Building an audience

Okay, so it's been some time, I've had problems focussing on this, it really isn't my area.  And I was distracted by two blogs, one from Matt Trueman and another from Dominic Cavendish.  So I have decided to mash everything together.

What I will be responding to, therefore, are the following three notions;

• That there are things that local Manchester theatre makers can (and should?) do to build audiences.
• That regional audiences are less interested in straight theatre than they are other entertainment, and less interested than their London counterparts, as suggested by Dominic Cavendish in the Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/theatre/what-to-see/regional-theatre-is-under-threat/
• That the current greyscale aesthetic is unappealing to a significant number of theatregoers, as indicated by Matt Trueman in What's On Stage http://www.whatsonstage.com/london-theatre/news/is-it-time-for-theatre-to-return-to-a-spirit-of-excess-_39064.html

Would it be controversial if I suggested all three were connected in some ways?


The issue I have trying to address this is that the touchstone production of A View From The Bridge, which it is sometimes suggested started the fashion, is in many ways completely different in aesthetic to the other productions I have seen which are bracketed together - the Manchester productions of The Crucible at the Royal Exchange and Home's Oresteia, along with the Almeida's Oresteia.  To my mind, none of the latter three shared anything with A View From The Bridge, except in some very superficial ways.  The attention to the text and the spaces between the lines was completely different, the interventions by sound and light were completely different.  The things I felt works spectacularly well in Bridge were things NOT taken up by the Manchester productions which, despite their settings, were played largely naturalistically.

I often feel that productions believe that their audience expect a naturalistic style of acting, even if that goes against the design.  Maybe they do, I don't know the audience figures.  But there may also be an audience out there seeking for something else.  I know I am.

But then recently we've had Dead Dog In A Suitcase and Golem both brought to Home.  Both pushed the design to excess, both were startling in their stagecraft and talent.  But I don't know the audience figures, maybe that is what the audience are after.  Two more boring nights in the theatre I don't remember for a long long time.

What is fascinating now in Manchester is the range of work being produced.  We have lost the over-riding drawing room aesthetic and gained a whole host of other types of show.  I do feel sorry for the local audience who just wanted to go out and sit through a 'nice' Ayckbourn or Wilde, Shakespeare or properly set modern classic.  There really is a gap in the market there.  But when I speak to my peers on the scene what does seem clear is that there is so much variety that no one know what to go to.  So they don't go to anything.  Especially when you're being asked £10 or more for a ticket.

And then there's Pomona.  I enjoyed Pomona although I didn't find it as exciting as other shows I've seen in the past month.  However there is an audience it should appeal to, which it isn't reaching.  When I speak to friends who enjoy the theatre but don't obsess about it, I encourage them to go.  They've heard about it, they think the poster looks interesting, but they don't feel encouraged to see it by the marketing machine.  So someone's missing an opportunity there which is beyond me.

What does that leave us with?  Word of mouth?  I liked how Just Talk did one show a week before their short run, and I believe it paid off for them.  I notice 1121 Collective are also doing two weekends rather than a solid run, and it would be interesting to know how that works out.

I would also love to know *how* people choose what to see.  I didn't think I was unusually as someone curious about theatre, but shows I've seen recently that I would expect a large number of people such as me to be curious about have slipped by with thin audiences.  Certainly recent shows by MST and ALRA North have had a quality different to the establishment spaces, but they have produced significant plays, and I feel more connected for having seen them.

Does this leave me with any conclusions?  I doubt it.  If I knew how to build an audience I'd sell that skill to theatres across the planet.

I don't think a more colourful palate would necessarily work; but the scandi fashion will pass in time when a production that really punctures it comes through.  It would be exciting if that was in Manchester, maybe Into The Woods will.

Are straight plays doomed to sell less well?  Hasn't it ever been thus?  It's great when a straight play does well, but we know what they are, and that makes them the exceptions that prove the rule.  Often plays are produced with the lack of commitment and insipid imagination of the recent Enemy of the People at the Octagon, and then one can't really complain when audiences are thin.

Do we encourage others to see things?  Do we want to have a conversation with them about shows that we've all been a party too?  Please see Pomona at Rex and The Oresteia at Home, because although I have issues with both I want to have those conversations.  Please look out for what's coming up.  (http://markcreid.wix.com/theatre#!calendar/c22j5) Shows that are catching my attention are The 1121 Collective When I Last Saw You You Were Just A Girl, Babel Theatre You Must Be The One To Bury Me, 13 with MST, and I have a ticket somewhere for Men In The Cities in the Exchange Studio.  And let me know what you're catching if you think I should as well.

And I would love companies when producing a show to share the work of their rival companies with their audiences.  I constantly surprised by the new groups I'm coming across, and wonder why mutual friends haven't mentioned them, other people haven't re-tweeted their posts, why venues aren't passing round their flyers.  It feels there should be something practical we can do there.

Perhaps it will be ever thus, and as long as I have enough money to cover any free time I have, I should stop worrying about it.  Yes?


