On Wednesday 23rd June 2010 we held an engagement forum for community representatives and for industry professionals to have their say on various aspects of theatre and the new Lyric. The feedback from the forum is published below.
Community Engagement Forum
Chair – Fintan Brady
What does the Lyric Theatre mean to you?
- Classical Theatre
- Intimate
- Exclusive
- Quality theatre
- School trip
- Local
- Safe
- Charm
- A resource
- Not precious
What makes you come to the theatre?
- Good customer service
- Someone at the door to welcome you in and show you around
- You’re treated as a guest, nothing is too much trouble
- Tailored welcome for each group
- Tours are good as long as they are quick
- Want to feel at home in the building even if there isn’t a play on
- It should be the Disney ethos – the “guest” is king
- Community groups welcomed at the door
- Possible pre-show short theatre tour (10 minutes) to get acclimatised
- Tours in different languages
- Tailoring customer service depending on age/interest/ability
- Really comfortable seating
- New audiences – feeling intimidated first time around – how to make them feel the experience is as normal as the cinema. Possible chat before if its children and youth workers (buddy scheme) but not a written document which could be patronising
Programming should be:
- Challenging
- Thought-provoking
- New perspectives – how does a new generation view this place and the inheritance of the troubles
- Curious
- Stretch the concept of issues in plays even within classics like Shakespeare
- Don’t assume communities won’t like something but possibly start with something familiar
- Young people would like to see comedy
- Above and beyond what they might see elsewhere
How do you wish to feel having seen a piece of theatre?
- Enriched
- Refreshed
- Inspired
- Comfortable
- Buzzing
- Disturbed
- Feel an emotion
- Part of a communal and “shared” experience
- Educational
How do we make the Lyric “our” theatre? What do we need to do?
- Build up trust and relationships.
- Honesty.
- It’s not just about selling tickets.
- Have a presence in the community
- Use the building both inside and out
- On-going, consistent relationships.
- Don’t give free tickets if its not suitable.
What do you require from the Creative Learning Department?
- Inspire local communities to feel ownership
- Long term engagement
- A community space to encourage us to put on plays
- A Careers Day
- Buddy system/Mentoring
Theatre Practitioners Engagement Forum
Chair - Damian Gorman
What would you like to see from the new Lyric Theatre?
- Student access to the arts – sometimes there are closed doors to students when they phone up theatres.
- A place of opportunity – knowing the form and function of its purpose.
- Workshops that instil confidence, self-esteem, opportunities to grow and nurture.
- Somewhere to work and more opportunities to work.
- My heart beat faster when I saw the theatre drawings
- Providing work, training, people shouldn’t have to go away to learn
- Second space may offer more opportunities
- Workshops for older actors
- Offering the community something back
- Focus on training – there should be a proper drama school with voice training, voice coaching etc
- An academy of excellence
- Offering rigging, flying and harness skills to performers
- More voice-over experience required
- Having a home – we should have a national theatre.
- “Cathedral for the soul” – a spiritual experience where audience is most at one with the world
- Artistic risks can be taken
- Giving creative expression
- Feeling the door is open, rather than closed
- Providing theatre surgeries on tax, cv’s, how to survive as a freelancer