The spring run

What do we change before the next run, and what are we deliberately not changing?

412 forms from 3,860 attendances · no score is calculated

Hands-on · This is read once, in the week before a production meeting, and the only thing it produces is what the meeting is about. Mark each theme the answer stands or needs a decision as you go. Kept for this browser tab.

Access

Owned by General manager, directly

Getting a wheelchair to the seats

3 of 412 forms · +2 on the last run

“The lift was out and nobody at the desk knew who to call. My husband and I left without seeing it and were not offered anything.”
“The wheelchair spaces are at the back next to the door, so you feel like a fire exit rather than an audience.”
“I rang ahead twice and both times was told somebody would call back.”

Read with care · Three mentions. It is the first thing on this list that got a decision, and the count is the reason it very nearly was not.

DoingLift call-out contract changed and a named person now holds the number on every performance. The seating position is a building problem and is being designed into the 2027 works.

For the meeting

Captioned performances

7 of 412 forms · +1 on the last run

“One captioned show a run means one date, and if you cannot do that date you do not come.”
“The captions were on a screen you could only see from the left side.”

DoingTwo captioned performances per run from the autumn, and the screen moves to centre. Costed at eleven hundred dollars a run.

For the meeting

Booking and box office

Owned by Box office

Booking on a phone

52 of 412 forms · +3 on the last run

“I gave up and rang you, which I imagine costs you more than fixing it would.”
“The seat map is unusable on a phone. I booked on my laptop the next day.”
“It took the payment twice. You refunded it quickly, to be fair.”

DoingThe seat map is the ticketing supplier's and we cannot change it. Raised with them for the third time, with these three quotes attached.

For the meeting

The programme costs too much

24 of 412 forms · -3 on the last run

“Eight dollars for something I will read once.”
“The cast list should be free and on the wall.”

DoingA free single-sheet cast list is now printed and stacked at both doors. The programme stays at eight dollars.

For the meeting

The building

Owned by Front of house

Row H and the pillar

41 of 412 forms · -3 on the last run

“H12 and H13 have a pillar in front of them and this is not mentioned anywhere at the point you buy them.”
“We moved ourselves at the interval, which was fine, but I would rather have known.”

DoingBoth seats now carry a restricted-view note and are priced eight dollars under the rest of the row, from the day this was read.

For the meeting

The upstairs bar is too hot

38 of 412 forms · +26 on the last run

“Unbearable by the second act. I sat on the stairs.”
“Every year in July. Surely somebody knows.”

Read with care · Went from twelve to thirty-eight in one run, and this run was in July. The previous one was in March.

DoingIt is the roof and it is a hundred and ten thousand dollars. Two fans and the door propped is what we have. Said plainly at the desk when anybody asks.

For the meeting

Latecomers and the 7.30 start

29 of 412 forms · -4 on the last run

“We hold for ten minutes and the people who arrive on time are the ones who pay for it.”
“Being seated at the first scene change is a good compromise, I thought.”

No changeNo change. The ten-minute hold stays and the reason is on the not-changing screen.

For the meeting

Bar and interval

Owned by Front of house

The interval queue

84 of 412 forms · +13 on the last run

“Twenty minutes and I spent eleven of them in a line for a glass of wine I then had to drink in four.”
“Order before, they said. Nobody told me that until I was already queuing.”
“It is the same every time. We have started bringing a flask, which I appreciate is not what you want to hear.”

DoingPre-ordering moved onto the ticket confirmation email and onto the boards in the foyer, from the autumn run. A second till is costed and is not affordable.

For the meeting

The work itself

Owned by Nobody — see the note below

Comments about the play itself

118 of 412 forms · +22 on the last run

“The second act is twenty minutes too long and everybody in my row knew it.”
“Best thing I have seen here in five years.”
“I did not understand the ending and I have thought about it every day since.”

Read with care · The largest group on the form by a distance, and the only one that is not about anything this tool can change.

No changeNothing, on purpose. These are read by the director because they are interesting, and they are not an operational decision. See the note.

For the meeting

Themes with a decision

7 of 8

operational themes — the play itself is read and is not on this count

Four of them cost nothing and were done the week the forms were read.

Risen sharply since the last run

the upstairs bar is too hot 12 → 38

And it is a March run being compared to a July one, which the theme says on its own row rather than leaving anybody to work out.

Response rate

11%

412 of 3,860 — and the people who answered are not the people who came, which is its own screen

Printed here rather than at the bottom, because every count below inherits it.

How this is read

1There is no score. No net promoter, no star average, no index — a single number moves without anything changing and has never once told this theatre what to do.
2The comment is the unit. Counts sit beside a quote, never instead of it, and nothing is summarised into a phrase nobody said.
3Volume is not weight. Three people who could not get a wheelchair to a seat outrank eighty-four who queued for a drink, and the ordering says so.
4A count that is misleading on its own carries the reason next to it. Two of them here are the calendar rather than the theatre.
5Everything gets a decision in a sentence, including the decision to do nothing — which goes on its own screen with the reason.

Quotes are printed as written and are trimmed only for length, never for tone. The two most useful sentences this theatre has read in five years were both rude.

What replaced the score

There was a satisfaction index on this form for three years. It sat between 4.1 and 4.3 the entire time, it was in every board pack, and nobody can name a single thing it caused. It went up the run we had no heating in the stalls.

The eight themes below cost about forty minutes to read and produced six decisions, two of which were free. That is the whole case, and it is not a sophisticated one.

Why the play has a section and no actions

A hundred and eighteen comments — more than any operational theme by a distance — and not one of them is something this tool can decide. They go to the director because they are interesting, and they are kept on the page rather than filtered out so that nobody mistakes their absence for nobody having said anything.

It is also the honest reason the ordering is not by count: sorted that way, this section is the whole first screen and the theatre never gets to the queue.

No comment on this page is attributed to a named person, and the forms are not linked to a booking. Somebody who tells us the wheelchair spaces feel like a fire exit should not have to wonder whether the person selling them their next ticket has read it with their name on it.