Amateur Stage Magazine

UK Productions recently opened up its sets and costume store to amateurs around the UK.  AS spoke to Martin Dodd about the new hire business, making productions fit, and what makes productions work.“It’s taken us 15 years to get around to formalising our rental production. Over the years we’ve done the odd one or two” says Martin Dodd from UK Productions.

“UK Productions have been in business 15 years now. We were formed to produce pantos and musicals. Our first tour was Barnum in 1995 which toured for 18 months. Since then we’ve done numerous productions, with three to four musicals touring each year.” No mean feat, given the current economic climate.  “This year we have Disney’s Beauty & The Beast, Seven Brides For Seven Brothers, Singing In the Rain and we’ve just gone into production on Oklahoma! for 2010.”  For most people that would be more than enough, but at UK Productions that is only just the beginning of a massive theatrical operation. “We are also currently contracted to produce 10 pantos per year, which can get a little hairy around Christmas.  This year Beauty & The Beast will also stay out at Christmas in Glasgow so we are presenting all over the country.”



“As  a result of that we have built up an extensive store of costumes, sets and technical kit.” Martin said.  UK Productions are now in the hire business.  Their massive stores are now open to companies around the country who want to hire sets and costumes for any of the musicals they have produced.  “Being touring sets, they have been designed to tour and relatively quickly get in and out.  Beauty & The Beast is not quite so easy, it’s a big set.”  So how can UK Productions help your company? Martin is quick with a response “Because we are so used to playing all these different venues, with tight get in and out times, there are very few theatres that are unknown to us. Our production manager can tailor a hire to your time and space requirements.  We have various packages  available where you can swap elements to fit your venue and make it easier to present. Over the 5 years we’ve been touring Beauty and other shows  they’ve played in non-flying venues, small venues, massive venues, so we have two or three versions of the sets available”, he said.

So what prompted the move into rentals? “We have rented out the odd set in the past but we decided it was time to formalise it. Beauty & The Beast has really make us aware of the interest out there.  People have now started asking us if we have other shows available and chances are we probably do as we’ve never scrapped a show since the day we started.”


“It leads to some fairly hefty storage bills, that’s partly the driving force between our decision to start hiring if I’m honest.  We keep everything in very good condition so that we can revive shows easily.  In the meantime it does seem crazy to let them sit there.”

Surely, hiring out big commercial sets costs a fortune. Martin sets the record straight, “Costwise, hires depend on us trying to tailor a package to your company and budget.  For example Beauty & The Beast could go out for £5000 per week for the full set and all the bells and whilstles, we realise though not many companies could accommodate the whole set, so there are packages available for £1000 - £1200 per week.  We do the same with the costumes. We have our own wardrobe department and costume designer and huge warehouse in Blackpool which is manned all the time as we are always making for panto and our own shows. There are tens of thousands of costumes.  Obviously Beauty has a load of specialist costumes with all the enchanted objects so we have different deals available so you can hire the enchanted costumes or the whole shebang.  The same applies for all our other shows.”

Given that so many shows fail, what does Martin attribute his success to? “I tend to go for shows I grew up with and that I like myself. It’s why we mainly do revivals.  You need to get a show that is deep in people’s psyche, a show that they really love.  That is to a large degree what the amateur market does – shows that they really love.  That’s why R & H and shows like 42nd Street are so popular.  The audience knows what they are getting, they know the tunes, so if you give them a good production they come out with a smile on their face.”

So how much notice do UK Productions need to help groups with staging their productions? “We don’t, to be honest. As long as there is time to get it on a truck and get it out there. We are used to reacting to things so it takes next to no time. Our stores are fully manned, so its not an issue.  But obviously as more and more people are interested in shows like Beauty (we’re already taking bookings for the set for 2011), then a bit of notice would be great.”

For more information email
rentals@ukproductions.co.uk or visit
www.ukproductions.co.uk.

PANTO SCRIPTS
As well as renting the UK Productions stock of sets and costumes, you can produce their range of panto scripts by Tom Bright, all of which are licensed through Stagescripts Ltd. www.stagescripts.com