Lack of support?
Mon, 9 June 2008, 09:27 amclass act theatre5 posts in thread
Lack of support?
Mon, 9 June 2008, 09:27 amAfter 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
class act theatreMon, 9 June 2008, 09:27 am
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
Walter PlingeMon, 9 June 2008, 10:52 am
Shouldn't people come see a
Shouldn't people come see a show because they're interested in seeing it, rather than only come to see it as a matter of support?
Walter PlingeMon, 9 June 2008, 09:16 pm
Personally, I feel it
Personally, I feel it should be both a matter of support and interest. Not including those audiences who come to support family or friends, or just general well-wishers, the only people who come to see shows are those who want to be on stage, or involved in shows, themselves. There is a small, insular Perth theatre group, who sort of bat around from show to show and all end up knowing each other.
Everyone in Perth is way too eager to cut each other down and make others feel small, probably due to their own terror that someone might be more talented than them.
Wake up, guys, it's just amateur theatre. Do it because you love it, not because you need the validation. I'm sick of doing shows and hearing endless backstage bitching. A lot of people just can't be bothered seeing things that their mates aren't in, or that doesn't contain someone they can gleefully criticise, but at the end of the day, we all suffer, because the less general support there is, the less shows there are going to be for us to be in.
We all just need to grow up and like each other a bit more. It's just theatre, it's not the end of the world.
Walter PlingeTue, 10 June 2008, 04:02 pm
Congratulations
Good to hear Class Act getting good houses in the country for Canterbury Tales. Having been involved in a co-op production of Beckett's Waiting for Godot' many years ago I seem to recall playing in a dingy country hall to an audience of about six I think. One of those was an infant and another was the resident theatre cat.
Bass GuySat, 14 June 2008, 12:57 pm
Agreed!!
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