Family Friendly..? Una palabrota.
We were lucky enough to be given tickets to Teatro Circo Price (http://www.teatrocircoprice.es/web/index.php on Wednesday). It’s an awesome experience of high quality circus in a great space so I recommend it if you find yourself in Madrid.
Looking at the make up of the audience (though sadly only about 60% of capacity - perhaps a symptom of the high prices and lack of concession rates…or just midweek pre holiday) it really was a mixed bunch… numerous families with kids of all ages, groups of young, trendy looking men with beers and some obvious tourists (us included!)
The show was great… really high quality and superb production values as well as just fantastic performances. Everyone seemed to enjoy jt and there was even a standing ovation at the end. I loved it. I loved it and my enjoyment wasnt diminished at all by the family sitting directly in front of us with 2 small children and indulgent grandparents. Now, I need to start by explaining that as an arts professional, audience engagament and marketeer I am TOTALLY on board with kids being at the theatre. It’s a valuable and enjoyable cultural experience that should be available to absolutely everyone from a young age. As an audience member, however, I don’t mind telling you that I’ve had frustrating experiences when children or uninterested adults have disrupted my enjoyment of a performance because they couldn’t sit still or stay quiet and the particular show really needed quiet and stillness to achieve its desired effect.
I don’t blame the noisy / fidgety audience members for this though. I really think they haven’t been given the right information before coming… they don’t want to be there and are not fully engaged. If they knew it was not going to float their boat they wouldn’t have spent their hard earned money on a ticket in the first place. So… I think programmers / organisation need to give more detailed and accurate information to their potential audiences. If people know more about a show they can make a more informed decision about attending meaning a more discerned and engaged and finally happy audience.
This necessitates much wider change than just marketing and ticketing adaptation though… the work itself should have the audience at the heart of the production process from the VERY beginning. Who is our audience going to be? Who is it NOT for? (A hugely important question often neglected when thinking about audiences). This could help make sure the show gets he audience it deserves and that audiences spend their money and time on something they feel is valuable. That can only lead to a greater sense of the general public valuing the arts.
I believe this was what was so successful about the Teatro Circo Price experience. Although it quite explicitly claims to be something for everyone ” Ésta es una delicia para todos, de 1 a 111 años” (which is a marketing nightmare… and rarely true…) the production really fulfilled that promise. Adults and kids alike enjoyed the show. .. adults without children enjoyed the show and were not left feeling like they had snuck into a Saturday matinee where they didn’t belong. This was due to the complexity and subtlety of the production…. it’s incredibly well designed structure and content. There was no real language barrier as the dialogue was minimal but there was still narrative and you felt a rapport between the performers and the audience.
So what this really highlighted to me was that sticking the label “family friendly” or (even deadlier) “something for everyone” on your show, event or festival does not make it so. This can also even alienate some of your audience (I, for instance, usually avoid family friendly anything as I don’t have kids and imagine that what it really means is “something for the kids, but adults must attend to chaperone and to feel bored”)
If you want to label your show as “family friendly” or “something for everyone” BEWARE! This is not the easy, attractive, marketing bargain deal sticker it seems to be. The audience-focussed work starts at the very conception, continues through r&d and rehearsals and then on stage every night. Otherwise, who are you really doing it for?
