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.