rehearsal venues plea

Just putting the word out that Blak Yak are looking for a rehearsal venue for their latest production. We need somewhere fairly central (although that's negotiable) and cheap (that's not negotiable). If you know of anywhere, or have somewhere like that yourself, please please please either reply to this plea, email me on the above address or call me on:
041 799 4544.

Much appreciated.

Melissa Merchant
(Sourcery Production Manager)

I might have a couple of ideas. Come and see me on campus. Murdoch Uni. I'm the venue tech at Nexus.

My number is 041 328 7297.

Hi Melissa

> Just putting the word out that Blak Yak are looking for
> a rehearsal venue for their latest production.

What's wrong with DRPAC?

Didn't Blak Yak used to have special user status?

Cheers
Grant

So much for "special user status" .. the Irish Theatre Players (at the Irish club since 1981 - 19 years!) have just been informed by the new manager (yet another one) that regular booked & paid for Tuesday night rehearsals must be moved because he has rented out the time to an outside choir group who will "bring a lot of revenue into the club"; further to this he has flagged his intention, as from our Sept one act season, to force the ITP to not perform on Friday/Saturday nights unless we agree to increase ticket prices by $5 - that $5 to go to the club. We already pay the Irish Club for use of the auditorium for both rehearsals & performances at the rate of $10 per hour - same as any other users) and, in fact, in 1999 paid the Irish Club $2000 in advance because they asked for our assistance. Also on the books for the Irish Club's AGM in Sept is a motion to permanently lease out the Club's ground floor, including the auditorium.
Not too many cheers! .. Barb Z

It seems to be a common theame, Business are running the "Community" venues, and when they are not getting enough profit they up the price or go looking for replacements.

Stuff the community, get us more money.

Paul J.

Paul J. wrote:
-------------------------------
It seems to be a common theame, Business are running the "Community" venues, and when they are not getting enough profit they up the price or go looking for replacements.

Stuff the community, get us more money.

Paul J.


That is a wonderful and truly understandable policy for the 'corporate' world. Unfortunately it leaves the 'community' world somewhat out in the cold.

So where do we go when the 'more-financial' replacements move in? Any ideas?

Louise CC

Louise CC wrote:
-------------------------------

That is a wonderful and truly understandable policy for the 'corporate' world. Unfortunately it leaves the 'community' world somewhat out in the cold.

So where do we go when the 'more-financial' replacements move in? Any ideas?

Louise CC

Forgive me, but I thought $25 a night for access to a 2.4M facillity was fairly cheap.

By my reckoning it is around $6.25 per hour and by the time you pay power and cleaning, prehaps you can appreciate the extent of the corporate profts you are rallying against.

We support community Theatre and absolutely promise to continue to do so, but there has to be a balance. I don't see the Trust and Ogdens hiring spaces for $6.25 per hour.

But please be simpathetic to managements who have to survive on minimal funding !


Regards


Ian.

Much as I enjoy going to see Blak Yak (& other theatre groups) at the Don Russell Centre, if that facility cost $2.4 million, somebody made an awful lot of money; it's also a pity they didn't consult some theatre people about the size/depth of the stage - for instance, a large scale musical is impossible.
Community Theatre groups don't need 200+ seat fixed pros arch theatres which can't be filled each night & in which sharing with other groups/finances preclude use on a continual basis (eg for rehearsals/set building etc). Ideally, about 100 seats & the ability to do their own tech, run their own front of house/bar/suppers, do their own ticketing, re-arrange seating/staging to suit the production - that is, control the facility - would suit most small to medium groups! How many such facilities could be built for $2.4 million???

Hi Ian

> Forgive me, but I thought $25 a night for access to a
> 2.4M facillity was fairly cheap.

I can't help feeling you're appealing to a sense of monetary value that has ceased to have any real meaning.

In a so called "free market", economic rationalism would dictate that nothing has any intrinsic value whatsoever, beyond what people are prepared to pay for it.

If you can find an organisation or individual prepared to pay $25 per session, you can probably find someone who can afford $45 or $65 and so on.

If you can do that, why would you let someone use the venue for $25, when you could be earning $65?

Prices become artificially inflated by some people's greater capacity to afford the higher fees.

Eventually we find the same affliction that's occuring with our major theatres. Their running costs are enormous, because they're empty so much of the year. They're empty so much of the year because they're so expensive to use.

Is a $25 fee the chicken or the egg?

> By my reckoning it is around $6.25 per hour and by
> the time you pay power and cleaning, prehaps you
> can appreciate the extent of the corporate profts you
> are rallying against.

What value a safe, welcoming community?

Our governments, local, state and federal should be investing in projects that bring communities together; empower them to realise and achieve shared goals. They should be doing everything in their power to encourage groups of like minded people in the community to come together and work cooperatively and creatively.

Whether working together on community arts projects, participating in sports or engaging in worship, all these activities are about encouraging social networks that provide support and security; that foster growth and creative development and build a society that values the contributions of all its members - not just based on their financial capacity or preparedness to pay.

Surely some of the gangs of youths hanging around the streets outside the DRPAC would benefit from something like this?

