Does A Change Of AD Affect Your Attendance?

Objectively, each artistic director has their own artistic policy, constrained by the theatre's Board and by the various particular circumstances of their company.

Objectively, the Almeida didn't go downhill - in fact, quite the opposite - but may have been more to the taste of certain people before the change.

Chichester must retain the majority of its existing audience because of its large capacity and relatively remote geographical location. Whereas the Almeida and the Orange Tree are both much smaller houses and with far larger catchment area audiences, so both offer much more scope for refocusing their programmes.

EDIT: Arguably, in his first year, Daniel Evans has focused more on serving the home audience base and less on the prospect of transfers out. Probably to ensure that the old home audience quickly retains confidence in CFT, so that there's a secure base from which to start to explore the borders of their taste in future years.

Of course the Almeida was originally, under Pierre Audi, one of the very very few UK producers and presenters of contemporary international theatre, music and opera. The transition from Pierre Audi to Ian McDiarmid and Jonathan Kent was far more radical than any subsequent change of its AD.

It makes a significant difference to me. I barely went to the Almeida when it was run by Michael Attenborough, but it's been very different since Rupert Goold took over. The same is true of the Orange Tree since Paul Miller replaced Sam Walters. I guess it's not specifically the change of AD, but the change of approach and repertoire that results from the change of AD.

I completely agree about Hampstead, and while we are of different opinions about the Almeida I can clearly see how someone who'd been a fan of the Attenborough regime could dislike a lot of what Goold has been doing. There are theatres I'm going to persist with regardless of who's at the helm, but there are definitely theatres where a change of AD has completely altered my relationship with the place. A case in point would be the Royal Court. I respect what Vicki Featherstone is aiming to do there, but I've had a patchy experience with the results. She may be more of a theatre visionary than Dominic Cook, but I prefer Cook as a director and I preferred the programming on his watch.

For me, the Donmar programming lost a lot of appeal when Grandage left. Have only seen a few productions under Rourke (Limehouse, City of Angels and Comittee).

I agree with this, too:  I've seen fewer productions since Josie Rourke took over but even if I like the sound of them, the reviews have sometimes proved discouraging.  As I only ever book via Front Row/Klaxon, I can't say it has affected the method by which I book; only the frequency.  The Bush in contrast is largely just as appealing under Madani Younis as it was under Dominic Dromgoole and then Josie Rourke.  So the latter presumably has a quite different programming policy at her current home.

Pomona (play and production) was developed at the Royal Court.

I honestly hadn't even thought of the Globe, samuelwhiskers, as I go there so rarely (once a year max as it's so hard to fit in a trip if you've little time to travel between venues), so even if it had occurred to me, I wouldn't be qualified to comment. But now that you've mentioned it, I recall all the recent fuss and am sure others here would be able to comment. Of course we're still waiting to see what happens under Michelle Terry's leadership.

I mean, yes and no. I have my theatres I like to go to, and my loyalty to them is based on a combination of programming and price. It's always worth gambling on the Almeida or the Young Vic, say, because £10 tickets are so readily available, so my attendance at the former hasn't really been affected by the change of AD, and I don't expect my attendance of the latter will when David Lan leaves. I have found my interest in certain companies waning after a change of AD, but that's less "I love Michael Boyd and think Greg Doran is trash" and more "I have found shows under Doran's regime less rewarding than those I saw under Boyd's regime so I'm less likely to make the drive up the M40". Any change in my behaviour has been led by the art, not by the artist.

As for the Globe, yes, people have definitely refused flatly to go because of the AD, but again, if you question them, they'll probably point out that it's not because of Emma Rice *specifically* but because of what Emma Rice has allowed artistically to happen to the building (there was some initial concern about Rice's thoughts on Shakespeare, but I reckon most non-fans will, if questioned, start shouting about the lighting rig before you even finish asking your question). Although these people have been SO rude about Emma Rice, creating such a horrendously negative atmosphere around the entire building, that I'm honestly disappointed that they'll probably all come flooding back once Michelle Terry gets the keys.

That's because there aren't any.

There are certainly overlaps now that the Orange Tree programme is so much more eclectic than previously and that the Orange Tree collaborates with so much of the wider theatre ecology whereas it earlier operated in splendid isolation. The biggest overlap is in the international strand of the Orange Tree because the Gate is primarily an international theatre. But the Gate productions are usually made by emerging creatives whereas the recent Orange Tree international plays have been directed by their AD and in co-production with the established ATC. It's true that Gate writers and creatives do now also work at the Orange Tree, and this is appropriate because of the scale and physical nature of the two venues. The Gate is intimate and the Orange Tree is also small but can play very big, as instanced by sharing productions (Pomona, The Rolling Stone) with the relatively vast and epic Royal Exchange.

Also, the Orange Tree has become the occasional ideal London home for Paines Plough's Roundabout shows.

And the classic revivals (Misalliance, Sheppey, French without Tears) still regularly occur.

Well, Arts Council England removed the Orange Tree from its National Portfolio so clearly its former policy had relatively low priority. The unfunded fringe in London continues to revive forgotten plays, perhaps in part because their unfamiliarity may get press attention. For example, Michael Billington is regularly wheeled out to such fringe revivals.