The Arts
I have been wondering about it a lot, and as you know, considering chucking the whole thing in.
I am working at the moment in what is slightly wankily couched "off West End". This is a cosy way of saying not those big West End spangly venues, but not a teeny-tiny smelly room above a pub in the back of beyond either. The theatre in question is a well respected venue which takes risks and develops new work, and has won awards for doing so. It is small, it seats about 65 people, but is a proper little lovely theatre.
This lovely theatre has us over a barrel. We are not in a position to argue. If we don't do this development work we lose a) any chance to recoup any of the 1,500 they took as our deposit for a full production b) the chance to encourage positive interest in the plays which will be useful for taking them to full production later and c) the chance to do any additional fundraising. They know this, which is why they can be so entirely take it or leave it. They offered us a 30% split of the box office, we said no we want a greater split, they said no. That's it. Take it or leave it. What are we supposed to do?
I don't know, my hub has just accused me or bending over for everyone to shaft me. Have I? I don't know.
What I do know is that every day I am angry about this whole fucking mess, and every day it is making me really sad.
I wish there were more options, but it seems like this time round I really have just learnt the hard way at every single step.
Grr.
10 comments:
Don't let go.
You are lovely.
'end of'
I have sent you a song
It looks like one of those 'you live and you learn' things.
I would ask myself, is anything positive going to come from doing the development work, despite whether you lose money or not?
If the answer is No, then don't do it.
If the answer is Yes, do it.
And console yourself in the fact that no-one, apart from Van Gogh, who was dead at the time, has ever made any money from The Arts.
Andre you are lovely too. Thank you.
Timbo, you are right, and that is exactly the way that I am trying to think about it - it is possible to focus on the potentially positive outcome rather than the annoying one. It's just a question of squinting slightly.
*squints*
Oh don't squint, you'll get wrinkles! Wear my spectacles instead, they're specially rose tinted.
hullo miss tickle. I really don't think anything good will come from dwelling on the fact that the theatre guys are a bunch of blood-sucking parasites. who cares that it won't make any money? as an artist your dream is to see the work you created in motion, and so I'd say take the 30%, do the play, and look to the future, which I'm sure is v. bright! :-)
Fussy, rose tinted is EXACTLY what I need. Thank you.
Edvard, your words are wise. It is true that this now is the nest step on the road to getting the lovely plays produced, which can only be a good thing. I can feel my perspective gradually changing...
I am hoping that the 30% will not mean that you are losing money by putting on the play? If not - then do your fund raising and wear rose tinted glasses. It's all about gaining experience.
So fund raising - are you still selling words?
X
We will not lose more money, as in more than the £1,500 we have already lost. So basically it is an exercise in seeing if we can get as much of that back as possible and so cancel it all out.
You see through all the fund raising we have done so far, we have raised about £1,200, ie the deposit plus a little bit of money from my own pocket. What is so annoying is that the funds we have raised cannot feed directly into a full production.
I guess I just have to see it as an investment.
Oh yes, still selling words, although they are tailing off... Tonight we are having A Meeting to come up with other ways of making money on the actual nights of the showings. These may or may not be linked with buying words.
x
Humans rarely get very excited about the theatre because it's too static. That's why I preferred the circus. Good luck nevertheless.
Good day to you gorilla! Now I am close to a rant, but holding myself back. BAD theatre is static. GOOD theatre is fun and frolicky and has much more than just words. It leaps and stuff. A bit like the circus. (I do not blame you for liking the circus.)
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