Dan dares to innovate
SHEFFIELD Theatres has completed the management team which is to lead the theatre complex into a new era with the appointment of Dan Bates as chief executive to join new artistic director Daniel Evans.
He will arrive in Sheffield in September just before the re-opening of the Crucible and the completion of Phase 2 of its 15.3 million refurbishment.
He said: "I am really excited and I feel incredibly honoured to take up this role and am looking forward to completing the building project and ensuring we offer Sheffield fantastic theatre in brilliant refurbished facilities and return a vibrant producing theatre in the cultural heart of the city.
"The Crucible is a name that everyone knows because of the snooker and I see mine and Daniel's job to try and make it well known for good theatre."
Bates has been chief executive at York Theatre Royal since January 2005 and steered the theatre through an exciting period which included the award-winning production of The Railway Children staged at the National Railway Museum.
"That was a logistical challenge, we had to borrow a space in the museum and borrow a train but it proved extremely popular," says Bates. "We attracted 24,000 over last summer and we are about to start a re-run on July 21."
Bates has been working at York in partnership with artistic director Damien Cruden, himself once of Sheffield. "We have worked together on putting the place on a more even keel. It's a question of getting the audience to support you so that they are with you when you take risks. The Railway Children is an example of exploring ways of working in partnership with other people."
Daniel Evans seems to be of a similar mind, though Bates had not previously met him. "I only knew of him but we have met a few times since and I am really excited to be working with him," he says. "The focus will be on getting work back into the Crucible and we seem to have hit it off as our ideas are similar on what a good well-run theatre should be."
Evans endorses this: "I feel that Dan's ideas of the kind of theatres he'd like to run closely echo my own. I feel very excited and confident that he'll lead the organisation into one of the most exciting periods of the theatres' history."
Also part of the chief executive's responsibility is the Lyceum and Bates has experience of receiving tours. "We produce a lot of work in York but we also have tours," he says. "I also think a combination of my experience in York and Leeds will stand me in good stead."
Prior to York, he was at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, which he joined as a stage manager in 1987 and gradually worked in various different departments from project manager to general manager and eventually executive director.
Originally from North East London, Bates trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama in stage management."I really enjoyed the role of putting the work on but as time goes on you start yearning for different responsibilities and I moved into a more managerial role," says Bates, a trustee of Audiences Yorkshire (the Audience Development Agency for the region) and elected Council Member for the Theatre Management Association.
He will take over from interim chief executive Donna Munday who has been leading the theatres since April following the departure of Angela Galvin.
Making the announcement at the weekend, the chair of the board of Sheffield Theatre, Dominic Shellard, said "Dan's credentials as a successful leader and producer are exemplary, and we are lucky to have secured his services for Sheffield. At a time of significant rebirth for the company, with the opening of the newly refurbished Crucible scheduled for later this year, Dan's vision and energy will be essential in leading the company and ensuring that we maximise all of the new opportunities available to us."
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Wednesday 08 February 2012
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