PS I have a new venture.  I'll talk about it more in a future blog I suspect, but please do check it out, aiming to provide budget rehearsal support and interesting events
www.kingstreetspace.webs.com
@kingstreetspace
www.facebook.com/kingstreetspace

Finding an audience

Some years ago I saw Derek Jacobi perform King Lear in a Dormar production at the Lowry.  I was not the only one.

Someone else who saw the production told me afterwards that, although he thought it a very fine show, he was distracted by the idea that if only a fraction of the hundreds and hundreds of people sat in the Lyric made the trip to see work at the Kings Arms or other fringe spaces in Manchester, the local scene would truly thrive.  He wanted to question each of them as they left the theatre, ask them why they didn't.

Two years ago, I had just come out of a show in the Royal Exchange studio.  The MIF had just finished, and along with it I had staged my play The Gambit as part of the GM Fringe festival.  I was introduced to a couple of people from the Exchange, who - when they heard I was a fringe theatre maker - said; isn't it a shame Manchester didn't have a fringe festival.

We could ask questions of the audiences and staff at the establishment theatres but I suspect we would know the answers.  I think much has changed in the last two years, but still the issues persist.  I certainly do not think there should be a guaranteed audience for work outside the big theatres, but I'd like to think that there could be a way to reach them.

Chatting to Just Talk about their recent production of The Room, one thing they seem proud of is that they reached what they called a non-fringe audience.  What I think they mean by this is that they found some of those people who don't prop up the audiences at the Kings Arms and Three Minute Theatre, but that they also catered for some of those Lyric Theatre audience.  It's interesting, maybe infuriating to me, that given an exceptionally rare chance to see early Pinter, people who have theatre ambitions did not take advantage.  But that is a slightly separate issue.

So what, practically, are the ways in which we can work towards finding this audience.  Marketing strategies are a large part of this, and I will return to marketing in a later blog.  There are two things I do which I hope help.  Whenever I send an email from Rampant, I try to include a heads-up on any other theatre that I think is of interest, especially if it's outside of the establishment.  Wrapped up in this is the amount of re-tweeting of shows and opportunities that I'm pleased to support.  I'd like to see everyone on the scene to make a determined effort to share with their circle a show or opportunity from someone else on a regular basis.

Secondly, I maintain my own calendar of shows that I am aware of.  I'd like anyone who hears of a show that isn't mentioned to give me a heads up, and if they think the calendar is useful share it round.

You can find it here:-  http://markcreid.wix.com/theatre#!calendar/c22j5

So those are my first two action points.  Admittedly they aren't for me, so come back at me and tell me why they won't work, what would be better, what else we could be doing.

In which some thoughts are laid down and a start is made.

The estimable Josh Coates recently blogged in response to new Mancunian theatre project Theatre Gap (http://joshdoesthings.tumblr.com/), partly it seems to me in bafflement and partly in frustration.  If I’m wrong in that, then I shall claim the bafflement and frustration for myself, but not with Theatre Gap.  And yet it set me thinking.

I have nothing against Theatre Gap.  It has pretty much passed me by.  I only heard about it a couple of weeks ago in a pub discussion when someone rolled their eyes at the mention of the project.  No one has asked me to be involved, or attend as audience, and there is no reason why they should.  It doesn’t seem to be for me, and that in itself is no bad thing.  And you can investigate and support it here:- https://www.gofundme.com/theatregap

But the bafflement; what is it for?  Maybe I should have been at a discussion/debate they had; but it wasn’t mentioned to me and not clear that it’s intended for me.  So let’s assume that the issue is to tackle some problem with the Mancunian theatre scene; let’s interrogate this and see if we can’t pin it down.


FINDING AN AUDIENCE

Nothing like starting with the big issue is there.  However, I get the impression this isn’t what Theatre Gap are aiming to tackle.  In fact, I might suggest that they would argue there is already a strong audience; they aren’t being catered for adequately.  This is difficult to argue against, especially as I don’t know what the artistic agenda of Theatre Gap is but I’m inclined to agree that the potential audience for theatre in Manchester is exceptionally strong, and that if you present them with strong work they would come.  That begs the question, therefore; why don’t they?


BUILDING AN AUDIENCE

So while the potential audience is strong, and the establishment theatres get consistently good houses, why do mid-range independent and fringe companies often struggle?  I guess if we could answer that we wouldn’t be experiencing a phenomena like Theatre Gap.  And yet, I don’t think this is what they want to tackle.  There are only really two indie theatres in Manchester that host regular shows and could potentially build an audience; 3MT and the Kings Arms.  Others, such as Bury Met, Waterside Sale, the university venues, could all do so but seem to have chosen not to.  And yet there seem to be issues with both 3MT and the Kings.  Not to denigrate the amazing work they do, supporting artists and hosting shows; it’s the things that they can’t or haven’t done that can feel like there’s a space for another space.


