Words of mouth

Something further to my earlier comment, and in combination with it, I feel the whole matter is about exposure, and the previous comments re: Ghosts is a good example.

1. Firstly, there is exposure in terms of who were are - Amateur, Independent, Fringe, Professional
2. Then there is exposure in terms of actual promotion. The amount of promotion required is impacted on the image as presented in 1.
3. Finally there is pre-exposure of the show in particular. Previous bad productions may impact on both the theatre in question or further attempts by other companies to present said show.

3 has had a previous impact on 1 which in turn makes 2 that much harder, which is also affected by 3. If you can break through the barriers with 2, then regardless of the quality of the show or the reputation of the theatre, you get your audience. A returning audience will of course, through word of mouth, be affected by the enjoyment of the audience, which may or may not have anything to do with the level of technical effort of the production, and we have a flow on effect for 3.

I am simplifying this of course as there are far more factors than this, but essentially the point I am trying to make is in general, exposure is a big portion of any production. What makes this harder is when those whom have the capacity to provide quality and high volume exposure are reluctant to, for what-ever-reason, then we are left to flounder somewhat.

We have a few dedicated members of our theatrical community that work bloody hard trying to promote shows. Some do it for a fee and others do what they can. However, when you can't hit those high volume markets, it is an uphill battle.

Social Media is certainly helping in some aspects to get the word out. What I find is that there is a still a massive amount of blissful ignorance as to the existence of this "cultural underground". Some have cited the oft used "Sporting Mindset" as the blame for audience apathy. I am not so sure that is the main culprit as any community has its sporting fraternity, yet theatre can still thrive.

To my mind, it is the perception (or exposure) that Theatre in general is not looked upon with the same esteem as seen in other countries, and I think part of that is, as a community in general, we do not take ourselves seriously. We are not Amateurs by the modern day definition. We are lovers of theater trying to provide quality theatre where-ever we can. We need to change our identity and that begins with us.

The opinions of a man wearing a hat.

Absit invidia (and DFT :nono:)

Jeff Watkins