Plays at the Palace

Still no news about anything, plays, novels, nothing. To be a writer, eventually, is to wait and wait, so you may as well get on with something else in the meantime, which is what I am doing: a new novel, a possible new play, some poems.
Went to the Palace Theatre in Kilmarnock, last friday, to see Tir nan Og and Walk in the Park, a double bill of plays which had already been on at Glasgow's Oran Mor as part of their Play, Pie and Pint season. Nowhere in any of the Palace theatre publicity did it state the name of the playwright. It turns out that Dave Anderson wrote (and acted in) both. I enjoyed the whole evening, but thought that Walk in the Park was superb: moving, funny, thought provoking. Afterwards, (googling to find the playwright) I saw it described as 'whimsical' but it didn't seem at all whimsical to me. A short, powerful piece of theatre is how I would have described it.
Sadly, the audience was very small. Where, I wonder, were all those people who come up to me at writer's events and ask about writing for the theatre, and more specifially for the Oran Mor? There are thriving writers' groups in Kilmarnock and nearby Ayr, so why did more of them not come along to see for themselves, especially since this was a 'pay what you like' event. Envelopes were handed out as you went in, and you put in them whatever you thought fit at the end of the production. It is a pity more professionals (politicians? builders? lawyers? doctors? ) are not paid in this fashion....
Anyway, there was no risk of feeling that you had wasted your money, but still very few people came. A shame.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sorry I missed this.I work for East Ayrshire council and usually check the intranet for anything interesting coming up. Didn't see any advertising or internal emails promoting this.
You'd think the Palace would try to target potential audience members by contacting local writing clubs.

Catherine Czerkawska said...

I think you're right - targetted advertising is definitely what's needed but I think new plays are very low on their list of priorities. I'm as guilty as the next person of only finding out too late that I've missed something I should have - and probably would have - seen, given a small push in the right direction. Email - and building a database of 'supporters' - should make marketing easier. Cinemas do it all the time!