ANLO struggles to meet targets

 A scheme to give free theatre tickets to young people aged 16–25 is lagging behind its own targets on the anniversary of its launch. ‘A Night Less Ordinary’ (ANLO), funded by £2.5m from the DCMS and managed by Arts Council England (ACE), aimed to give away 618,000 tickets from some 200 venues over two years. The target was reduced to 602,000 following the applications process. After nine months, just 177,345 tickets had been offered and of them only 121,742 – just short of 69% – had been taken up. An ACE spokesperson justified the results to AP, saying that “around 20% of the venues are on or over target at nine months and many more are very close to target”. ACE has refused to publish data on individual venues “for reasons of commercial confidentiality”. A second spokesperson explained that some organisations which have “not been performing well” or “haven’t been able to get [the scheme] off the ground” may be offered the option to withdraw from the scheme and repay the money. AP has contacted a number of participating theatres, and it appears that the picture is patchy. Some venues, such as the West Yorkshire Playhouse and the Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield, report positive results, including increased databases of young people who have become members of the scheme, while others have struggled. One regional theatre had to withdraw before the beginning of the scheme because its local authority withdrew its funding.
Participating theatres may carry forward their targets into the second year of the scheme, and any tickets not taken up will be transferred to later shows. The ACE spokesperson said that it is “confident that the two-year target of 602,000 tickets will be reached”. She added, “The theatres agreed to numerical targets in good faith, but… we haven’t done anything like this as a sector before, and the numerical targets are not the only measure of success.” She emphasised that that the scheme is designed to explore the best ways to reach and retain new young audiences. A full evaluation report, by Sussex Arts Marketing and Audiences Yorkshire, will be published in the summer of 2011.