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Post by Jan on May 19, 2020 17:15:35 GMT
Received the new season booklet this morning, does not look as if I’ll be using my credit in the near future. Oh those golden distant days of poring over the schedule, seeing which dates fit in with your already booked shows and that Christmas morning feeling of wondering what number am I going to be in the queue. Oh ? When do they think they’re re-opening ?
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Post by NeilVHughes on May 19, 2020 17:19:34 GMT
No mention of any performances, just a number of articles.
My mistake should have said magazine, not season booklet, apologies for a ray of hope.
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Post by Jan on May 19, 2020 19:32:52 GMT
No mention of any performances, just a number of articles. My mistake should have said magazine, not season booklet, apologies for a ray of hope. I imagine they, like some other organisations, have been given some approximate timescale to reopen but you would doubt it will be any time soon. I imagine much smaller venues will open first.
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Post by lynette on May 19, 2020 20:57:04 GMT
No mention of any performances, just a number of articles. My mistake should have said magazine, not season booklet, apologies for a ray of hope. Nice piece about the apprentice scheme with a female scene making apprentice. Pity both photos have her paintings which is surely now only a small part of making the ‘scenery’.
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Post by Jan on May 20, 2020 7:16:40 GMT
No mention of any performances, just a number of articles. My mistake should have said magazine, not season booklet, apologies for a ray of hope. Nice piece about the apprentice scheme with a female scene making apprentice. Pity both photos have her paintings which is surely now only a small part of making the ‘scenery’. I'm surprised some productions don't go for painted backdrops as some sort of ironic post-modern device to get a laugh.
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Post by TallPaul on May 20, 2020 8:50:06 GMT
Just wait until Standing at the Sky's Edge arrives at the National, lynette. The 'scenery' is real fake concrete! 🙂
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Post by Someone in a tree on May 20, 2020 9:40:58 GMT
Nice piece about the apprentice scheme with a female scene making apprentice. Pity both photos have her paintings which is surely now only a small part of making the ‘scenery’. I'm surprised some productions don't go for painted backdrops as some sort of ironic post-modern device to get a laugh. Laughter is not part of the remit for the recent fodder they staged
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Post by NeilVHughes on May 20, 2020 14:14:31 GMT
We are writing to confirm that, sadly, we have made the decision to cancel our forthcoming performances in July and August. All productions until 31 August have been postponed and we wait, with you, for government advice about how and when we might be able to welcome you back.
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Post by Jan on May 21, 2020 11:05:06 GMT
I'm surprised some productions don't go for painted backdrops as some sort of ironic post-modern device to get a laugh. Laughter is not part of the remit for the recent fodder they staged Correct. Rufus Norris doesn’t really approve of comedy, that’s why he’s never directed one.
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Post by Jan on May 21, 2020 11:09:50 GMT
We are writing to confirm that, sadly, we have made the decision to cancel our forthcoming performances in July and August. All productions until 31 August have been postponed and we wait, with you, for government advice about how and when we might be able to welcome you back. Strangely neutral, normally they have plenty to say about government arts policy. Do they want the theatre lockdown to continue till a vaccine is found so all risk is eliminated ? Do they want the lockdown lifted now with reduced audiences (like in Austria I think) with associated risk, I mean they surely must have *some* view ? They should be leading the debate - like the teachers' unions - and setting out what they want and what their proposals are to achieve that.
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Post by crowblack on May 21, 2020 13:06:00 GMT
Rufus Norris doesn’t really approve of comedy, that’s why he’s never directed one. Mosquitoes.
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Post by Jan on May 21, 2020 13:44:51 GMT
Rufus Norris doesn’t really approve of comedy, that’s why he’s never directed one. Mosquitoes. That wasn’t a comedy was it ?
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Post by crowblack on May 21, 2020 13:55:17 GMT
That wasn’t a comedy was it ? Dark comedy, and played more so with some tweaks when we saw it again later in the run.
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Post by n1david on May 21, 2020 15:10:29 GMT
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Post by gingerB on May 21, 2020 19:11:06 GMT
This is really sad but I guess expected
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Post by Jan on May 22, 2020 7:44:42 GMT
This is really sad but I guess expected The financial modelling the NT has done must have assumed a date when restrictions will be partly lifted and any restrictions which will then still be applied (about reduced audiences or whatever) - they should publish all that data so we can see the basis for their redundancy policy. Again, this seems really passive of the NT, they should present a range of options to re-open (including their own preferred one), each with an approximate set of possible date estimates, with the financial & staffing impact of each one made clear. Just saying 20-30% and asking for money (which I assume they're doing) is not good enough - there is at least a credible scenario (lockdown till a vaccine) where redundancies would be much higher than 30%, they need to show that. Just waiting to do as they are told and then complaining is not a good approach. Have the RSC said anything ? With 1000 staff their position will be similar.
