If you were in charge of opening theatres and live venues WWYD?

[cathyandclare]

I love the theatre and have many friends in the industry. The London West End theatres are a big attraction for tourists and the National, Globe, Stratford and Young and Old Vics and regional centres like the Lowri, Curve, Leeds Playhouse, Crucible and many others produce world- class theatre.

The SD guidelines make it impossible to open currently. I think they need 60% occupancy to make opening worthwhile. Without financial support and innovative ways of opening safely there could be no theatre when we stop social distancing.

The govt announced a review this week to come up with ideas- so MNetters please give me your blue-sky-thinking ideas for how to get theatres up and running ASAP.

Masks, hand sanitiser, temp control for audiences.
Use of street space to bring in/out
Split performances so shorter periods inside
Pre-order drinks to seats
Booking toilet slots, priority to disabled etc
Powerful air conditioning units
Social distancing in the theatre between groups - on some aisles may be able to put slim screens in so only need spacing between rows.

What about marquees, touring shows sometimes use those. More open to flexible seating ( like the table idea) . If not hammering down could have sides up for much better ventilation, fully appreciate sites are limited !
I would happily go to the theatre now but I wouldn’t go if I had to wear a mask or face visor. Just wouldn’t be worth it as a pleasant night out, for me personally.

Welkin I just checked and tickets for Lungs are between £40 and £65. There isn't an option to buy anything cheaper. Are you sure about the £10 tickets?

I really want to support the industry, but online viewing cannot be at the same price as being there in person, in my opinion. I feel the same way about universities charging full fees for an online experience.
Maybe not as cheap as £10, but full price doesn't make me want to rush to buy.

But then, several shows of Lungs is sold out, so what do I know?!

Great to have you on the thread @Welkin- good luck with the task force.

Interesting link. Providing financial support for theatres is both fiscally and culturally important. It is something that Britain does brilliantly.

NannyPhlegm I think honestly the Old Vic have tried to split the difference between wanting donations, and wanting to recreate the sense of this being like a real night out at the theatre, and have failed. It does appear they have made only a certain number of tickets available in each price category, which I personally think is a stupid choice and they should have made them all day £25 then added space for an optional extra donation.

I wouldn’t pay £25 for a livestream I’m afraid. It’s more expensive than going to see an NT live or West end musical streamed live at the cinema & with lower quality.

We payed about £8 for Curtains recording & the same for The Last Five years.

I’d go up to £10 for a live streamed show.

Comefromaway this is where the idea breaks down, as I suspect a lot of people will feel as you do. Problem is, the actors need to be paid for each performance, so the costs cannot be reduced there. Same with the supporting crew, as the stage will need to be maintained and cleaned. The only discount they could possibly offer us, is the overheads saved (lighting, heating, cleaning the public areas etc).

And yet, as the audience, why on earth would we pay £40 for a live stream when we could purchase a recording for £5.

This is why this idea is a non-starter long term. I know this is a very difficult time for theatre, but I really think live streaming isn't going to be the saviour they seem to think it will be.

My DN and her friends spent month and weeks renovating a little theater in my home town with adult's and children's performances.
That's gone - I do not think this little community theatre will survive.
Same with the choir my Dsis founded.
Things like fête de la musique with life music at every corner.
It's not the big places it's the small venues catering to a local community.

We'd pay for online shows. We'd go to London at least 3 times a year for shows.

I really don't think you could SD in most

And I’ve just had an email that Something Rotten is postponed to 2021

I'd pay £10 for live stream, possibly up to £20, anything else should be discretionary. I disagree with the argument that it should cost more because actors need to be paid - if you lower the price, more people will buy tickets. This is not an ideal solution, but it's a temporary one.

[quote Welkin]Hi! NC but regular.

I'm part of the theatre taskforce who are writing the government proposal, and my partner and my boss are both artistic directors of theatres. We're all working extremely hard right now to figure out how to re-open the theatres we are so passionate about. I'm reading your comments with great interest.

I also recommend this episode of Question Time, where my friend and colleague James discusses some of the issues facing British theatre and why a bailout is a sensible fiscal investment for the government.
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000jbwm/question-time-2020-21052020[/quote]
is your remit just theatre, or does it include other live performance and cultural events? Either way, good luck.

