Huge loss for Bangor Drama 
as lockdown forces cancellations

Director Clare Greer explained the impact the closure of the theatre and the cancellation of numerous productions has had on the club: “We are a grassroots community amateur theatre organisation, established in 1935, which owns and operates the 100-seat Studio 1A Theatre on Hamilton Road in the centre of Bangor,” explained Clare. “Studio 1A was the result of a major refurbishment of an historic building in 2017 to replace our previous, smaller theatre elsewhere in the town. The venue is a totally volunteer run venture and we have been doing everything in our power to try and ensure that it can survive until we get back to business proper.

“Lockdown has had a huge effect on our club and venue. Our last public event was a St Patrick’s Day celebration charity fundraiser on Saturday, March 14.

“We have had to cancel the following events as a result of the pandemic - hire by Bangor Drama Festival for a full-length drama festival; outside touring production in April; in-house club production, God of Carnage, in June; our summer theatre season of four plays by visiting drama groups in July and August; hire by the Open House Festival in August; an in-house club production in October; and hire by Bangor Drama Festival for a one-act drama festival in November.

“This amounts to a very significant loss of revenue for us and despite locking down the building, re-negotiating reduced or zero bills with all our utilities and cancelling services like cleaning we still need £500-600 a month to cover essential insurance and storage costs.

“The cancellation of our summer theatre season is also a major loss of income for the participating drama groups as we share the income generated with them.”

In an attempt to keep up the spirits of the members, Bangor Drama Club, like many across the country, have taken to the internet to maintain contact during these difficult times.

“We have adopted digital technology such as Zoom to maintain some club activities from home such as a drama quiz and an evening of reading,” continued Clare.

“The board of the drama club has also held a number of board meetings online.

“Some of our members have also been rehearsing a radio comedy via Zoom with a view to recording this in our venue, without an audience, as soon as restrictions allow. We then plan to make this available for club members in the first instance and possibly the public thereafter.

“We are also looking at plays that would work well in performance on Zoom and this is a work in progress.”

Looking forward, the company hope that they will be able to reopen in the near future but currently the doors remain closed.

“In terms of re-opening our venue, we are remaining positive and are keeping a close eye on the evolving situation and the relaxing of rules,” said Clare. “We are doing our best to keep members and the public informed. At the moment, the social distancing regulations do not make it viable for us to perform for the public. Our venue is small and we could only accommodate around 20 people with two-metre distancing.

“Grassroots voluntary arts organisations like ours are a crucial part of the arts ecosystem and a theatre venue like ours exists largely because of love for a shared interest. Without immediate financial support from government, amateur groups like us are in imminent danger of disappearing.

“We have examined the various pandemic grant schemes made available to date but have fallen through the cracks because as a registered charity we do not pay rates, we do not employ anyone and were not going to go under by September 2020 as required by the Charities Emergency Fund, but we are in danger of doing so within the following three-six months. We are hopeful that some of the £33m allocated to arts venues and organisations in NI will come the way of groups like ours.

“We have worked so hard to make Bangor Drama Club, which became a limited company in 2015, and our venue Studio 1A, part of the fabric of our town and the greater Belfast area. Despite this setback we remain positive that we will come through this crisis and under the guidance of our board.”

The club’s chair, Shirley Millar, said: “We look forward to the day when we can open our doors again as a thriving club and venue. Only the other day, while standing in Studio 1A discussing our future, a passer-by stopped to say how much he missed us and was looking forward to our next production.”