One act festivals- friends and rellies
Tue, 11 Oct 2011, 08:59 pmJohnny Grim38 posts in thread
One act festivals- friends and rellies
Tue, 11 Oct 2011, 08:59 pmHaving taken part in a number of local one act festivals, the old 'bums on seats' or lack of same, continues to perturb me. The various organisations staging festivals do their best to encourage bums to find seats, however, despite their best intentions, the bums on average, fail to show up in sufficient numbers. Note: This is my personal view, as a partipant, said organisers may dispute this fact. Having spoken with a number of people re this topic, the following reasons were offered as reasons for non-attendance:
1: Cost of tickets is prohibitive. (I would agree here. Two sessions could cost you $30).
2: Actors / backstage people taking part, should be given 'special priced' or 'free' tickets. (Again, I would agree. Audience numbers would certainly improve if cheap /free tickets were made available. Given there's always plenty of seats, why not fill them with our own theatre community? How often do we actors / theatre groups perform and then bugger off without checking out other plays? Money, money money, could well be that reason.
3: General lack of publicity? 'I didn't even know it was on,' said more than one individual.
4: Unlike the Finley's night of nights; the one act festivals are minus the bright lights, and are seen (by some,) as somewhat inglamorous affairs. One would be hard pressed to argue the point, although to be fair, comparing the two would be a severe case of comparing the apple with the cheese.
5: The festivals are a forum for showcasing new works (evidenced by the recent ITA festival.) Punters are less likely to take chance on shelling money out on new /unseen - potentially average plays. I for obvious reasons, won't comment on that score, however, a number of people gave this as reason for not attending.
6: Too many plays, too many sessions. The yawn factor.
7: Plays should be screened pre-festival showing, and plays below standard should be excluded. (I'm not going there thank you very much.)
These are just a few comments I received. I thought them worth sharing. Note: As a local writer I find the festivals invaluable in showcasing my material, however, I find the current format, a hard sell for the theatre goers in my circle of friends and acquaintences. To add my two bobs worth, I think there is some merit in a panel selecting a suitable showcase of plays for the festival (perhaps made up of various genre's?) Of course, this won't agree with many. I suppose we need to ask, are we happy with the tried and trusted formula, or do we need to try something new. Personally, I'd vote for the new. I'll be most interested on hearing the views from the many who organise and take part in our festivals.
Footnote: I'd like to close, by saying, that none of the above is a slur on those who devote their time and energy to getting said festivals to the stage. It must be a tireless and thankless job, however, it doth appear from afar, that at times the 'whole weekend' events appear tiresome, and there's a sense of let's get this thing over, and let's get the hell out of here.
cheers
Johnny Grim
From an organisers Point of View
Wed, 12 Oct 2011, 10:47 amBefore I wade in as co-ordinator for the last two Dramafests, let me re-iterate that Johnny’s original post was not intended and has not been taken as a slur or attack on the organizers of any of the drama festivals. And that this response is not, and should not be taken as an attack or slur on Johnny.
Johnny, I have to agree with you, the lack of bums on seats is a troubling situation, and I will attempt to comment on your listed reasons:
(Please note, all responses are specific to Dramafest only, and are not meant to be representative of any of the other festivals)
1. Cost of tickets. For Dramafest this year, session tickets were $15. Working on an average of three plays per session that is $5 per play (in fact this year it would have been closer to $4 per play). Is that too much? We even offered a season ticket of $60 for the entire weekend. That works out to $10 a session or less than $3 a play.
How cheap do you want us to go?
Funnily enough, the Mandurah festival, which I think is the most expensive as far as tickets are concerned, is actually the best attended. (But that may be due more to point 3)
2. I cannot speak for the other festivals but at Dramafest, actors and backstage for any play are given free entry to all other plays in that session. And I think since we have started doing that, we have had more people sit in on the other plays in their session. On the other hand, we have also offered a free SEASON ticket to the director of every entered play. Out of 22 entered plays, do you know how many of these were actually used this year? ONE!!! Only ONE of the directors took the opportunity to watch the whole festival FOR FREE!!! Somehow this tells me that ‘money, money, money’ may be the excuse, but not actually the reason!
3. General lack of publicity. Comment noted. In our debrief that was our BIG area for improvement next year. That said, it is on the SAME weekend EVERY year, the newbies and general punters have ‘I didn’t know it was on’ as an excuse, the old troopers don’t…
On the same point, though… Did the entering clubs even let their members know they had entered and when they were performing?
4. Inglamorous?! Is that even a word? If it isn’t it should be! Connotes not merely absence of glamour but almost negative glamour… I like it!
Are the One-Acts inglamorous? Yes they are. They are a hard slog and a brutal marathon. This year’s Dramafest is the second longest theatrical event I’ve ever sat through (after ‘The Peony Pavilion’) and was comparable in length to a Ring Cycle!
I don’t know how to counter that argument except to say ‘Toughen up, Princess!’?
Maybe that’s the angle we should be marketing it? As more of a blood sport than a glamour event…
5. Too many new plays. Really? Seriously? How did you take that response? From my own point of view, having sat through the entirety of the last 4 dramafests, the new plays are the exciting ones, they can sometimes be absolute dogs, but they can also be gems!
6. Sorry, I take back my comment on point 4… This is where I want to say ‘toughen up, Princess!’
7. Now this one is a can of worms all of itself… Below which standard? Below who’s standard? And when shall they be judged?
There was an interesting case many years ago where a play performed in the South West Drama Festival and it was widely judged by all and sundry to be the absolute worst play of the festival. Two weeks later, it won the State Drama Festival… How? The director and cast realized that the show was an absolute dog, and so they worked on it bloody hard for two weeks, taking on board the comments from the SW adjudicator, and other people who saw it in Bunbury. And two weeks later it was brilliant! Besides, how many times has a very good play had their worst performance at Dramafest, or an average one have an absolute blinder… It’s a competition, these things happen.
And, like all competitions, the competing is more important than the winning!
And how many times has one of the worst plays of the festival walked away with one or even two awards at the end, because the couple of things they got right they got better than anyone else!
I think the system they have in the UK is a very good one, but WA does not have the population to support it. Over there they have a whole series of drama festivals, then the winners of each get to compete in a national final, then the four winners of the national finals get to perform in the UK final. It seems very much like an FA Cup of drama festivals. Ah, if only we could…
As to the future and changes in format. I don’t know, I really don’t know. Part of me would like to go back to the days when the festival ran every night for two weeks. And there is a lot on that weekend (Royal Show, Grand Finals, Pride Fair Day, etc.) but what other weekend could we do it?
If anyone has any (reasonably intelligent) suggestions, I can’t wait to hear them.