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drinks Monday 1 September 08 Edinburgh Reunion in London
Topping And Butch Hit Leicester Square 26-27 September 08
Theatre Cap a Pie – an international theatre for local people
How do you build a theatre in a small village in County Durham – and make it work? Peter Andrews meets artistic director Gordon Poad
by Peter Andrews
Theatre Cap a Pie is that rare phenomenon – a successful local theatre. Its venue The Store opened in 2004 in Dipton, County Durham, putting on theatre and music events, drawing on a local audience and driven by the hard work of its dozen staff.
A recent year’s programme included Wreckless Eric, John Renbourn, Dick Gaughan, Chris Difford, Griffin House, Michael Marra, Rory McLeod, Donal O’Kelly’s Catalpa, Quondam Theatre’s Black Diamonds by Julia Darling, Debris, children’s Christmas show Mary Lou And The Ice-Cream Pirates, Barrie Darke’s The Night Falls, Falling Knives & Runaround Wives, No Limits’ Attic, Sean O'Brien's version of Aristophanes’s The Birds.
‘I know this is going to sound really arrogant,’ says artistic director Gordon Poad, ‘but I think we are the busiest theatre in the North East’. Well, he’s had a head start. He’s been in the business since he was 7.
That’s when he saw Carol Reed’s film Oliver!. ‘There were kids taking part. It was the first time I realised you could be an actor - you could make theatre and film.’ An enlightened teacher, Mr Verheyden, let them choose subjects and Gordon Poad (GP) picked drama. ‘I led kids into the hall to make plays from things on TV - Generation Game, Kung Fu.’
He joined Newcastle Upon Tyne’s People’s Theatre aged 12. Next came the The National Youth Theatre, a year with Skin And Bones Theatre Collective. He did full-time drama school at London’s Academy of Live and Recorded Arts (ALRA) – followed by doubts.
He suddenly felt he didn’t want to be an actor, that it didn’t seem real or useful to people. ‘I didn’t have any hobbies - all I’d ever done was acting.’ He spent the next 5 years travelling, running a restaurant, and working in advertising. ‘I wanted to do theatre’ he says now, ‘but in a way that could be useful.’
GP enrolled on the Drama in the Community degree at Northumbria University. He met Mark Labrow there, and they decided to work together. In 1995 the Arts Council was having a drama review, removing funding from North East companies such as Durham Theatre Company (DTC).
John Burton, Prime Minister Blair’s political agent and chair of DTC, told Gordon Poad that DTC couldn’t survive the cut. GP and Mark Labrow – in their first year at university - sensed an opportunity, that people were going to need things doing. ‘We thought, let’s get on with it - and we can occupy a space where the DTC was. We wanted to take Middleton and Rowley’s The Changeling to Edinburgh and work in a Le Coq style.’ They did workshops for children to raise the money, which led to performances. They realised they and the children were learning ‘so much about theatre. The concept of Cap a Pie was born. It would be a social and educational organisation that would also perform good theatre.’
Mark Labrow and Gordon Poad linked their university work to Theatre Cap a Pie, graduated with good degrees, and got paid for everything they did. GP: ‘The day we left university we paid ourselves a salary and have done so ever since.
‘Cap a Pie’s fortunes rose and fell. We found it tiring working with young people every evening.’ They found that European Structural Funds (ESF) were available in priority areas with the British Government’s New Deal programme for the unemployed. ‘We put together a package involving training unemployed adults during the day. We learnt how to accredit the work we made with them.’
They found that work with inexperienced groups with professional input – writer Carol McWigan, musicians, choreographers - produced good results (including performing Home at Newcastle Playhouse), and did it for 2 years. For the next 3 years they worked with children excluded from school, producing quality work. Wallflower was based ‘on elderly people’s memories of sex’, recalls GP. ‘The young people were surprised to find that not a lot had changed.’
