A new multi-disciplinary arts centre, SCRUM Studios, will open in Hammersmith offering training programmes and subsidised creative spaces for theatre makers. Artist collective SCRUM Theatre, is a charity formed by a collective of theatre-makers who transform disused buildings and turn them into pop-up arts hubs, seeking to create a more sustainable culture for UK artists at a time of crisis in the industry. Taking up a two-year residence in the Lilla Huset building on Talgarth Road, which was formerly home to Hammersmith and Fulham Council’s archives, SCRUM Studios includes: three rehearsal rooms; a playwright’s centre; a self-tape studio; a work room for scenic designers, prop makers and costumiers; and a large warehouse space that will be transformed into a performance venue.
From early 2025, SCRUM Theatre plan to begin construction on a modular theatre in the old archive space, in which they will produce their first production in the new venue, Twelfth Night with further plans to tour the show to regions underserved by arts funding with an integrated education programme. Later in the autumn, SCRUM will be hosting their second series of workshops for performance makers, as well as a programme designed for local schools and will also be collaborating on a project with visual artist Murugiah and Compass Collective, a charity that works with refugee youth, to create a mural that will hang in the community space of the building.
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What can you tell me about SCRUM Studios and this amazing project?
Well, we’re occupying a very large and beautiful building on Talgarth Road which used to be the old council archives. It had been abandoned for years and we’ve spent the last six months transforming into a colourful, welcoming community hub. There are three rehearsal studios named after three of our heroes from theatre history — Sarah Bernhardt, Federico Lorca and Ira Aldridge, complete with murals. There’s a designers’ workroom and a self-tape studio. There’s a writers’ co-working space we’re calling The Scrummage. And perhaps most excitingly, the massive warehouse that used to house the archives will soon be turned into a 250-seat theatre. So it’s a big deal! On the 19th of September, we’re holding an Opening Party to celebrate the building’s official opening to the public. The evening promises to be special, with music and text performances from the company, creative activities for guests, and a chance to connect with fellow artists and supporters.
Where did the initial idea and the vision for the project come?
We’re a group of theatre makers who came together at a time when a lot of crucial support for the arts was disappearing. Places like the Actors Centre and the Poor School, which for years had been lifelines for creatives and improved access to the industry for people from less privileged backgrounds. The thing is, a lot of us had either trained or worked abroad — in places like France, Finland, and Romania — which have more sustainable structures in place for artists that not only encourage more people to take part, but also ensure the work is of a consistently high quality. And these structures aren’t complicated; it's about having enough time and space, being paid equitably, and working in environments that feel safe and accessible. But here in the UK, because so much of the industry is freelance and arts investment isn’t always valued, these basics are usually the first thing to get overlooked.
Then, the pandemic hit, and we saw a huge number of freelancers leaving the industry altogether. That's when we thought: why not try to fill that gap ourselves? So, we set up SCRUM to create a resource that would a) help us to make our best work b) support other artists in developing their craft, and c) foster the next generation of creatives, particularly in communities and demographics that are currently underserved. The first step was clear: we needed a physical space where the work could happen, and we built from there.
How did you go about finding the space and developing the project?
For a while we had been moving in and out of spaces — churches, village halls, abandoned cafes — until we began working with Theatre Deli, which does amazing work in providing subsidised space for artists. Their support has been absolutely invaluable, helping to connect us with property providers who arrange to put charities in empty commercial spaces. This current space on Talgarth Road was made possible by the amazing Hammond and Associates, and the opportunity pretty much landed on our laps a week before Christmas, so we had to take it! Parts of the building had been disused for several years, so we had our work cut out in developing it. From there, we set about transforming the
How important is it to bring the arts to underserved areas?
Uncompromisingly. Art and art-making is treated like a luxury, when it isn’t, it’s a basic need. It’s the most natural thing in the world to tell stories, or doodle, or play music, and frankly it’s what makes life bearable. In 2021, a report from SOLT and UK Theatre estimated that the physical and mental wellbeing benefits of theatregoing could save the NHS £102,234,585 a year. So why should the economy of your city dictate your access to art? The thing is, it’s easy for films, TV and books to be distributed, but theatre is difficult. And yet there’s something special about having everyone in a room together being told a story by real human beings in the flesh. It’s a form of storytelling that’s more social, and more political — and everyone deserves to access it.
