Monday 23 November 2015

Why this? Why now? Why here?

The problem with the things we have always done is that we become accustomed to the fact we have always done it and never consider approaching it again from first principles.
We always shop there, park there, eat there, holiday there. And to put a theatrical twist on it, see shows there, see the productions we like to see, the actors we like to watch and perform the pieces we are used to.
Secure, safe, predictable, expected, comfortable, proven.
And it's the same mindset for many who stage them.
And there's nothing wrong with that; if it makes you happy, then so be it.
If we consider it further from the perspective of theatre, its a great model if you are that fortunate.
The same venue, the same patrons, the same type of productions at the same time of year, the same  ticket sales, the same performers, the same backstage team, suppliers, success...sounds like a theatrical utopia I guess.
And there will be some theatres that might recognise this, but I can bet the majority cannot: some elements, some of the time is more likely to be the case.
And if you are a local theatre company, you will already appreciate that there are no free rides in the business of theatre. It takes effort, passion, commitment, support, intuition, flair, gut feeling, luck ... and then my head hurts as I begin to think of loads more similar values, aspirations, qualities that make theatre work and enjoyable for all concerned. One size does not fit all.
But whether you are in the majority for whom there are no free theatrical rides or the blessed minority where it always works, that visit to the land of first principles isn't as scary, unnecessary or hard as you might think.
And it might just be an inspired approach.
For the great skill isn't just trying to figure the answers. The secret is first, knowing the right questions to ask.
And not being one to reinvent the wheel, dear old Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem in 1902 which has always pointed me in the right direction: '5WH'.
And with a bit of thought, it isn't too hard to give it a theatrical slant.
And if we apply it to that key element for all theatre companies - their repertoire - it becomes quite intriguing. So try reviewing your thought process for selection of pieces using the following:

Why are we choosing this piece?
What do we want to achieve?
When are we performing it?
Who are we performing to?
Where are we going to sell it?
How will we measure the value, the worth of the doing?

Very simple and yes, I know, very obvious.

And I can guarantee that you will have come up with variations of these, or completely different questions - and that is good. Because you are thinking critically, practically, objectively and all of these represent great places to be.
We take the obvious for granted at our peril in the precarious world of the business of theatre and revisiting the obvious can provide great opportunities. And I would suggest you need to do it when you get the publishers catalogues out and start the weary round of the 'what shall we do next?' meetings. And I think you need to do it when choosing every piece. Time spent at the planning stage with this will assist in a joined-up approach to a season of theatre. So using the first example:

Why are we choosing this piece? Is this to satisfy what we think our existing audience wants or do we want to try and attract a new audience? Are we choosing it because we know it, can make it work, for ease and worst of all, "It must be seven years since we've done it so time to do it again." A brand new or unknown piece (at least to you and your audience) might be thought of as taking a risk. But it depends on how you approach it and the mindset of a company, a complimentary marketing campaign and an agreed language, explanation, pitch from cast, all of which can be a very powerful. For instance, is your choice summed up by (for example) the following publicity strap line:

"The company returns to a tried and trusted favourite with our audiences which we know they loved several seasons ago and was a huge success previously. Book your tickets soon!"

Or would you like the opportunity to say:

"We've chosen a brand new writer and play for our next production. This is extremely exciting for all concerned and the whole experience has brought a new-found energy to the rehearsals and the company. Everybody can't wait to see what the finished product will be like and the buzz that has been created by doing something new, unknown, has been like a fresh lick of paint, not just on the set, but on all of us. We know our loyal audiences will love it but so will those who have never been to our theatre. This is a 'not to be missed' production and just goes to prove that new repertoire is as accessible to local theatres and their audiences as to the regionals. You don't need to go into the big cities for new and exciting theatre. It's right here in your own community and at a fraction of the price. And if you have never been to see us before, this is one huge reason to join us for an amazing night of theatre - and a world/local premiere."

I know which option I would choose.

In the next blog, I will look at the other questions in my 5WH of repertoire.

Tuesday 10 November 2015

How do we get - and keep - an audience? #1

Researching the internet, you must always remember that you have not gone to the library and selected a book.
You have searched a key word or phrase and then need to remember to be very objective about what you get back. There may be links to respected and authoritative research in there and some facts you can rely on but only as long as you have established their provenance.
The majority is somebody's opinion.
After all, what you're reading is my opinion!
A good deal is commercially motivated and worse, bloated with ads. Trust me, I'm not.
And let's be honest, there is a good heap of garbage in there. Hopefully, I'm not.

Example. The search "Why do people go to theatre" brings back some interesting opinions and comments and even some research. It also brings back a huge amount of garbage.
My favourite line on one results page read:
"Theatre and live performances tend to attract a diverse group of people, from wealthy people to homosexuals."
What?! Have I just stepped back 100 years?
Is that a continuum, a range leading from one group to another?
If you go to theatre, are you either gay or wealthy?
Are you not allowed to be both?
Please tell me the writer is not giving me advice about audiences? I'll pass thanks, as my head and my sensibilities are now significantly damaged!