What's the value of an active community theatre company that provides a creative outlet for local community members, builds in them a sense of pride in their achievments, fosters friendships, creates a positive sense of identity and belonging?

I firmly believe that community theatre has an intrinsic value entirely separate from what we might be prepared or able to pay for it.

> We support community Theatre and absolutely
> promise to continue to do so, but there has to be a
> balance. I don't see the Trust and Ogdens hiring
> spaces for $6.25 per hour.
>
> But please be simpathetic to managements who have
> to survive on minimal funding !

I'm sympathetic, but ultimately i don't know that the interests of commercial management of community facilities are reconcilable with those of building a truly inclusive community.

Community theatre companies are under serious threat and disappearing. Our society will be very much the poorer for their loss.

Cheers
Grant

Hi BarbZ

> Community Theatre groups don't need 200+ seat fixed
> pros arch theatres which can't be filled each night &
> in which sharing with other groups/finances preclude
> use on a continual basis (eg for rehearsals/set
> building etc). Ideally, about 100 seats & the ability to
> do their own tech, run their own front of
> house/bar/suppers, do their own ticketing, re-arrange
> seating/staging to suit the production - that is, control
> the facility - would suit most small to medium groups!

hear! hear!

I couldn't agree with you more!! Bigger is absolutely _not_ always better!

Facilities like DRPAC can't possibly have been built with the "community" in mind. The driving rationale must always have been "how can we generate some commercial return from this facility". As i've stated in another post, they've been planned with an utter lack of appreciation for the very real value that community theatre can provide to our society.

Totally clueless thinking along the same lines as these glorified shopping malls they have the cheek to call "community" recreation centres! There's nothing community about them. The only difference between Leisure Australia and Westfield, is that you pay on the way in at a recreation centre and our taxes were used to build the monstrosities in the first place!!

Cheers
Grant

...... and another thing, re being sympathetic about surviving on minimal funding:
most Community Theatre groups have managed to survive thus far on NO funding (bar the odd handout from Lotteries - maximum $3000 providing they can match the amount, & fill in all the paperwork, & don't ask again for at least 3 years), thus not costing the taxpayer anything in order to pursue their hobby ... a far cry from the sporting/leisure industries world!

Most Community Theatre is produced on a what the commercial world would consider a less than shoestring budget, with the hope that there'll be enough profits to produce the next season - sometimes the problems overcome are what serves to cement that sense of Community (membership of a group working together to achieve a dream/goal or whatever); sometimes it all threatens to become just a bit too hard, especially when commercially oriented bodies like many Local Councils (not all - some have been quite helpful) seem to place no value whatsoever on their achievements as a part of the wider community; as far as I know, we have yet to see a ticker tape parade or a Council reception for the winning Drama Festival or Finley Award team!!!!
Faint, but ever hopeful Cheers, Barb Z

Ian Ashton wrote:
-------------------------------
Forgive me, but I thought $25 a night for access to a 2.4M facillity was fairly cheap.

By my reckoning it is around $6.25 per hour and by the time you pay power and cleaning, prehaps you can appreciate the extent of the corporate profts you are rallying against.

We support community Theatre and absolutely promise to continue to do so, but there has to be a balance. I don't see the Trust and Ogdens hiring spaces for $6.25 per hour.

But please be simpathetic to managements who have to survive on minimal funding !

Regards
Ian.

Dear Ian,

Further your reply to an earlier posting of mine, I would like to make you aware that the comments were in no way intended to be an attack on you (personal or otherwise) - which is how I feel you viewed them.

Working in the 'corporate' world as I do, I am well aware of such items as overheads, operating costs, profit margins, shareholders expectations, and accountability to the Board. Basically - the need to survive commercially.

However, for 'community' activites, life is getting considerably harder these days. And not just from a community theatre's point of view.

The WA Branch of the Richard III Society, an historical society of which I am a member, recently had to move their meeting place. We were happily ensconced in a meeting room of the Alexander Library (an ideal location) and had been so for the past 10 years. However, overnight, our room rental went from $15 to $80. The reasons cited were based on market competitiveness.

Our investigations for a new meeting place showed that the availability of accommodation for a small group with a small bank balance was extremely limited. As this was six months ago, and pre-GST, I'm sure the choices now are even smaller.

Community theatre's ability to put on the next show depends (in a lot of cases) solely on the profits made from the last show. With the increase in costs across the board recently (and this includes bank fees), those profits will get smaller, and therefore so will the shows. Which introduces a downward production spiral.

I was not 'rallying', or even railing against corporate profits. Merely asking if there was a solution that enabled both the corporate and the community to continue working side by side to mutual benefit.

Regards
Louise CC

Another example ... a few weeks ago the Cat Owners' Assoc of WA (COAWA), another not terribly financial organisation, was planning a fund raising quiz night; looking for a suitable venue, I checked out my local City of Swan Rec Centre (Altone Park - built with over $1 million courtesy of taxpayers/local ratepayers). It is an eminently suitable venue & well located, but the price was approx $350 for the night (for one large room). They didn't have another booking for that night but, needless to say, we went elsewhere.
Silly me! I had thought that a local "Community" Rec Centre would attainable by the ratepayers of the area!
BarbZ