- Generally good news. Audience levels flat. Number of productions up. Access up. Street arts massively up.
- A big slap down for those theatres which are “playing it safe, in spite of a period of relative prosperityâ€. Learn from the success of others, apparently. You have been warned. See page 12.
- “Digital opportunity†is a big deal for the Arts Council. So much so that it is a “development priorityâ€. Wow. Apparantly “few theatre organizations are yet making full and effective use of technological developmentsâ€. Presumably this doesn’t apply to NT Live and Pilot Theatre who clearly are total rock stars when it comes to this sort of thing.
- Good news for new writing: “the range of regularly funded organisations producing and presenting new work increased; changes in artistic leadership at London venues have meant that new writing was no longer necessarily confinded to new writing housesâ€. See page 74.
- And some bad news for writers: “Emerged†and “mid career†writers are suffering from more collaborative processes and they are more dependent than ever on the influence of directors and dramaturges (and I thought those didn’t exist any more). Some carping about how “the focus on the new has jeopardised the careers of those who are no longer newâ€. See page 76.
- The number of volunteers at the regularly funded theatre organisations has almost doubled since 2001/2. See page 65.
- The number of adults attending arts events in England has risen from 24.4% in 2001/2 to 30.7% in 2005/6. While the latter statistic is still depressingly small (especially since this includes people who attend less than once a year) it’s a truly staggering rise. Unfortunately it’s difficult to get too excited, since even the authors seem to be confused as to their sources: (“Source: BMRM-Target Group Index NOTE: should this be BMRB, ie British Market Research Bureau?â€) See page 59
- Surprisingly, there are apparently only two kinds of audiences in London: “the traditional theatre audience that is loyal to its local venue, and a younger Black and minority ethnic audience that will travel across the city.†See page 77.
Leave a Reply