West End Best Friend cares deeply about the local theatres that serve communities around the country as well as the West End and believes that we can all play a part in supporting the longer-term sustainability of these places and the shows they stage through buying tickets, donations, attending events and workshops and promoting the good stuff they do via word of mouth.
We worry that as running these venues gets more challenging though rising costs, reduced local authority funding and audiences being more selective about what they see due to the inevitable rising ticket prices that these venues will be at risk and need our support to survive.
Over the course of the next year, we will publish a series of articles examining the situation and promoting ways we can all support and sustain our local theatres. We will organise these under three headings:
UK Regional Venues & Touring Productions
In this section, we will identify examine the challenges that regional venues face in programming and running the place in a financial and eco-friendly sustainable way while delivering entertaining, thought provoking and creatively innovative works for their local community, and how the Arts Council has a vital role to play in supporting their work.
Over the next year, we plan to add content on the following areas of interest:
This month in our favourite venues
Spotlight on stand out venues
Capital projects around the country
Youth, community and outreach
The Economics of Regional Tours
Upcoming and current tours
Pantomime & Awards
ACE & UK theatre strategy
ACE Touring Strategy
In this section, we will examine how West End theatres, a national asset attracting visitors from around the world, are helping to define our culture. We expect high production values, star names and an exciting range of choice, from small innovative shows to grand opera, but it too faces rising costs of star names and operations, and we see ever rising headline ticket prices that may deter booking or frequency of visits. We need it to inspire and encourage our creative sector and to invest back into our regions to support young talent.
Over the next year, we plan to add content on the following areas of interest:
Upcoming in West End
Spotlight on Producers
Economics of the West End
Capital projects in West End
Talent development
SOLT and The Oliviers
The Wider Creative Theatre Sector
In this section, we will examine how the rest of the creative sector from schools and amateur productions, through drama schools and the first tentative steps for new talent is working and feeding into regional and West End productions.
Spotlight on upcoming talent making their debut
The Amateur scene – where so many artistes start
Edinburgh Fringe
Digital theatre - widening access to live Theatre
Cruise Entertainment – where many young talents develop.
Overseas theatre – what can we learn from it.
We welcome input from our readers on these topics and will consider adding your contributions to our campaign.
Editor: Jenny Ell
Lead Writer: Nick Wayne
Nick has been involved as a Trustee/Director in UK Producer and Venue Organisations for twenty-six years, seen over 1350 productions, visited over 160 of the UK venues, seen overseas productions in USA, Canada, France, Hungary, Austria, Czech Republic and Australia and invested in over 40 West End productions. You can read his long form articles on Stage Whispers UK - Nick Wayne