Evolver 117 - September and October 2020

20 PERFORMANCE September and October 2020 Lighthouse in Poole had already been closed for five months when I spoke to the Chief Executive Elspeth McBain. The first bit of good news came in the form of £255,000 from the Arts Council Emergency Response Fund at the same time the government announced its 1.5 billion package for the arts sector. The Lighthouse has a main theatre, studio theatre and rehearsal rooms alongside the concert hall, cinema, gallery and café. The auditorium capacity without social distancing is 1,500, with social distancing it reduces to 354. Lighthouse is home to Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, all of whose players were furloughed, their live concert programme cancelled, and Bournemouth Symphony Chorus still don’t know if and when they will be able to sing together again. The players will need extensive rehearsals to identify how sound will work with spatially distanced performers. However, live performances, but without a live audience, will return from 30th September with a series of twelve digital subscription concerts with their usual pre- concert talks. Although the initial focus will be on live- streaming it is hoped that they can move on to staging concerts with small live audiences, and smaller studio theatre performances will move into the main auditorium to facilitate social distancing. Fiona Robinson bsolive.com Elspeth has been working closely with other arts venues. “We all face the same challenges and have come together as neighbours and partners. It has been a useful bonding exercise.” She takes both a pragmatic and a positive view of the future. Her thinking is: “What can we reimagine? How can we find a way back slowly and safely?”. In early Autumn, every Saturday from 19th September to 10th October, a series of events will take place in their ‘amphitheatre’ on the grassy knoll to the side of Lighthouse. The building will start to reopen on the 15th September and as both embedded in and serving the community she sees the role of the arts as vital. A priority is to support some of the smaller self-supporting acts which have had little government support. lighthousepoole.co.uk BOURNEMOUTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA BSO CHIEF CONDUCTOR KIRILL KARABITS LIGHTHOUSE AMPHITHEATRE FREE EVOLVER LISTINGS Exhibition and performance listings should be emailed to: [email protected] Please supply information (in upper and lower case) in the following order: Event. Date(s). Venue, address (including postcode). Times. Admission fee (if any). Contact number / website. Up to 30 words about the event. SUBSCRIBE TO EVOLVER ONLINE evolver.org.uk ‘CLOUDSCAPES’ (3 October) LIGHTHOUSE, POOLE’S CENTRE FOR THE ARTS