Streamline Your Box Office with Online Ticket Sales
We live in a twenty-four hour society. Is it reasonable for your patrons to expect you to maintain a twenty-four hour box office? Well, yes! You may already be selling theater tickets online, or you may be wondering how to add that functionality to your website, or whether the return on such an investment would be worth it.
Wherever you are in the process, there’s an easy way to add another portal to your sales arsenal. Ticket River is a new Internet-based service that lets you create a page for your upcoming show and sell tickets right from the website. You don’t need to know anything about creating web pages. It takes literally five minutes to fill out your event information. This site does the rest!
Not only does Ticket River create a page for your event and sell tickets for you while you sleep, it doesn’t cost anything to join or add an event. The only cost is a small, three percent surcharge per ticket sold. You can cover it yourself, split it with your customers, or add it to the cost of their ticket. Most theatergoers don’t mind paying an extra dollar or so for the convenience of purchasing event tickets from the comfort of their own homes. You have the added convenience of being able to accept all major credit cards as well as PayPal.
Whatever your ticketing needs, Ticket River’s got it covered. Create seating charts of your venue and sell reserved seats. Offer different pricing for students, seniors, or advance buyers. You can even use Ticket River to link to TicketPrinting.com, where you can print real paper tickets! In fact, users of this site get a great twenty percent discount on ticket printing.
Ticket River also helps you promote your event with email marketing, embeddable buttons, and easy access to social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. This site even provides all the tools you need to track sales with charts, reports, and search functions. And if you need to offer a refund, or cancel a show, the site makes it a snap.
Ready to move your theater forward into a bold new year? Take Ticket River for a test drive!
If you want to make music, you can do that in your garage, on a subway train, or out in the woods. If you want to sell tickets to your upcoming performance, there’s a little more work involved. Big symphonies have their own box offices, but what about you? Even if you can sell tickets through a box office, can you sell them at 2 o’clock in the morning? Can you serve patrons in the middle of a blizzard, or when you’re short staffed?
Wouldn’t you rather give your fans the option of purchasing concert tickets online?
You don’t need an expensive shopping engine built into your website, and you don’t need to pay a third-party company big bucks to help you advertise and sell your next gig. All you need is a simple application like Ticket River.
It’s the fastest, easiest, most economical way to sell tickets online, providing you with maximum versatility for ticket sales. Whether you’re selling tickets for multiple dates, multiple venues, or multiple levels of access, it’s simple for you to set up your event, create your own page, and start selling tickets. You can even sell tickets for reserved seating events, and choose whether your patrons will print their tickets out at home, or pick them up at will call.
Best of all, this service is free!
It costs nothing to create a page for your concert. The only fee is a 3% surcharge on each ticket sold. You can pay it yourself, pass the cost on to your fans, or split the cost with them. Compared to markups of 50% or greater with online ticket sites like TicketMaster, that’s not much.
Performing a free concert? You can still use Ticket River to ask your guests to check in online, so you know how many to expect. If your part of a nonprofit group, you can even collect donations on the site.
All you have to do is log in, enter your event details, trick out your page with a background and a photo of your choice (if you want) and you’re ready to start selling. Ticket River provides you with links to send to potential guests, tracks all your sales, and handles payments from PayPal and all major credit cards.
You can use this service in conjunction with any other method you’re using to sell tickets, so you’ve got nothing to lose. Help the music-lovers of the world find even more to love about your music: simple, online concert ticket sales.
The Drummer from Minutes Talks Concert Tickets, Social Networks, and Music
His first week of college in the big city (Grand Forks, North Dakota), rural kid Isaac “Ike” Turner attended his first punk show, “and the game was totally over. Honestly,” he says, “it changed my life.” A year later he was officially a drummer in his first band, and fifteen years and a few bands later, he’s still on the scene. Today, the thirty-something musician plays guitar and drums in a “straightforward, economical punk rock” band called Minutes, “the most satisfying music-related experience” of his life.
Punk rockers at work: Minutes is Chafe Hensley, Mark Larmee, Ryan Nelson, and Isaac Turner.
Minutes formed in 2008, counting Wire, Mission of Burma, Fugazi, and Neil Young among their influences. Turner counts his band mates, all experienced musicians, as his best friends and counts his blessings as a musician. Starting with no expectations, including never really expecting to play a single gig, the band has toured across the Midwest and produced an eponymous seven-inch EP (distributed byDischord Records), which, to their great surprise, sold out, and has since been made available as a high-quality free download on the website Bandcamp. Currently, they’re working on a full-length album, as well as collaborating with Seattle indie-rock group The Bismarck on another album.
