{"id":1812,"date":"2015-02-02T15:40:59","date_gmt":"2015-02-02T23:40:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/?p=1812"},"modified":"2015-02-02T15:40:59","modified_gmt":"2015-02-02T23:40:59","slug":"pay-what-you-decide-at-the-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2015\/02\/pay-what-you-decide-at-the-theatre\/","title":{"rendered":"Pay-what-you-decide at the theatre"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"time\"<\/a>The Stage News<\/em> reports<\/a> on a trial run of pay-what-you-decide pricing at the regional theatre in Stockton, UK:<\/p>\n

The Pay What You Decide system is now in effect for all theatre productions at the arts centre for six months, following a trial on a one-man show at the venue.<\/p>\n

Too Much, Too Young, starring Jack Bennett in January, took nearly 50% more than the theatre expected, with almost one third of the audience new to theatre performances at the ARC.<\/p>\n

Although the theatre would usually charge \u00a310 for a show such as Too Much, Too Young, through various discounts and free ticket offers it would be expected to yield an average \u00a33.50 per ticket. However, the one-man performance took an average \u00a35.25 per ticket.<\/p>\n

ARC chief executive Annabel Turpin emphasised that it was too soon to label the\u00a0Pay\u00a0What You Decide scheme as success.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lack of research around it,\u201d she said. \u201cIf it doesn\u2019t work, we\u2019ll come out and say so. We\u2019re big enough and brave enough to admit that we\u2019ve tried something and it hasn\u2019t worked [if it does not work]. I think it will, and I\u2019m really confident that it will.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turpin explained that although the scheme would encourage bigger audiences through potentially lower prices, it is more important to remove the gamble involved in seeing new work at the theatre.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cThere is a core of people who probably can afford to come, but don\u2019t come because it feels like too big a risk. So as well as removing the financial barrier, we\u2019re also removing the financial risk barrier, and I think that\u2019s much bigger.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

No, I don’t understand the last sentence of that quote. But what can we make of the story?<\/p>\n

Recall the new research from the NEA from a few weeks ago (I commented on the reports here<\/a>). In one report, the NEA asked the question ‘why did you not attend the performance?’ to the subset of people who had said they were actually interested in visiting a particular performance or exhibition but did not, in the end, attend. Ticket price was not the leading response; lack of time was.<\/p>\n

The problem with the time-cost of attending a performance is that it is a risk that cannot be insured. When someone says to you, after a dismal party or lecture or show, ‘well, that’s two hours of my life I will never get back,’ what they are saying is literally true. It cannot be repaid.<\/p>\n

And so the big risk of attending a new show (rather than the familiar and predictable) is not the ‘financial risk barrier’; 10 pounds for a ticket is much smaller than the time cost of attending.<\/p>\n

So what to do about that? Well, I would think the last thing a theatre wants to say to patrons is ‘we are not really sure if you will like this; don’t worry, if you don’t you don’t need to leave any money.’ That is a clear signal that the patron’s time is ‘at risk’. Confidence<\/em> in the quality of production should be much more effective at attracting those people who are otherwise on the fence about attending.<\/p>\n

If pay-what-you-will is working at Stockton, that’s great. But I would recommend careful thought be given by any other presenter thinking of going this route.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Stage News reports on a trial run of pay-what-you-decide pricing at the regional theatre in Stockton, UK: The Pay What You Decide system is now in effect for all theatre productions at the arts centre for six months, following a trial on a one-man show at the venue. Too Much, Too Young, starring Jack […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1812","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3dIW5-te","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2976,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2024\/03\/on-the-high-price-of-west-end-tickets\/","url_meta":{"origin":1812,"position":0},"title":"On the high price of West End tickets","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"March 6, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"The Guardian has\u00a0a new editorial\u00a0up about how the price of a theatre ticket in London is too darn high. 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For example, the highest-end \u201cPreferred\u201d tier are in the middle of the theaters and will be priced at a \u201cslight premium\u201d compared to its \u201cStandard\u201d tier, which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"At the movies","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/rose-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/rose-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/rose-scaled.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/rose-scaled.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/rose-scaled.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/rose-scaled.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1812"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1817,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1812\/revisions\/1817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}