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Post by Deleted on Feb 20, 2020 1:56:06 GMT
I've always appreciated artistic directors who carve out a clear identity for what to expect from their seasons. I may not like their direction, but it allows me to know what I should (and should not) look to their establishments for in terms of my likely ticket purchases.
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Post by showgirl on Feb 20, 2020 12:32:11 GMT
I thought the new productions looked very varied and certainly included several for me; maybe even enough to tempt me to resume (some sort of) membreship again, depending on how many plays/shows proved to be inlcuded in the same booking date.
Admittedly I was already disappointed to have missed out on Standing At The Sky's Edge in Sheffield so would have gone to see that wherever it opened in London - or I'd have returned to Sheffield if necessary, but that clearly involves much more planning and expense.
Also, I might prefer to see Welcome To Iran at Stratford East (despite the longer journey), as it's far more affordable and a nice old theatre.
However, that still leaves other new things which appeal to me. Unlike others here I've never had any sense of how one AD's time at the NT differs from that of another in terms of range and choice of productions - but that's probably to my benefit as the AD's identity is not an issue for me. I have on the other hand a very keen awareness of the difference this can make elsewhere - most noticeably at the Orange Tree, for example, but also now at the Yvonne Arnaud - so I do appreciate the impact that a change of AD can have in some respects.
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Post by couldileaveyou on Feb 21, 2020 12:45:11 GMT
It looks like they just changed the Entry Pass scheme:
From Wednesday 26 February, you can unlock £5 and £10 tickets for all of our current shows, including Death of England, The Welkin and The Visit: *£5 tickets if you're aged 16-18 *£10 tickets if you're aged 19-25 This new offer will replace our Entry Pass scheme, which has now closed - this means you can access tickets without the need to register in advance.
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Xanderl
Member
Not always very high value in terms of ticket yield or donations
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Post by Xanderl on Feb 21, 2020 13:53:18 GMT
The Friday rush tickets have already dropped to £10 - booked one for The Visit this afternoon
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Post by NeilVHughes on Feb 21, 2020 22:23:21 GMT
With you showgirl decided to see Welcome to Iran at Stratford East, front row for £10 easily compensates for any travel inconvenience and as you say it is a nice old Theatre and most probably needs the patronage more than the National.
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Post by cartoonman on Feb 23, 2020 10:14:05 GMT
I really like Stratford East. I have been going there since the 70s. Recently the shows seem to be more serious. I would I've to see some of the me lodramers that they used to do. Zo rro with Sylvester Mcoy was excellent also Five Guys named Moe. The theatre is charming, has a good bar and is easy to get to, Its just opposite the station.
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Post by londonpostie on Feb 23, 2020 10:36:51 GMT
Went there last month and liked it a lot - just an all-round good vibe. Good bar and DJ, as well. It's not your Sloane Square crowd that's for sure.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 23, 2020 10:43:12 GMT
i like the look of a lot of this and I am wondering if now might be the right time to get membership again. People who are members and who are excited about this line up, can you tell me what level of membership you’d recommend and what you think the benefits are as a regular NT theatregoer?
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Post by Forrest on Feb 23, 2020 11:49:06 GMT
i like the look of a lot of this and I am wondering if now might be the right time to get membership again. People who are members and who are excited about this line up, can you tell me what level of membership you’d recommend and what you think the benefits are as a regular NT theatregoer? I'd be curious about this as well: one of my other memberships expires soon, and I am considering paying for an NT one instead. I'm so late to this party, but Katie Mitchell returning to London must be one of my biggest joys of the year so far! Overall, their new season looks great to me. Sad to see the £15 tickets go, though - seeing theatre really is getting more and more expensive by the day...