Not sure if it's within your influence but a relaxation of laws around timings of performances might help

I don't really go to the theatre, but I see a lot of live music... 2 or 3 gigs a months usually. And for the most part, these are in 200-1000 capacity venues, mostly standing, not big seated arenas or anything. I miss it terribly, it's my biggest hobby, but I can't see any way these smaller London venues can operate with any sort of social distancing. And I worry that a lot are just going to go under while they wait it out.

Even Sweden hasn't managed to keep their theatres open, I guess. :(

But South Korea did keep theatres open. Whatever they did, I guess.

Germany strategy, too.

I do am dram as a hobby and it’s totally gutting not to be able to get out and do this with my friends. Even if the rules are relaxed, who is going to come and watch? Our demographic audience is largely over 60. We worked out that for every one seat you’d have to sell three and it’s hard enough as it is. So we can’t put on a show until at least late next year and even then probably facing a big loss. We make more money not doing a show at the moment. And I can’t even imagine how hard this must be for professionals whose livelihood depends on theatre.

I would have never closed them in the first place. Isolating healthy people is inasane.

Small cast shows may be able to open earlier than other. Thinking like Woman in Black.
Seating will have to spread out but family groups together.
2 casts rather than a couple of understudies?
Don’t know how live music with a standing audience could work.

We miss childrens' theatre terribly. It was one of our biggest family fun things to do. Many of these were open air shows during the summer. We'd love to be able to go to them again - at the very least the open air ones.

@MeOldBamboo

I do am dram as a hobby and it’s totally gutting not to be able to get out and do this with my friends. Even if the rules are relaxed, who is going to come and watch? Our demographic audience is largely over 60. We worked out that for every one seat you’d have to sell three and it’s hard enough as it is. So we can’t put on a show until at least late next year and even then probably facing a big loss. We make more money not doing a show at the moment. And I can’t even imagine how hard this must be for professionals whose livelihood depends on theatre.

I do am dram too, I have acted in loads of shows. Words can't describe how much I'm missing doing what I love, my mental health is actually starting to suffer now. So glad it's not my livelihood. Hoping and praying theatres somehow open this year.

It's the same for my son. He is autistic and his theatre group was pretty much his entire social life.

They had to close the theatres though. Taking just the West End as an example. The virus was flying round cast and backstage members. London rates of infection were high and people visiting the theatre would then spread it to other parts of the country. Just look at the figures in Cheltenham and Liverpool after the races/Real Madrid game.

lloyd Webber is trialing the South Korean model in July - thermal imaging cameras, but no social distancing... https://www.whatsonstage.com/london-theatre/news/andrew-lloyd-webber-announces-plans-to-test-live-p51802.html?utmm_source=twitter&utmmedium=social&utmm_campaign=19june2020

Additional cheaper tickets to a live stream of the show projected in the theatre bar, maybe? Kind of like a cross between the cinema and an open mic night, where people could order drinks and stuff while the show was going on. I'd be more willing to pay for something like that than a live stream at home because it still feels like you're properly going out for the event - main issue I can see is that many theatres won't have a big enough bar space to fit many people, even with distancing reduced to 1m. If it works in principle perhaps they could team up with a local venue.

I've been to some good interactive theatre events that mostly took place outside, with the cast and audience walking from place to place in the city. I wonder if we'll see more of that sort of thing in future. People are very creative and resourceful when they have to be so I don't think theatre will stop existing completely while SD is in place - it might just look different from what we're used to for the time being.

I see that SiX the musical are thinking laterally- they've announced live shows in drive in/picnic style in places like airports. A small cast, so they can live together and form a bubble. It's the kind of show that lends itself to this, more like a concert in many ways. DD1 was heavily involved with this in the early days < outs self> so I'll be interested to see how it goes.

The cinema live streams are so popular around here, regularly selling out two large screens. I wonder if there's mileage in more of this, with a slight increase on price that helps both the theatres and the cinemas? I certainly can't imagine an extra £5 on the price would halt their popularity here.

Don't know how quickly this could happen though, obviously cinemas are going to be struggling for 'big ticket' new releases for a while too.