One act festivals- friends and rellies

Having 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