Theatre pulls in the crowds
More than 1,000 extra seats were sold for live performances at the Palace Theatre, Newark, in 2009/10 than in the previous 12 months.
There were 58,028 seats sold for live shows at the 602-seat theatre in the year up to March 31, up from 56,936.
The theatre income for that time was £640,000. It received a subsidy from Newark and Sherwood District Council of £348,000, down £40,000 on the previous year.
The council’s head of leisure and culture, Mrs Sarah Dawes, said the subsidy was significantly less than that paid to many other theatres around the country.
The vice-chairman of the council’s services overview and scrutiny committee, Mrs Marika Tribe, said on Wednesday they would do all they could to protect the theatre’s budget.
Overall ticket sales at the Palace increased by 8.4% in 2009/10 compared with the previous year.
Audience profiling has shown most theatre-goers are from the Newark area, followed by Rushcliffe and south of Lincoln.
The profiling prompted the return of more drama to the stage.
Other favourites audiences would like to see are musicals, big-name acts, classic films, and An Audience With... events.
An audience development officer has been appointed and is due to start work soon.
There remains an issue over the theatre’s ability to give guarantees — where a production company demands a guaranteed fee for bringing an artist or show to a theatre — which may not be achieved through ticket sales.
Mr Jackson said the companies that demanded the agreements usually represented big shows.
The theatre’s annual pantomime was, for the third year in a row, a record breaker for attendance with 70.5% of seats filled.
The gross sales were up £20,000 for Cinderella at £171,699 — 6,065 tickets went to schoolchildren at £7, equating to £42,455.
Notably, the Palace was the first theatre in the East Midlands to show the Guy Masterson drama, Morecambe, which attracted 407 people and went on to a six-week run in the West End, featured on the Royal Variety Performance and is now on a national tour.
Mr Jackson said its success demonstrated the market for high-quality drama.
The Moscow Ballet production of The Nutcracker sold 470 seats.
The Lady Boys Of Bangkok, used to playing in far bigger venues, attracted an audience of 402.
The most popular film was The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas, attracting an audience of 397 over two screenings.
In November, the theatre negotiated with Blunderbus to become its theatre company in residence and it is hoped its work can be taken out into the community.
