Live, or Dying?
LET'S DIRECT OUR OWN INDUSTRY
The recent blog on the Sunday Mail website has sparked interest among Theatre workers, not simply about the Government funding issue, but also about the state of the Theatre industry in general.
Tonight at 8.30pm a discussion will be held on 4BC on these matters. Attending will be Queensland Musical Theatre President Brian Cahill, Artistic Director of the Arts Theatre, Lynne Wright, and Damien Lee, Artistic Director of the StageDoor Dinner Theatre.
Now we realise one 30 minute discussion is not going to solve the enormous task of protecting the viability and future of the State's Theatre landscape. So to take this debate one step further again, the South Bank Corporation has kindly donated the use of the Suncorp Piazza next Tuesday night (Nov 21) at 6pm for an Industry Summit. We must thank Scott Hossack for organising this for us.
The purpose of the meeting is to attempt to get all people interested in the state of the Brisbane’s Theatre industry together in the one place at the one time and hopefully to begin the process of rebuilding the industry. The Minister has also been invited to attend.
This meeting is being hurriedly thrown together before the current enthusiasm wanes and at this stage there is no set format or agenda for the meeting. If you have items you would like to place on the Agenda please email them through to me prior to this Monday at 9am. This will give me the chance to select those items that receive the most nominations and to print agendas for those attending.
Keep in mind it is up to all of us to direct the future of our industry. Some of the points to think about are
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Programming diverse seasons and avoiding conflict of shows between companies.
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How to develop stronger audiences and return patrons.
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Sharing of resources to bring down production costs.
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Government Arts funding and support - and not just financial support but perhaps think of tax incentives, assistance in development, Promotion, Rates assistance etc
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Cross promotion and marketing concepts to help bring down spiralling advertising costs.
These are only a few ideas to get the creative juices flowing.
Please pass this email onto anyone you think may be serious about the future of Queensland Theatre. Many have called for such a summit to take place and now, here it is! Your chance to have a say. The more that attend the better.
If you have received this email and are planning to attend please email me at damien@stagedoordinnertheatre.com.au so I have some idea of the numbers attending.
I hope to see you there
Damien Lee
Manager
StageDoor Dinner Theatre
PH:3216 1115
E: damien@stagedoordinnertheatre.com.au
W: www.stagedoordinnertheatre.com.au
if you're keen to come along, either message Damien directly via his stagedoor email, or message me, or comment here, and come with me as part of a Pirate Arrrts 'delegation', if you wish.
Any and all thoughts and suggestions on the matter, obviously, are going to be more than welcome.
cross-posted to various theatrical and local communities