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Post by Deleted on Feb 23, 2020 13:26:11 GMT
i like the look of a lot of this and I am wondering if now might be the right time to get membership again. People who are members and who are excited about this line up, can you tell me what level of membership you’d recommend and what you think the benefits are as a regular NT theatregoer? I'd be curious about this as well: one of my other memberships expires soon, and I am considering paying for an NT one instead. I'm so late to this party, but Katie Mitchell returning to London must be one of my biggest joys of the year so far! Overall, their new season looks great to me. Sad to see the £15 tickets go, though - seeing theatre really is getting more and more expensive by the day... Having just stumped up for The Upstart Crow, I am very agreeing with you right now.
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Post by londonpostie on Feb 23, 2020 14:09:17 GMT
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Post by showgirl on Feb 23, 2020 15:40:05 GMT
Interesting - and imo typically sneaky of the NT - that they have introduced several more membership levels without, so far as I am aware, any announcement. Of a piece with their admission, when I asked directly, that they withheld some tix at each booking stage for public booking. I think the average member would assume and expect that those in the top level of membership would have access to 100% of the tickets available to buy in advance (ie all but the Friday Rush allocation), yet comments on here led me to suspect otherwise so I asked. With the answer was the explanation that being a public theatre, it would be unacceptable not to have tix available when public booking opened. Fine, but be honest and upfront and tell members this so they can make an informed decision before buying/renewing membership.
The NT is similarly economical with the truth about how much of the membership fee it is actually necessary to pay as part of it is a donation of which the average person would again be unaware. I was told that of the £80 Priority cost, only £15 is for the membership itself and the other £65 a donation to the NT, so if anyone insisted, s/he could have Priority membership for £15, making it cheaper than Advance, given that level now costs £25. Of course Advance membership probably also includes an involuntary donation and I wouldn't have the nerve to ask not to pay the donation element.
Who knew however that in addition to Patron at the top of the membership tree and Advance at the foot, there is now not only a Supporting Cast tier (one below patron) but also 2 types of Priority membership, normal and Priority Plus? I make that 5 tiers in total before the public are able to book, so before joining again I'd want to pay close attention to the various membership levels, costs and benefits.
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Post by crowblack on Feb 23, 2020 16:03:18 GMT
I think the average member would assume and expect that those in the top level of membership would have access to 100% of the tickets available to buy in advance (ie all but the Friday Rush allocation), yet comments on here led me to suspect otherwise so I asked. With the answer was the explanation that being a public theatre, it would be unacceptable not to have tix available when public booking opened. Fine, but be honest and upfront and tell members this so they can make an informed decision before buying/renewing membership. I agree they should be open about it, but given that it is publicly subsidised from people across the UK and a National theatre I think it's completely fair that some tickets are held back for public booking day. As someone who lives in the NW of England I can't take advantage of Friday Rush because of the ludicrous cost of anything other than advance date train fares, and wish they'd drip release those a bit too - say, 4 weeks, 2 weeks etc in advance.
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Post by showgirl on Feb 23, 2020 18:57:10 GMT
Agree with you about making tix more available nationally, taking into account public transport, crowblack, especially since public access was the NT's own point. If they really wanted to emphasise access to all, they could and should do a lot more not just to facilitate this but to encourage and promote it. It's not only those living further away for whom Friday Rush (or day seating) isn't an option and of course the train fares issue applies to those travelling from any part of the UK to another, for theatre or other reasons. I've often been tempted by a play in, say, Bath or Nottingham, only to find that it's too late to book an affordable train ticket.
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Post by andrew on Feb 24, 2020 0:28:45 GMT
The NT is similarly economical with the truth about how much of the membership fee it is actually necessary to pay as part of it is a donation of which the average person would again be unaware. I was told that of the £80 Priority cost, only £15 is for the membership itself and the other £65 a donation to the NT, so if anyone insisted, s/he could have Priority membership for £15, making it cheaper than Advance, given that level now costs £25. Of course Advance membership probably also includes an involuntary donation and I wouldn't have the nerve to ask not to pay the donation element. We've talked about this before a few times, I don't pay the full whack but a slightly reduced donation for a Young Patron membership. If you do this, the only hardship is they'll ask you to reconsider the amount you donate every so often which is totally fair. As to the other bits about the NT holding back tickets at each round of booking, whilst I've complained about the front row seats being held back for public booking in the past I would always accept that it's up to them, they don't promise you can book anywhere you'd like, just that you have earlier access to being able to book some seats. It's up to us if we want to accept those terms or not, we can all cancel our memberships any time we like. I'd like them to give the best seats to me, but I'd also expect them to give good access to the general casual member of the public, for whom the theatre is also supposed to cater to. I'd hope that they try to strike the right balance for everything, and certainly in the last round I thought they did.
