Birmingham Post Editor Alun Thorne talks to The Rep’s executive director Stuart Rogers about making the numbers stack up during one of the most challenging periods in the theatre’s history.

The Birmingham Repertory Theatre – or the Rep as it is affectionately known – has never shied away from taking a risk or two.

In recent years it has built its reputation on challenging productions, be it the infamous Behzti that saw hundreds of Sikhs protesting outside the theatre, to less controversial but equally thought-provoking plays like Arthur and George that examine race and class in modern Britain.

But the theatre is currently embarking on a transformation that could have more potential pitfalls than anything it has ever attempted on the stage.

Come next year, the theatre company will leave its home in Centenary Square for two years while it is completely overhauled as part of the neighbouring £193 million project to build a new Library of Birmingham. And, as excited as he is about the prospect of the rejuvenated theatre, executive director Stuart Rogers is under no illusions about the challenges that lie ahead.

“The workshops have already gone to a unit in Sparkbrook while we have also recently taken some space rehearsals in Edgbaston so the project is very much under way,” he said.

“We have to be completely out of the building by 2011 and then our main administrative centre will be in the Jewellery Quarter.

‘‘There is no doubt that there will be challenges, particularly in terms of communications, but having been to the QE Hospital recently and seen the undertaking they have of moving two hospitals, it puts what we are trying to do into perspective. Compared to that it will be a doddle and I am just in awe of the challenges they face compared to ours.”

That said, the company has already had to streamline its staff as it prepares for a couple of years on the road although Mr Rogers is confident this is just temporary pain for significant long-term gain for the theatre.

“We will certainly have to restructure how we run the business over the next two years and the city council and the Arts Council are being very generous in supporting us,” he said.

“However, there have had to be redundancies. We employ around 85 permanent and 35 to 40 part-time staff and we have lost about a quarter across the board because revenues will certainly be reduced as will the number of productions we undertake.

‘‘However, we would hope that when we are back in the theatre in 2013 we will be taking these numbers back on again and almost certainly more.”

The transformation project will see the theatre’s facade remain but almost everything behind it completely remodelled with new rehearsal rooms, dressing rooms, offices, workshops and costume departments.

However, the piece de resistance for the theatre is that it will share a new foyer with the Library of Birmingham and will also share a new 300-seat studio theatre.

“It is very exciting as the 10,000 people who use the library every day will now use our foyers whereas at the moment there is probably fewer than 1,000 a day who might go through the theatre,” he said.

As with any theatre, the major recurring issue is always finance and while The Rep has put itself on a sound footing under the stewardship of Mr Rogers during the past eight years, the new development work and taking the company to a variety of new venues for two years is not without its pressures.

Nevertheless, Mr Rogers is quick to point out that it is not as if this is a project that has been foisted upon the theatre.

“In terms of the new library, we didn’t just embrace it, we actively courted it,” he said.

He said the theatre had always aspired to extend at some point and had got as far as working with the city council to form a planning framework for the car park next to the theatre as a potential development site when the new library plans came along.

Out the total £193 million cost of the new development, about £20 million will be spent on the Rep and while the theatre is putting no capital into the project, it has provided the land from its leasehold “and of course the risk,” Mr Rogers added.

However, the theatre is now looking to raise £1 million to install air-conditioning in its two current auditoriums – which will not be touched by the new development – as well as refurbishing the door.

In terms of revenue, the theatre receives public funding from the city council and the Arts Council to support new work that amounts for about 38 per cent of its revenue.

“The other 62 per cent we have to earn,” said Mr Rogers. “The bottom line is that if we don’t get audiences right we get nothing right as ticket sales bring in around £2.3m a year.”

The theatre also increasingly makes money by selling its productions on to other theatres which can bring more than £1million to the coffers every year.

“A good example is the Snowman that was originally done in 1997 but still earns us several hundred thousands of pounds every year,” he said. Corporate sponsorship and membership has also become an increasingly important source of revenue – around six or seven per cent – but this has only been possible because the theatre has ultimately been so successful in recent years – which Mr Rogers puts down to the theatre’s diversification.

“The Rep in the 1990s got itself into financial and artistic difficulties but there was a big shake-up around 2000 and when I joined there was a blank sheet of paper where we were able to change the nature of what we did and try and win back the confidence of audiences again,” he said.

“Once this was achieved we have consolidated and artistic director Rachel Kavanaugh, who replaced Jonathan Church, has continued to take the artistic offer onwards and upwards.

“The biggest progress we have made is our diversity. We have moved away from just being a producing theatre. We still do produce work – which we make from scratch – but we started buying in work that wouldn’t otherwise be seen in the city.

‘‘The range of work also diversified in terms of its target audience – we started doing more aimed at young people and BME audiences. Essentially we had a much wider offer.

“We are constantly looking for new work and believe the main house is very much a theatre of the 20th and 21st century. “It was important to differentiate ourselves from the other major theatre in the region, which is the RSC in Stratford, and to be honest you will find yourself on a very sticky wicket when you try and take on essentially the best theatre in the world.

“We’ve discovered there is an audience for major works in the city and an appetite for plays that are not just entertaining but also that provoke debate.”

As well as members of the public and corporate backers, the theatre will be dipping into its own reserves as well as appealing to trusts and foundations that support the arts and educational facilities to try and raise the £1million.

Having no base for two years and using the MAC, the Old Rep, the Crescent and other venues to host its productions will not make things easy.

“Being out of the building makes it all more difficult as we don’t have the ability to do things like back stage tours and other initiatives that can raise revenue so it will certainly be more of a challenge,” he said. “It is a lot of money but we hope a realistic amount and are quite hopeful we can achieve our goal.”

And with its track record for taking calculated risks, you certainly wouldn’t bet against it.