Pushing back on Porter’s playbills – this week in Your Views

Pushing back on Porter’s playbills

Sod that (‘Billy Porter criticises lack of playbills in UK theatres’). I want a proper programme. Although it is shameful that certain shows only do programmes online.
Richard Voyce
Via thestage.co.uk

We’re trying to reduce the amount of waste generated by the industry. There must be greener ways of crediting work.
Jennifer Davies
Via thestage.co.uk

When I was in the US, Playbill felt like a free newspaper. Over the years, I’ve seen programmes get so much better. If Playbill came in, I’d hate it to eat the market like free throwaway newspapers did.
Martin Wink
Via thestage.co.uk

I like a professional programme. Why do we need something else? I’m also not a fan of digital programmes – it’s nice to have a physical memento of going to the theatre.
Adam Williams
Via thestage.co.uk

The problem is the unsold printed excess, which will simply go to waste, and that people tend not to value free publications. Freebie news-sheets will always tend to head quickly to the bin, or add to the UK’s awful street litter.
Paul Clarke
Via thestage.co.uk

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Reaction to ACE’s latest decision on ENO

While ‘appreciating’ that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport may have had some hand in this change of heart (‘David Benedict: After the ENO farce, the Arts Council no longer commands confidence’), let’s not forget this saga was begun by a previous arts minister publicly destroying at a stroke the arm’s-length (sort of) principle of the distribution of Arts Council money being the responsibility of the Arts Council and not of ‘here today, gone tomorrow’ ministers.
Mark Woolgar
Via thestage.co.uk

Indeed: ‘arm’s-length’ arts funding has been torpedoed below the waterline by the unholy alliance of the ‘previous arts minister’ and ACE execs who should hang their heads in shame. But it is really great news that a reprieve is under way. Can the same now be administered to the others so untimely shorn or cut entirely from the national portfolio?
Carole Woddis
Via thestage.co.uk

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Promoting the Proms’ public perception

David Benedict is spot on (‘Why the Proms are anything but elitist’). The Proms have always led the way in democratising classical music (for want of a better word). But, so long as the consumption of classical music remains an indicator of social class, there’s still work to be done in correcting perceptions and making the Proms as transformative and liberating as it could be. We should never rest on our laurels. Beethoven didn’t.
Guy Young
Via thestage.co.uk

It’s awful how badly the arts have been eroded in education. For children who don’t get access to them at home, exposure to classical music in school is absolutely crucial, as it’s a gateway that they might not otherwise receive. I also wonder if perhaps the BBC might look at programming very light-touch shows about the arts on its children’s channels. It should form part of the “information, educate and entertain” remit, if that hasn’t been completely chucked out the window.
Therese Magee
Via thestage.co.uk

I love David Benedict’s piece on the Proms for so many reasons. I learned things!
Jamie Fowler
Via thestage.co.uk