Berkshire venues team up to boost audiences

Published Tuesday 13 July 2004 at 10:05 by Ruth Gillespie

Fringe theatres in Berkshire are to bus patrons between venues as part of a strategy to pool marketing and advertising costs and boost audiences.

It is hoped the pioneering move by artistic directors from Norden Farm in Maidenhead, South Hill Park in Bracknell, The Corn Exchange in Newbury, South Street in Reading and Windsor Arts Centre will provide a blueprint for small scale venues in counties across the UK.

Entitled Around the Fringes, the scheme represents the first joint project by the Berkshire Venues Consortium. It will give audiences the opportunity to buy discounted tickets for plays in two different venues, with buses provided to transport patrons from one show to the next.

The four works on offer include A Quiet Afternoon by Stamping Ground Theatre, The BBC, Andrew Gilligan and Me by Chris Neill, Shostakovich by Debut Theatre Company and The Elephant Woman by Population:3. They are previewing in the Berkshire venues before moving to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August.

Founding member John Luther said: “Fringe venues all around the country are struggling with theatre audiences and tend to make up the numbers by booking comedy acts. In Berkshire we tend to stage the same shows but then compete for local press coverage. It makes more sense to programme together and share the media attention.

“This first event is really just to let the public know we are here and allows our audiences to get a taste of what the Edinburgh Festival Fringe is like. In the future we want to bring in international companies for five week runs to all five venues in the area. It still means that each theatre will have a one week show, but it allows us to pull resources and bring in work we wouldn’t normally be able to do.”

The programme has received a £13,000 grant from Arts Council England and, if successful, will be used as a pilot for other small scale venues.

Charlotte Jones, chief executive of the Independent Theatre Council, said: “It is an extremely positive thing for small venues to work in co-operation with each other supporting good practice. This has worked very well among some of our members in the past. It encourages theatres to be more ambitious and creative about programming and gives opportunities to do more exciting work around audience development in particular.”