If you are engaged in presenting shows on either the professional or the amateur stage, your very first aim, after making sure your production is of the highest quality, is to see you do not lose money if you can possible help it. One has to be practical on this point.

The way to ensure solvency is to sell tickets. Empty seats, or a 'paper' house, (an audience made up of holders of complimentary tickets) will not pay your rent, the royalties on the play or buy materials to make scenery and costumes. Another point worth considering is that empty seats are bad for the morale of your company.

You will not fill your seats if no one knows about you shows. It is your prime concern to see that as many people as possible know when and where your forthcoming production is to be staged.

Advertising is expensive, but it must be done. If you are enterprising, it is possible to get quite a lot gratis. Your local paper is there to let the residents in your area know what is happening around them. Once you let your local reporters know that you are doing something worth noting, then you need never fear that your activities will be missed. I have had four calls from papers and news agencies today, asking me if I have anything interesting to tell them about our production next week. Any interesting anecdote about your organisation would be of interest to the newsmen.

Last October we produced Twelfth Night. In this play the two characters Sebastian and Viola are twins. Frequently when this play is presented, these two characters look anything but twins. In our production they were taken by a brother and sister. Whilst not twins, they were sufficiently alike to look more convincing twins than is usual in productions of Twelfth Night. This fact was enough interest to the local paper for them to put a paragraph in the paper about it. This was publicity. Publicity is the lifeblood of a theatre. Once you neglect to let the public know what you are doing and you are doomed to extinction, unless you can find a wealthy patron.

When we plan a new season, we let the papers know our programme. If we make a change in policy or decide on any new venture, then the pressmen are informed.

Sometimes a special feature is made in a particular production about one of our departments. It may be that we are doing some special costumes, or some awkward property is giving us trouble. When we did Rumplestiltskin we needed a spinning-wheel. The press put this out for us, and it was actually the wife of one of the drama critics on an evening paper who lent us the very type of wheel we wanted.

In the Willow Pattern Dream we wanted a real Pekinese dog. Again the press advertised for us. We got the dog. Furthermore, the lady who owned it bred pekes. She was so delighted that her dog had helped us she gave it to me. I would dearly have liked to accept, but I had a dog at home. It was a very jealous animal and, had I taken the little peke home, murder would have been committed. I explained to the lady, and she allowed me to give it to one of our girls.

We usually depute two members to be responsible for the publicity. We have not organised it as well as we should like, but this has not been possible because of shortage of help. Because of this deficiency individuals have had too much to do.

For every show we have about two hundred posters and a thousand handbills printed. All these are distributed throughout the borough. Every school receives a notice and a booking form. During the last four seasons we have had large posters on three railway sites. These are fairly expensive costing us eight pounds.

It is possible for posters to be done in the art lesson if one could find a head teacher who would co-operate. We have also hired a loudspeaker van and toured the district.

Of course if you can get on the radio or television, you have a vast audience. I did my first broadcast about the Theatre in November, 1945, when we had just started. On 22nd May, 1957, in the programme Youth Wants to Know at the Granada Studios in Manchester, we took part in the edition of this series entitled, 'Don't put your daughter on the stage, Mrs Worthington'. About fifty of our members took part.

In July, 1963, on the Home Service programme, in the series People Today. I and some of the youngsters broadcast. This was repeated in January, 1965, and gave us great publicity. Geoffrey Howard produced it, brilliantly, I considered. We again appeared on television in ABC at Large when we did The Lady's Not for Burning.

We are often mentioned in magazines like Lancashire Life, and local clubs and churches display our posters on their notice boards.

Our social activities result in newspaper reports. The Lancashire Education Department issue a glossy magazine entitled Lancashire Education. I am asked to contribute news of our activities. The well-known magazine Amateur Stage welcomes particulars of shows for inclusion in their notices of forthcoming productions in the amateur world. We always send particulars of shows to the BBC in Manchester for inclusion in The Week Ahead. We have attempted to issue a news sheet called Tabs Away. It went for a few issues and I am hoping to revive it soon. I would like a new issue at each production.

It is necessary in this age of screaming headlines and public probes into the idiosyncrasies of private lives to keep your notices constantly hammered out in any way you can. The butterfly minds of the public seldom settle for above two or three seconds on any topic.

Our new idea of going out on tour will prove of much value. It will complement the lecturing I do about our work. As we generally keep a pictorial record of each show, I am able to illustrate my lectures. I visit Training Colleges, Townswomen's Guilds, Women's Institutes, Rotary Clubs, churches and similar organisations.