February 2007
LTG Top Of The Pops Out Of 860 Productions
Thursday, February 01, 2007 by Little Theatre Guild

With the publication of the latest Little Theatre Guild of Great Britain Yearbook, National Liaison Officer, Tom Williams, who, together with Public Relations Officer, Michael Shipley, compiles the invaluable annual analysis of the work of Guild members, has extracted the always-eagerly-awaited annual production figures.

The Guild currently has 99 member Theatres, following the resignation of Pateley Bridge Dramatic Society during the reported period, October 2005 to September 2006. Within this period of time, member Theatres mounted 860 productions, with Box Office returns indicating that at least 650,300 seats were sold. Altogether 588 different plays were presented by 417 different authors. With only a few of these authors out of copyright, the returns, in terms of royalties, must have been colossal!

Alan Ayckbourn 41 productions

Noel Coward 20

William Shakespeare 18

Neil Simon 16

Alan Bennett 15

J. B. Priestley 14

Terence Rattigan 11

Charlotte Jones 11

Richard Harris 10

Shelagh Stephenson 9

Ray Cooney 9

Oscar Wilde 9

The most surprising fact was the surge ahead in popularity for Alan Ayckbourn. He has, of course, been Top-of-the-Pops for years, always in close contention with the immortal bard, but with ever more plays to choose from, perhaps it is no surprise that he is pulling away to an unassailable lead. That Shakespeare should be reduced to third place is the next major surprise. Is this one more little piece of evidence to indicate a dumbing down in the education system? Do member theatres find it increasingly difficult to mount Shakespeare productions because of a lack of youthful actors capable to playing the roles adequately? Surely it cannot be that the audiences have deserted the plays – only recently A Midsummer Night’s Dream actually reached the top-ten of plays produced! The dominance of Noel Coward, Neil Simon, J. B. Priestley, Terence Rattigan and Oscar Wilde, however, tells us a lot about the make-up of average audiences and play-selection panels at Guild Theatres. So we must hope that some more up-to-date authors will eventually join Alan Bennett, Charlotte Jones and Shelagh Stephenson in the area of public awareness.

Humble Boy : Charlotte Jones 11 Productions

Blithe Spirit : Noel Coward 9

Snake in the Grass : Alan Ayckbourn 7

Abigail’s Party : Mike Leigh 6

Noises Off : Michael Frayn 5

Bazaar & Rummage : Sue Townsend 5

Caught in the Net : Ray Cooney 5

Dad’s Army : David Croft & Jimmy Perry 5

Thirteen plays had 4 productions each.

Is this list a reflection of what our audiences want, or what our selection panels think they want? A bit of both obviously. What the computer has not done is produce a third list of the most popular box-office successes of the year. For this information you will just have to read the Year Book carefully!