In regard to giving away free music, Turner is “actually very proud,” about being able to share the EP. “Totally free,” he says. “You can put it on your iPod or burn a hundred copies and give them away. I’m really in support of that type of porous border in music.” Using Bandcamp provided a surprising metric of success for the group, allowing it to reach “a lot of folks that it wouldn’t have otherwise.” Although it’s possible to sell music through the site, as well as merchandise, Minutes has not taken this route.
The cover of Minutes' 7-inch EP, which is available as a free download on Bandcamp.com.
Does giving away free music help sell concert tickets? Turner is skeptical. “At our level, which is very small in comparison to, say, Beach House or Weezer or Danzig, it doesn’t really make much of a dent at all in how many people show up to see us play.”Minutes isn’t working on creating a buzz. Rather, the guys in the band are “hard-hat and lunch box dudes, and have always been very workman-like…lots of touring, lots of recording, no financial success or accolades on any grand scale at all.” They’re making music for their own enjoyment, and they’re happy if their work provides others with the same enjoyment.
If giving away free albums doesn’t get fans to your gig, then, what does? According to Turner, it’s Facebook updates. The post that takes thirty seconds to write is “like a neat little reminder for your entire social group, and sometimes that makes a difference in the folks that come out.” The members of the band make an effort to update their fan page on Facebook a couple of times a month. They also maintain a MySpace profile, which, admittedly, has not been updated in some time, although they do try to respond to all comments left by the five hundred or so fans they have on that site.
For now, leaving messages in online forums for those prepared to seek out their messages works for the band. Turner wouldn’t change their methods: “I don’t think we’re too annoying with our current approach. I certainly do not want to be invading anyone’s inbox.” It’s enough for him “to provide a venue for our information to be available (we’re not recluses, after all, although we like Pynchon and Salinger a lot). I like the balance we’ve struck so far.”
In the real world, Minutes relies on flyers, screen-printed by two members of the band, to announce upcoming shows. What else does a punk rocker need to know about marketing? Not much, according to Turner, who believes “the most important aspect of being in a successful band is to never, ever think about selling yourself at all.” For Minutes, it truly is all about the music: “We happen to make music that we love, and we are lucky to play shows.” They don’t need outside help, and are pleased the band can function “without any intermediaries at all—not one person outside of our band makes decisions for us. Not one. We have no managers or screwballs or anything like that. So, as far as marketing, we really, honestly, can let the music speak for itself.”
True to their punk roots, Minutes keep their expectations low. Asked about his goals for the band, he says, “I hope we can keep practicing once a week or so, write songs, record songs, play shows, ad infinitum.” He’d love to tour again, for a week or two, “not necessarily a marathon one like we used to do” but mostly he’s happy playing great shows with great musicians and creating great experiences. He “would say having no goals is a great goal for us, because then we feel absolutely zero pressure whatsoever.” After a moment’s consideration, he adds, “Wait, let me take that back. I want to finish our album before May. There. That’s my goal.”
If school fundraising is part of your job description, you’re probably well aware of two things:
1) Your school’s financial future depends, in some part, on distributing tickets to your upcoming fund raising event.
2) You’ve got plenty of other things to do in the front office besides distributing tickets.
Do you put the burden of selling Event Tickets on parents and teachers and then deal with the hassle of tracking sales from multiple sources, collecting and verifying money, hounding an unwilling sales team to work harder? Do you depend on the kids to start selling, and deal with the same problems on a grand scale?
How about an option that requires five minutes of commitment on your part, and does all the rest of the work for you?
If you’ve got tickets to sell, we’ve got an app for that.
It’s called Ticket River, and it’s literally the easiest, most reliable, and least expensive way to sell tickets to any school event. Even if you’re not selling tickets, it’s a great way to encourage people to check in to events they plan on attending, so you can get a head count in advance. It even lets you collect donations for your non-profit school!
All you’ve got to do is log on and create a page for your event. It takes about five minutes, and there’s help to help you get started if computers aren’t your thing. You’ll just enter the event information into a template: what kind of event you’re holding, how much tickets cost. You can upload some photographs to liven up the page, and choose a background, as well. And that’s it!
