Audience: 5 (of which 2 were staff, to whom I am eternally grateful.
Technical: Amazing. Genuinely brilliant, supportive. It was such a lovely easy experience – they also win the award for the tidiest cables so far.
Marketing: Hard work. The venue (and Sam Fleming in particular) worked their socks off but to no avail. It’s got me thinking a lot about marketing this sort of work – while we are at the back end of a pandemic and audiences are, it seems, very picky, this isn’t a new phenomenon with storytelling and “hard-to-sell” work. I suspect part of my issue has been around my copy and image – it’s not clear enough about what it is, what you get and what it’s similar to – to help break those barriers down. Equally the image, I think get the tone of the show, but doesn’t tell people what to experience when they watch the show. Two lessons which I think probably haven’t helped weak sales. I also wonder if I should have toured it for free for audiences and absorbed the financial hit to try and build an audience – very risky though. I’ve been wondering about how you build a core audience for this type of work within a venue – a mix of pricing, tone, setting and offers.
Pre-Show: Was great apart from the moment where we thought noone had turned up, then one person, then three. But other than that, stress free.
The Show: This was one of the best performances I’ve done. I think I let go of a lot of stress – because it nearly didn’t happen I relaxed into in and worked harder for the audience (bizarrely). I think it was a good show.
Post Show: 14 minute get out. Jeez.
Rating Out Of 10: 8 (bizarrely one of my favourite tour-dates so far)
Nice Feedback:
“really enjoyed your story, thank you for doing it for us.”
Final Thought: I’m not going to Brecon this weekend anymore (long/short story) – so it’s a nicer two day jaunt – although a few extra costs that I wouldn’t have had necessarily… Hey ho. Onwards and upwards.