How can we broaden theatre and it's reach to those who are not currently involved, and to those people who find theatre too costly?

Cliff Bloice, 7 October 2012

I posed my question, because there are many areas of the country, and communities to whom theatre is not considered, or thought of as a viable option, when considering or planning entertainment or cultural experiences.

During my session, I found that only two other attendees attended my session, which rather surprised me that more attendees did not find these issues important enough to discuss.

Phelim attended my session and suggested that what I am currently doing on a small scale is the way to go, wherein when I posed the question, I had in mind influencing and getting people interested in theatre on a much larger scale.

Sandra was the other attendee who attended my session, and she suggested bringing the theatre nearer to the communities and people who we are trying to influence.

On reflection, due to the lack of interest shown to my subject and session, one could infer and take from the lack of response that many other people may not find this issue as important as I do, which certainly did surprised me, and if more attendees thought logically and engaged more on my question they would have realised that solving this issue may indeed be the answer to some of the other questions posed.

I intend to continue to think up ideas to promote and implement ways of bringing a more diverse audience to theatre because I find it important to the future of theatre and the positive influence it could have on the people concerned.

And also whilst alone during my session, and reflecting on the matter of cost, I am reflecting on the idea that cost may not be an issue after all, and whilst this may at first sound rather strange, I am thinking about the large amounts of money that people spend on football matches, night clubs, music concerts, cinema, gambling, and dare I say drugs including alcohol, etc.

Therefore they may value these venues and items more than theatre, but my wish is to change their mindset and attitudes and get them interested in theatre, but I believe that there are many people would attend theatre if the costs were lower, but how to reconcile that with the costs of staging a production, is something that I may have to ponder alone if others are not interested.

Tags:

Influence, theatre, mindset and attitudes, cinema and dare I say drugs including alcohol gambling, session, cultural, music concerts, issues, football matches, people, attendees, communities, night clubs, experiences, Theatre, Cultural, People, influence