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Post by showgirl on Feb 24, 2020 5:02:14 GMT
andrew, we have indeed talked about this before; the reason I mentioned it again was because I thought the info about additional membership levels was new - it certainly was to me - and therefore potentially of interest to others here, especially given that so far as I know, the NT has neither announced nor publicised these. So I've no wish to flog a dead horse but did anyone else here know? And whilst I take your point about not having to accept the NT's membership terms, and agree with that, too - that's fine provided these terms are clear and transparent, which I don't believe they currently are.
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Post by londonpostie on Feb 24, 2020 9:06:55 GMT
Hasn't this structure has been in place for a while: www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/my-nt/membership/renewWhat I think has changed is the availability at each level of membership so, for example, there have been are fewer cheaper tickets for Advanced members (virtually none of the front three rows) I did notice the NT was advertising for data analysis roles about a year ago but had no idea if they were replacing existing staff or taking a new direction. I didn't know about this 'donation' thing, and I don't know how the lower pricing has changed - the £15 have gone, replaced by £20, but also £10 Friday Rush?
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Post by princeton on Feb 24, 2020 10:28:37 GMT
Quite a lot of theatre (and other arts organisations) memberships schemes are a mixture of donation and benefits - in some cases it's actually all donations. If you are asked to consider gift aid then that's a good indication that part of your membership is actually a donation.
It's often not very clear when this is the case - sometimes just a passing mention about 'your donation' or even more opaquely 'your support'.
The National is actually more transparent than most. On each of the membership pages, albeit towards the bottom, it outlines how they break down the cost of the schemes. Priority membership is £11 benefits and £69 donation, and advance is £5 benefits and £30 donation (or £20 if paying by DD).
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Post by oxfordsimon on Feb 24, 2020 12:03:27 GMT
For it to really be a donation, it ought to be voluntary - otherwise it is just a fee.
So if the membership is £11 and the £69 a donation then you should be able to opt out of the donation and just pay the membership. Otherwise it is just a way to get round Gift Aid rules - and not a very ethical one.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 24, 2020 12:13:11 GMT
For what it's worth, my experience as a priority member was that I could never get the cheap front row (ex-Travelex) seats - so either the allocation was all gone by the time I got through the queue or none/very few are made available at that stage of booking. I recently stopped my membership on the basis that it was mad to support a theatre I can't afford to go to anymore.
Membership is great for advance booking if there is something you really want to see that is going to be insanely popular (eg Angels, SRB in just about anything, etc), but mostly you're doing it to support the theatre rather than because you're getting anything for it.
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Post by andrew on Feb 24, 2020 14:53:57 GMT
For it to really be a donation, it ought to be voluntary - otherwise it is just a fee. So if the membership is £11 and the £69 a donation then you should be able to opt out of the donation and just pay the membership. Otherwise it is just a way to get round Gift Aid rules - and not a very ethical one. You absolutely can do that, that's exactly how it works. You have to contact them though, you can't purchase it through the website as normal. And showgirl I can see in April 2018 the tiers were the same, but don't have any evidence from before that. I'm ecstatic that people keep bringing this up though, every time we get another nugget of information about how it works and it helps people choose if a membership is worth it or not. I said it on some topic before, but I know from talking to someone at the NT that they do look at data on how people buy tickets, what sorts of tickets they buy and when. Presumably the reason we get runs of booking periods where there are plenty of £15 and then runs when there are none is that someone is looking at what people do. If they see that all the members just buy the more expensive tickets anyway then it stands to reason they'll just keep the cheap seats away from us in the long run.
