I read an interesting article in yesterday's Times. The UK government has a plan to entice young people into theatres by getting theatres to offer free tickets to under 26 year olds who fulfil the criterion of being 'new audience'. Trouble is they want a million tickets to be given away but only intend to put £2.5 million into the scheme (so £2.50 subsidy a ticket - about $3.7) and if the tickets go to the 'wrong people', e.g. young people who already go to the theatre, there is a strong prospect of Arts Council England wanting the money back. Well you can work where the positives and the absurdities and the 'tick box culture' lie in all this, but the article introduced me to a word the Germans have (don't they always?) that nails part of the problem of why some people don't go to theatre or other arts events: Schwellenangst - fear of the threshold.
Unless young people are introduced by parents, teachers and other adults to theatre, poetry readings, concerts etc, most won't think such events are for them. Few make such discovery entirely on their own in youth - which led me to wonder whether many teachers ever take students to poetry events. I was never taken to poetry readings, although theatre (including Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford) was quite strong on the school agenda.
Anyway, I leave you with Schwellenangst. It's a good word.
[This message has been edited by Christopher Whitby (edited December 02, 2008).]
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