Earlier this year our network members helped to create a clear picture of theatre ecology in the South East of England.

In May we sent the house southeast theatre network survey to over 250 individuals working at theatres and arts centres within our network of over 180 venues. With 111 responses received, we worked with The Audience Agency to create a report, sharing analysed findings from respondents about their organisation so as to provide an important window into the South East’s theatre ecology.

Our survey focussed on the following areas for network members to report on:

Funding, staffing, training needs and skills shortages, marketing, audience development, programming, audiences, access and sustainability.

We are now pleased to share the 2026 survey report. A huge thank you to all the respondents.

Executive summary

This report gives a state-of-play from a variety of house members, with responding organisations including arts centres, multi-arts venues and theatres at small and medium scale.

In particular, it shares the analysed findings from each of the three sets of respondents - Venue Leaders, Marketeers and Programmers - about their organisation. It also shows how they engage with house (e.g. programming, network events, regular communication, bursaries or training).

Broken down by each group of respondents, some headline findings include:

Venue Leaders

Funding: Within the range of respondents, just over half said they receive funding from a local authority; nearly two thirds receive funding from the Arts Council (40% NPO funding and 25% ACE project or other funding); a quarter of organisations receive funding from councils or local economic partnerships; and a quarter do not receive funding from any of these entities.

Staffing and volunteers: More than half of the organisations have fewer than 20 paid employees. 30% have between 20 and 59, while a small proportion (12%) have more than 80 paid employees. On average, 31% of paid employees work full-time hours. Half the organisations surveyed expect their team size to stay about the same over the next 6 to 12 months. Nearly a third expect growth, while a fifth anticipate a reduction in team size.

46% of organisations report that staff turnover has increased while 54% say it has decreased in the last few years. A survey of house members in 2024 showed that 47% organisations reported staff turnover increased, 41% said it stayed the same, and 11% indicated it decreased. Overall, therefore, the picture is relatively unchanged.

Placing this in a wider context, according to The Audience Agency's report on The State of Touring“consultees reported a net loss of experienced staff, especially freelancers in technical and production, marketing and communications, and producer roles”.

Figure 16 in the State of Touring report shows the key challenges drawn from that survey to the question ‘What do you think are the main challenges for performing arts touring at the moment?’. Open responses included “staffing and workforce wellbeing; skills and availability (esp. marketing, technical); staff churn; the need for support”. A detailed set of findings around recruitment and retention are included in The State of Touring report on page 69.

Just over half of the organisations have between 1 and 3 staff working in community development or engagement. Almost a third of organisations do not employ any staff in this area.

There is a mixed picture regarding volunteers. Just over a third of organisations report no significant change in their reliance on volunteers. A third say they are relying on them more, and just under a third are relying on them less.

Training needs: Those identified include: marketing and audience development; environmental sustainability; building management and operations.

In terms of marketing training needs, this meets a finding in The State of Touring report (p82): “Many of the issues discussed elsewhere… (whether finances, staffing, programming, timelines or audience behaviour and preferences) converge in the marketing of touring work. This explains why it [marketing] was so widely referenced as a key challenge for the sector”.

Regarding environmental sustainability, there has been an increase in policies - from 75% in the previous house members survey in 2024, rising to 81% in this current survey. However, only 6% of respondents indicated they were 'very confident' in their ability to make a difference on sustainability, so this could be a clear areas of focus for support to increase confidence, especially as both budget and lack of staff capacity are cited as being key reasons.

Marketeers

Most marketing teams consist of one or two people (53%); the average size is 2.5 people, with a small number of medium scale organisations having marketing teams of up to seven. Amongst small scale organisations the average is 1.8, and at mid-scale organisations the average is 3.21. Where data was available, marketeers made up on average 13% of organisations’ workforces (17% at small scale organisations, 5% at medium scale organisations).

The majority (57%) of marketeers’ organisations do not have an approach to bringing in new audiences – most often due to a lack of capacity. This raises a key question - how can venues grow audiences if almost two thirds aren't focussed on bringing in new ones alongside their regular attendees? Of those that do have an approach to bringing in new audiences, the majority (62%) updated it this year, and two thirds who have an approach have seen a change in audiences due to this activity.

It is also worth highlighting here the difference between venue leaders indicating a skills gap around marketing and audience development, and marketeers who indicate there might be a lack of capacity.

Programmers

Most programming teams consist of one or two people (89%); the average size is 1.4 people, with a small number having teams of up to seven. Amongst small scale organisations the average is 1.4, and at mid-scale organisations the average is 1.62. Where data was available, programmers made up on average 11% of the workforce (16% at small scale organisations, 4% at medium scale organisations).

Programming:
Nearly all venues’ programmes are sourced in the following ways - re-programming theatre companies who have previously performed at the venue (94%), recommendations from colleagues (92%), seeing live performances (92%), the house tour programme offer (89%) or emails from companies with no previous relationship (83%). A minority of venues source programme via Associate Artists (36%) or produce their programme in-house (28%).

More than half of organisations book their programme 6 to 12 months in advance. In addition to producing or programming theatre and comedy, the vast majority also produce or programme family work (97%), music (92%), community engagement events (83%) and/or workshops (81%).

Just over half of organisations do not plan to produce or programme new types of work, which raises questions about risk, viability and the breadth of the cultural offer to the public. Of those house member organisations that said they do plan to produce or programme new types of work, a third would introduce dance and nearly a fifth would introduce circus. Around half of organisations are prevented from programming new types of work because they are financially risky (57%) or they do not have enough funding (46%).

Audiences: On average, venues reached 62% capacity for all performances in 2025/26. Just over half of organisations decreased their theatre programming in 2025/26, largely due to a decrease in audience size (57%) or financial reasons (47%). This is lower than the c.76% typical for 'core theatre' at venues across the country, as reported in the British Touring Consortium research report (p21). This may indicate a need for further investigation. It is worth noting that ACE’s small scale touring report (not yet published at the time of writing) may give further insights around this.

In terms of reductions in both programming and audiences, house's membership reflects types of venues that are likely to have seen reductions in touring programming, according to The Audience Agency's report on The State of Touring: smaller scale, outside of major cities and including genres such as dance and drama.

Access: Almost all organisations offer access performances. The majority offer relaxed performances (86%), 63% offer BSL interpretation and nearly half offer captioned or audio-described performances. Around half of organisations are prevented from programming more accessible performances because of the difficulties associated with short runs (56%) and a lack of appropriate equipment (44%). This indicates an area for further support required to ensure accessibility.

Image: The Shivers, emma + pj. Photography © Alex Brenner

Previous house southeast theatre network survey results: