Here's a thought (thread). Unlike cinemas, whose sound & vision is installed when a film distributor brings their film to market, WE theatres are hired empty. Each show must invest (heavily) in its own sound/light rig, every time, thereby adding risk & cost to the project 1/ https://twitter.com/TheStage/status/1275348446002774016

So the burden of risk for the show is far greater than for the theatre building, who get paid rent. The show producers take the vast proportion of risk, which makes producing new shows incredibly dangerous & costly 2/

What if during this dark period, WE theatres were equipped, like cinemas are, with in-house sound/light rigs that all incoming shows could use, helping the product to market like high quality cinemas do for their films? 3/

Imagine if every film you saw in a cinema had to provide not just the film itself but also the sound & projection gear too? Only a tiny number of massive film studios could do this: you'd see half a dozen blockbusters a year, and nothing else. 4/

Which is one reason big WE theatres obviously favour blockbuster shows that stay put for years. After the pandemic, when whichever theatres survive re-open, there will be an urgent need to reduce the cost of producing & to lessen the risk associated with new material 5/

Especially since for the foreseeable future it will be young people filling theatres, a big change nationwide in the demographic that has traditionally supported mainstream theatres. Young people, with less £ in their pockets, will redefine what 'commercially successful' means 6/

Recycling of older shows or musicals based on older song catalogues may not prove to be the box office winners they once were in this new environment, where audiences will resemble those currently filling fringe venues 7/

There'll be loads of people wanting to go to theatre and loads of actors, dancers, singers, players wanting to perform in them, so the post-pandemic need will be the producing of cheaper shows based on raw talent rather than expensive spectacle 8/

So any way our sector can reduce the up-front liabilities for producers should be embraced. I realise that equipping theatres of all sizes with sound/light rigs isn't cheap, but ALL shows that perform there subsequently over eg 10 years would contribute & benefit.