Welcome to the October edition of Ensemble. I hope you’re all keeping well.

I’d like to start by saying congratulations to all the team at HQ Theatres and New Theatre Cardiff for hosting a wonderful double celebration last month, marking the re-opening of the venue and the first night performance of Priscilla Queen of the Desert. Howard and I, along with other TE colleagues, thoroughly enjoyed visiting the theatre for the first time, meeting staff and having a look round the venue. I’d like to thank everyone involved for their warm welcome and outstanding hospitality. Following the re-opening of Cardiff, we’re delighted to say that ALL of our venues are now back up and running and operating at normal levels. What an achievement!

We’ve also reached the end of the six month period for integration of the HQ business which has now been largely completed, on time and on budget. The IT, HR and finance teams have worked tirelessly to make this happen, often working many extra hours and offering tremendous support to our new colleagues in the HQ venues. A huge thank you to everyone for your hard work and commitment during this process. We really appreciate you all!

In other news, Stagecoach recruited over 17,000 new students this autumn, making this term the most successful recruitment term in Stagecoach’s history! Simultaneously, Stagecoach global student number is now back in line with its 2019 pre-pandemic number which is fantastic news! And well done to the Stagecoach team for successfully hosting their first post-pandemic franchisee event last week.

Finally, congratulations to everyone at Trafalgar Releasing for another record-breaking box office success story with Oasis Knebworth 1996 which has become the highest-grossing documentary and event cinema release for 2021 at the UK box office. And hot of the press this week, we can reveal that Trafalgar Releasing will be distributing our smash hit production of Anything Goes and record-breaking Rocky Horror Show to cinemas this autumn!

Until next time, take care and look after yourselves.
Best wishes
Rosemary