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Post by theglenbucklaird on Jul 8, 2020 7:48:28 GMT
Agree with sf...following people like Father Maher from Sheffield Cathedral for example is very inspirational and often very chastening. His thought for the day stuff is always interesting...todays’ is ‘Search for the best in everyone! Seek it out and then celebrate it!’ Also when anniversaries come along Twitter is a reminder of times gone by.An example is that today would have been the great Jon Pertwee’s 101st birthday and I have spent the afternoon reminiscing with people like me,who had met him fleetingly and wonderfully,those like Phil Newman who actually worked with him. So thumbs up to Twitter as long as you look for the positives. Yeah but sf has now killed the thread if it is your own fault that Twitter is rubbish  |
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Post by kathryn on Jul 8, 2020 8:07:41 GMT
Has anyone else had an experience on Twitter a bit like this?
Random Tweeter in response to story about theatre sector needing government support: Theatre is too elitist, expensive and inaccessible, and that’s why the sector is struggling. It shouldn’t get money, the real problem is ticket prices.
Me: There is a whole pandemic thing going on at the moment, y’know, the sector is usually profitable and half the population went to a show last year.
Random Tweeter: We’ve loved watching streamed theatre from home over lockdown. Theatres should do more of that! They should set up some form of subscription service - I’d definitely pay for that!
Me: Great! Here’s a link to an article about 5 theatre streaming services you can subscribe to. Enjoy!
Random Tweeter: *Totally ignoring previous tweet* They just don’t want theatre to be accessible to everyday people!
🤔
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Post by dontdreamit on Jul 8, 2020 9:47:49 GMT
Has anyone else had an experience on Twitter a bit like this? Random Tweeter in response to story about theatre sector needing government support: Theatre is too elitist, expensive and inaccessible, and that’s why the sector is struggling. It shouldn’t get money, the real problem is ticket prices. Me: There is a whole pandemic thing going on at the moment, y’know, the sector is usually profitable and half the population went to a show last year. Random Tweeter: We’ve loved watching streamed theatre from home over lockdown. Theatres should do more of that! They should set up some form of subscription service - I’d definitely pay for that! Me: Great! Here’s a link to an article about 5 theatre streaming services you can subscribe to. Enjoy! Random Tweeter: *Totally ignoring previous tweet* They just don’t want theatre to be accessible to everyday people! 🤔 Yep 🙄 And one at the weekend where I pointed out that theatre tickets can be cheap and accessible, and they still tried to turn it around to say that theatre isn’t accessible to most people. The cheapest ticket I had (other than some papered shows) was £9.50. I saw around 50 shows last year and only paid over £25/30 for 3 of them. |
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Post by crowblack on Jul 8, 2020 10:07:25 GMT
Yep 🙄 And one at the weekend where I pointed out that theatre tickets can be cheap and accessible, and they still tried to turn it around to say that theatre isn’t accessible to most people. The cheapest ticket I had (other than some papered shows) was £9.50. I saw around 50 shows last year and only paid over £25/30 for 3 of them. Firstly, I think Twitter is an ever-increasingly-nasty cesspit and I hope to high heaven it doesn't represent mainstream thought, but I do think these past few weeks have been a bit of a rude awakening to theatremakers about how theatre comes across. It has looked increasingly like an elite activity, when so many high-profoile actors are drawn from public schools and wealthy backgrounds, and - particularly - when the sort of hight profile, famous-person-from-Game-of-Thrones type casting that gets 'ordinary' people interested in booking a show has such eye-watering prices. When I was living in London in the 2000s, pre-theatre-internet and before I knew the workarounds for cheap tickets, I was very conscious, sitting up in the gods with a sh*t view, of the way mainstream (London) theatre made you feel poor. |
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Post by vickyg on Jul 8, 2020 11:08:59 GMT
I deleted twitter at the beginning of the pandemic and have looked at it a handful of times since when I have searched for a particular person who I knew would have tweeted some information I needed. I thought I would miss it, but it can be such an overwhelming place and particularly at an often overwhelming time I'm glad not to have easy access.
I don't think the average person realises how accessible theatre is. ROH seats for £5, £10 perfectly good seats in many theatres. I very rarely pay more than £20 for a ticket and on the vast majority of occasions it's just not necessary. I have no desire to argue with people who equate being too lazy to look for cheap tickets with their not being available. There are of course people for whom £10 is a stretch too far but for a lot of people it would be as easy as swapping a couple of after work drinks or a bottle of supermarket wine for a theatre ticket.
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4,156 posts
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Post by kathryn on Jul 8, 2020 11:22:30 GMT
Yeah, it’s the wilful ignorance that is annoying. Fair enough to not know because you’ve never been told .
When you have just told someone how they can do the thing that they claim they want to do (access cheap or even free tickets, subscribe to a theatre streaming service) and they just ignore you to continue complaining that they can’t do it.
I had one woman who complained about ticket prices eventually admit that she didn’t live within 50 miles of a theatre. Well, then, it’s not the ticket price that’s the barrier, is it? You wouldn’t be able to go even if I paid for your ticket and your travel, because you can’t/don’t want to fit the travelling involved into your schedule.
It’s like me complaining about being unfit but at the same time not actually wanting to put any time or effort into exercising!
