teme Street.

The first of the insulation jobs have now been completed and we have already seen some improvement in being able to maintain heat in the auditorium, although the West Wind problem remains and the work to help solve this is being discussed tonight.

Plumbing problems continue with both the cisterns in the Ladies toilets developing faults on the same night and Gents toilets in the function room randomly flooding.

The stage curtains also broke again this month, but luckily not at a critical moment and we were able to work around the problem.

We have installed an override system that enables us to operate the cinema screen if the remote control unit fails.

We have also installed baby change stations in both the function room toilets and the main toilets, as we are now getting quite a group of very young children attending the MiniCineMokeys playgroup.

And finally a story on the Regal’s facebook page went viral, with the search for the owner of a little lost Bear called Biscuit. Over 9,000 people saw the original post and a further 2,500 followed the lost Bears adventures until he was reunited with his owner.  All good publicity for the Regal.