Once you’ve created a page with all your details, all you need to do is direct your students, their parents, and other guests to the URL where they can buy tickets. Ticket River will process credit card or PayPal payments, generate virtual tickets that can be printed out at home, and even track your sales for you. If you’d rather issue your own paper tickets, you can order them from Ticket River’s sister company, TicketPrinting.com, and hold them for attendees as they arrive at the event. The service is completely free: there’s only a small surcharge for each ticket sold (3%—the lowest in the industry), which you can pay yourself, pass on to your customers, or split between the two.
Now, doesn’t that sound a lot easier than waiting for kids to count out their pennies as a line forms around your desk and the phone rings off the hook?
Education Fund Raising and Making Money for Public Schools
Arizona has long lagged in educational funding: typically, the state ranks forty-eighth among American states, with property taxes paying an unusually small percentage of the total, and a greater emphasis on sales and income taxes. An aging and often conservative population does not prioritize school funding and often votes down ballot initiatives designed to bail out financially struggling systems. Parents who care about their children’s education soon learn that it’s up to them to make their local schools great.
Lupe Leon and her daughter in the office of the Community Representative
Lupe Leon is one such parent. Three years ago, she joined the PTA at Lineweaver Elementary, home of the Lineweaver Lions, understanding the importance of being involved in her child’s school and committed to helping out and volunteering whenever possible. With “a passion for helping others,” Leon felt that PTA involvement “would be a great way to support not only the school my children attend but their teachers and administrators as well.”
Today, her support is a huge element in Lineweaver’s success. Not only was she elected PTA president by her fellow parents, she was hired to serve as the school’s Community Representative and also works as Cafeteria Monitor, as well as with the before and after school program, affectionately known as Cub Club.
Responsible for nearly all the fundraising activities that go on at Lineweaver, Leon has her work cut out for her, to the tune of $50,000. That’s the amount she’s committed to raising for the 2010-11 school year. How bad is the shortfall? For the last two years, the PTA has committed to purchasing the school’s paper, pencils, and toilet paper. The school relies on extensive fundraising efforts to fund full-day kindergarten and its spectacular arts program (OMA). The PTA even had to raise the funds for the Cub Club’s license.
Tax Credit Donations and direct donations provide important support. Traditionally, students and parents look forward to seven annual fundraising activities (multiple skate nights, cookie dough fundraiser, original artwork fundraiser, walk-a-thon, spell-a-thon, carnival, and Scholastic book fair) with a new activity, TGIF family dinner night, added this year. Leon divides them into two categories. For corporate activities, such as the skate nights at a local rink, she uses a different metric to measure success. “The thing with corporate fundraisers,” she explains, “is that we only get a certain percentage of the earnings.” Skate nights, for instance, “only raise money if we get more than 60 people.” Rather than worry about money, she sees them as “community building fundraisers. We don’t expect to make a whole lot of money, what we want is for families to come together outside of school and build friendships.”
Homegrown fundraisers, like the walk-a-thon and spell-a-thon, cost very little to stage, and allow the school to keep one hundred percent of the profits. Other activities, such as selling pizza and soda at evening events, usually break even, but don’t add additional revenue to the school’s coffers. Leon explains, “We do those just so families can come out and enjoy an evening with family and not have to worry about dinner.”
Lineweaver Elementary School, home of the Lineweaver Lions
She defines success a little bit differently than some fundraisers. The dollar amount is unimportant: “Like I tell my kids, $20 is $20 more than we would have had.” In her role as Community Representative, she’s equally interested in ensuring that the kids have fun, that families come together, and that the products, such as the extremely popular cookie dough sold each year, are enjoyable. The book fair helps get kids excited about reading, and helps “raise money for our library, which is always in need of upgrading books, or just getting books that kids like, or replacing ones that have been worn out.”
An extensive virtual network “plays a big role” in keeping the lines of communication open. Gone are the days when notices for parents disappeared in the black hole of a messy backpack. Everything is available “via email and our Lineweaver Parent Facebook page,” and, since “Most of our PTA board is on Facebook…we update things constantly.” The PTA also maintains its own email address “where families and friends…email questions and get information.” They’re even “in the process of developing a PTA website.” Communication is key is keeping families and supporters aware of the school’s needs and upcoming activities.
Once you start working as an educational fundraiser, one thing you’ll never lack, it seems, is motivation. Much depends on the success of Leon’s work and she’s well aware of how much rides on raising enough cash to provide students with the basics. “If PTA falls short on fundraising, it affects the whole school,” she says. “It means we cannot help with major things like technology or supplies. Which are two major necessities at our school.”
