Programming for a touring company is a mixture of putting forward the kind of work you would really like to make and pragmatism, writes Xavier Leret. The two shouldn’t be mutually exclusive.
There is no point creating work you don’t want to make, because it will never be very good and you and your audience will have a dreadful time. Everything, of course, is about our audience. We have to remember that venues and funding bodies have done market research. Our clients tell us what they want and we must respond. It often feels like this approach to art is an anathema but it does not mean you wave goodbye to innovation and experimentation. Far from it. My experience of theatre is that actually audiences do want to be surprised and challenged, although we sometimes have to be a bit sneaky about how we present our work to them. Sometimes it is also really important to totally ignore audience research and just make something because you want to, because what you need to express is important. This often leads to flashes of brilliance, which will win you audience respect.
I’ve been extremely lucky with KAOS in that I get to work as both a writer and a director. I recognise that to sell our new work and for the company to sustain an audience we need to present a wider variety of material, including adaptations and re-interpretations of classic texts. Fortune has been on our side and this approach to programming has been a successful and enjoyable one. Working on great texts stretches us creatively and builds an audience for the company’s work. Our own market research has shown that people come back to see our new writing after watching our classical work or adaptations and vice versa.
Key to the company’s growth has been our relationship with venues. In some towns we have been lucky and from the first gig have found the community extremely welcoming. In others we have relied on the faith of the programmers to bring the company back and slowly build ticket sales over time. A small audience does not mean the show has been unsuccessful. Word of mouth is a great thing and we have seen our audiences grow steadily, sometimes dramatically over time.
KAOS has created and maintained a strong brand identity. We have always called our shows The KAOS this or the KAOS that, allowing us, in my view, to put a fresh stamp on our renditions of classic texts. It also makes it clear that if we present a piece of new writing you are coming to see a KAOS show. Of course, creating such a strong identity for your company can limit the way you are perceived by audiences and also by venue programmers. It is difficult, for example, to persuade larger scale venues to take a risk on your work when you have created a reputation on the small scale. To make this kind of jump you do need to have a longer-term view of your company’s development. We are building to a position where we hope to be able to jump seamlessly through the scales.
We have chosen not to focus on one speciality, such as new writing, preferring to keep our options open. The only condition for our choice of work is whether it has something to communicate to our time. I hope that venue programmers share my sentiments.
Xavier Leret is Artistic Director of KAOS Theatre. e: xavier@kaostheatre.com;
w: http://www.kaostheatre.com