So I think we can safely agree to consign that comment, opinion, to the 'garbage' file.

But it discloses a really interesting and simple starting point to getting an audience and that is, you need to appreciate them.  I've not suggested 'know' or 'understand' them because, quite simply, you don't. And you don't because you have probably never taken the trouble to.
OK, you can clearly do it by assessing previous attendance, receipts, the repertoire they are attracted to and have bought a ticket for.; even profiling the person based on what they have come to see. From there, eliciting feedback on their perceptions of the piece, the production, the venue is a trick many do not attempt as it is in the 'too hard to do' pile.
But is it really?
The vogue these days is being asked to surrender your identity and privacy by handing over your email address...and then the 'we value your opinion' emails start, even from theatres. Having bought a ticket for a London show recently, within 24 hours of getting home, the email arrived.
Response rates to questionnaires can vary wildly, because many are sent out blindly, unsolicited and are classed as spam as soon as the recipient reads the subject line. But there is a simple way to overcome it, to get valuable and timely feedback from your audience, about your  theatre and your audience: just ask them.
You have a theatre bar teeming with people, so why not send your people out to chat very informally, very quickly and with a very focussed set of questions to gauge opinion.
And it just needs to be:

  • Is this your first time here?
  • Why have you come to see us?
  • What do you think of the production so far?
  • Will you come again?

And you will have conducted your very own qualitative  research that can inform so much. Do the maths: seven volunteers ask seven people each, at seven performances. That's 343 sets of data about your production. 343 sets of data that have cost nothing. 343 sets of data that will provide an understanding of how you came to get an audience and how you might get them back.
How hard was that?
How inexpensive or time consuming was that?
And you are so grateful for them helping aren't you? And if they would do an online questionnaire you will send them a free ticket for your next production won't you? And suddenly you get a chance to drill down into so much more. Because when you buy a ticket to a show, you buy the right to having an opinion and if you take the time to respect both components, people will gladly tell you what they think - warts and all. And this is priceless.
This is the beginning of an informed approach to running this business, maintaining it and growing it.
How to get and keep an audience is an involved business, but you can make it so much easier by having an intelligent approach and that means, taking the risk to stop doing what you have always done and try something new.
New ideas are not wrong, they're just new.
And you never know. A new approach can bring you to an exciting place: a place where you will find new audiences which in time and with respect, might become regulars.

Copyright Martin Paul Roche (2015) 
www.martinpaulroche.com or www.stagescripts.com


