Theatre Australia

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Are there too many of us?

Tue, 29 Aug 2000, 04:38 pm
Walter Plinge21 posts in thread
Hi Thespians,

I have been pondering this quite alot lately. Could some of the problems which are plaguing some amateur/community theatre groups (eg: inadequate venues, low audience attendance, financial struggles) be occuring because there are too many of us?

Two or three groups could merge into one which would:
1. Increase the membership.
2. Increase the pool of skills, ideas, abilities etc.
3. Increase the audiences.
4. Allow the clubs to pool finances and resources towards upgrading or establishing a venue.

These new groups could be re-named to save any arguments and managed initially by a committee consisting of members of each group's current committee. Since many Community Theatre people are not necessarily involved with the club closest to them, I can't see location being a problem. People will travel almost anywhere to be involved in a show that interests them.

Why should three groups keep struggling when as one group they may thrive?
Does anyone agree?

Cheers,
Gill

RE: Are there too many of us?

Thu, 31 Aug 2000, 01:52 pm
Walter Plinge
I don't know that there are too many of us.
What I do know is that we ARE guilty of doing too much of the same thing ALL THE TIME!!!

You know, maybe if we actually gave our audiences a little bit of CHOICE and VARIETY in our repertoire, maybe we'd be able to capture them?

We get few enough 'interesting' productions a year as it is thank you very much...

Sorry, just happened to trigger one of my major bugbears.

Besides, I have to agree with Jarrad.
Fewer clubs = Fewer productions = Fewer roles for me!

Paul Treasure

(There Jarrad, never say that I don't back you up on stuff!)

Thread (21 posts)

Are there too many of us?Walter Plinge29 Aug 2000
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