“SHILLING THEATRE.”

Waikato Independent, Volume XXXIII, Issue 3044, 26 August 1933, Page 2

“SHILLING THEATRE.”

PLAYS FOR THE PEOPLE A HIGH ADVENTURE. One of the most remarkable theatres of London, the “ Shilling Theatre ” —once the Fulham Grand Theatre, hard by Putney Bridge—has now been a going concern for several months, and shows every sign of becoming an established institution. But even in a time of "cut price ” theatres, its finances have remained somewhat of a mystery. West End "stars ” and companies have played there. The level of drama has been high. The natural assumption is that some mad Maecenas has had a fortune to throw away on the venture. Mr Robert Newton, a young actor, who, with his sister, is co-director of the theatre, explained to “ The Observer ” that no Maecenas comes into the matter, and that a theatre that sells its whole house, including stalls and dress-circle, at a shilling a seat, can be a self-supporting concern. "If you want to know the exact weekly finances,” Mr Newton said, “I can give them to you. There is no mystery about them. We depend on three things—a low theatre rent, a large theatre (the Fulham Grand can seat a thousand people), and the co-operation of our actors. Also upon a twice-nightly policy. “We started with the idea of a shilling stall being a definite counterattraction to the cinema. We toyed with the idea of having a few seats at two shillings, but then I remembered that I myself have often come away from a cinema because I could not get in for less than two shillings, so we decided on the flat rate of a shilling everywhere. " The single exception is the gallery, which is sixpence—and oddly erough we find that this is not much used. People seem to prefer to pay their shilling, and to come nearer into the house. The gallery is chiefly used on Saturday nights—and then by people w'ho have tried to book shilling seats and found them all sold out. "There are our weekly figures, approximately, for incomings and outgoings: The theatre holds a thousand people, which, with its shilling seats and sixpenny gallery, means an approximate ‘capacity’ of £4O a performance. There are twelve performances a week on our twice-nightly system, which means a weekly ‘capacity’ of about £4BO. Of course, it does not actually amount to this. It is impossible to budget for a theatre assuming that every seat is going to be filled at every performance. In time, as we get better known, we might arrive at something like this. What we actually calculate on at the moment is halfcapacity; and in fact up to now we have nearly always played to between £2OO and £250 a week.