"Semester ticket Theatre" – Top or Flop?

A theatre flat-rate? Without additional costs for all performances at the municipal theatre? And for just 2 euros per semester? But of course, bring it on!

Or?
Currently, the Studentenwerk Würzburg and the Mainfranken Theatre are negotiating a draft contract that is intended to enable a "Semesterticket Kultur".

We would like to inform you and show you both advantages and disadvantages.

The facts:

• every student pays an obligatory 2 euros more per semester
• the Mainfranken Theatre reserves at least 5% of its ticket contingent for students at its events, which would be around 9000 tickets per year, 38 per performance
• these tickets are free for students to reserve
• Calculation example:
  with 35,831 students from all three universities (WS 16/17) x 2 euros/semester = 143,324 euros/year. This means: the Mainfranken Theatre receives a fixed amount of approximately 140,000 euros per year from the Studentenwerk, regardless of the actual number of tickets sold
• it follows: a ticket thus "costs" around 15 euros
• currently there are reduced-price tickets for students at 6 euros or free admission for first-year students

The idea behind it:

Every student should be offered the opportunity to visit the theatre cheaply. Through this, the initiators, Studentenwerk and Mainfranken Theatre hope to inspire more young people to engage with theatre culture.
Markus Trabusch, Intendant of the Mainfranken Theatre, explains that the municipal theatre wants to "take its educational mission seriously" and with the help of the theatre ticket "remove possible barriers".

The student initiator of the project is Stephan Hemmerich. For two years now, Hemmerich and other students from the three Würzburg universities have been working with the Mainfranken Theatre on a draft of fair framework conditions.
The petition "Lust auf Theater" was signed by approximately 5000 students (as of 27.12.2017). The idea seems to be finding great approval. The signatories consider the initiative "very important" and see in it a "strengthening of the cultural offering" also for "those with a tight budget".

Statement from the Studentenwerk Würzburg:

The project was initially commented on critically in a statement by the Studentenwerk Würzburg. It states: "the theatre ticket puts only the Mainfranken Theatre in the foreground". However, there are far more cultural offerings that would be of interest to students.
On 06 December 2017, the management then declared the resolution on the "Semesterticket Theater" and thus agreed to initial discussions on draft contracts with the Mainfranken Theatre.

Criticism:

However, there are also critical voices. As already expressed by the Studentenwerk, there are concerns. If only 38 seats per performance are reserved for students, is that really sufficient? The initiators argue that the theatre is usually only 75% full, so there are still unsold tickets that could be made available to students. What if I have no interest in theatre or don't even live in Würzburg? One could see the ticket as a kind of "solidarity contribution" that supports those who actually want to use the ticket and offers the undecided the opportunity to discover theatre.
From an economic perspective, the Mainfranken Theatre would be given a competitive advantage. The Würzburg Young Liberals also speak out against the theatre flat-rate: "individual cultural practitioners" would thereby be "disproportionately favoured".

"Culture is not just the municipal theatre!"

An illustration by the IG Freie Theater, which is intended to visualise their criticism.
Illustration by ps:ag

If every student can now visit the performances of the Mainfranken Theatre almost free of charge, won't the smaller theatres suffer as a result?
For this reason, nine independent theatres from Würzburg have joined together to form an interest group.
"Together we hope to be able to prevent the Semesterticket Kultur. If necessary, we will stand in front of the Mainfranken Theatre with posters to protest," says Andreas Büettner from the Theatre Ensemble.
The following stages are represented in the "IG Freie Theater": the Theatre Chambinzky, TheaterWerkstatt, Theatre Ensemble, Theatre am Neunerplatz, Bockshorn, tanzSpeicher, Theatre Kasperhaus, Plastisches Theater Hobbit and Theatre Spielberg.
I conducted an interview on the topic with Csaba Béke (Chambinsky), Jutta Schmitt (Plastisches Theater Hobbit) and Andreas Büettner (Theatre Ensemble).

Jutta Schmitt explains that Würzburg is one of the cities with the highest density of independent theatres. If these were hardly visited anymore, a large part of the city's cultural diversity would be lost. The smaller theatres see their existence threatened and fear through the flat-rate a "cheapening of culture". They only learned about the planned project from the press.
One of the problems: the Mainfranken Theatre is in public hands, i.e. subsidised, so it can offer reduced prices for students anyway. The small theatres, however, which "have to count every penny", find it much harder to keep up with this offer. Andreas Büettner clarifies that the audience consists of 25 to 50% students. A large part of the visitors would probably fall away with the theatre ticket, so the fear of the independent theatres. Who would want to pay for theatre if they can also go to performances for free?
Meanwhile, the IG is in discussions with all parties involved. There have already been press conferences, talks with the city and the Mainfranken Theatre. What is particularly important to them is to attract attention in order to also draw attention to the negative sides. "There is even a counter-petition. This was not initiated by us, by the way," says Csaba Béke. The petition "NO to the compulsory ticket Mainfranken Theatre" was signed by approximately 200 Würzburg students (as of 27.12.2017). Reasons given by the signatories: the Mainfranken Theatre would receive an "impermissible advantage" or simply the reluctance to pay for something "which I won't use anyway".

To the argument that the small theatres do not have the capacity to accommodate so many students, Béke and Büettner counter: "Together we have more seats than the Mainfranken Theatre and twice as many performances! And that's just for drama alone".
But what would be the optimal solution? A semester theatre ticket including all cultural institutions in Würzburg or rather nothing of the sort? Csaba Béke explains that he would prefer to prevent a theatre ticket altogether. The problem: "Where are the boundaries?" A theatre in Gerbrunn, which belongs to the district but not to the city of Würzburg, would not be included in the semester ticket. However, Gerbrunn is in the immediate vicinity of the campus and a theatre there would thus be disadvantaged. "That would not be fair either, I would not want that for others," says Béke. A utopia: a Mainfranken culture ticket. But even here there would still be the problem of boundaries.

Conclusion:

The Semesterticket Theater offers students the opportunity to visit the performances of the municipal theatre at low cost. The idea of making theatre accessible to everyone and inspiring young people to engage with theatre is definitely important. A kind of "solidarity contribution" for this? Everyone pays, but only a few actually use the services. If one considers that every student also bears the cost of the WVV ticket, even if they don't use it, this seems reasonable. However, alongside the general enthusiasm, something is often forgotten that becomes apparent after brief reflection: the ticket is only valid for a single cultural institution.
Such a theatre ticket must be fair for all parties involved, must not restrict free competition and should preserve cultural diversity.

Overall, it is in principle a very good idea, but it must not be overlooked that there are indeed downsides. There is simply far more culture than just the municipal theatre!

Franziska Koller

Image source:

Infographic from the Facebook page "Semesterticket Theater Würzburg"
https://www.facebook.com/SemesterticktetTheaterWue/