This summer sees the launch of the brand new ‘Grand Slam Theatre Company’. The company has been set up to produce top quality, commercial theatre in Wales but with a desire to take that theatre all over the world.In 2005 Mal Pope’s first musical ‘Amazing Grace’ set Welsh theatres alight with a tale of passion that sounded intrinsically ‘Welsh’, drawing on the musical heritage of Wales, but which didn’t sound ‘old fashioned’. The show attracted great critical acclaim described as ‘The First Great Welsh Musical’ but more importantly it entertained theatre audiences across Wales. The show has sold over £500,000 worth of tickets and been seen by over 30,000 including sell out weeks at both the Wales Millennium Centre and the Swansea Grand Theatre. Mal’s second musical ‘Contender’ was based on the life of Tonypandy born boxer ‘Tommy Farr’. The tour sold nearly £180,000 of tickets and has attracted interest from producers across the world. So why a new theatre company? Mal always felt that too often theatre which has been created in Wales with a Welsh flavour has aimed too low in its ambitions. ‘I looked at the Irish influenced show Riverdance and thought why isn’t there a show that reflected Welsh culture in a new and vibrant way. Are our stories not entertaining; is our culture any less valid? In my discussion with producers from around the world I really don’t believe that to be true. In recent years TV shows like Torchwood have gone some way to prove the cynics wrong. You can set a ‘sci fi’ show in Wales and it can be sexy and sold to a worldwide audience. I really do believe if we produce shows which work in Wales and then bring producers in to see those shows, selling out and entertaining audiences, they will want to take them to their parts of the world.’ ‘The Grand Slam Theatre Company will be run on a fully commercial basis which means that each show stands and falls by how attractive it is to an audience and how many tickets we sell. The company will strive to find innovative ways to promote its shows, working with business to explore new ways to cross promote shows and products.’ Mal’s partner in Grand Slam is no stranger to running a global operation. For 5 years Chris Street was Global Vice President initially for one of Terry Matthews’s companies. The division Chris managed had a turnover of $300 million per annum. During this period Chris lived and worked in Canada and Belgium. More recently Chris has been running a management consultancy firm providing services to small and medium enterprises. Although Grand Slam does not expect to turn over quite that amount in our first year its good to know Chris has plenty of experience when it comes to making the figures work! Grand Slam will also build strongly on our relationships with Welsh Theatres. Over the past 20 years Mal has had an amazing relationship with the Swansea Grand Theatre. The Grand Slam Theatre Company will build on that relationship. It is hoped that much of the pre-production, rehearsal and set build will be located at the Grand Theatre in Swansea. The theatre is well equipped to deliver top class support and we hope to draw on the experience many members of staff, technical, promotional and administrative over the coming years. One of the objectives of Grand Slam will be to experiment with running shows in smaller venues for a longer period of time. The problem with past productions has been that the great ‘word of mouth’ has not been exploited because the show in question will not be back in an area for anything up to 18 months. Grand Slam is developing a strategic plan with The Gate Theatre in Cardiff to run shows for a much longer period than has been possible for previous productions. Why Grand Slam Theatre? ‘We wanted a name that showed we had Welsh roots but could be related to by audiences across the world. We went through a whole number of ‘arty’ type names and then realised, we really want to be ambitious with this theatre company. Our aim is to win the ‘Grand Slam’ and we’ll give it everything to try to achieve that ambition.’ |
| Grand Slam Theatre Company web site: mal@grandslamtheatre.com |
| www.grandslamtheatre.com e-mail: |
Friday, June 19, 2009 |
Older news
stories have been carefully archived.
2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999