It has happened again

When companies are trying to squeeze six shows a year in, it is inevitable that the shows will run at similar times. There are indeed a plethora of shows on at the moment. I think that this speaks volumes about the level of interest in theatre in Perth, both by performers and audients. Melville is presenting five seasons in 2011, so this may put us out of step with the performance dates of the six-show companies. I haven't looked, and it's not something that the committee takes into consideration when selecting dates for performances. We look at allowing a decent rehearsal period between shows, time for set-building and such things. When other clubs are doing shows is irrelevant. I can understand why someone who sees as much theatre as you do would like them to be spaced out more evenly, but it's not really practical. There are only so many ways you can fit five or six shows into a year. Take 2010 for example - I sat down with a calender with six shows to fit in. As we were hosting Dramafest, I used that as a starting point, and worked forward and back from there. When I had a suitable programme, I took a look at the dates that the Old Mill were performing, and the dates I had come up with were identical, give or take a week here or there. Why? Because they had used the same method to program shows, using the same starting point with the same number of shows. I shall now go and check to see that all our 2011 shows are posted as productions here on this site. www.meltheco.org.au

Thank you to Gordon and Jeff for your comments. Interestingly, it has not hurt ticket sales. Spamalot is full and literally turning people away. The same is true for several other musical productions around Perth at the moment or at least they are close to full. Where it has hurt us (and I mean that in a Perth-wide sense) is that it has stretched the available talent very thinly. I dont think that I'm going out on a limb to suggest that we will be looking at the same scenario next June-July and Nov-Dec. To their credit, Melville Theatre have avoided this and have tended to schedule musicals away from these periods. I know that the ITA has done what it can to encourage the member companies to talk amongst themselves to sort out scheduling etc. but it's been difficult to get them to talk to each other in a productive way. Putting up proposed productions is problematic as there is already a large amount of rescheduling and re-programming taking place before the companies go public. It's rare for me to say this as I believe in being open and up front, but this is probably best kept behind the scenes. The more immediate problem is that the rights holders and publishers take a dim view to companies publishing programs on the WWW before they have actually secured the rights. If you want companies to start publicising programs before they are finalised, then you are effectively asking them to apply for rights and even hand over deposits for productions that by their own admission may, or may not go ahead, which is an unworkable situation. My conscience is clear as far as this is concerned. I'm involved in two productions next year and both are already posted in this web site (must resist urge to slip in gratuitous plug). Regards to all, David.