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David Burchhardt shares an end of year update on The UK Theatre Tour
We first spoke to David Burchhardt about his ambitious project back in June, you can read the interview here. He was attempting to visit every theatre in the UK, documenting each on YouTube, to give a snapshot of the industry in the 2020s and celebrate its importance. The project is titled ‘The UK Theatre Tour’. As the curtain falls on 2024, we’ve caught up with David for an update.
In its first full year The UK Theatre Tour’s growth has been beyond my imagination. At the start of the year, with only one theatre visited and one video published from 2023, it looked like the YouTube channel might not take off as I hoped.
With little to show from the channel and a handful of subscribers, it took until February before fortunes started to change. The King’s Head Theatre kindly agreed to my filming request, coinciding with their recent relocation. A chance encounter with an old friend at the Arcola Theatre, followed up with a lot of emailing and networking events, saw the channel grow from strength to strength with more theatre visits planned for filming.
June saw my first visit to a commercial West End venue and was an incredibly special day of filming. Whilst I visited, The Shaftesbury Theatre (the largest independent in the West End), became part of a major turning point in UK theatre history. Unbeknownst to me at the time of one of my presenting stints in the Princes Circus outside, I was walking in almost the exact same footsteps as the actors partaking in the Save London’s Theatres Campaign (the photo of which is included in The Shaftesbury Theatre video). This campaign led to the theatre being saved from demolition. It was one of the many times during the year I felt I was walking through history.
The second half of 2024 proved busier than the first, with more filming days. There have been times during the year where certain areas of theatres aren’t accessible for filming during my visit. It meant that for The Yvonne Arnaud in Guildford, I had to revisit two weeks after my initial call to gain access to the auditorium and backstage (technical rehearsals were underway during my first day of filming).
In August, I visited Stamford in Lincolnshire. This small town with a population of around 20,000 has two theatres in the town itself, with a third (Rutland Open Air Theatre) just a three mile drive away, forming a playlist on the channel titled ‘The Stamford Trilogy’. The Stamford Arts Centre and Stamford Corn Exchange theatres, were filmed on the same day and the logistics had to be carefully coordinated with each other: at the Arts Centre the Ballroom was only accessible in the afternoon and the theatre only in the morning. The bookended filming of the Arts Centre was sandwiched together with my visit to the Corn Exchange, with a tight turn around for each. Juggling these two scripts proved an interesting and enjoyable challenge.
For each theatre a script is carefully written up, ensuring historical and contextual accuracy. Countless hours have been spent exploring theatre websites, books and other online resources. I’ve dived into multiple, intriguing areas of history: from theatre censorship, to the abolition of the Corn Laws, to Acts of Parliament that have shaped the industry to how we know it today. It’s been a joy discovering and a privilege getting the chance to share it on the channel.
The oldest building I’ve visited so far is The Actor’s Church in Covent Garden dating back to the 1630s, whilst the newest building has been The Turbine Theatre which opened in 2019. The range and variety of our theatre buildings around the country has been fascinating, and also signifies the important work all our venues contribute to the theatre industry as well as the country’s economy. A recent report from research undertaken by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport concluded that arts engagement not only improves the general health of UK adults but also represents £8 billion in value each year*.
Thank you to all the theatres I’ve visited so far for all your time, generosity and support of the project. And thank you to all the viewers and followers of the channel for your continued support over the last year.
I end 2024 with great hope for the industry and the future of the project. I’m looking forward to exploring more theatres in the coming year, and expanding the channel with exciting content.
I hope you have a wonderful 2025 and as always, I’ll see you on the next stage!
Make sure to follow and subscribe to the links below, so not to miss out on upcoming videos and updates:
YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/@TheUKTheatreTour
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theuktheatretour/
