Examination of Witnesses (Questions 360-373)
WEST YORKSHIRE
PLAYHOUSE, SHEFFIELD
THEATRES TRUST
22 FEBRUARY 2005
Q360 Ms Shipley: I think Birmingham has
grasped culture quite well.
Ms Duckworth: What does not seem
to happen is the link between those enormous developments—linking
local authorities and DCMS. There does not seem to be a nice link
there, so this must be an opportunity that will potentially be
lost.
Q361 Ms Shipley: That is very interesting.
Mr Brown, given the way you described amateurs and professionals,
why did you invite them?
Mr Brown: Because it was neighbourly
really, and I thought it—
Q362 Ms Shipley: Enabled who—you
or them?
Mr Brown: It was a neighbourly
thing to do! There is nothing in it for us really. The Grand Theatre
in Leeds is closing for a year to have a huge refurbishment of
three million pounds or something, and they are homeless. I think
it will widen our audience and will be good for us.
Q363 Ms Shipley: Why did you do it Ms
Galvin?
Ms Galvin: We are good neighbours
too! It does us no harm for people to find their way into our
theatres and to realise they are genuinely nice places to be.
Q364 Ms Shipley: The reason I said that
is because the West End theatres are absolutely, as far as I can
see, resistant to having anything come into their theatre that
might be called "community" or might take effort from
them to bring in. You have both said that it will enhance your
audience. The West End theatres want a large amount of public
money and they do not want to have to do anything for it. In fact,
they go so far as to say it is completely impossible for them
to do anything at all. You say that letting amateurs in in some
form gets more people in and enhances the audience.
Ms Galvin: We operate in communities.
We have a relationship with the community that we are based in.
West End theatres do not have that, so from the very beginning
they—
Q365 Ms Shipley: Arguably, they should
be created because the west End is one or two miles from Southwark
and Lambeth—really deprived areas. There is a major chance
for it to relationship-build. Actually, it is not very far from
richer areas as well; there are plenty of rich people living there—if
you do not want to go for the poverty angle. The idea is to reach
out and it does not want to do that.
Ms Duckworth: Just to give evidence
because my previous life was in the East End of London, the West
End are very happy to take the money of amateurs, and it happens
all the time. There were amateur companies using the Palladium
and using the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, but they pay for it.
Q366 Ms Shipley: They are very willing
to take but not very willing to give.
Ms Duckworth: So the amateurs
have access.
Ms Shipley: Only if they pay a lot. There
is very little giving going on as far as I can see.
Mr Flook: That is a bit harsh!
Ms Shipley: Do you think?
Q367 Mr Flook: Yes.
Ms Galvin: We were talking about
DCMS and culture, but the only thing I would like to add to what
has been said is that the reticence about taking leadership and
the definition of culture seems to me to be driven in part by
a fear of being labelled as elitist
Q368 Ms Shipley: Why would that be? I
agree with you that it might well be that analysis, but why would
arts or dance be elitist?
Ms Galvin: Because we still sit
here and face questions based on the class breakdown of our audiences,
and those are things that come to the surface whenever there is
any discussion of this sort about the arts.
Q369 Ms Shipley: Perhaps that is something
to be addressed. The Young Vic has done a very clever thing in
offering free tickets to Southwark and Lambeth residents. My feeling
is that there would be some people that came in, and if there
is a way of doing that—that the West End offered free tickets
off-peak and at all sorts of times, to targeted areas—I
think there is room there for direct action in broadening the
audience base.
Mr Pennington: I do not think
anybody in theatre either in or outside London would disagree
with that principle. I am sure that a large part of your working
day is spent trying to work out how to do that provision and how
to do £5 nights and all those other things. The National
Theatre can do a ten-pound—
Q370 Ms Shipley: No, that it was free
is the important point.
Mr Pennington: Sure, but that
is also a budgeting and funding consideration, as to how you can
afford to do it on the scale you wish to do it.
Q371 Ms Shipley: My experience of going
to the West End, with the exception of the sell-outs like Chitty
Chitty Bang Bang, is that there is a proportion of empty seats
every night. It is not terribly hard to work out which nights
there will be—let us just say 2% of tickets that are available,
and give those away in the community. Is that an impossibility?
Ms Galvin: When I first started
working at Sheffield Theatres we had what was called a "pay
what you can" night, and people did come and pay what they
could. I asked our box office to calculate what the average amount
paid was, and it was 34 pence. I also asked for a breakdown of
where these people came from, and it was from the Hallam constituency!
Q372 Ms Shipley: Exactly. Is it possible
to give away free tickets in targeted poorer areas?
Ms Galvin: If it is targeted,
but as I come from a marketing background, I would say that putting
some face value on the ticket is more valuable to the individual
using the ticket and to the theatre than to give things away.
Q373 Chairman: Thank you very much indeed.
I feel very nostalgic about Leeds and the kind of theatrical upbringing
I had. When I was brought up we had the Grand Theatre, which was
too posh for anybody to be able to afford to go to, Harry Henson's
Court Players and the Theatre Royal, Moss's Empire and the City
of Varieties which no respectable person ever set foot in!
Mr Brown: The same today!
Chairman: It is very different today
and very exciting. Thank you very much indeed.
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