Marketing

The National Rural Touring Forum (NRTF) has launched an in-house rural and regional press agency to provide its members with specialist publicity support while also highlighting "the stories, challenges and successes of rural touring and rural life."  
    
The agency will act as a remote PR department - writing press releases, checking strategies, maintaining press lists and managing communication with media. 
  
Holly Lombardo, Director of NRTF, said: “We want the Press Agency to be an important advocacy tool and contribute significantly to the visibility of rural and community touring across the UK.  
  
“Smaller arts organisations often have less capacity for press and PR coverage. Publicity is the thing our members have said they’d like more help with, so we are delighted to respond to that with dedicated support in this area.” 
 
  

The National Theatre will trial early evening performances in an effort to adapt to the "post-Covid lifestyles" of its patrons.

The theatre said the move, which will involve a selected number of early-evening performances starting at 6.30 pm, follows research it conducted to understand how the habits of audiences have changed since the pandemic.

The trial will begin with performances in February and will continue until mid-June. A total of 20 performances across five different productions have been scheduled.

"The early evening performances will offer more flexibility for audiences to make the most of their evening, whether that’s more time to grab a bite to eat, to discuss the show over a glass or two, or simply not having to rush off to catch the last train," the National theatre said.

Performers at this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe claim posters advertising their shows are being censored or defaced as the rules surrounding promotional materials are more strictly enforced.

The Guardian reports that Out of Hand, the printers who produce the posters for shows at the fringe, are required to check all promotional images with Edinburgh city council before proceeding to print. 

Obscenity has always been banned, but this year’s performers say that attitudes to nudity, swearing and sexual content have become stricter. According to Out of Hand’s Commercial Director Nigel Muntz the rules have not changed, but are being “enforced with more rigour”.

Posters that have fallen prey to censorship include images of a line of bare buttocks and a large pair of breasts. A children’s drag performer and an American actress whose show title included a swear word have also had their promotional materials altered.

Producer Richard Lambert, who was asked to pixilate the five pairs of bare buttocks on one of his posters, said that the matter was resolved “amicably but after a minor battle”. He said that similar posters had been approved in previous years.

“We’re sanitising arts and culture,” he said.