We have used TicketPrinting.com for every major event our school has had for the past three years. I always get compliments on the posters hanging in the hallway advertising the event, and the tickets we receive always look so nice and make keeping track of our tickets sales easy.
~Kristen Kelly, Event Coordinator
Senior Prom is a special time for high school students. It’s a rite of passage that marks an important part of a young person’s life, a time of celebration and fun. Like any event involving a large number of attendees, a Senior Prom needs to be planned and coordinated carefully to ensure everything goes off without an problem and everyone has a good time.
I recently had the opportunity to discuss, Cleveland Heights High School 2011 Senior Prom with its coordinator, Kristen Kelly. Commonly called just “Heights,” the high school was founded in 1901. With an enrollment of approximately 1,800 students, the high school is built around a model of smaller schools within the main one, which allows faculty to offer a unique learning experience to its students.
The Senior Prom was held on June 3, 2011. Kristen tells me, ” The Prom went off without a hitch. The students all looked lovely, the dinner was wonderful and they had a great time dancing. Some of them wore masks that they had made at home. The students seemed to think the best part was the dancing. They really like the DJ this year. They also enjoyed the crowning of the prom king and queen.”
In an academic environment, the primary focus is making sure students are spending their time learning. Faculty and staff have to maintain a fine balance when preparing for events like prom. Of course, they want to make sure students get excited about the event and have a great time, but they also need to make sure they are paying attention to their lessons. I asked Kristen how they managed ticket sales this year?
“We sold tickets after school 3 days a week for a month, which worked well for our Seniors. It gave them plenty of time to arrange to purchase their tickets, and didn’t interrupt the school day.” Kristen told me. Students had plenty of opportunity to buy their prom tickets outside of class hours.
For someone planning a similar event, Kristen offers this advice: “Make sure to stay organized, publicize, and have plenty of chaperones. Having a company that specialized in event planning take care of the event ensures that it runs smoothly.”
Whether you’re planning a themed Senior Prom or a Fundraiser for your school, you will find plenty of customizable tickets and collateral to match your needs in the TicketPrinting.com design gallery.
Thanks again, Kristen and Cleveland Heights High School for sharing your experience and advice with TicketPrinting.com. Best wishes and congratulations to your 2011 Graduating Class.
At our core we are a technology company. Technology drives everything we do, from the website experience to our enormous template inventory to customer support to our order management system and finally to the actual digital press printing. Given this, it’s critical for us to grow and nurture technology education, specifically, computer science. To this end, we announced today the creation of two new scholarships at Montana State University:
These scholarships are focused on undergraduate computer science students from rural Montana, specifically towns with 5,000 or less in population. As we grow, we hope to expand the scholarship program to several universities around the globe again with a focus, or preference for students from rural areas.
Why the focus on rural? Great question. We believe that rural America is a phenomenal place from which to serve our customers not only across North America but the world. Many of our team members were raised on nearby ranches. A ranch is a family business. Growing up on a ranch, caring for animals, and pulling together as a family forms the values that run our business everyday: teamwork, customer-focused, quality, intensity, growth (individual and company), innovation, and ownership — every full-time employee in our company is a part-owner.
Why just computer science? Although we have many disciplines in our company — graphic design, customer service, online marketing, business strategy, software development, and more — we have focused these scholarships on computer science. Ecommerce software and hardware are the engines that run TicketPrinting.com and TicketRiver.com every day. These engines run on the internet, the most empowering technology and network the world has ever seen. Combining the two into a compelling and competitive business model empowers a small company like us to compete globally. We have ‘exported’ our engines and business model to the UK and Australia with plans to do more expansion in the future.
At the elemental core of all of this is computer science, and that’s why we are so excited to announce these scholarships with Montana State University.
Are you ready to try something different when it comes to marketing your theatre? Ready to reward your fans and benefactors with a little token of your esteem? Ready to boost your box office numbers with some stealth marketing or merchandising? If you’re looking for a low-cost, low-effort, and low-maintenance way to raise your visibility in the community, consider selling or distributing custom publicity stickers.
New Life for Old Designs
Most modern theatres have probably already paid someone a fair amount of money to design an eye-catching banner for their website. Well, that banner is the perfect digital file if you want to create the perfect Bumper Sticker. If you like the design, why not give it new life and new mobility, allowing it to move about your city and spread the word for you? Printing a stack of Bumper Stickers is cheaper than renting a billboard, and those stickers go everywhere. While potential customers are stuck in traffic, they could be memorizing the URL to your website, conveniently printed on the car in front of them.