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3,040 posts
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Post by crowblack on Jul 8, 2020 12:02:02 GMT
I had one woman who complained about ticket prices eventually admit that she didn’t live within 50 miles of a theatre. Well, then, it’s not the ticket price that’s the barrier, is it? You wouldn’t be able to go even if I paid for your ticket and your travel, because you can’t/don’t want to fit the travelling involved into your schedule. This would be less of an issue if top-notch shows with top-notch casts toured the regions, like they once did, but they don't. Even NT Live - the theatre equivalent of Skyping your relatives rather than visiting in person - is £24 at my local Picturehouse. And London's excellence is funded by everyone: "Department for Culture, Media and Sport and Arts Council funding to the arts is heavily skewed to people in London, with them benefiting to the tune of £69 per head compared with £4.58 in other English regions." (Guardian, 2015). Steps are supposedly being taken to redress this massive imbalance but it has not been quick enough, and we do not have a system like the one I've heard of (through this board) on the continent, where theatre tickets in major cities include subsidised travel costs for those outside that city. |
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Post by clair on Jul 8, 2020 12:02:26 GMT
Quite frankly I don't get involved in those conversations on twitter - I don't follow too many people, will mute or stop following those who get annoying and can't see the point of trying to argue with anyone in a limited number of words.
Yes, there are ways of finding cheaper tickets and so on but then it's all the additional costs - my parents went to see something with friends and although the ticket price wasn't too bad it cost them over £10 to park while they were there - no easy public transport route for them even though a local theatre. They really have to pick and choose carefully as they have limited income. Also accessible covers many things such as actual access for those with mobility needs (yes most theatres have massively improved on this but here's still the getting there and back to consider) and transport (many places outside big cities have cut services so the last bus is before the end of a performance). Then again there are so many people who have been brought up to believe that 'theatre isn't for the likes of us' by parents who either weren't interested or couldn't afford it and who are intimidated by the idea of going - far easier to blame it on ticket prices than to say they're scared of unknown territory.
I love theatre however right now even if they were open I couldn't afford to go - not even at a £10 ticket - due to paycuts already in place and redundancies looming and sadly I think there are going to be many more people in this situation as we get to the end of the year. Some people complaining about it being for the elite may well be worrying about how to pay the rent and won't take into account all the thousands of people in the industry in the same boat, all they'll see are the big names who don't have that worry.
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Post by Jon on Jul 8, 2020 12:04:48 GMT
Twitter is full of people who you would actively avoid in real life.
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Post by crowblack on Jul 8, 2020 12:37:32 GMT
Twitter is full of people who you would actively avoid in real life. Unfortunately too many "decision makers" and "gatekeepers" in the arts, media, publishing etc. listen to the loud shouting voices on Twitter rather than the people who just go around getting on with their lives. It feels like the Roman Coliseum, thumbs up or thumbs down. Today, they're throwing Jodie comer to the lions because of who she's dating: maybe we'll have to go back to a situation like early Hollywood where stars' real lives were completely hidden and they were given invented names, backgrounds and lifestyles so they'd accord with fandom's fantasies. |
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Post by kathryn on Jul 8, 2020 12:58:32 GMT
I had one woman who complained about ticket prices eventually admit that she didn’t live within 50 miles of a theatre. Well, then, it’s not the ticket price that’s the barrier, is it? You wouldn’t be able to go even if I paid for your ticket and your travel, because you can’t/don’t want to fit the travelling involved into your schedule. This would be less of an issue if top-notch shows with top-notch casts toured the regions, like they once did, but they don't. Even NT Live - the theatre equivalent of Skyping your relatives rather than visiting in person - is £24 at my local Picturehouse. And London's excellence is funded by everyone: "Department for Culture, Media and Sport and Arts Council funding to the arts is heavily skewed to people in London, with them benefiting to the tune of £69 per head compared with £4.58 in other English regions." (Guardian, 2015). Steps are supposedly being taken to redress this massive imbalance but it has not been quick enough, and we do not have a system like the one I've heard of (through this board) on the continent, where theatre tickets in major cities include subsidised travel costs for those outside that city. Yea, there are certainly problems with the lack of regional tours, and subsidised travel would help. But at some point we also have to admit that going to the theatre involves effort - simply sitting watching a show involves effort - and a lot of people don’t want to make that effort. And that’s fine! No-one has to go! It’s a hobby people should be able to enjoy, not a moral imperative. Unfortunately people rarely admit that they simply don’t want to make the effort and instead claim that the problem is with theatre - no matter how hard everyone tries to make theatre accessible and affordable and relevant, no matter how well it is reviewed. As the saying goes, you can lead a horse to water... |
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Post by crowblack on Jul 8, 2020 14:07:32 GMT
But at some point we also have to admit that going to the theatre involves effort - simply sitting watching a show involves effort - and a lot of people don’t want to make that effort. And that’s fine! I wish more shows would make the effort to tour, though! I appreciate the difficulties - higher and higher tech productions and the lure of "peak TV" making well-known actors in high demand, but when Ian McKellen bought his simply-staged show to my local theatre it sold out in a few minutes - there's a huge appetite for seeing great actors onstage, but unless you have deep pockets or are lucky with your location you rarely get the chance. And that's not "dissing" locally-based talent - there's great work if you know how to find it - but famous names do encourage people to dip a toe in the water who would otherwise go through life thinking theatre wasn't for them : the 'Nessun Dorma" effect. |
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