Minutes of the Roughcast Committee Meeting Tues Jan 24th

PRESENT: Paul Baker, Mark Burridge, Simon Evans, Peter Long, Chris Martin, Pat Parris, Erica Summers

APOLOGIES: Emma Martin

CHRISTMAS CAROL:

General feedback: Agreement that it had been a good production. Audiences had responded differently to the promenade style (even between performances at the same venue) but had generally been positive, it worked better when they were prepared to move! Cast had been a bit apprehensive unable to rehearse without an audience but mingling and chatting had worked well and Pete said it was enjoyable for the cast to be involved onstage most of the time and be able to watch the performance.

Finances: Chris had distributed a summary before the meeting and Paul congratulated him on his report. There were some estimated figures for bills and monies that hadn’t been received but the production will have made a small loss of approximately £385. Two contributory factors were the high cost of costume hire and the restricted audience numbers, with hindsight we could have allowed a few more people in. We also had the opportunity for an extra matinee performance at Wingfield but one of the cast was unfortunately unavailable.

The most profitable venues were The Hub and Hoxne (no ticket share here) and the least profitable was Wingfield (most restricted on nos).

Paul commented that over the years the production costs have been fairly similar, often coming in at around £3000, the ticket sales seem to be the variable factor.

Simon/Pat reported that not many family tickets were sold but Mark said that these were equivalent to 4 concessions in any case so all agreed to continue with these and encourage a young audience to come along. (There had been some very enthusiastic youngsters at some performances!)

Pete said that Mike Davison will be putting in a bill for £42 for the video he produced.

Lighting: This had been an issue throughout the production and Paul said he would give some thought to how Arthur can be approached.

Erica said that her contact, Robin, is available to run the workshop on Saturdays in March, she will ask him for the 4th or 25th and let Pat know which so the Sancroft Hall can be booked. John from the Old King’s Head is interested in becoming involved in sound/light and Erica will invite him to the workshop.

Transport of set etc – the future – transport was discussed briefly but needs to be included in a general discussion about the future – our technical expertise and equipment, the role of the committee, “the way forward”. Mark is keen to have this on the next agenda.

Need for weekend run to be in one place with ‘set’ up for the duration: Because of problems at the Sancroft Hall Mark had relocated the last weekend ‘s rehearsals. Pat will check for any problems in the future when booking.

Questionnaire feedback; Pat had attempted to summarise the results of the questionnaires and distributed results.

There were 188 returns, approx. half our audiences.

116 said they knew of the performance by word of mouth but 155 prefer to hear about productions by email/social media/website !!!!

92 new emails were given, some of these were at Southwold and Stowmarket but together with the 24 obtained via online booking and allowing for some duplication this should provide a healthy increase to the audience we can target in the future.

(Only 12 preferred post)

106 said that roadside boards persuaded them to attend events.

Over half the ‘local’ responses had visited our website.

Many of the questionnaires were incorrectly filled in.

The general feeling was that we are doing things right and we could try it again in a year’s time but refine the questions.

TWELFTH NIGHT:

Cast ; Mark said the main parts are cast, he is just waiting for confirmation from everyone. There are still some small parts available which he will sort.

Rehearsals: These will be Mondays and Thursdays starting April 20th (with a possible read through on the 13th), Pat to confirm where. Martin has offered Wakelin’s for weekends.

Venues: The following have been booked – Fri June 23rd, The Fisher; Sat June 24th, The Cut; Thurs June 29th, Diss Corn Hall (outside); Sat July 1st, Hoxne Swan; Thurs July 6th, Beccles Public Hall.

Paul will ask Rushall if Sun July 9th is possible, Pat will contact Robin Loxton to confirm Fressingfield on Sun June 25th and also The Hub and Wingfield for any of Fri June 30th/Fri July 7th/Sat July 8th

Erica said The King’s Head are keen for us to perform there and will check if Tues June 27th is possible.

Costume: Sarah will do costumes. Mark would like a Spanish/Spaghetti Western/Latin flavour

Music: Mark will contact Janet.

Publicity: The Fisher have asked for images by mid-April at the latest so early photos need to be taken. We won’t use Des Fisher this time as the Christmas Carol ones were a bit disappointing. Mark will work on a poster image at half-term.

ODDS AND ENDS:

David Green has asked to borrow some set and also mentioned sorting out the store again. Sarah says the hanging costumes are getting infested and everything needs to be stored in boxes. Mark suggested putting up shelving in the store and keeping everything together. Penny has offered to help with sorting costumes. No definite plans were made.

NEXT MEETING: The rest of the agenda was deferred to the next meeting on Wed Feb 8th. The meeting after that will be on Wed March 15th.