East Lane Theatre Club CIO Annual Report
For the Year ending 31[st] May 2024
Background:
East Lane Dramatic Society was established in 1936 , performing in a local school and church hall. They leased some land and a tennis pavilion from Brent Council and developed their own premises to include a 75-seat theatre in 1989. Further developments provided new toilet facilities, costume and set storage. In due course, East Lane Dramatic Society became East Lane Theatre Club.
East Lane Theatre Club (ELTC) became a Charity in April 2019 and has continued to provide open membership to the people of Brent and surrounding areas to stimulate an interest in the theatre and to encourage and instruct members in all facets of dramatic art with a view to presenting productions to the public, or audiences restricted to Club members.
Trustees re-elected at ELTC AGM Sep 2023
Desmond Gaynor, Angela Dimitraidis
Officers: Chairman: Daniel Popkin Secretary: Desmond Gaynor Treasurer: Jenny Loomes
Productions: 4 Performances: 24 Seat Prices: £15 Membership fees: £30 Bar: Club Premises Licence Charity Reg.No.: 1183134
Summary of the year From 31[st] May 2023 to 31[st] May 2024
Ever since East Lane Theatre Club converted their workshop to a theatre the Club has had exclusive use of the premises. However with a reducing number of members it had become apparent that sustaining 5 productions per season was not going to be possible, and we have been looking to see if we could find additional productions to fill out the season.
This has involved a lot of effort from many members to prepare the Theatre premises for outside hire, and Harrow Hill players were the first outside group to perform at East Lane Theatre with a production of The Importance of being Earnest. It was well attended and we hope to continue this relationship in the future.
We learnt a lot from the experience and hope to further improve our facilities to make the process easier in the future.
Our final production of our 22-23 season (or production season runs from September to July) was PLAYS & PROSECCO . This was a completely new adventure for us, two plays in one evening with a Q&A with the authors and directors.
The plays were VISITING HOURS by Jane Lockyer Willis, directed by Angela Dimitraidis, and NIGHT DUTY by David Stroud and Barbara Towell, directed by Jane Lockyer Willis. The plays were followed by some pretty interesting Q&As, and we all received some fascinating insights into the creation of a production. We were also fortunate to have a new member join us on stage.
Unfortunately, even though there were only 5 performances the ticket sales were very poor at 66%, we need to get to around 75% to be profitable.
When comparing our previous productions, it is unfortunately obvious that we do not get the audience numbers for home grown playwrights, not that this will stop us trying to put on as varied seasons as possible and supporting homegrown talent.
Over the last few years, even before Covid hit, we were seeing a decline in audience numbers, and although one of our aims is to build the numbers back up again, it seems we cannot fill two Saturday nights, so we have decided to try a different schedule for next season. There will be six performances per production with two matinees.
our 23/24 season started in December with Gaslight , directed by Laurence Conway. This starred 2 new members on stage, it was a great piece of melodrama, where as usual the baddie finally gets his comeuppance.
Seats were 90.6% sold
Another first for us followed, we managed to squeeze in a one day production of Peter Pan for the Red Balloon School. It was total mayhem, but the cast and teachers all had a great time, although those of us who volunteered to run the theatre were exhausted.
In early January Brent council demanded a load of Health and Safety certificates, along with 2 surveyors visits and multiple questionnaires to be completed. This all took up a lot of time in January (and some expense to have some testing completed early) as well as a lot of additional paperwork.
The Club does it’s best to ensure that it is fully compliant with all the current Health and Safety regulations, however many of the rules do not fit with the operating practices of a small theatre charity, and although the Club is a member of both the little Theatre Guild and NODA there are regulatory changes that really should not apply to small buildings with irregular occupation and no staff.
The Club decided to rejoin NODA as well, mainly because we were finding it difficult to get independent show critiques. The NODA reports may not be critical but they are a good record of a production.
The second play of the season was Von Ribbentrop’s Watch , directed by Danny Popkin. After some usual casting shenanigans, we went ahead with this dilemma comedy which was enthusiastically received. We had 3 new members in the cast and saw the welcome return to the stage of Linda Hampson. Linda well deserved the NODA award for best comedy actress she received, and the Club received the runner up award for Stage design from across the whole London area. Seats 88.6% sold
Our final production was Abigail’s Party , directed by Janice Martin. This classic play was very well received, with 2 new members in the cast. It sold incredibly well at 96.8% seats full. it resonated with our audience, the 70s pretty faithfully captured in set and costumes.
Conclusion
Having due regard to the Commission’s public benefit guidance, the trustees are confident that East Lane Theatre Club is being managed efficiently and we have managed to return to a profitable status this year.
Daniel Popkin
Chairman
East Lane Theatre Club
Vale Farm Sports Complex
Middx
HA0 3HG
eastlanetheatre@gmail.co.uk
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