They put on a youth theatre programme at the Theatre Royal in Newcastle, and locally to themselves at Stanley in County Durham, under the National Theatre’s Connections programme. And they were running a music programme and events. Now all they needed was a venue.
Gordon Poad: ‘I knew there was an old ballroom in the village I live in. We went to have a look.’ It wasn’t promising. The building, in Dipton, County Durham, had holes in the roof and pigeons; an apparently unusable shell. But the more they looked elsewhere, the more they came back to the ballroom. £500,000 later, they’d patched the roof, repaired the building, and refitted it. GP reflects today that they couldn’t have done it anywhere else for the same money and, more importantly ‘A place like this is needed here. Young people come to see the shows. We are part of the community.’
Local MP Hillary Armstrong opened the now new venue, The Store, on 29 May 2004. There’s a black-box performance space seating 80, a therapy suite, two rehearsal rooms and a healthy options café.
Funding comes from the National Lottery New Opportunities Fund, which provides a youth theatre programme and adult performance group. GP: ‘We get money for emotional intelligence theatre – because we’re part of Derwentside Healthy Living Centre - so a lot of our professionally-produced work is performed for young people in schools. We are tracking one whole year group at 5 schools in the district. The idea is to produce theatre centred on health education and emotional intelligence - it doesn’t have to contain overt messages.’
A production of Waiting For Godot was developed with two primary schools, for performances at The Arc, Stockton and Northern Stage. ‘The emphasis is on experiencing theatre. It is possibly an evolution of theatre in education (TIE) - without the baggage of left-wing politics. Waiting For Godot can let students examine their own take on life just as surely as something directed towards their own experiences. A really innovative thing is that we also get funding from the Primary Care Trust. It is about what makes a healthy community, raising aspirations and getting people involved.’
Building audiences is key. ‘People trust that we will put things on that they will like. We’ve been selling out on our music programme – so we know people will travel (the venue is 13 km from Durham and Newcastle). Whether they will travel to see theatre every week is less certain. We only work on splits with touring productions and which ones we choose is probably down to instinct.’
‘We haven’t developed a house style, and I’m not really interested whether this happens or not. We develop our programme across three strands – under 12, up to 16, 16 and over. All our shows may appeal to age groups other than the targeted audience. I think we could be doing more with younger writers and theatre practitioners. I would love to see this place as somewhere they could develop their skills away from the pressures of a larger theatre.’
There is a sense of focus on the locality and its economics. ‘We have a strong brand image in the area. The staff live in Dipton or in easy commuting distance. We sell our services to schools and other groups at freelance rates. We operate like a practice but everyone is on a salary. Nobody gets very high wages. That keeps our costs down. Any surplus goes back into the company. We’re here because we love it. ’
GP articulates the objective of Cap a Pie as making ‘good quality, engaging pieces of theatre. We’ve learnt from experience and the old sales adage – the harder you work, the luckier you get – is true. If we’ve got time and space we make good work. You must be philosophical about it, and not cry when it’s not brilliant. I’ve been reading The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. It has the idea that if you want something badly enough the world bends itself to let you fulfil your dream.’ He smiles. ‘We’re an international theatre for local people’.
Cap a Pie has a cooperative at its centre: Gordon Poad (artistic director), Jez Arrow (executive director), Mark Labrow (associate director, programming), Annie Bromley (associate director, participation), Suzanne Robson (venue manager). Cap a Pie also includes Daniel Forth (designer), John Dodds (caretaker), Eve Green (current intern); and café staff. GP: ‘The core management team has been together for eight years. Their continuity and enthusiasm has made our success. It would be great to be a model for professional theatres elsewhere. But the team, and therefore Theatre Cap a Pie, is unique.’
END
(c) Peter Andrews 20 September 06
Peter Andrews interviewed Gordon Poad in 2005. This article is based on the interview and subsequent updates. Jessica Tyler, Cap a Pie's intern at the time of the interview, is now at Rose Bruford College, London.
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2008
