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.

what @whitney said. There is a lot of mileage in cinema live streams. But they don't need to be in cinemas. Can be in home. I particularly love, for example, the Royal Opera House live streams, with some looks behind the scenes artists getting ready, then some explanation about the plot. Like watching cricket from home, I often get a better view of the amazing performers than I could possibly hope to afford the ticket to get. We've got tickets, for example, for LUNGS at the OLD VIC this week, live performance by Claire Foy and Matt Smith www.oldvictheatre.com/whats-on/2020/lungs-in-camera I am more than happy to pay for a ticket, but am doing it mostly cos it's Live and I love that (as do the rest of the household). We want to be part of an event, but due to handicap / workload / not being in London the cost and timing is often prohibitive. I listened to Andrew Lloyd Weber on BBC Radio 4 recently and he explained that Phantom in South Korea has been playing pretty much throughout these last months. There are covid-safe measures in place. But England is light years behind S Korea, HK, Japan, Singa, Taiwan so live places may not be safe for a while. Meanwhile, the Arts can look at what the public are prepared to pay for: Live performances (I don't care if the auditorium is empty, so long as the filming is top quality), Courses and workshops online for Children, and also for Adults and schools, Q and A with stars, basically live streams that pay. Millenials in particular are not really into pre-recorded things, theirs is a generation of streaming. And for the elderly who are infirm or cannot make that trip to London, for example, for big shows, seats for top quality live events and festivals, linked to the TV, would be absolutely brilliant and is a money maker I guess (people paying directly for online tickets, plus selling to BBC, Netflix, EU channels, Asia channels, plus DVDs as gifts etc)

As BBC has shown recently (Men in tights) the public also have a lot of appetite at the moment for 'behind the scenes'. Not sure how money is made by the stars if they are in a documentary. If BBC does a documentary do the people in it get any compensation, does the theatre?

I thought I'd revisit this thread. I went to see The Last Five Years at The Southwark Playhouse. It was a great show, actor musicians and only two in the cast, so more manageable than large choruses belting out.

They'd removed a row and had substantial perspex screens between groups, which worked well. Drinks were delivered to your chair. It was 90 mins, no interval, which worked well. I was moved by watching theatre again.

They had a massive standing ovation ( at a Sat matinee) - the performances and production were brilliant, but I also think everyone was applauding the enterprise of the whole thing.

SiX are back live in a much bigger venue, to allow for SD. It's another short show with a small cast, so should work well. Anyone else seen anything?

Please excuse the repetition of worked well!!!!

Some combination of reduced capacity with all the usual safety measures and NT Live deal with someone like NetFlix? So part of the audience see it remotely and part are there???

I’m so sorry for everyone who is in this profession.

@cathyandclare I know nothing about the theatre, so please forgive my ignorance. I just wondered, is there any 'track record' of how many livestream tickets a London theatre or ballet company might reasonably expect to sell, or is too early to say? Theoretically, you could sell an unlimited number of livestream tickets? I think there are a lot of people like me in the provinces who would happily pay £10-£20 for a performance which we wouldn't otherwise have been able to see at all. I'm looking forward to Nubiya Garcia, an amazing young jazz artist, I think in-person tickets from Barbican are about £15-£20 and livestream is £12.50.

I've seen gigs where it's a gig and a meal. The meal allows for a higher ticket price.
Is there a way that a theatre can give added value?
cool memorabilia included in the price.
A drink and some sort of decent snack/cake?
An extra q&a session.
Some sort of extra online content

[quote everythingisginandroses]@cathyandclare I know nothing about the theatre, so please forgive my ignorance. I just wondered, is there any 'track record' of how many livestream tickets a London theatre or ballet company might reasonably expect to sell, or is too early to say? Theoretically, you could sell an unlimited number of livestream tickets? I think there are a lot of people like me in the provinces who would happily pay £10-£20 for a performance which we wouldn't otherwise have been able to see at all. I'm looking forward to Nubiya Garcia, an amazing young jazz artist, I think in-person tickets from Barbican are about £15-£20 and livestream is £12.50.[/quote]
I love theatre but I wouldn’t pay £10-20 for a livestream. It’s not the same as in person and very expensive compared to movie screening and cinema. I would pay more for in person though, I’d suggest £30-£40 in person with lots of social distancing and including a drink, and perhaps £5 for livestream.

Our local theatre at Windsor has been open.

I like the outdoor gazebo/marquee idea? With heaters..
And then in Spring take lots of productions outdoors. I think we’ll get used to wrapping up warm and sitting outside lots!

Ooo off to see Talking heads at the Crucible in Sheffield early November, so excited!

I was really disappointed that where I live there was no outdoors theatre or music this summer. It seemed so obvious that that was the way to go. They could put up a couple of marquees in case of rain.
I'd also be interested in performances in spacious venues with plenty of social distancing - eg an art gallery, warehouse, etc.
I'd like to see outdoors cinema in the summer too.

Ok...

Basically crowded spaces are going to be an issue as long as we have covid with no reliably effective treatment or vaccine. I believe part of the problem is that we all hope it might be over by next summer. That may be true, but it may not. If in the worse case it were not, traditional theatres are not really going to ever be safe in the way they were. The problem however is the building not the performance.

If we knew this were going to be present for the next 10 years it would be worth investing in safer buildings. I don't think masks and temperature checking (which is not that effective anyway) are really conducive to a special night out at the theatre.

In a blue sky world I would go for a theatre fully composed of specifically designed boxes (like traditional theatre boxes) each of which is positively pressurised. The stage would need to also be pressurised with appropriate venting of the whole building. An expert on gas fluid dynamics would be able to advise. You could limit seats in boxes to six, have drinks/snacks etc served there. Possibly even a little private dinner before the show. Entry to the boxes would need to be either timed or possibly open air. This would at least feel like a proper luxury night out, and would provide some escapism from coronavirus. This may not be the best solution but these problems are worth a bit of left field thinking, even if only to trigger ideas from other people. Different theatres may be designed in different ways. The Minack I would think is already pretty safe.

Perhaps worth putting some money up as an architecture prize?

I don't think putting prices up is going to be a realistic solution when there is likely to be a significant economic hit from covid/Brexit and many people will have to tighten their belts.

The tricky thing is working out whether it is a 1 or 10 year issue...

If it's only a year probably best to limp on with streaming/gov help/outdoors/drive in etc.

Good luck!