ThreeWeeks Editors’ Award Winner Nicola Haydn tells us about the new venue she’s running with colleague Eden Rivers, Upstairs at Three & Ten, life as a venue manager, and what she’d recommend for your Brighton 2008 viewing pleasure…

ThreeWeeks: Tell us about your new venue.

Nicola Haydn: Upstairs at Three & Ten is a year round venue which opened in October last year. We were managing The Marlborough Theatre before that, but were served notice to leave in early October so we moved the whole operation to the Three & Ten. It was essentially a room above a pub which we converted into the beautiful theatre space it is now. It has been a really positive move for us and we’ve created another performance space in the town, which was really needed, particularly given that several local venues have been closed, or had funding cut. The managers of the pub downstairs, Richard and Christian, have worked alongside us to ensure that the whole experience of going to the theatre doesn’t end with the performance itself. The bar is likely to be a real festival hub this year, one in which performers and audience can feel welcome.

TW: What are the highs and lows of venue management?

NH: So many highs; where do I start? I suppose the best bit about managing a venue is sitting at the back of the theatre watching a fantastic show and being part of that shared experience with the audience. The build up to the Festival this year has been exhausting, purely because of the amount of companies that will be coming to play with us, and so a really big high is now being able to see all the great stuff in the brochure actually coming to life. Lows? Nah, not at Upstairs at Three & Ten. Life is hectic, but rosy.

TW: What sort of range of shows do you have on at the venue?

NH: We have a real mix of shows during May: theatre, late night comedy, music, cabaret and kids’ shows. Once again we have something for everyone, whatever your taste.

TW: Did you programme the events at the venue yourself? How do you go about it?

NH: I started looking for shows when I was up in Edinburgh last year. We were keen to bring lots of stuff down here from the Edinburgh Festival to have a broad mix on offer, which has meant that international companies, festival veterans, young companies and local theatre companies are all included in the line-up. Some companies I approached and others approached me. Unfortunately we did have to turn a large number away, but when we got to 104 events we thought that would be quite enough.

TW: What do you think are the highlights of your programme?

NH: So many good shows, so little time. I know this is the opportunity to shamelessly plug all of the programme, but I really do think that it speaks for itself! On top of all the really strong theatre, we have a great line up of comedy every night from 10pm.

TW: Will you have time to see anything at other venues during the festival? If so, what do you plan to see?

NH: I won’t have a lot of time to see other shows outside of our venue, but I am planning to see The Terrible Infants at The Udder Place. It looks great and I have made sure that I get the afternoon off so I can take my nephew along. I have just come back from seeing the opening night at the Udderbelly and I saw The Tom Tom Club, which totally blew me away! If I get the chance I also want to see Follow Me at Komedia.

See www.otherplaceproductions.co.uk for more information