In 2008, the British Theatre Consortium (a group of academics, playwrights and practitioners that mounts conferences and undertakes research) won a tendered commission from the Arts Council to research how new writing had fared during the five years following the 2003 uplift in funding to English regional theatres. This was published in 2009.
Now the Consortium has reported on the British Theatre Repertoire 2013 and the following figures have been taken from that report, which can be downloaded in its full 46 pages here.
The data comes from SOLT (Society of London Theatre) and UK Theatre (formerly the Theatrical Management Association) and the headline figures are that in 2013 there were 2,196 professional productions in the UK giving 47,322 performances. 25,743,306 people attended bringing in £816,616,527 in box office income.
There were 1,573 “straight” plays produced (72% of the total), 329 musicals (15%), 140 operas (7%), 121 pantos (5%), 18 pieces of physical theatre (1%) and 9 performance installations (0.2%).
In the north east:
- 5% of all theatre productions originated in the region.
- 15% of all plays presented in the region were by women.
- The largest proportion of productions was new writing, followed by adaptations (usually of novels), then musicals. Plays for children and young people were next, followed by panto, with devised productions and translations a good way behind.
- Annually there were 35 theatre visits per 100 people, with only the south east and the West Midlands higher. (It should be noted that London figures are not included in this comparison.)
- The average ticket price is £20.21, the fourth lowest in the county, with only Yorkshire, the East Midlands and the east lower. The highest, inevitably, is London with £45.55 with the north west second although considerably behind at £27.28.
- On average, NE theatres reached 59.4% of capacity, reaching 56% of potential box office income. The national average is 67.4%.