Smaller theatres are thinking big, getting first dibs on new works

[Karen Lane]

No harm done.  Kinda gets back to the long discussion of how to promote theatre and garner audiences for new work....

Alright - I'm totally jumping the gun here but I'm going to 'announce' something based upon the above statement - even though the announcement is not about 'new work'. It has not been announced as TPS is still in negotiation with one final speaker AND registration details have also not been solidified! BUT, we do want you to save the dates and get ready for that information.

Cultivating New Audiences Seminar Series

This seminar series offers comprehensive and in-depth training in organizational development and patron cultivation for management teams.  Participants will learn from some of the nation’s leading innovators, entrepreneurs and researchers in the fields of marketing and public relations.  With the help of these leaders from both the for profit and non profit arenas, participants will be guided through a hands-on, step-by-step training course in audience engagement; illuminating techniques, skills and new ways of thinking that will allow these companies to strengthen both internally and externally, while simultaneously attracting and retaining the next generation of audiences.

Designed to engage both staff and board members at all levels of management, this seminar is built to encourage a culture shift within each organization by allowing management teams to focus on five key areas of their organizational development and engagement strategies:

•   Understanding & Communicating Your Value – Alan Brown
o   In order to effectively market and develop your organization, every person on your team must understand the value of what your organization provides and be armed with the proper language and framework to effectively communicate that value. 
•   Extending Invitations and Investing in Community – Donna Walker-Kuhne
o   The key to building a stronger organization lies in cultivating genuine relationships within your community.  Building strategic partnerships, creating a culture of generosity and developing new “points of entry” will go further than any marketing budget will ever get you.
•   Engaging the Next Generation – Jerry Yoshitomi
o   The next generation is redefining what is considered arts and culture.  In order to engage them you must first understand them and what they are looking for.  You must be prepared to engage them beyond the art itself. In fact, the art may even be secondary to the experience surrounding it.
•   Creating Attachment & Cultivating Loyalty –
o   You’ve got new people through your doors…so what!  What are you doing to create an enduring relationship?  How do you turn these new patrons into investors and advocates?  How do you do the same for your staff and board members?
•   Patron Retention & Information Management – Rick Lester
o   Your development and box office management teams can have an enormous impact on both cultivation and retention of patrons.  In order to achieve maximum potential in audience development, your organization must have the necessary tools and skills in information management and customer service. 


The series will span the course of three months.  Each month will focus on two of the above topics and will include one large session with a national guest speaker and at least one subsequent session for group discussion and/or a local representative detailing how their organization has achieved success in cultivating the next generation.  The seminar series will culminate with a vendor fair in which participants can learn about various options for practical marketing tools such as patron data management systems and e-mail marketing management.


SPEAKER BIOS

Alan Brown – confirmed July 19, 2008
Alan Brown is a leading researcher and management consultant in the nonprofit arts industry. He has studied audiences, visitors and patterns of cultural participation in almost every major market in the U.S. His work focuses on understanding consumer demand for cultural experiences and on helping cultural institutions, foundations and agencies to see new opportunities, make informed decisions and respond to changing conditions. He has authored numerous articles and reports on audience behaviors, trends in cultural participation, engagement practices and stakeholder value.
Recently, Alan has been writing and speaking about the value system surrounding arts experiences. His essay "An Architecture of Value" appeared in the spring 2006 edition of Grantmakers in the Arts Reader, and serves as the basis for keynote addresses at conferences in Chicago, Los Angeles, Auckland, Sydney, and Edinburgh in 2007.

Donna Walker-Kuhne – confirmed July 20, 2008
Ms. Walker-Kuhne is an accomplished arts administrator and adult educator who has devoted her professional career to increasing the accessibility and connection to the arts by our nation’s rapidly growing multicultural population.  Through her work with local arts organizations, she has raised over $10M in earned income to ensure the artistic visions of arts organizations are experienced by the artists and multicultural community, thus, increasing the growth of a diverse audience into the 21st century.

