The Old Fire Station Theatre has faced complaints over action which threatened to financially cripple members of OUDS.
A production scheduled for 7th week this term, Murder in the Oxford Poetry Society, a new play being written by St Catherine’s student Caroline Bird, recently had to be cancelled. This left the Producer contractually obliged to pay OFS a sum of £3,000.
University Drama Officer Barney Norris pledged, “it is my aim that no student should ever lose their own money on drama in Oxford”, appealing to members of OUDS to pull together to produce a new play within six weeks to avoid “a perilous financial hit”.
A production of Blood Wedding, originally scheduled for the Moser Theatre in Wadham, has now stepped forward to fill the empty week at the theatre. OUDS President, Roland Singer-Kingsmith, commented that although the situation was unfortunate, the cancellation charge was actually a very realistic figure given the financial loss that the OFS would have to endure.
He estimated that a producer is personally liable for a budget of around fourteen thousand pounds in an average production, and that the contractual clause is, in the majority of cases, “a formality, with a really slim chance of ever having to be enforced”.
Some students have expressed grievance about how OFS handles payments to students.
One producer of a show staged last term commented “we were owed our money fourteen days after the last performance…and I received the cheque last week”.
Members of the show’s production team were owed approximately two thousand pounds, and were unable to be paid earlier, despite making requests to OFS.
OFS contracts stipulate that, should the production make a loss, the deficit owed to the theatre will accumulate 4% interest for each day after the fourteen day time slot.
However, the same system does not apply to money owed by the OFS to students, meaning the theatre does not suffer the same financial penalty for late payments.
As the producer put it: “think of the interest we didn’t make in that time!”
The financial system surrounding student productions at the OFS can “lead to a general feeling of not being entirely control of your finances” commented Go Back for Murder producer, Clare Bucknell.
She labels the budgeting system OFS uses “disproportionately complex”, with OFS providing the initial capital for publicity costs which the production team must reimburse, meaning the production is indebted to the theatre very early in its development.
Bucknell remarked that “I felt pressured to repay my creditors as swiftly as possible (many of whom were students in the production company)… but the OFS took weeks to send me a cheque for the profit we’d made. Our show was in 3rd week; I didn’t get the money until the end of 7th, despite receiving the final accounts via email in 4th.”
Suggestions of delayed payments have been stringently denied by the OFS, with General Manager Jamie Baskeyfield. He stressed that “[OFS is] in the business of working with, not against our valued student producers”.
Whatever issues students have had in their past dealings with the OFS, the Oxford dramatic community as a whole will mourn the loss of this convenient and invaluable performing space.
Ellen Jones, the producer of Blood Wedding, commented that the closure was “really sad” as it has been an ideal venue for many years.
The OFS is preparing to bow out of the Oxford drama scene at the end of May after almost two decades hosting student productions.
The theatre has been bought by the charity Crisis, which plans to turn the space into a homeless shelter incorporating a community theatre.