Or, work in a smaller format. Do you use a recognizable logo when you advertise your theatre? This can translate into a sticker, too. Economy Stickers come in all shapes and sizes, and they’re versatile and eminently affordable. Vinyl Stickers are all that and more: they’re weatherproof and UV-resistant, so you can stick them on outdoor surfaces, or in a well-lit window, and they last for years.
New Designs for New Life
If you don’t already have a design in mind, you can get creative. Find one that relates to an upcoming show or season. Or, hold a contest and ask patrons to design a logo for you. It’s a great way to get the community involved, create extra publicity, and generate buzz around your website. Let patrons vote for their favorite design, online or when they visit the theatre.
Printing custom stickers for your theater is not expensive, and small print runs are available. You can create a range of designs and sizes for different spaces and different budgets. Nice stickers may become a collector’s item, and some fans will want to collect the entire run.
Where Are You Going to Stick that Thing?
Depending on how much effort you intend to put into this marketing campaign, there are a few choices concerning what you’ll actually do with your stickers once you receive them. The easiest answer, of course, is sell them, either in your box office, or on your website. Cheaper than T-shirts and more versatile than programs, stickers make cool souvenirs. Some patrons will want them for guitar cases, car windows, dorm walls, or decoration of small items like notebooks or laptop computers. That’s a lot of exposure.
If money is less of an issue than visibility, you can give some of your stickers away. These could be small prizes in a contest or small gifts to thank loyal theatergoers. Or, think bigger: distributing these stickers to a general audience could result in advertising in places you wouldn’t expect. Visit arts festivals and similar events, anywhere you might expect to find lovers of the arts, and pass out a certain number of stickers. Small children have a habit sticking them in the most unusual places. At large events, you can stick them directly on people’s shirts in the morning, and all day long, they’ll share your message.
Stealth marketing takes the most effort, but, properly done, realizes a huge return. Sticker design is essential: you must create something that makes viewers take notice. It’s especially effective if the design elicits questions in the viewers’ minds. If you’ve thought of a phrase or image which will inspire people to want to follow up and learn more and (this part is essential) you’ve included your website on the sticker, you can drive traffic to the website and create new patrons.
This technique is most effective if you can stick your stickers in surprising places. Ask around: you may be able to create a campaign by placing your stickers in unusual spots in bars, art galleries, schools, and other facilities where potential patrons may be found. Bathroom stalls are a good choice, if you have permission, as are bus shelters, and well-traveled footpaths. Use your creativity and imagination. Get them where they’ll be seen, and noticed.
Change Is Good
Marketing your theatre can be trying, especially in an economic downturn, but you can get a big return on a little investment if you’re willing to try something unusual. Where will you hang your publicity?
The year is 2010 and the face of live theater has changed. Around the globe, money is tight, attention spans are short, and approaching-infinite hours of free entertainment are available 24 hours a day in the privacy of the viewer’s home. The new millennium, it might seem, has not been friendly to a venerable tradition that asks patrons to pay for the privilege of turning off their cell phones, sitting in one place for three hours, and listening quietly without offering any opinions beyond appropriately placed applause, laughter, and perhaps an occasional and well-deserved hiss.
Not a friendly environment in which to create a successful new company.
But live theater isn’t dead: far from it. Your company offers an experience that cannot be replicated in front of a computer monitor. It’s hard, sweaty, uphill work, but hot new companies are making their mark, inspired by the bonds of friendship and their passion for acting.
Who are these starry-eyed optimists, and how are they faring?
Trial by Fire, based in Eugene, Oregon, is founder Benjamin Newman’s lifeline in a hostile world. Reborn over and over again from the ashes of projects going back as far as 1999, the group achieved what seems to be a sustainable critical success this year.
Aerial Angels and Stand Up 8, the brainchildren of writer-director-actor Allison Williams, are based out of Kalamazoo, Michigan, but have developed as traveling troupes, presenting their unique brand of circus arts all around the world since 2003.
And making their mark in film-saturated Los Angeles, California, title3, founded by reunited classmates Lane Allison, Molly Leland, Jane Montosi, and Jiehae Park, has waded into the water with their first production and found it inviting.
The Backstory
So, how does one create a theater company with no money, no space, and no history? Is love of the stage enough to succeed?
Johnny Ormsbee as The Hactor in Trial By Fire's RUBY BY THE RIVER (2006). Photo by Michael Brinkerhoff.
