It is with deep sadness that we announce that The Depot Theatre is over before it has begun and we are permanently withdrawing from the Sydney independent theatre arena after 20 years. We warmly and sincerely thank our supporters and our audiences, we will miss you very much. We are very proud of what we and our countless collaborators have achieved over the years and we hope our performances have impacted the lives of our audiences in some small way.
So why are we withdrawing? It is not by choice. We had great plans to create a new independent theatre venue, but instead have been forced out by detractors conducting what can only be described as a witch hunt.
We had been careering along in the independent theatre sector for many years until early 2013 when we (co-artistic directors of Sydney Independent Theatre Company) were offered the opportunity to run the Old Fitzroy Theatre. We were thrilled, however, we got the sense early on that some in the independent sector did not think we belonged there. ‘Who do they think they are?’ was the overall sentiment. ‘They’re not young or cool or hip like we are, they’re not connected with the right industry people, they’re just not like us and they should not be running our treasured and iconic indie theatre!’ Nevertheless, while we made some mistakes along the way and struggled at times, for the most part, we had a wonderful experience, produced and contributed to some great theatre for an array of incredibly supportive audiences and worked with some fantastic people. But, unfortunately, we also faced many obstacles and challenges and had to deal with some truly ugly, narcissistic and unscrupulous characters behaving in unconscionable ways.
At the end of September last year, our residency was abruptly terminated. We have not spoken publicly about what happened and do not intend to start now except to say that we were devastated that everything we had worked very hard to achieve was taken from us, just when we were in the throws of programming our most exciting range of productions yet for 2015. We accepted our fate with as much dignity as we could muster, made arrangements to work through the inevitable issues resulting from the unexpected end to our residency and started the search for a new venue.
But, we had been kicked out of the ‘cool group’, and an angry mob emerged, pitchforks in hand, to keep it that way. They used a range of school yard bullying tactics including spreading malicious gossip, lies, slander and straight out attempts to sabotage our future endeavours. Despite this, we also had plenty of supporters and kept our heads held high. We worked over the next few months with the Addison Road Centre in Marrickville to take on the old Sidetrack Theatre site, culminating in signing an agreement last month including in-kind support to refurbish, revitalize and reopen the venue as The Depot Theatre.
However, since announcing our plans a few weeks ago, the angry mob has re-emerged. They have become larger and louder and have enlisted an influential national acting body to hold the biggest pitchfork of all to ‘bring us down’. We do not have the resources to mount any legal challenges and the situation has quickly escalated making it impossible for us to carry out our plans and operate the venue. We have been effectively burnt at the stake with no recourse available.
We are extremely appreciative of the support of the Addison Road Centre and we very much hope they will find another organization willing to take on the enormous effort required to bring the venue back to life.
The angry mob will no doubt declare that we brought the whole situation on ourselves as they jump up and down with glee at our demise. Some will pat themselves on the back confident that order has been restored, while others will return to lamenting the lack of venues in Sydney to stage their productions once they realise that they too have been rejected by the ‘cool group’. Despite everything that’s happened, we wish the angry mob all the best – we know how hard it is to succeed in the cut throat Sydney theatre scene. What has happened to us has happened many times before. But, we live in hope that they will think about their actions and how they would feel if they were the target and stop it from happening again.
To our supporters and our audiences, we thank you again and say an extremely sad goodbye. We are devastated, our spirits are crushed and our hearts are broken due to the loss of our lifelong passion which was simply to produce quality theatre for appreciative audiences. But we have our health and wonderful friends and family, all of which are far more important than our theatrical ambitions.
Farewell!
Julie Baz and David Jeffrey
SUNDAY 10th May 2015
UPDATE: Less than a week after announcing their preemptive closure, The Depot Theatre team reversed their closure decision.