Ms. Walker-Kuhne has been named one of “The Top 50 Faces Who’ll Be Forces in the Theater’s Future” by Theater Magazine, one of the “Next 40 – The Urban Architects of Today’s Pop Culture” by SoulPurpose.com, recipient of the Dynamic Women Awards by Councilman Nick Perry in Brooklyn, New York and recipient of the SGI-USA Liberty Award.

Ms. Walker-Kuhne is author of Invitation to the Party: Building Bridges to the Arts, Culture and Community, which outlines strategies and methods for inviting, engaging, partnering with and enfranchising diverse communities as participants in arts and culture.

Jerry Yoshitomi –confirmed August 9, 2008
Jerry Yoshitomi has contributed internationally to arts leadership, increasing opportunities for cultural exchange and in creating multicultural collaborations.  His work examines the creation of new knowledge and inventive approaches to the increase of the public value of arts.  Jerry seeks to make the transaction between consumers and arts makers a transaction for the whole of society, engaging communities and their advocates, businesses, artists and art managers and policy makers, in the process.

Jerry is engaged by major national and regional foundations, universities and arts presenters in North America to read, research, provoke and speak on increasing participation in the arts.  He examines creativity, knowledge management, contemporary leadership practices and the augmentation of the public value of the arts across society.

Jerry chaired the National Task Force on Presenting and Touring the Performing Arts that resulted in the 1989 seminal report, An American Dialogue.  He was formerly the Executive Director of the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center in Los Angeles, served on the California Arts Council and was Vice President/Director of Operations for Western States Arts Foundation (now WESTAF).


Rick Lester – confirmed September 13, 2008
Rick Lester is CEO of TRG, one of the largest performing arts marketing consulting and direct response firms in the U.S. Previously, Lester was the president of Lester & Associates, a company he founded following an extensive career as a marketing and public relations professional at the Cincinnati Symphony and the Cleveland Orchestra. His successes in the marketing field led him to positions as president/executive director of the San Antonio Symphony, the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra and the Knoxville Symphony. In each of these organizations, Lester helped achieve records for both earned and contributed revenues. For more than a decade before he founded Lester & Associates, he had also been a freelance consultant to orchestras, as well as to numerous state and national nonprofit organizations. He has assisted with projects for the American Symphony Orchestra League (he was both vice-chair and chair of group 2 orchestra managers and a frequent presenter); the National Endowment for the Arts (he was a member of the NEA’s Challenge Panel for Policy Review); the Pew Charitable Trusts; and the Cleveland Foundation. In 1996, he earned an MBA from Queens College in Charlotte, NC. Lester is a member of the board of trustees of Drury University in Springfield, MO, and is a former trustee of the American Symphony Orchestra League.

[Kent Phillips]

Well done Karen!   It is always fun to bicker, complain and vent on boards.  Great to see this kind of proactive effort to come up with solutions.  Can't wait for the seminars!   

Seems everything, in the end, comes down to money and attendance.   Big and small companies fear new work (or seemingly five year old new work) because it might not pay the bills.  The risk is the same for large and small theatre companies as discussed above.   

Keith, to your point about newspapers.  They are dying because they have failed to evolve and the average readership age is 55+.   Broadcast media is also facing tough times due to the impact of internet revenue, email blasts, telemarketing, zip code profiling, social network marketing and the list goes on.  Both newspaper and broadcast are now finally evolving into other brands and the days of the printed paper you get at home will go the way of the nightly network newscast.   Quaint relics of the past.   Theatre must evolve as well.  How many companies stream new work?  How many put great scenes on podcasts?  How many put fabulous mistakes on youtube or smaller version sites?   This year, as an experiment I used email blasts to targeted social network sites as an experiment.  The cost was 500-1000 per blast.  25 season ticket holders day one, 17 more day two.  Was it worth 500 bucks...Hell yeah!  3700.00 for 500.00 spent.  I'll take that any day.   Five more blasts planned in the next month.   (okay it ain't art and it doesn't get actors juiced up like a great new work but for us producer types that kind of return is better than fine wine!)  Bottom line is if we can generate more dollars we can take more risks at the major theatres, mid-level and small.   

I look forward to learning more.  Thanks for taking the lead Karen.   

