As the Wales Millennium Centre (WMC) approaches its first anniversary, Fiona Allan reflects on the challenges of opening the Centre and the lessons learnt in its first year.
Situated in Cardiff Bay, the £106m WMC project, supported by a Lottery Grant from the Millennium Commission and a direct grant from the Welsh Assembly Government, was designed as a ?stage for a nation?. In addition to the main 1,896-seat Donald Gordon Theatre, the centre has a 250-seat studio and 100-seat Dance House, and is home to seven resident organisations, including the Welsh National Opera and Diversions ? the national dance company of Wales. Since opening, 5,100 school children have visited the centre and 15,000 people have taken guided tours. The WMC is much more than a theatre space, it is fast becoming a must-see visitor destination, and ? like my previous stomping ground, the Sydney Opera House ? serves a dual role as a cultural and tourism hub for the city.
The Centre?s opening weekend provided the greatest event-management challenge that the organisation has faced, with two gala performances, a free open-house day featuring performances by resident companies, an outdoor choral concert and a specially commissioned pyrotechnic display by Groupe F. All this took place just four weeks after moving into the building, having had just one acoustic test in the main auditorium, and with a new team of staff, many of whom had worked for WMC for just a month or two.
Logistically, these events would be a stretch on any organisation, let alone one in its first stages of operational and staff development. Two weeks of rehearsals led up to the two Galas, stretching rehearsal and dressing room facilities to the maximum with over 600 artists in rehearsal concurrently. Catering contractors Leith?s worked miracles in providing refreshments for the artists, two dedicated teams of creative personnel worked wonders in keeping rehearsal schedules on time and a large team from BBC television worked side by side with WMC technical staff, creative personnel and artists to ensure our efforts were seen across the UK. The weekend went virtually without a hitch ? the only small crisis being when the fire curtain failed to rise after an interval on the opening night. An announcement was made and technical staff hurriedly learnt how to solve the problems of new technology. In true Welsh style, rather than fidgeting, the audience took to singing ? for twenty minutes Welsh songs spontaneously filled the auditorium, turning a potentially awkward moment into a collective celebration of Welsh culture. For many of us working on the opening weekend, this incident captured the spirit and values of the WMC better than any other.
In the 11 months since WMC opened we?ve seen over 258,000 people attend more than 200 performances in the Donald Gordon Theatre. The programme is built around diversity ? from a Welsh-language version of ?Les Miserables? to stand-up comedy and contemporary dance. A key programming goal is to provide audiences in Wales with access to world-class companies that previously have lacked the facilities to perform in this country. This year has seen the Kirov and Australian ballets, the Mark Morris Dance Group and James Thierree all performing in Wales for the first time, with visits from other ?newcomers? Circus Oz and Philip Glass scheduled before the year?s end.
A lesson learnt early in the year was never to assume name recognition of these international artists in a marketplace that has, to date, not had local opportunity to attend performances of their work. It was a focus group early in the year in which potential patrons assumed that the Mark Morris Dance Group would be performing Morris dancing that taught me this lesson well! Direct marketing campaigns have concentrated on demystifying contemporary work, the website backs up performance information with links and articles where possible, and free pre-performance talks accompany each visiting company. And when the Mark Morris Dance Group did appear, nearly 25% of the audience stayed to hear Mark Morris talk about his work ? and obviously phoned their friends the next morning, as the performances on the second day of the company?s two-day stop had encouraging day sales. Word of mouth has been a key factor in selling all the ?new? performances this year ? over 35% of audiences to James Thierree were day sales.
The key to our successes to date ? and critical to our ability to move forward and grow ? is the flexibility of our teams and a culture that encourages continuous learning and improvement. As a new organisation bringing ?new? work to Wales and growing audiences for some artforms from scratch, continual analysis and review (coupled with the capacity to react quickly and modify tactics that aren?t working at short notice) are the ingredients we hope will ensure our future growth and success.
Fiona Allan is Programming & Marketing Director at Wales Millennium Centre.
t: 029 2063 6400