2022-12-31-accounts - Palace Theatre Club

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SECRETARY’S REPORT FOR THE AGM 2023

FOR Years 2022 to 2023

I start this year’s report with the sad thought that although I have been secretary since 2004 this is my first AGM without Peter Warden sitting next to me as our chairman.

As we know Peter loved our Palace and the Club and was chairman for over 20 years having been vice chair and a committee member for many years before.

He is still much missed but would be pleased to see us here today keeping up our support for the Theatre and the Club.

As you will hear when we reach the election of our officers Ann has agreed to become our Chair alongside her membership secretary’s role and we have two more volunteers for the Committee.

Although we are fighting rising costs and Theatres having to change and cancel occasional shows, we have managed to run several outings through 2022

‘Looking Good Dead’ - Palace Theatre, Southend-on-Sea on 17 March 2022

PRIVATE LIFES’ - Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford - Thursday, 24th March at 2.30 matinee

CATCH ME IF YOU CAN Richmond Theatre Wednesday, 13th April 2022 at 2.30 matinee

PALACE THEATRE CLUB HOLIDAY – 12-16 MAY 2022 – PORTSMOUTH

BURY ST EDMUNDS – THEATRE ROYAL FRIDAY 24TH JUNE - 2.00 - HAMLET - THE COMEDY

ELTHAM PALACE Wednesday 13th July –

Windsor and Frogmore House and Gardens - Friday, 5th August 2022 –

Spring/Summer Lunch - Thursday 9th June 2022

AUDLEY END HOUSE - Thursday 1st September 2022

WARNER TEXTILE ARCHIVE - Wednesday, 28th September

Outing to our Palace Theatre – Thurs 6th October 2022 2.30 matinee - 'When Darkness Falls'

Christmas Lunch - Tuesday 29th November 2022.

Outing to our Palace Theatre Thursday 2.30pm matinee 1 December 2022 to see: The Mirror Crack’d

One of the highlights of the year for both the Theatre and the Club was the Open Day on 20 November 2022. The Club funded the posters and publicity for the event as well as your committee assisting with manning different areas whilst the public roamed around the building.

It was a lovely day – several hundred people came through the theatre, donated to the Club and bought our merchandise. Several local amateur societies performed in the foyer and had tables and the outpouring of love for the Palace was lovely.

The Theatre too was impressed with the day, and we already have a date for your diaries for an Open Day this year on 20 September 2023.

David Breen one of our Front of House Managers has provided an update from the Theatre:

Well, what an exciting year it has been for the Palace Theatre!

Between January 2022 and January 2023 the Palace Theatre welcomed 98,761 ticket holders through its doors, and turned over more than £1.8 million pounds in ticket sales. This is a great achievement built through a strong mix of programming from Ellen and her team which has ensured that not only are we bringing great Dramas to the venue such as ‘The Mirror Crack’d’, ‘Wait Until Dark’ and ‘The Verdict’ but also attracting big names such as Ben Elton, Lucy Worsley, Paul Merton, Ray Mears, Craig Revel-Horwood, Jon Culshaw and of Course Gary Barlow whose 4 night run at the Palace sold out in record time! We have housed some wonderful local productions again from LODS, LTC, SODS, The Players Theatre CO, Southend Shakespeare Company, Lindisfarne, East Essex Players, The Wednesday Players, the list goes on!

We were also delighted to welcome back the Summer Youth Project in August, the first since Lockdown and as ever it was great to see local children take to the stage, many for the first time, in a professional Theatre, finding the confidence and skills that only a project like that can instil. As well as making new friendships, those involved often develop a deep love for Theatre [and for the Palace in particular] and that is what it is all about! The project returns this year with ‘School of Rock’, where we will showcase not only the singing, dancing, and acting skills of this talented bunch but also their musical abilities! So trust us… you don’t want to miss out on this one!