Wednesday 4 November 2015

New Works, New Audiences

How many times over the years have I heard theatre types telling me "We don't 'do' new works. Our audiences aren't interested in them, our company members aren't and we can't sell them."
I'm not disputing the difficulties historically, but everything you stage was, at some point, 'new'.
Be it a musical, a play or a pantomime, theatre repertoire started somewhere, gained recognition, notoriety, was chosen as worthy of performing and the rest is history.
The big issue for me is not that 'new works' per se are not popular.
The big issue is the way theatre companies go about selecting them, casting them, publicising them, staging them and selling them. It's not about it just being 'new'. It's about how you approach 'new'.
The real issue is companies don't like 'new'.
It scares them.
It's unknown and we don't like the unknown.
We see the unknown as risk and potential failure. 
We see risk as unacceptable, costly.
We don't see the potential that unknown - new- can bring.
You see risk, I see potential.
You see potential failure, I see opportunity.
You see your existing audience not liking 'new', I see a new audience being drawn in by 'new'.
Theatre isn't easy!
Audiences don't just turn up any longer in the numbers they did just because a company they always support is presenting their next production.
The following and patronage that non-professional theatre have enjoyed, has changed, as has the demographic of their audiences and their expectations. I believe their expectations are higher in respect of entertainment value, quality and value for money. Added to which that 'traditional' following who want to see 'traditional' repertoire are getting older. In 5 to 10 years time - and be very honest with ourselves - many of that ageing patronage will not be here. And if you insist on performing to the demands of an ever-decreasing, ever ageing clientele, neither will your company or theatre. 
Harsh? Yes. 
Honest? Yes.
The truth - admit it. Yes.
A potential theatre-goer wants to be engaged enough by the idea of seeing a show sufficiently to buy a ticket. Overly simple maybe, but we often forget that is where it all starts.
And consider this simple point: there is a potential audience out there bigger than your existing one.
Fact.
So, if we accept that there is a bigger potential audience out there that don't currently see your productions for whatever reason, do we really think it is solely down to the fact that you stage 'new' repertoire? They have never heard of you! Is it just possible that it is your existing repertoire that is keeping that huge potential audience away? And have you ever genuinely drilled down into the well-worn adage that many trip out about that their audience don't like coming to see things they don't know? I'm a bit boring. I like facts supported by data, not adages, rumour, gossip, hand-me-down logic. How we acquire useful, quality data to inform our approach is a conversation/article for another day, so if accepting for a moment it is not all about just the repertoire, what else is in play?
On their own, leaflets, posters, adverts, social media posts, websites or people do not sell theatre. But a savvy and well-timed combination of them all does. 
A positive, structured and well-planned approach will sell a production. The mindset and attitude of the whole company is essential. Appealing to a new audience will sell a production. A fabulous new work from an exciting new writer, being premiered by your talented company at your local venue is the mindset to sell a new production. Telling your friends you're doing a new play won't.
And if your company's approach is simply "It's seven years since we've done Annie and we know it's bums on seats" you will not exist for much longer. You will probably get an audience. But you will get the audience you deserve, the audience you have always had and standing still in any business - and this is a business no matter which way you look at it - does not survive. And I get bored with it. You get bored with it. And bored people eventually walk. They just go elsewhere to look for that future which excites and engages.
So what do we do about it?
I suggest you chuck the comfort blanket away.
I suggest you start investing in new talent for your company who will be excited by the prospect of a new repertoire that just might also reinvigorate the loyal members you've had for years and who might just enjoy change if they gave it a whirl.
I suggest you engage those new members who will be expert users of social media, to use that expertise and extensive friends network, to create a buzz about your next production in a structured, directed way.
I suggest you take a look at the huge range of new writers, new works that are out there.
New isn't wrong, new is an opportunity.
New is scary, but it can also be exciting.
And new is hard work. But new can be used to create a motivational team ethos.
New needs leadership, an open mind, commitment.
And it also means a chance to try new things and vitally, to implement a gentle, unthreatening process of change; making your theatre current, relevant, sustainable and if not future-proof, then resilient and not frightened of evolution. So, where might evolution begin?
  • A marketing strategy for every show, not just the season
  • A Social Media strategy which has a planned and themed message which evolves through the preparation, the rehearsals and the run up to the production. This is vital. I call  it 'spinning the message'. Every time you put anything out, give it a click on the dial. Add a new fact. Give it a new interest, angle. Give it another reason to come and see it. Keep it fresh, relevant, evolving. 
  • Simply posting the same graphic, the same plea to watch a show on every social media feed you can get access to isn't marketing. It's social media spam. "For god's sake, not another post about that play!" Blanket posts don't grab attention. They turn your production posts into the leaflets that we all tip into the bin in the supermarket when we buy the TV guide, because the leaflets are all trying to sell us something we are bored being told about.
  • Have an agreed message and key points for your members to communicate to their network about the amazing new work you have chosen
  • I'm not engaged by a cast photo in the local rag the week before the show - so why do we still think a potential (and new) audience member might be? So use the local press with intelligence. Speak to them first. Engage them. Work on the human interest angle of the story of this new piece of theatre. What would interest you? Then tell them that and bin the thoughtfully posed photo of the two principals in costume. It was old hat thirty years ago and it doesn't float anybody's boat
  • Get a piece of quality footage of a rehearsal on Social Media. And if it isn't quality, well, just don't even consider it otherwise, you will sink that boat!
  • Get what I call a 'Rehearsal Review' out there. It gives the chance to include human interest and show that potential audience what an objective, respected third party thinks of what's in store for them weeks before the production.
  • Publishers of new works such as Stagescripts, will undoubtedly be able to grant you a filming licence - so check out if the filming can be used for pre-production publicity. How hard is that?
  • Using business speak, 'sweat your assets.' Find out the skills of new members and utilise their professional abilities if they are happy to. So many young people have a great skill set. Let them do what they are good at and learn to let go of what you have always done. It's not about losing loyalty, it's about supporting it.
And I'm not suggesting you sweep away what you have always done. Nobody bins a successful brand, but we need to service it, respect it, maintain it, update it. So why not simply make one play in a season of plays, a regular spot as a new work, a new writer and sell it as that? Or one new musical every few years? A rehearsed reading in your theatre with an invited audience of your loyal patrons to ease them into 'new'? If it is a new writer and they are local, bring them down to meet that audience, the performers, the media. If you let your innovation loose, so much is possible.
We've got to bin the urban myths.
New isn't bad, it's just the unknown.
New doesn't mean failure. 
But it does afford the opportunity to seize new opportunities.
That theatrical glass is half full folks and picking a new piece to invigorate your players, your performance and your public has got to be worth a try.
A late friend of mine used to say "If you always do what you've always done, you'll  always get what you always got." Go figure.
Professional theatre is publishing some exceptional profits at the moment - and it is on the back of some new and exciting works. Well I want some of that, don't you?
Come on board and see what a fantastic place could be at the other end of your journey to somewhere new.
Visit www.stagescripts.com or get in touch with me to find out what possibilities there are.


Copyright Martin Paul Roche (2015)