By the end of 2014 we will have hosted 98 music and theatre productions. We sold 11 670 tickets for 407 performances compared to 10 040 for 338 in 2013. We can claim with fair certainty that if you look at the facts from a very specific perspective then we’re the busiest little venue in the City.

 Our highest rated show (based on audience responses) Jemma Kahn’s Epicene Butcher (which returns in January 2015) and the highest earner was Oskar Brown’s Between (which recently had a sold-out run at the King’s Head in London) and highlights were getting to put on our own shows in the theatre, like Civil Parting, Dirty Words, and Stealing the Show: Bette Midler.

 Programming has settled more into a rhythm, so we had fewer once-off performances than we did in 2013 and longer runs for many shows. We also cemented our system of having two shows per night – an intense schedule.

 We hosted more productions from exotic Joburg than in 2013: Diane Simpson’s Rose Red, The Epicene Butcher, Mpapa Simo Majola’s The Funeral, Jannes Eras­mus’s Smaarties and Boylesque.

 New writing debuting with us included: Jon Keevy’s Dirty Words, Louis Viljoen’s The Kingmakers, Genna Gardini’s The Swell, Tara Notcutt’s Last Rounds, Megan Furniss and Lynita Crofford’s adaptation of Violet Online, and Thoko Masikini’s Modern African.

Play Things and Anthology

Our monthly open mic performance evening has settled into an institution, not necessarily a good thing. While 2014 saw many artists return to the stage a certain anarchic energy was missing. As an experimental platform it simply became too safe this year and that is a challenge to be taken up in 2015. Two performances hatched from Play Things to full productions this year: Jon Keevy’s Dirty Words which was a cult favourite and Thoko Masikini’s Modern African; Gabriella Pinto and Kelly-Eve Koopman bring their Play Things seedling Run for Your Life to bloom in January 2015.

 Anthology was hatched by Nicholas Spagnoletti and Louis Viljoen in bar, short plays by different local writers on platform. The first of these ran in the second week of December and was a resounding success. They were joined by Candice D’Arcy to create three 20 minute plays performed by Brendon Daniels, Adrian Collins, and Amy Wilson. The next Anthology is tentatively scheduled for May.

Festivals

We ran our second annual pre-National Arts Festival season featuring 12 different shows headed up to the frozen city of Grahamstown. The stay-in-CT punters got a taste of what they were missing and the producers got to practice sharing tight get-in times and get some petrol money. Along the festival line we participated as a venue in the first Cape Town Fringe. It was an exciting project and we were nervous to run with the big dogs but Nicci Spalding’s technical and logistical wizardry made it very easy. We hope more independent venues join us to make the Fringe the festival Cape Town deserves. It was nice having a wide variety of theatre makers from different backgrounds and forms in the venue, bringing in a diverse audience.

We eschewed a second mini-festival in December despite the success of it in 2013, this was a mistake. Looking around there was already so much excellent theatre in the first week of December: War Horse on the grand Artscape stage, Louis Viljoen’s The Pervert Laura, Rob van Vuuren’s What What, Chris Weare’s direction of Grounded by George Brant, graduating students of UCT presenting UHM… The Cape Town theatre makers are buzzing and Cape Town is filled with people on holiday.

Innovation in management systems

Nicholas and Ed’s software laboratory Nitric Industries continued to develop the tools that make Alexander Upstairs run so smoothly. Audience feedback is slickly collected by email and presented for producers to look over. No other theatre in the Mother City can come close to the integration of ticket sales, marketing management and producer transparency that we have. There is still a lot more to do and this area will be one of the most exciting in 2015 for us and theatres in South Africa.

Jon was selected to participate in a new project by British Council Connect ZA, Business Arts South Africa (BASA – yes, the same folks who gave us a Small Business award in 2013) and the Arts Marketing Association (the AMA – a UK based network of marketers figuring out how to get artists and audiences together). This project saw him and three other South Africans travel to Cambridge and London to take part in arts marketing training and conferences. This is an ongoing project for 2015 and will be the start of great opportunities for SA arts administrators.

The fabulous Esthie Hugo became a member of the team as the night manager of the theatre, moving up from FoH to technician to second in command.

Looking to 2015

We spent our first year working out the space we occupy in Cape Town; 2014 found our rhythm, making a firm foundation to build on next year. 2015 will see us shaking things up again as we push to get more new and emerging artists into the venue. We’re going to focus on new writing, resurrecting our play reading program and pushing Play Things and Anthology.