REACHING AN AUDIENCE

So maybe Theatre Gap are looking at those venues that have the audience, and wondering how to get work in front of those audiences, into those venues.  Venues such as Lowry Quays, perhaps, Royal Exchange studio, the studio at HOME.  I actually can’t comprehend how the space at HOME has had, I believe, just one show in it since the venue opened.  The Royal Exchange studio has been empty all summer.  These things are heartbreaking, and yet still I don’t think this is what Theatre Gap are concerned about.


AVAILABILITY OF VENUES

So maybe they’d like to open a new venue.  It’s not that Manchester is short of quality studio spaces in Manchester.  Apart from Halle St Peters, where Theatre Gap was staged, and the second spaces at Rex and HOME, we have the John Thaw studio, the Lowry studio and Quays theatre, the RNCM studio, Bolton’s Bill Naughton space, Manchester college’s studio, Salford Uni’s Adelphi space, Waterside Arts Centre, Bury Met, while Man Met builds a new space, and I’ve no doubt there are others you can tell me all about.  I don’t think Theatre Gap are after a new theatre.

There is an issue for me here, however.  All of these spaces are very fine but to my mind criminally underused.  As I say, I believe one thing has been staged in HOME’s second space since it opened in the spring.  Halle St Peters and Salford’s Adelphi have never responded to any of my emails enquiring about use as a theatre space.  The other spaces are either programmed to within an inch of their existence, or extortionately expensive for no-budget theatre makers.  It’s this control of space that I find so difficult to deal with.


ACCESS TO PROGRAMMES

So maybe Theatre Gap are wondering why the current programming of the spaces that are used don’t include more of the work they’d like to see.  I don’t even know where to go with that attitude.  I’m not a programmer, I don’t have a venue.  If that is what you see as the issue then I have other things to think about.  I actually don’t understand the question.


ABILITY TO WORKSHOP WORK

Two things more precious to me than money; time and space.  All of those amazing spaces above could be filled all day every day with local artists making work; testing, workshopping, experimenting, sharing.  I do not understand, especially when these buildings are open anyway, why this isn’t standard.  It seems that not even Manchester University students can book drama rooms unless they do it through the drama society, which is mental.  Locally the Royal Exchange have really taken a lead by example on this, making their Swan Street space available to anyone who signs up to their Open Exchange network when it’s empty.  The Lawrence Batley do a similar thing.  The huge disadvantage of these schemes is the nature of the booking process, which is by necessity short notice availability.  Nevertheless, it’s a valuable resource.  Not only would it be wonderful for other empty rooms to be made available like this; I really frustrated that they aren’t.  And I don’t see why this would cost much money.  The space is currently sat there empty, in occupied buildings.

That said, this ties up with another frustration about the Manchester indie theatre scene; the severe lack of workshop spaces.  This could well simply be my lack of awareness – the only high-quality spaces I am aware of suitable for theatre workshop projects are the Exchange’s Swan Street and Waterside Chambers.  As wonderful as the many landlords of pubs across the city, and however grateful we all are to them for enabling work to take place in their function rooms, I really feel that this is limiting the scale and ambition of many local theatre-makers.  I’d love to rent a room that could be used as a rehearsal and workshop space, fitted to the right spec; if I ever find one I’ll let you know.


MARKETING AND SUPPORT

This doesn’t seem to be on the radar of Theatre Gap at all; and yet this is surely one of the fundamental issues with theatre in Manchester.  Marketing should be collaborative and proactive.  There are dozens of active companies in Manchester, thousands of active social media users.  As an example, each of the companies that post about their shows on social media could garner dozens of retweets and shares from other companies.  But they don’t.  All the venues in Manchester could share their programmes with other venues who could circulate it to their mailing lists.  But they don’t.  I have a calendar of all the interesting shows that I hear about, and people could let me know and I could post them up.  But they don’t.  The Royal Exchange and HOME and the Lowry will share each other’s shows but don’t, as far as I’m aware, help independent shows in a similar way.


MONEY/FUNDING

Ah.  Here’s the crux.  Josh Coates quotes Alex Swift; “just give us the fucking money and let us get on with it.”  But someone is getting the money, somewhere.  And they might well be just getting on with it.  I will wait to see the results.  Theatre Gap have a crowdfunding campaign.  It’s not very clear to me how the money is to be used, or who is to decide.  Such is the nature of funding, I guess.  I’m not going to argue against more money, but it’s not where my heart is.  I would love someone to be able to explain to me how funding applications work, and I don’t see funding as a closed shop.  Just so complicated as to seem to deliberately exclude people.  Theatre Gap I would think have the expertise in this area, so maybe that’s what they’re trying to work on.  But this isn’t a gap, except in the imagination and inventiveness of the community to utilise the resources


I’ve been on the cultural scene in Manchester for some time now, hopefully my thoughts have some foundation in experience.  I was hoping for these posts to be evidence-lead rather than opinion pieces; inevitably I fear that my own views on the scene will colour my conclusions.  I’m going to try and think more deeply about each of the issues above, speak to others, take feedback and try to outline what I see or what others recommend as practical actions to help.  Please let me know your thoughts.