021 Outdoor Theatre in the Winter

Convener: Sophie Austin

Participants: Sophie. Andrew, Kas, Lwin, Su Su, jill, Paul, Jonathan

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

We discussed the idea of creating a promenade theatre piece specifically for an outdoor space in winter.

1. When doing outdoor theatre in the winter you need to think about the following:

Toilets – how many?
Power – generators? Noise, distance cabling
How not to make actors ill – heaters, space blankets, hot water bottles, gazebos
Voice – how to ensure an actor is heard? Well trained actors, good warms ups, employ speech/sound expert to suggest set possibilities for improving sound.
3 key people - Director, producer & events manager – someone who can focus on the audience experience
Access – Clear pathways, how to lead people round, speed of promenade, ensure good communication with the audience and performers. Ask experts like Graeae, Extant or Shape
Length of time of show – how long should it be? Should we ensure that people are moving all the time?
Should the audience be able to see everything?
Ensure you communicate with the audience – be clear – it is going to rain, it is going to snow. BE PREPARED.
You can’t guess the weather, prepare for every eventuality.
Lighting – torches, hurricane lanterns, flares, floating candles, glow sticks, fire
Offer a hot drink at some point during the show.
Are the good audience of Britain willing to come to outdoor theatre in the winter? As long as you are honest and communicate the ‘risks’ involved, they will come.

The general consensus was that the show must go on.
All who contributed go very inspired by the possibilities and not too bogged down in the inevitable health and safety conundrums – that’s probably for a different sessions.