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Post by Jan on Feb 24, 2020 17:27:23 GMT
Yep, me too, I cancelled my membership and I'd been a member pretty much since it opened on the South Bank. But no point paying a theatre I never go to now. I switched to a higher-level membership at Jermyn Street instead.
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Post by cartoonman on Feb 24, 2020 17:47:07 GMT
I get on OK with priority m membership only once have I not been and to get cheap seats down the front . I do find booking quite stressful. Last time was a nightmare but I phoned t he box office and they were just so helpful, I could feel the stress floating away. Well done office.
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Post by learfan on Feb 24, 2020 17:47:35 GMT
For what it's worth, my experience as a priority member was that I could never get the cheap front row (ex-Travelex) seats - so either the allocation was all gone by the time I got through the queue or none/very few are made available at that stage of booking. I recently stopped my membership on the basis that it was mad to support a theatre I can't afford to go to anymore. Membership is great for advance booking if there is something you really want to see that is going to be insanely popular (eg Angels, SRB in just about anything, etc), but mostly you're doing it to support the theatre rather than because you're getting anything for it. Agreed, this has come up before and equally applies to the RSC, ROH and others. If you are on a high tier of membership (which i am at the RSC) then it is to support a venue that is important to you, advance booking is secondary.
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Post by fossil on Feb 27, 2020 9:21:12 GMT
Painless priority members booking this morning. Was about 110 in the queue and had completed my purchases by 08.45. Both the Lyttelton and the Olivier had a better selection of front £20 seats than they had for the £15 ones with more near the centre of the front stalls available than before. Front row seats were available in both auditoriums. I got the impression that perhaps fewer seats are being held back for the next level bookers than before.
For the dates I looked at in the Olivier all the side block circle seats and the centre block back three rows are £20. The Circle centre block front row was £56, second row £46 and the next two rows £36. Stalls row D was £66 with the £86 seats being a central block starting a few rows back.
If I remember correctly I think only the back couple of rows in the Lyttelton circle were £20.
A busy booking week this week. RSC members booking last Monday was quick and easy. I just hope the Bridge tomorrow and Chichester on Saturday prove equally stress free.
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Post by londonpostie on Feb 27, 2020 11:10:14 GMT
So am I right in thinking £20 is the new £15 but, for Rush only, £10 is the new £15?
btw, I somehow managed to get my Jack Absolutely upgraded from somewhere near Westminster Pier to one of those lovely yellow squares near the front, priced at £15 ...
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Post by londonpostie on Feb 27, 2020 11:17:23 GMT
Well, people in the regions are right. I'd write and explain/complain. Doesn't seen fair.
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Post by jgblunners on Mar 12, 2020 10:14:37 GMT
This morning was the smoothest 16-25 (the new version of Entry Pass) booking I've ever had. Having forgotten to get to the website early, I got to the 16-25 booking page at 09:31 and found that there was a grand total of 1 person in front of me in the queue. A few moments later, I was through and booked everything I wanted. Perhaps the low turn-out is due to the new system (you now access the tickets through a link on the 16-25 webpage rather than having to log in with an Entry Pass account). Or perhaps there is just less interest in this batch of shows.
One thing I noticed is that there were no stalls row A tickets available for The Corn is Green in the Lyttelton. Perhaps another case of a jutting-out set that they have yet to finalise?
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Post by jgblunners on Mar 12, 2020 10:48:27 GMT
^Nope, I have a row A seat for "Corn," and there were a good few in priority booking. Ah interesting, clearly they just didn’t want the young folk to have them!
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Post by vabbian on Mar 12, 2020 16:06:29 GMT
Why did they change the Entry Pass booking system? So unnecessary, rude and homophobic
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