Benjamin Newman would say that, for some, it isn’t even a choice. He recalls the mantra, offered by countless professionals across the country: If you can imagine yourself doing something else, then this is not where you belong. “I have tried,” he says, “but I cannot. Where I have veered from my path, life became confusing and disorienting, a series of challenges which I was unable to face, because I had no support, no grounding, no definition.” If the creative path is an actor’s North Star, dedicated performers, must, like Newman, return again and again, to trod the boards, regardless of the outcome. Or, as Allison Williams says, “truly motivated people don’t fail—they have learning experiences in which money is lost or creative dreams go unrealized, but it’s not failure unless they walk away without being educated by it.”
So the short answer is yes, if your love is strong enough, passion can carry the day. But the long answer, of course, is that love is merely the propeller that moves you forward through each new script, new rehearsal, new production, new season. Love lets you persevere. Today’s artists must also carry with them a new toolbox: the gear if the information age.
The Setting
Aerial Angel Spike (Zay Weaver) performs a free street show at Covent Garden in London England. Photo by Fehmi Comert
The old ways are disappearing, according to Williams. Traditional theater is “extremely boring and pointlessly irrelevant and ridiculously overpriced. Its audience is literally…greying out and dying. Subscription theatre is fading away—nobody under 40 ever wants to see another kitchen sink drama ever again—watching Death of a Salesman once in high school was enough.” The future, it seems, is in finding new ways of telling stories. We may be telling the same stories as those who came before, Newman argues, but we tell them through the lens of our own perceptions, so that each new telling provides a new understanding. Though all the stories may have been told, we still must “let each man and woman have their turn” in telling so that we do “not simply honor one voice, but all voices.”
This philosophy was the nucleus of title3’s origin. The group evolved organically out of a weekly writer’s group, where participants began to focus on women’s experience and the place of the female voice in the arts. While simply complaining got them nowhere, they realized, “we could generate the kind of change we hoped for. Thus, our company mission: dedication to the creation of innovative work with an emphasis on providing opportunities for women in the arts.” And so, another company was born, one working within the parameters of the modern world.
With its focus established, title3 reports that, “doors opened and people aligned in ways we never would have thought possible.” LA, perhaps, needed title3’s perspective as much as title3 needed a forum in which to present it.
It’s not surprising, then, that for their first production, they chose a new play by Constance Congdon, called Paradise Street, one that required an all-female cast. Trial by Fire, in earlier incarnations, performed works written by Newman himself. Although less concerned with modernity, they have created a focus on outsider voices, first making a success of Kiss of theSpider Woman and now opening Alfred Jarry’s surrealist work Ubu Roi.
The Properties
Chip Sherman and Benjamin Newman in TRIAL BY FIRE's Kiss Of The Spider Woman (2010). Photography by Jon Meyers.
In the 21st century, the default setting for multiple voices is, of course, the Internet, and those with stories to tell cannot ignore the power of the web for communicating their message. Successful modern theaters understand the need to harness those channels. Newman exults in the possibilities of a world where “artists who have just begun their career can simply be stumbled upon, and more forms of expression, such as film, music, writing, photography, and painting, are just a click away.”
By this point, even most traditional old theaters have at least begun to make a place for themselves in cyberspace, but the vanguard is completely comfortable there: the Internet is their living room, their office, and their playground. They no longer conduct letter-writing campaigns; they send mass emails. They don’t rely on print media to spread the word; they create their own websites from which to launch publicity drives, drum up support, issue press releases, and spread the word.
For title3, there was no question that web presence went hand-in-hand with a new venture. They began not only with a website, but also with a strong presence on social media channels such as Facebook. To date, they have successfully shared photos on their website and Facebook pages, and they are in the process of developing video content that illustrates their process: recordings of rehearsals and “other interactive offerings.”
In fact, title3 considers itself “a multimedia production company.” They began with theater, because that was what they knew, but ultimately they “also have a goal to use multimedia in our theater work and hopefully expand to other media in future.”
Allison Williams also understands the driving force of Web 2.0 for creating a vibrant community of fans and attracting new patrons. Explaining the power of social networking, she says, “being ‘friends’ rather than an advertiser is powerful and important.” She’s also comfortable posting not only teasers, but also entire acts, on YouTube. The way she sees it, “our enemy is not piracy but obscurity.”
Drew Tydeman as Dopey in Trial By Fire's BALM IN GILEAD (2003). Photo by Jon Meyers.
