RAT Big audiences

[Allison Narver <anarver@yahoo.com>]

As far as audiences go...
This isn't practical advice for audience development
but rather a reflection on my own experiences over the
last couple of years. 
I am currently the Resident Director of a Broadway
show that's sold at 102% capacity since it opened
(2and1/2 years ago).  It plays to 2000 people 8 times
a week and it's basically sold out for the next 2
years.
I used to be the Artistic Director of a theater in
Seattle that would (when we were on a roll), play to
audiences of 100.
I gotta say (and I hope it's not just nostalgia or
sentimentality talking) but give me those small,
loyal, fiesty, involved audiences at Annex any old
day.
There was a conspiracy (root of the word..from the
Greek -- to breathe together) that was about the
creation of a unique event -- an event that was
created by the audience and performers.
Huge, bloated audience bases don't give you a better
community.  Nor does it give you that same sense of 
breathing together -- of conspiracy.
It gives you cash which is critical but not always the
only goal as we all know.
A loud, passionate audience of 20 -25 can help you
make better theater than an audience of 2000,  8 times
a week.  
I don't believe that bigger audiences or bigger
budgets should always be the goal of every producing
organization.  
Again, nothing practical about this posting, just some
thoughts.
Love,
Allison
--- Gleaball@aol.com wrote:
> Jack -
> 
> I like the way you think.  Yes, event.  A coming
> together to mutually 
> experience a moment - a celebration, a shared
> acknowledgement of willingness, 
> of interest; a reason for why this day is like no
> other; a stopping long 
> enough to 'be here now'
> 
> ....We must call it an event, market it as an event,
> but most importantly 
> <believe it to be> an event - one worth creating,
> one worthy of passionate 
> investment, one worth yelling loud enough in the
> playground to get everybody 
> else's attention to see if they'll come and play
> with you kind of investment 
> !@##?@@!!!  
> "The world - champion 4-square tournament 
> is being held right over here!  
> Come one, come all... 
> Never before in your life have you seen 
> A six foot four gorilla girl 
> swamp the playground 
> with such 
> innuendo!  
> How will we bounce our rubber balls in that folks?!?
>  
> So step right up gentlemen (and ladies) 
> for I assure you
> that if you take the challenge
> and try your level best,
> you will not be disappointed! 
> 4- SQUARE !!! It's better than Hollywood Square! " 
> 
> And yes dammit, make it good; be your fucking best
> or don't waste people's 
> time. The intimacy of your committment is what will
> make it intimate, no 
> matter how visually driven it is. Demonstrate how
> much you care in the most 
> profound way that you know how and then see if it
> doesn't open up some 
> intimate small place in the hearts of your audience.
>  As someone else said 
> (with my personal twist added): silence is better -
> then not laying it on the 
> line - each and every time.
> 
> God I'm tired of this.  I'm home, post-party,
> post-play - stoned.  Been 
> examining the relatively old existential artist
> questions, again...Do they 
> ever go away? Not that this is a dear abby column,
> but how come we rarely 
> talk about what it ~feels~ like to be an artist?  Is
> this unimportant to the 
> larger goal of being an artist?  What it feels like
> to being an artist is 
> what you see up on that stage right? - or actually,
> maybe that's just a 
> director's gig, or a writer's gig...but, I don't
> think so.  It's sort of a 
> collective experience designed to be shared with an
> unsuspecting collective 
> so that it ever-grows in it's rippling effect.
> 
> Directors out there, here's a real tough one - how
> do you stave off 
> depression after opening a show?  Or is this my
> solitary experience?  (which 
> would make it all the more depressing.)
> 
> So one of my newest theories is that theatre must be
> a celebration, it has to 
> be joyful somehow.  It has to make us want to stop
> and smell the roses - to 
> enjoy the beautiful moments - to take a ride. So,
> considering I just directed 
> "A Bright Room Called Day" (which if you don't know
> it, is less than bright) 
> how do I resolve this dilemma?  The joy must come
> from the experience of 
> getting to "be here now" in front of some other
> folks who hopefully are 
> experiencing being here now as inspired by the joy
> created, the real-ness of 
> it all, the event.  Oh, do I make any sense to
> anyone but myself?  I'm really 
> not so sure anymore... (You know Salvador Dali
> didn't make much sense to 
> people either and it worked for him...)  So no, I'm
> not really asking you all 
> to tell me how to solve my dilemma, just wondering
> about your experiences, no 
> matter whether they mirror, solve, or surpass mine. 
> Just curious...
> 
> But collaborations - (For someone who is stoned, I
> read remarkably drunk, 
> just try reading it all with a slurr and suddenly it
> all sounds like, I don't 
> know, your Aunt Martha or something...)  I don't
> know what about marketing 
> collaborations.  I think it's a great idea and I
> think that it can be done 
> with smaller groups.  See who in your immediate
> geographical area is 
> interested in marketing as well.  Create community
> within your spacial 
> community and then invite alot of people in, to be
> part of it.  A restaurant 
> that's near by.  Set some marketing thing up with
> them.  A tax night theme!  
> or with a gallery... or a book store.  That's a
> collaboration that's always 
> made sense to me.  Get the bookstore in your
> neighborhood to put up a window 
> display featuring material that relates to the play
> that you're producing.  
> Autobiographies, histories, art books, share your
> inspirations with the 
> literate community.  And then ask if you can peddle
> books at the shows.  (Hey 
> and if you try this method out, please report on it,
> because I've never been 
> able to implement the idea at the same time that
> I've actually had a 
> production up...)  Is everybody else this
> over-worked and 
> under-paid...(qualified by: in relation to the white
> lower-middle class model 
> that I was raised on?)
> 
> Whatever -  I'm babbling.  But yeah, I'll keep
> ponderin' that one - more 
> ideas for marketing collaborations...hmm.  And
> thanks for the yummy late 
> night bon bons for thought - its like a raid on the
> refrigerator at three in 
> the morning...
> 
> gb in la



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