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New Eden Court chief executive will build on the theatre's successful projects


By Margaret Chrystall

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Rebecca Holt, the new chief executive of Eden Court, wants to build on the success of projects begun by her predecessor – such as the Under Canvas music programme and new musical The Stamping Ground, which features the music of Runrig and is being produced in-house.

Rebecca Holt, the new chief executive at Eden Court. Picture: Ewen Weatherspoon
Rebecca Holt, the new chief executive at Eden Court. Picture: Ewen Weatherspoon

And despite the tests the theatre faced from Covid, Rebecca Holt has confirmed that long-term plans to extend the theatre are still on the table.

In fact, three weeks into the job, Rebecca Holt sounded positive, if a little cautious on the subject.

“It is still one of the options that is being considered. The context has changed a little bit since it first came up – the pandemic and the cost of construction and having been closed for a time, I think.

“But it is still definitely worth exploring in amongst other options. There remains an ambition to do a capital project of sorts, but it’s what scale.”

And the CEO is clearly not going to rush into anything without a full understanding of the many roles Eden Court plays in the Highland community – including entertaining diverse audiences and educating and inspiring creativity through the engagement programme.

“It is really early days and I’m conscious that I want to spend some time making sure any decisions I’m making are the right ones for Eden Court,” Ms Holt said. “Whilst there are transferable things from where I worked previously, at Battersea Arts Centre, there are also things that aren’t!

“Eden Court is somewhere that is serving a large remit, a big community and there are things about that that are very specific to Eden Court.

“So I wouldn’t want to make too many big decisions early on.”

Theatre accounts published in February for the year ended March 2021 revealed that there had been 376,000 fewer engagements from customers, but that an extra £2.4 million of income was secured from a big fundraising effort last year, led by previous CEO James Mackenzie-Blackman.

Ms Holt paid tribute to the organisation she inherits from Mr Mackenzie-Blackman, who left the theatre near the end of last year to become CEO of the Theatre Royal in his home town of Plymouth.

“I think what James built here is really successful so I am in the lucky position that it’s about building on that.”


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