For modern theaters, there can be no conflict between these two modes, and offering up some content in public forums can only lead to positive publicity. Williams explains, “The experience of seeing it live is fundamentally different than a YouTube experience,” and, she even goes so far as to say, “live theatre has an edge over movies.” In the twenty-first century, offering a few tantalizing tastes—or even an entire serving—only whets the viewers’ appetites for the real experience: live theater, performed by real human beings in front of real human beings. On demand content is wonderful, but it is no substitute for an event that cannot be paused, that has a life independent of the viewer’s decision to hit the play button.
While title3 calls the Internet “a primary driver of both publicity and ticket sales,” and, through tracking, learned “that Facebook and email were effective in mobilizing people to attend our performances,” Williams’ traveling show reports that only a small percentage of their ticket sales take place online, with the majority purchased at the door. However, they’ve used other modern tactics to boost sales, such as Street Crew. According to Williams, “it’s personal contact that sells a lot of tickets.” Sending supporters out to stump for the show, offering deals such as free admission if you bring 3 friends or hang 10 posters, helped them boost attendance and create new fans. Newman agrees: in his mind, the Internet is a great boon for communication, up to a point, but, he says, “there is simply no substitute for human contact.”
The lesson here is that you can’t ignore either end: you’ve got to utilize all the technological tools in your arsenal, and you must continue making direct contact with patrons. You may simply need to get creative on both sides.
The Backers
Allison Williams eats fire in a free street show in Budva, Montenegro. Photo by Dragan
Trial by Fire has recently filed for nonprofit status and begun to apply for grants and search out new sponsors in anticipation of running a full season in 2010/2011. Newman himself has sunk a great deal of his own capital into getting shows produced in the past, and, like many producers, watched the dual evolution of a critical success alongside a fiscal failure. Now, it looks as if Trial by Fire is finally poised to achieve solid financial ground.
While Trial by Fire’s evolution was long and convoluted, inextricably tied to Newman’s emotional state and his own determination to try again, title3’s first production came together in a more surprising way. Just as the group had begun discussing a production, they were offered a space “on very appealing terms.” The only catch was that the slot was only 2 months in the future, “an insanely short period of time to rehearse and put up a show, much less choose the show, do preproduction, and set up a company.”
But, the group was dedicated to following through. How did they get funding in such a short period of time? They made direct appeals, sending letters to everyone they knew: family, friends, former professors. Rather than simply asking for money, they explained their mission statement and helped donors understand how their contributions would further that cause. They also filed for fiscal sponsorship through Fractured Atlas so they could receive tax-deductible donations. The next step for title3 will be to increase their fundraising efforts, and to begin applying for government grants.
Benjamin Newman and Tara Wibrew in TRIAL BY FIRE's Beirut (2008). Photography by Michael Brinkerhoff.
Stand Up 8 took a different, and very modern approach, to finding funding. Conceived as a for-profit venture, the group originally hoped to find 80 donors willing to contribute $1000 apiece. Williams says, “I thought we’d start with our parents and move outward from there, but then a friend told me about the Canadian reality TV show Dragons’ Den.” They auditioned, got on, and hit big, attracting investor W. Brett Wilson, now a half-owner of Stand Up 8.
For the Aerial Angels group, Williams keeps the overhead low. The Angels usually perform at street festivals and similar outdoor events. They often book gigs that are paid in advance,
Allison Williams and M.A. Harrison perform acrobatics on a grand piano in Stand Up Eight. Photo by Dan Lines
but just as often they conclude their shows with a hat pass. Williams explains, “We get paid by doing an amazing show that connects with people on a personal level, by touching their hearts and their funny bones to get to their wallets.” She can easily see that the more joy she brings to her audience, the more money she makes. “We offer a 30 minute escape with awe and wonder and comedy, and we ask for the price of a cup of fancy coffee, and the people who can afford to pay subsidize the people who can’t.”
For Williams, nonprofit status wasn’t worth the effort. She found “the level of hassle and paperwork is so tedious it wasn’t worth the piddling grants,” and feels that receiving adequate grants requires employing full-time grant writers. “Frankly,” she says, “I’d rather just go out and make the money without the strings.” Williams, who has written, directed, and starred in dozens of stage productions, makes good use of her experience and consummate can-do attitude to really make live theater pay off. Her belief is that, if you are selling a desirable product, people will buy it, and you can feel good about encouraging them to do so. If it’s not good enough to sell, she says, “start over with a better product.”
