AMATEUR theatrical clubs could face extinction if they continue fighting for audiences instead of co-operating, according to a local arts organiser.

Many local societies could go to the wall within five years if they refuse to work together to timetable shows, said Margaret Gillibrand, East Lancashire's National Operatic and Dramatic Association representative.

Mrs Gillibrand, who has worked with local clubs for more than 20 years, said most of the area's forty-plus societies insisted on scheduling their shows for the same weeks in October, November and February every year. She said: "It's commercial suicide. People can't afford the money or the time to go to four or five shows in a week.

"They become very choosy and only go to shows where relations or friends are performing, or to societies which they know have a very high standard."

Margaret attends dozens of shows during the height of the amateur season in autumn and finds only one or two each week are successful, while the rest play to half-empty halls.

She said: "Now the financial climate is so bad, they are going to eventually kill themselves off if they don't manage to attract reasonable audiences.

"It's a shame, but it's a problem they don't want to to address." Societies which don't own venues are often restricted by other events and can't reschedule, but Margaret believes theatre-owning clubs should be more flexible.

She is willing to organise a diary of shows but said the scheme's success would depend on societies being willing to co-operate.

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