It's not just a performance space but a multi-disciplinary arts centre. What can you tell me about the variety of things that will be on offer?
Where do we start! There will be three seasons of free and pay-what you can workshops each year, to help makers both enter and sustain a career in the theatre. Our first season in the venue this summer saw nearly 400 makers take advantage of workshops led by practitioners like Lyndsey Turner, Adrian Lester, and Declan Donnellan. We’ve got three rehearsal studios, a co-working space for playwrights, desks for designers, a script library donated by Nick Hern Books, and a huge warehouse that we are working to transform into a theatre.
Why did you settle on Twelfth Night for the first production that will be staged in 2025?
At its heart, it’s a story about a community waking up to joy again after a difficult time - which is fitting for our new venue. There’s something radical about insisting on joy in despite of dark times. But it’s also a deeply complicated play about our responsibility to each other, and how desire and violence can be two sides of the same coin. Times are hard right now, and we deserve great daft joyous stories - but also ones that don’t shy away from the knotty parts of being alive. Twelfth Night, we think, is one of Shakespeare’s best and most complicated stories. As a queer-led collective, this lovely gnarly play about desire and identity fascinates us. We also like to make a mess with our work and play fast and hard with the rules. And Twelfth Night is a banger (there’s a good reason people have wanted to hear it again and again for 400 years) - but it’s fortunately long out of copyright, so we can do what we want with it.
What would you say to anyone who would like to take up a career in the arts but isn't well served?
The three ingredients you need are time, space and people. Those can be very hard to access, and can come at a price. Find your people first. Theatre is a team sport; it all starts with building your nest of collaborators. In terms of time and space - that’s what we’re trying to offer to you at the SCRUM, and there are other brilliant organisations like Theatre Deli, Tamasha and the Roundhouse. We started out in an attic in Willesden Green, with a pile of instruments and beers. You can make art anywhere that you can find an empty space. Also, don’t let anyone tell you you are an ‘emerging artist’. If you make art, you’re an artist. You don’t need anyone else’s permission.
Where did your arts career begin and how do you reflect on your journey to date?
Our journey is a glorious mixture of many strands. As a collective, we all started in different places and different countries. Some of us went to drama school, some started in film. We have a member who went to clown school in France, another who trained as a director in America. We have musicians and cabaret performers in the group, visual artists and film makers. The core of the collective met through ‘Theatre Church, a group of young makers who used to come together on Sundays for a kind of creative gym, with different artists using the group to help develop work. Out of that, we found ourselves seeing the same appetites, the same curiosity, the same weirdnesses and perspectives on the work. And that is where SCRUM was born. We were formed out of collaborating live in a space. It’s been a wonderful and sometimes hard journey. In order to make the creative space we wanted, we’ve had to learn a lot of new things on the trot - fundraising, odd corners of property law, policy design - the list feels never-ending. To steal a phrase from our producer, Arron Greechan, there’s the business of art, and the art of business. As a group of creatives, we’ve been building a whole new organisation from scratch, and have had to teach ourselves to be administrators and project managers. We are so proud of what we do - but it’s also taken several buckets of elbow grease to get here.
What keeps you inspired?
Each other. Simple as that.
What are your hopes for the venue going forwards?
It’s already allowing us to expand our artistic and educational output, incubating it in London before we take it on tour to regions in the U.K. that don’t have the same kind of resources. Looking ahead, we hope the building will serve as an accessible and welcoming place for London artists and a vibrant space for weird and messy theatre to be made. We’re very aware of the responsibility we have to the community and we don’t want to be the arbiters of what’s possible — we want to be constantly improving and serving the people’s needs on the ground, and we’re looking forward to hearing how the building’s received. Ultimately, we hope it does a small part in helping to ensure that theatre artists and audiences are better valued in our culture.
You can find out more about SCRUM Theatre from the company website at https://www.scrumtheatre.co.uk/
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