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Post by lynette on May 23, 2020 15:23:09 GMT
That wasn’t a comedy was it ? Dark comedy, and played more so with some tweaks when we saw it again later in the run. I didnt think it was very good at all, couldn’t understand the raves.
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Post by crowblack on May 23, 2020 15:41:43 GMT
I didnt think it was very good at all, couldn’t understand the raves. Horses for courses, I guess - we loved it.
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Post by londonpostie on May 23, 2020 17:25:04 GMT
the only way I can understand what the NT is doing - given the furlough scheme continues - is that they're basically chock full of forthcoming productions. This looks to me to be a temporary halt in production development, one that will ease as existing projects move along the 3-year pipeline - seems a reasonable assumption to make that the furlough scheme will end before the NT has capacity to develop new ideas. Bloody awful for everyone affected.
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Post by theglenbucklaird on Jun 1, 2020 13:04:03 GMT
Laughter is not part of the remit for the recent fodder they staged Correct. Rufus Norris doesn’t really approve of comedy, that’s why he’s never directed one. I read that as the Queen and you are an actor
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Post by n1david on Jun 11, 2020 14:18:32 GMT
Just got my bookings for July processed. Got a credit voucher for part of the transaction because I'd purchased the ticket with a credit voucher.
However, in the email alongside the voucher code and value, it has an expiry date of 31/12/2021. I didn't think NT credit vouchers previously had expiry dates... I'm not desperately concerned given it's the end of next year, but given the uncertainties of when theatres will be operating again and the health implications of visiting them, it's a disappointing change of policy.
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Post by jek on Jun 11, 2020 16:17:24 GMT
Just had an email to tell me that this year's revival of Small Island has been postponed (I had tickets booked for November) as 'our reopening plans continue to evolve dependent on government advice, and we are working hard to bring this production back to the stage in 2021'. It suggests that I watch the NT Live recording which becomes available on June 18th. Incidentally n1david some of the earlier credit notes I got from the NT had a much earlier expiry date than the end of 2021. I think I saw an email from them to say that they had all been extended to then. Haven't had credit notes from them before (I now have a lot) so I don't know if this is a change of practice. Incidentally is there a tab online on the your account page to see what credit vouchers you have? If there is I haven't found it. Am keeping a note of all the ones I had - and the box office was helpful when I opted to spend some of them on renewing my membership - but I would have thought the info would have been online.
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Post by n1david on Jun 11, 2020 16:37:56 GMT
Incidentally n1david some of the earlier credit notes I got from the NT had a much earlier expiry date than the end of 2021. I think I saw an email from them to say that they had all been extended to then. Haven't had credit notes from them before (I now have a lot) so I don't know if this is a change of practice. Incidentally is there a tab online on the your account page to see what credit vouchers you have? If there is I haven't found it. Am keeping a note of all the ones I had - and the box office was helpful when I opted to spend some of them on renewing my membership - but I would have thought the info would have been online. I haven't found anywhere to track them on the NT website - I much preferred it when they sent out physical credit vouchers as I kept them in my 'ticket pile' and I could physically destroy them after using them. The paper vouchers didn't have expiry dates and the electronic vouchers I got for cancellations earlier in the shutdown didn't have expiry dates quoted in the email - this is the first time I've seen them.
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Post by peggs on Jun 11, 2020 19:44:13 GMT
All the cancelled credit vouchers have had expiry dates, originally a year from the date of cancelled performance, I queried what happened if theatres hadn't reopened for my first back in March, got a response few days ago with extension as noted now till December 2021. At the time I had other bookings so tried cancelling myself as at that point these productions hadn't been cancelled as thought I'd rather take £2 hit and have no expiry but heard nothing until month or so later then that too came through as cancelled with expiry date year later. I assumed at the time expiry dates were just for this situation but if we ever get back to theatre going guess everything changes and what went before will all be reviewed.
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Post by n1david on Jun 11, 2020 21:51:46 GMT
All the cancelled credit vouchers have had expiry dates, originally a year from the date of cancelled performance, I queried what happened if theatres hadn't reopened for my first back in March, got a response few days ago with extension as noted now till December 2021. Which is annoying, because having booked with a credit voucher which had no expiry date, given that the NT cancelled the performance, I would expect to be no worse off so I'd have expected to get a refunded credit voucher with no expiry date (which I did for the earlier cancellations). I won't get too worked up about it now given it's so far away but having accepted credit vouchers for earlier cancellations when I could have taken cash, I'm now sitting on over £600 of NT credit vouchers, which is a level of exposure that makes me feel a little uncomfortable. Well, we'll have to see how things pan out.
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