Harrogate Theatre faces major job cuts and closure until 2021

Harrogate Theatre has announced that the venue will stay closed until 2021, leaving 60% of its permanent staff at risk of redundancy.

The arts charity, which puts on drama, comedy, dance and family shows in Harrogate operates two venues: Harrogate Theatre and Harrogate Studio Theatre. 

In a statement, the theatre's bosses said it's not financially viable for them to open under current social distancing guidelines.

The current business model relies on 90% of seats being filled, but under the current restrictions they can only fill 20% of the auditorium.

In a joint statement, Chief Executive David Bown and chair of the board Deborah Larwood said: "This has been an extremely difficult and very sad decision to make, but we feel it is the most sensible action under the current circumstances; not only to protect the safety of our audiences, volunteers and staff but to safeguard the future of Harrogate Theatre."

"Our business model relies on at least half of our auditorium being occupied to break-even. To produce our much-loved pantomime, we need to sell close to 90% of our seats over two months of shows.

"With social distancing in place across this beautiful Victorian building, we can only fill 20% of the auditorium.

"This is not financially viable. Neither can we take the financial risk of paying for and then cancelling shows if the theatre is bouncing in and out of closure, due to possible quarantines or lockdowns.

"Therefore, we are suspending or moving all planned activity for this year at Harrogate Theatre into 2021."

What does the future of the theatre look like?

Harrogate Theatre is now asking people to support its emergency appeal, to help the venue reopen and recover from lockdown.

The statement continued: "As a direct result of the pandemic, and the dramatic loss of income associated with it, we have no other choice than to scale back the organisation and reduce our overheads in order to survive.

"This means that we have been forced to make the incredibly hard decision to enter a period of redundancy consultation with our staff. At the end of this period we may have to make up to 60% of permanent roles redundant.

As to the future, Harrogate Theatre still needs people to support its emergency appeal if it is ever to emerge from lockdown.

"To make it through to next year we will still need to continue our emergency fundraising campaign. Our audiences and the wider community have been incredibly supportive during these extraordinary times.

"From the kindness of donations to the publicly led fundraisers, we have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and generosity shown towards the theatre.

"We accept our responsibility in this special town and must continue doing all we can to secure the future of the theatre.''