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Director plans to invest in future of theatre

Harriet Heywood
BBC News, Peterborough
Reporting from The Cresset, Bretton
Harriet Heywood/BBC Ms Chantal is sat in the theatre seating smiling at the camera. She has medium length blonde hair, blue eyes and pink lipstick. She is wearing earrings and blye, red and gold flower print dress. She is also wearing glasses on top of her head. Harriet Heywood/BBC
Louise Chantal hoped the new direction for The Cresset could lead to more local events and making it place that feels like home

A new director hopes to invest in the future of a theatre and arts venue in a city.

Louise Chantal said much had changed since The Cresset in Bretton, Peterborough, first opened almost 50 years ago and wanted to support its future direction.

She said it was going through "an incredible programme of transformation" as the site needed investment in terms of resource and reimagination.

Ms Chantal, 57, added the team would look to refresh its events programmes and reinstate the mission of the building to serve the community and young people.

Harriet Heywood/BBC A mostly white space in the cresset shows one of the other venues inside, The Fayre Spot - a pub. The floor is white and the walls are also a white brick. There are adverts for different shows around the room.Harriet Heywood/BBC
The building includes a library, youth club, theatre, day care, events venues and a church, and 70 flats managed by YMCA

The Cresset is owned by the YMCA Trinity Group and is home to performance spaces as well as a library, day care centre, shops, church and pub.

It is self funding and year end profits are put back into the work of the charity.

"It's not just a theatre, its a community hub, a place that is open from 07:00 to 23:00... with conference facilities, weddings and a really busy youth programme on stage and in the community with the YMCA."

Ms Chantal added: "One of the things I want to do is bring in more original music as well as the really great fun tribute acts we are well-known for and bring in different music here like jazz, country [and] western, opera or local orchestras.

"We want the community to be a part of this venue in the way it was originally conceived to be the community hub of Bretton."

Harriet Heywood/BBC Ms Chantal is standing outside the Cresset building. It has brown bricks and electric glass doors at the entrance. She is smiling with her hands behind her back. Harriet Heywood/BBC
Ms Chantal also hoped to show young people the career pathways that the arts had to offer such as costume, set or light design

It was devised in the 1970s by Sir Harold Haywood and was officially opened in 1978 by HM The Queen with Prince Philip.

Ms Chantal joined the theatre and events complex this year after a report was commissioned by the Cresset Board in partnership with Peterborough City Council.

It said its recommendations would be implemented over the next five years.

She wanted to hear suggestions of what the wider community wanted to see at the site and hoped to bring in more ideas and bigger audiences.

Ms Chantal added: "Some of our staff have been here 40 years, they come and they stay because they love it and they care about The Cresset and you can feel that.

"You can feel it in the way that they behave and treat the audience as guests to their home, it's a very different vibe to the theatres I've worked in for the last 40 years."

Harriet Heywood/BBC A theatre with a large wooden floor and lots of stacked tiered seating. The chairs fold down and are blue. Around the room long blue curtains are also hanging down from beams on the roof. Harriet Heywood/BBC
The nearly 900 seats in the theatre were replaced last year as part of a £5m refurbishment

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