The Palace Theatre is owned by Torbay Council and is run by the team at Jazz Hands - a community interest company. Maureen and her team have been running the theatre for two years and have put on some incredible productions for the locals of Paignton. However, like all other venues around the UK, the theatre had to close and cancel all shows during the pandemic.
Jazz Hands have continued to connect with customers throughout lockdown by being consistently available - positing daily sales updates; keeping their customers in the loop; running community events; asking the public for donations through social media; doing PR and by being honest and genuine about the challenges raised by the pandemic.
By showing behind the scenes videos of Maureen painting the ladies loos or talking about what the team has been up to caring for the theatre during lockdown, the Palace Theatre team is now on first name terms with most of their loyal customers. This has meant they have only lost about 10% of the box office, despite being closed for months on end.
Maureen firmly believes that by putting herself and her team out there daily on social media, being honest, asking for help and keeping her customers up to date, her customers have and will come back and support the theatre.