UK Free theatre tickets for under 26 year olds!

Here in Adelaide we have a scheme called Fringe Benefits which was started to offer cheaper tickets for 18 - 30 yo to attend Fringe shows. The producer signs on to offer tickets at a reduced rate in order to take advantage of e-mail info being sent out and the Fringe Benefits website. I sold about 6 Fringe Benefits tickets to may last Fringe show. The demographic should have been right. The younger people around us will go to musicals (interesting, it used to be profoundly uncool to go to musicals) comedy cabaret and music but not straight theatre. It is deemed to be inappropriate and to have no connection to generation Y. I don't think that's true but I've been fighting against this attitude for 40 years. I don't think it will work. JUst because it's free won't change their minds. Is that all there is? Well if that's all there is my friend, then let's keep dancing. www.tonymoore.id.au

I think it might work in Melbourne, especially during the fringe. Most people who see shows in that time are under 30. Although, it wouldn't mean they'd be happy to pay for tickets at any other time... Finger puppet pattern for under $4 at Puppets in Melbourne

I have some experience with a scheme in a High School where we obtained funds to subsidise tickets for Perth Festival shows, whose prices are already very reasonable for school groups. It reduced tickets to about $20. The aim was not only for them to be able to afford several plays in a short time, but also to try to cut through their feeling that theatre is for snobs (social and intellectual) and show that they too could go to see plays and enjoy them. We used to talk to them about the etiquette of live shows and they visibly enjoyed feeling part of the whole experience, even 'dressing up' by their standards. It worked, but involved selling of the scheme on our part and also the success depended heavily on choice of the shows I felt were most accessible and enjoyable for them. One year, after a stunning first show by New York Theatre Co, some students banded together to buy subscriptions to local companies and I felt it worked beautifully. Other times they asked us to organise to go to specific shows later in the year. So I think it could work but perhaps not simply with provision of free tickets. I think that heavily reduced tickets might achieve the same aim and also in the case of professional theatre casting shows with names they recognise can have the same effect. I'm in favour of trying anything theatres can afford in order to try to cultivate a wider audience among young people, but it's not always about the money, more about a frame of mind. The fact that some theatre people still try to cultivate the notion of exclusivity doesn't help, but hopefully that's fading.

I believe Halftix in Melbourne does something similar: 20 minutes before a show opens, if there are tickets still available, they offer them half price to students.... or at least, someone used to do something like that :P Finger puppet pattern for under $4 at Puppets in Melbourne