We have made improvements to the Theatre including the start of Dressing room upgrades, most of which had not been touched since the 90’s [Two down, Three to go]! We have replaced the Bar top and flooring which had become very tired shall we say! And thanks to your generous support we have replaced the posters in the Box Office window with some new TV screens. This is particularly good for our local performers as it means every

production is now whizzing round our windows being seen by traffic and passers-by, rather than them having to wait for their time in the windows! As ever we really do value the support the Palace Theatre Club gives us in funding the projects we want to tackle and the improvements we want to make. But it shouldn’t always be about us. As I often say, this is YOUR Theatre. Being Managers based at the venue there are very limited changes we can make to the programme, and the things we sell, however we are always looking at ways to make your experience here better. What are the things YOU’D like the club to invest in, or help to improve and upgrade or the changes you want us to make? Speak to Jan at a meeting, or else speak to myself, Matt or Carla during your next visit and if we can make positive changes that we hadn’t yet considered we will always strive to do so.

Finally, never forget what a valuable organisation the Palace Theatre Club really is! As well as the help and support you provide your local Theatre [all of which helps to keep it open and flourishing], you have a great social committee, taking you to interesting places, organising days out and holidays. Many other venues would kill for such a group! And were it a community and education project I have no doubt it would be considered the jewel in our crown! All of this for only £11 a year, let’s start shouting about not only how great our Theatre is, but also those who support it! Thank you again for all of your enthusiasm, loyalty and commitment to the venue we really do value it.

Thanks to David for this report and update from the Theatre.

Whilst I am on thank yous – a big thank you to David Simpson and his tireless work on our archive and keeping this up to date.

And to complete my report some updates from me:

As you know we have had some battles with Box Office and protocols for booking tickets – currently as set out in our newsletters we do have a waiver of the transaction fee when booking by phone. Recently the management of the Box Office within the theatre has been separated from the Call Centre – the Box Office is referred to as the Welcome Desk and we are using this re-organisation as a chance to open further discussions on how the Welcome Desk works for us.

So I am pleased to confirm that the theatre is looking at ways to open the Box Office for our meetings and going forward the Box Office will be opening early on days when there are matinees following our foyer meeting and its agreed that on those occasions you can use your Club membership to gain the waiver of booking fee with a face to face booking.

We also finally have a new Community and Education person in place at the Theatres – Emma Wagstaff who did her apprenticeship with the Theatres is now the Creative Learning Executive and we are reaching out to encourage her involvement with the Club going forward.

And so, to the future – our aims still include the restoration of the design on the Palace Theatre’s safety curtain. This is proving problematical at the moment. The Royal Opera House’s scenic design team are willing to assist and produce the design and cloth to be layered on the curtain. However, those who fitted the new safety curtain have expressed concern that adding something to front of the curtain may hamper its ability to be brought in and out and we are trying to resolve the debate. Once we have an agreed plan we can get a price and we will know if it’s something that we can afford to do or whether we need to raise some more funds!

The last few years have been challenging for theatres and continue to be so with the rise in the cost of living, so our support to help fund those extra jobs around the Palace remain important as does our support coming to see shows – so please support our Theatre where you can.

Remember this is your theatre and your Club – so we look forward to receiving your ideas and support for both us and the Palace as we continue to promote our lovely Palace Theatre.

Jan

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Section 8 Statement of ,1 lund fund• &WO.37 TO¢ c•&h lund8 12,89&64 cutrnnl y•J• ch•rfiY own u Fundfo*thlGh

AS7.>J S,Y6.75 . .* 77.16 22373AI .$94.01 S14.•) 41.791M 7560-11 I.1.63 7Jg)11 £ Wiym É X04&4 4X.791.63 L34$ i.511 514SD 7YL 7YF 13.Y743 IT459 Jl.9874a 514 Pèltyt•th 71JO IWS.14 E IIJ 4&612 8B 4l.791.63 L15 & LULI 8.Wl.43 £ 4.111.1%