A range of “radical developments” announced on Monday are set to strengthen Pitlochry Festival Theatre (PFT) as one of Scotland’s top attractions.
The moves come as the venue bucks a steady decline in the volume of in-house work generated by theatres throughout the country.
Now Pitlochry Festival Theatre plans to further defy the national trend by embarking on a period of expansion which should see it account for a staggering 15% of Scotland’s total theatre attendances.
A significant increase in both the range and amount of in-house work that it delivers is envisaged starting in December with its first Christmas show.
Derek Allan, PFT’s depute chief executive and commercial director, said, “Research has consistently shown that what the majority of Scottish audiences want from a Christmas show is a combination of story and spectacle.
“They want a great narrative, fabulous sets and costumes, big casts and theatrical magic aplenty.
“This is exactly what PFT delivers every year in its unique summer season, so we thought why not apply these strengths to a Christmas show?”
Having opted for traditional family pantomime to fill the new Christmas slot, chief executive and artistic director John Durnin decided there was only one possible choice for the first production.
“We knew we had no option but to start our Christmas programme with Cinderella the biggest and the best panto story of them all,” he said.Christmas stardust”It will feature all of the production values that audiences have to come to expect at the Theatre in the Hills, with an extra sprinkling of Christmas stardust for good measure.
“We expect the panto to attract thousands of winter visitors to Highland Perthshire for a very special Christmas treat.”
Mr Durnin confirmed the festive show development was only one part of a larger programme of expansion.
“PFT is justly proud of having maintained its producing output during the last decade,” he said.
“But now we want to go further, to create an even greater number of our own productions for an even wider range of audiences from across Scotland and beyond, while maintaining our hard-won reputation for exceptional production values.
“To do that, we are going to have to both develop the historical Pitlochry model and produce outwith the summer season.
“These are radical developments, but we know that there are gaps in Scotland’s national theatre provision that only PFT is able to fill and that the audience demand is there.”
PFT is already the biggest “building-based” producer of drama for adult audiences in Scotland, in terms of both the number of productions and attendances.
By developing a new autumn and winter season of in-house productions both drama and Christmas shows PFT will become the single biggest building-based producer of theatre in Scotland.
Based on present projections, PFT expects that by 2012-13, the combined audience for its summer and winter seasons will account for almost 15% of total theatre attendances in Scotland.
Meanwhile, the already famous summer repertoire season will also be expanded over the next three years.
Mr Durnin explained that PFT’s inspiration for these developments lay both in its own past and in recent history across the Atlantic.
“Ever since it was founded by John Stewart in 1951, PFT has acted as something of a cultural magnet, attracting regular visits from audiences who are prepared to travel huge distances because of the quality and distinctiveness of the theatre’s work,” he said.
“Now we have to build on that appeal in order to attract an even broader cross section of the public in ever greater numbers.
“The great festival theatres of North America have led the way in this kind of repertoire development; now PFT has to emulate them and fashion an even larger role for itself within Scotland’s theatre infrastructure.”
PFT is targeting the autumn of 2012 for the launch of a first autumn repertory production.
The theatre already generates a huge economic contribution for the area, amounting to between £11 million and £13 million annually.