Gaiety Theatre is an iconic and vital part of the cultural life of Ayr.
The Gaiety Theatre is an iconic and vital part of the cultural life of Ayr. It’s part of Ayr’s heritage which I am passionate about retaining and developing.
The Gaiety is a community-based theatre, run by and for the local community. I’m employed in the role of Volunteer Engagement Manager with responsibility for overseeing the Theatre staff, volunteers and events and I totally love my job.
The Gaiety has a long and interesting history. It was built in 1902 and has kept going despite enforced temporary closures due to two fires (in 1903 and 1955), two World Wars and the Covid pandemic.
There are 19 paid staff and approximately 100 volunteers and together we ensure that the Gaiety stays open as an asset for the people of Ayr and surrounding areas. Staff are employed in various roles throughout the theatre, including executive director; artistic director; producer; financial, marketing, technical and volunteer engagement and front of house duty manager. All other roles including the ticket desk and front of house duties are carried out by our amazing volunteers.
My job as Volunteer Engagement Manager is to ensure that the volunteers have an amazing time with us and enjoy their various roles. I am there to recruit, train and support them and to organise events involving both staff and volunteers as we work as a TEAM.
The Gaiety puts on shows throughout the year except on Mondays, when on-going maintenance is carried out. In addition, we “go dark” for a three-week period during the summer. This is downtime for everyone and allows essential maintenance and necessary repairs to be made to sound and lighting equipment and to the fabric of the building and its interiors.
As is the case with many local theatres, the Gaiety Theatre is a charity. It is run and managed by the Ayr Gaiety Partnership. Fundraising is an essential part of our activity. We are supported by our Ambassadors, Gaiety Champions and everyone who makes regular donations to the theatre, and also by local organisations, lottery funding and income from our performances.
The ethic of the Gaiety is to make live performance accessible to everyone and our mission is to increase well-being through the arts.
Performances are held both in the Main Theatre and in our Studio Theatre. The Main Theatre sits at 484 and the Studio, 75.
The Main Theatre hosts plays, tribute nights, classical, country and pop music concerts and our annual Pantomime. The Studio Theatre is used for smaller events such as “A Play, a Pie and a Pint” performances; and, vitally, it is used to deliver our “performances” which are targeted shows for groups with particular needs, for example people with dementia can attend our dementia-friendly events and in 2025 we are opening our dementia cafe at our new space Gaiety 2. We are very conscious of our civic duty to provide entertainment opportunities for everyone and are delighted that this year, for the first time, we will have deaf actors performing in our Pantomime “Mother Goose”.
As far as possible, we use our own producer and local actors. Our Pantomime is always an in-house production. It runs for six weeks over the Christmas and New Year period. As soon as one run finishes, preparations begin on the next year’s production!
Our audiences come from far and wide, and our shows are well attended. The pantomime always plays to full houses throughout its run and when ‘big names’ are performing, such as G4 or The MacDonald Brothers, it’s always a sell-out.
As part of our civic responsibility, we also run a Young Company for 16-25 year olds, a Youth Theatre for 12-15 year olds, and a range of activities for younger children, including Theatre Tots for babies up to the age of five.
We regularly take touring shows out into the community to ensure that people throughout Ayrshire have access to live theatre.
Our regular Theatre Tours encourage people to learn about our history and heritage, what happens backstage, theatre costumes and so on.
We have a team of approximately 100 volunteers, ranging in age from 14-90. We need 8 volunteers for a production in the Main Theatre and 3 for a Studio show. For popular shows there may be 30 or more volunteers willing to help. I have the delicate job of whittling the number down to 8 while trying not to disappoint too many people!
Volunteers must be fully cognisant with the Health and Safety aspects of theatre work, fire evacuation procedures and be able to deal with any day-to-day issues and challenges which may crop up. Providing volunteer training is an important aspect of my role.
Each volunteer is giving up their time for personal reasons, for example, to give something back to the community; to indulge a passion for live theatre; or to socialise and make new friends. I am very mindful that volunteers are not paid employees, and it is important that I ensure that they feel valued and rewarded for the job that they do. Hence, I plan social events for them outside of their volunteering duties and run well-being sessions on a regular basis. We have a small lending library, where volunteers can contribute and borrow books and share their love of reading. We also meet with other like-minded groups, for example we recently met with the volunteers at Dundonald Castle. The emphasis at these events is on getting to know each other, consolidating friendships and encouraging loyalty to the Gaiety.
Our volunteers are mostly recruited by word-of-mouth or via Voluntary Action South Ayrshire
In turn, we provide volunteers to help at other charitable endeavours in the local community. We recently sent five volunteers to West FM to help with their Cash for Kids appeal and also provided volunteers to help out at Ayr Folk Festival.
We are always happy to take more volunteers on board, so if you would like to join the Gaiety Team, please get in touch.
Amanda Nicol
