Advance bookings plea to protect local theatres

10 hours ago

Maddy Jennings

BBC News, Norfolk

Lee Johnson said the change in habit has led to some shows being cancelled or postponed.

Maddy Jennings/BBC Lee Johnson is looking into the camera, smiling. He has a shirt, grey beard. He is wearing a white and blue patterned shirt and a black lanyard round his neck. Behind him, there are red pull down theatre seats. — Lee Johnson said the change in habit has led to some shows being cancelled or postponed.

Theatre goers are being asked to purchase their tickets further in advance to help keep performances running.

The Corn Hall theatre in Diss, Norfolk, say they have had to cancel or postpone performances due to a low number of advanced sales.

Lee Johnson, general manager at the theatre, said that as a charity, they needed people to book further in advance to work out if a show is financially viable.

He said: "Booking your tickets early helps us to ensure that the event can go ahead. I can say to the producer that we've sold 100 tickets... Then they're happy, and I'm happy."

Mr Johnson said he saw booking habits shift after the pandemic

Paul Moseley/BBC Diss Corn Hall, a large stone coloured building with a blue door, and pillars. — Mr Johnson said he saw booking habits shift after the pandemic

Three performances have been cancelled at the Corn Hall this year because of low sales, and other have been postponed to a later date.

The change in habit to favour late bookings is something that Mr Johnson said became more "prominent" after the COVID 19 pandemic.

"I think people became so used to events getting cancelled during that difficult time," he said.

"You'd book a ticket, and the show would be cancelled, or it would get shunted forwards by six months, then something else would happen."

Mr Johnson said the cancellations had an "immense" effect on both the theatre's finances and reputation.

"It's not just the impact on the charity when we need to refund people, but people also think, 'well if they've cancelled that, what else are they going to cancel'.

"I really don't want to cancel any shows, but when you're talking to producers who say we are not going to make any money out of this, we are left with no other option."

Adam Taylor said audience behaviours had changed "substantially" since the pandemic

Martin Giles/BBC Head and shoulders image of Adam Taylor wearing a blue suit jacket and white shirt — Adam Taylor said audience behaviours had changed "substantially" since the pandemic

Adam Taylor, chief executive of Norfolk charity The Garage Trust, said he has also noticed a shift in consumer habits.

He runs both The Garage theatre in Norwich, and The Workshop performing arts venue in King's Lynn.

"We are seeing the same trends that are being reported by a number of other theatres across the county in terms of ticket sales being much, much later than they were before," he said.

'Rising costs'

Mr Taylor said this meant more unpredictability with box office sales, and changes to programme to reflect it.

"Our programmes might now be more risk averse than they were three or four years ago, presenting less of a broad stroke in programmes," he said.

"Coming out of the pandemic we assumed that things were going to reset, and they very much haven't... Behaviours have changed quite substantially."

UK Theatre, which supports theatres and practitioners, said they were beginning to see audiences returning to advance bookings.

Hannah Essex, co-chief executive, said: "Encouragingly, there has been a marked return to earlier booking habits among regional audiences.

"While theatre is more popular than ever, many venues are facing rising costs with flat or declining public investment – a situation that is increasingly unsustainable.

"If we are to secure the future of regional theatres for the next generation of audiences and creatives, we must ensure there is a strategy for sustainable long-term investment."

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