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Lack of support?

Mon, 9 June 2008, 09:27 am
class act theatre5 posts in thread
After reading some comments about "Into the Woods" on the review forum - I was shocked to hear that Yellow Glass are having trouble finding audiences as well! We just completed "The Canterbury Tales" at the Rechabites Hall - also with good reviews and fantastic audience responses (from the few that bothered to come along, that is.) Class Act & Bare Naked Theatres are paying the actors therefore our production values have to be pretty low-budget (this is also the case because we have to tour our shows in a van in the southwest for 2 weeks) When we went to Mandurah on 30 May - we had almost 400 in the audience! Not much less than we had for the the ENTIRE 3 week season at the Rechies. I personally go to see community & professional shows as well as co-ops. I saw very few community theatre people in our audiences - despite the fact that Stephen Lee is a prominent and respected figure in the circle - and only a very small handful of fellow professionals. Where is the support, folks? I guess what I am saying is - if we can't support each other, how can we expect to grow our audience base for all types of theatre? (And let's face it, many of us cross the boundaries between pro, amateur & profit share on a regular basis.) Luckily our next production - Macbeth at the Subi Arts Centre, at least has some great audiences - thanks to Perth schools! I am interested to hear how others feel about this. Angelique Malcolm

Agreed!!

Sat, 14 June 2008, 12:57 pm
If I were to attend EVERY show that people I know are in, I wouldn't have time to sleep, or get on with other things in my life. A line has to be drawn somewhere, and most friends in theatre understand this. It's different for those not doing it for money- different pressures apply. However the audience doesn't do it for the money, so for them those "semi-pro" pressures mean jack. Plus, the venue often plays a big part in whether one will attend. I have written previously on my vociferous distate for the "Rech"- burn it to the ground, I say.... "It ain't braggin' if you can back it up."- Jaco Pastorius

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