CURTAIN UP

In the January school holidays of 2006 I was Musical Director for a production of Seussical in Warrnambool, Victoria. Warrnambool is a tourist haven during this time of the year, and this always helps boost our house sizes. This production though drew a lot larger crowds than what we would normally expect, and as it contained the bright and colorful characters of Dr. Seuss, a lot of younger theatre goers came to the show. Due to a 2.00pm matinee time slot being a lot friendly time for young children, we sold 180 tickets at the door for our Saturday matinee. We had to start the show 15 minutes late as so many people had walked off the street. What do you do? There are so many factors in starting late, especially on a matinee eg. Allowing enough time for a turn around between the matinee and evening show. Our Stage Manager made an announcement at 1.55 to say that there would be a delay due to the large crowds awaiting to purchase tickets. I think that patrons would rather wait 15 minutes, than have 180 people strolling through the doors for the first 15 minutes of the show. As it turned out we were about 15 seats off a full house, a record for a matinee in Warrnambool. Every show however is different and all that can be done is take everything as it comes. You are right though, people are tending to come late to shows these days. You have to remember movies have only a few things that can go wrong. In theatre, the problems are endless. I guess this is just the excitement of live theatre.