She attributes some of her ease at selling performance as a product to “being a non-fourth-wall performer,” who constantly connects with the audience. Selling herself onstage is the same as selling herself before the show. At the same time, she acknowledges, “I’ve done my fair share of Shakespeare, and marketing that is the same process, so maybe more serious theatre people should be thinking like circus artists.”
Curtain Calls
Emmy Walker, Jun Ogura, Julianna Zarzycki, Tara Wibrew, and Harry John Shephard in TRIAL BY FIRE's Angels In The Architecture (2008). Photography by Bing Putney.
Live theater, Williams believes, is ready for a revival. Audiences “do still want to see stories and connect with humans and be a part of an experience they can’t have with their TV, they just don’t always know they want it and they’re unwilling to pay more than their phone bill to find out.” The women of title3 agree that one of the greatest challenges to modern theater is that younger generations have less exposure to theatre and arts in general. For one thing, “school arts programs are disappearing,” so “children won’t have theater as a frame of reference.” As technology captures a greater share of entertainment, young adults “may choose to spend their entertainment dollars on other mediums simply due to the fact that they don’t really know what theater is or means.”
But companies like Stand Up 8, title3, and Trial by Fire are committed to combating those attitudes. The world needs live theater, and the modern world needs a modern theater. Modern theaters must make their own way and recreate the ancient art. Newman reminds us that our dearest dreams are not presented to us “in a nice little package all wrapped up with a bow on top. You have to fight for them, you have to travel long distances to find them, and most importantly, you have to make them for yourself.”
Using Quality Wristbands for End-of-School-Year Fun Days
Some schools host an annual Field Day, full of outdoor activities and competition, but when I was in elementary school, our last day of school was called Fun Day. It was a day of games and fun in the schoolyard, and we played Tug-of-War and other classic games. Sometimes classes or grades were pitted against one another, other times we played boys versus girls, or chose our own teams, but most administrators today understand how that can get out of hand. If you want to keep any event organized, the addition of Event Wristbands can be a great boon. You can make your school’s Field Day or Fun Day an organized and successful day of excitement for all involved, with customized, colored wristbands, which provide teachers and kids alike with a visual way of remaining with their given teams.
*Designing the Wristbands: Use the opportunity of using customized, colored wristbands to add some flair to the day! In advance of the big day, you can allow teams to create their own designs, hold an all-school contest to choose everyone’s favorite logo, or use an image you already have on file, such as your school’s icon or mascot. Then, you can print your wristbands online, creating wristbands that define your teams, provide your school with some extra advertising, and serve as souvenirs of the best day ever.
*Getting Students Involved in the Design: Teachers may desire to have their students choose a team name and design their own logo. These can easily be added to the wristband. Just get your kids into their teams and ask them to work together to decide on a name, a color, and a design or logo for their team. Provide them with stickers, stencils, and pictures for inspiration. Animal pictures can really inspire some creative mascots. This activity can set the tone for the whole day of games and fun, fostering a sense of teamwork and creative thinking even before the kids get outside. Remember, durable, waterproof DuPontTyvek wristbands will really withstand the wear and tear of your active students.
*Activities for Colored Wristbands: In addition to Tug-of-War, other games can also utilize the color-coded wristbands that will keep your teams organized on this fun, yet chaotic, day in the schoolyard. Classic games like tag and a safe, less physical version of Red Rover all will work well with the colored team wristbands, which also make it easy to join smaller groups together to create bigger teams. Try other games like kickball and even fun trivia games that use knowledge learned throughout the school year, and be sure to ask the students for their input. Their ideas may surprise you! Whatever you choose, being able to identify and organize your students based on easily visible wristbands will make transitions fast and simple.
*Turning the Wristbands into Keepsakes: After coming in from the outdoors, teachers may plan arts and crafts activities that use the wristbands from the day. Many parents keep scrapbooks of their children’s activities, so a keepsake will be very much appreciated by the parents. Something as simple as mounting the wristbands on colored construction paper that the kids may decorate would work, or something as complex as turning it into a craft object like a pencil holder can also create a keepsake for students and parents.
Durable quality colored wristbands that are waterproof will stand the test of activity in the schoolyard, as well as the test of time as a keepsake. Keeping large, active school events organized and fun is very important to keeping the day safe, efficient, and fair for all. Colored wristbands are a great way to achieve a successful school event like Fun Day!
We live in a twenty-four hour society. Is it reasonable for your patrons to expect you to maintain a twenty-four hour box office? Well, yes! You may already be selling theater tickets online, or you may be wondering how to add that functionality to your website, or whether the return on such an investment would be worth it.
