The audience has not fully returned to the theaters after the Corona restrictions. How are the houses supposed to win back visitors? Magdeburg's general director relies on quality instead of content.
Magdeburg (dpa/sa) - The new General Manager of the Magdeburg Theater, Julien Chavaz, does not want to lure the currently reserved audience back into the houses with more pleasing material. "We would sacrifice ourselves or kill ourselves if we just did a completely popular, populist program now," Chavaz told the German Press Agency in Magdeburg. "We would have a bit more audience there, but we would completely destroy ourselves in the medium or long term."
The theater must make certain considerations with the program, "but don't think that we are now an anti-depression venue where people can only see very simple, happy things". This diversity is particularly important in a four-section theater like the Magdeburg Theater." Chavaz, who was born in Switzerland, has been in charge of the Magdeburg Theater since the current season.
"There is now a must all over the world and especially in Germany that you work on the return of the audience to the theater, everyone together," said the 40-year-old. It will take time. "There is a certain uncertainty, especially among the older audience. We notice that, for example, in the concert scene, with the Magdeburg Philharmonic."
"There's the pandemic, there's the energy prices that unsettle people. But there's a greater reluctance among audiences globally to commit to longer-term appointments," Chavaz noted. "That means someone doesn't buy a ticket for February today. The person wants to wait. What will the pandemic look like then, will I cough that day or not. There is, so to speak, a reflex of a late purchase, which also affects Magdeburg now ."
The General Manager continued: "Magdeburg cannot completely escape this global trend. But if you know that it usually takes two to three years after a change of manager or a change of division before things are back to normal, I would say we are complete in the green area. The audience change is already there." Among other things, Chavaz has a new three-man management team in acting at his side, ballet director Jörg Mannes is also new, general music director Anna Skryleva has stayed.
Chavaz is certain that theater will continue to have a firm place in the cultural landscape and will win back audiences. From his point of view, to think that people no longer wanted to go to the theater would be like saying, "aha, you learned to cook at home again during the pandemic and you don't feel like going to the restaurant anymore. That's okay I for wrong." The theater not only offers art at a high level, but also offers the opportunity for people to meet, debate and sometimes even argue. "It's like football. I don't think this need for humanity to be in society shot the pandemic off the face of the earth."
