Building theatre patronage : management and merchandising (1927)

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4 Building Theatre Patronage For any theatre manager theatre operation can never be a closed book. Every day sees the adoption of some new idea. Individual thought and initiative are all-important if progress is to be made. There is always something new to be learned about theatre management. No attempt is made in these pages to set down routine practices that can be followed in the same way everywhere. Theatre operation cannot be standardized. Every theatre is different. Every community is different. Every operation is different. Even the problems of a particular theatre are constantly changing. New conditions develop and bring new problems that were never met before. Efficient theatre management requires constant readjustment, constant novelty and constant change. Of course, some basic principles of management will always remain unchanged. Human nature is fundamentally the same everywhere. So is showmanship. But the methods and practices suggested here are not in use at any one theatre. They represent a composite analysis of many theatres, and consequently will not be applicable in the same way to all theatres. Managers in towns of from 30,000 to 60,000 must meet conditions and solve problems that are almost unknown to managers of metropolitan theatres, and vice versa. Yet there is much in common in the principles they follow. The main difference lies in application. The manager of a small theatre can get the germ of an idea from theatre operation as practiced in a large theatre and adapt it to his needs and conditions. Ofttimes, the manager of a metropolitan theatre can learn things from his country cousin. Because the very pressure of working out so many details of operation without the assistance of specialized experts taxes the ingenuity of the small theatre manager, he often devises methods which are worth the study of managers in larger operations. Consequently, the source of the methods and practices discussed is not important. The chief consideration is their possibility for general use. The consideration of standard practices is helpful only if one remembers that the soundest theory must give way to practical expediency in unusual circumstances. No one can