[Allen Inman]

As a cyberLuddite, what is this blast you speak of? Some friends of mine are putting up previews and shorts online, and I'd like to pass the information along...

[Keith Dahlgren]

Kent, email blasts are great...email is the communication we use most heavily now. As newspapers once were.

But I want to use these methods to get real people into the theater, because THAT's what it's all about.  I am a fan of youtube (at times), but how do we convince people that the Real Time nature of theater, the Real Actors, the NOW of live theater is what they want to try?

There are so many people out there who don't ever experience theater.

[Louise Penberthy]

I took the Marketing seminar that TPS put on the past couple of weekends.

It was AWESOME!

I learned so much, I'm still reeling.

[Kent Phillips]

Email blasts are emails sent to networking groups.  You target groups that would fit your theatre's profile and purchase the email blast.   For example I have used wine club email blasts, select radio and magazine email clubs that fit my audience such as KING-FM, KWJZ, KPLZ and even tried a singles club blast.    Bascially it is the modern version of a mailing list.    Radio stations, for example, send out a blast once a month with cool offers for their listeners like discounted concert tickets, half price dinners etc.  Singles groups and dating clubs do the same thing. You pay to be on the blast.    There are little twists for each social network email, but you get the idea.    A typical blast costs 100.00-200.00 per 10,000 who recieve the email.   Since the email comes from a club or network they have joined and has offers each month it doesn't tend to end up in the delete trash bin, without at least a quick glance.   The first blast I did last week to the KING-FM listener club of 50,000 netted 37 season ticket holders at a discounted price.  A blast I did this week went to 15,000 and has only netted 6 so far.   So far 1000 dollars for 42 new season ticket holders.   

I am just experimenting and can't recommend this yet cause the first blast may have been just blind luck.   I wouldn't do it for a single show because the cost is to high, but for season tickets it is a calculated risk.   I am a neanderthal in marketing and rather than just guess it will be great to attend the TPS session and look at what really works.

I am working on podcast downloads and other items for use on facebook, myspace and of course our own webpage.   Can't really do it with licensed work without permission, but for new work it is no problem if you have the authors and actors permission.  It is a free ad on your site or others for your show.   It the old days, it is like the picture in the paper...only better!   I envision a day where TPS or Seattleperforms not only has listings of shows, but the best clip from a selected scene or a single song from a show.   Someone finds it funny or compelling and shares it...a show gets word of mouth buzz.   That's how movie's do it.  That's how TV shows do it.  Theatre is sooooo old in its thinking on marketing and we are afraid to explore.   By Spring for the NW premiere of Shopping the Musical I hope to have full podcasts and a download of a killer song from the show on our site and place on every TV and web sharing site.   Would like to do a live stream of one of the performances as well.  My goal is to experiment and find out what works.   I can tell you an ad in the paper, posters and an email or postcard to your internal mailing list isn't the answer anymore. 

[Zac Eckstein]

Kent,

I love you're thinking, and the fact that you're putting into action. I'm also working on getting clips of performances up online as a promotional tool for my company. It's a wide open arena that more of us should jump into.

This email blast thing sounds almost worth it...I could afford $100 bucks...

[Geni Hawkins]

I'm coming a trifle late to this discussion, but I read the article (yes, in the dead-tree edition) and was also a bit disconcerted by the tone of it.  I recently had a slightly contentious exchange with someone on another message board - not a theatre fan, just the sort of ordinary joe that we'd like to entice into the theatre - who maintained stoutly that the smaller theatres were all "amateur."  As in, basically, if you're not the Rep or Intiman, you might as well be a church group theatre.  I think most of us know that is by no means the case in this town; we have a lot of smaller theatre groups doing some very fine work, and some very talented actors who, for whatever reason, are not performing at the big Equity houses.  There are definitely people who think that the cost of the ticket predicts the expected quality of the performance.

Certainly there are shows that really need the full scope of a big budget, a big stage, full-time costumers, etc.  Your basic Miss Saigon probably wouldn't fare too well in a black box.  But how many  shows actually require that level of production?  One of the best shows I've been in personally took a show that normally would have had a half-dozen fussy sets and a bazillion props and did it on an all-black set, with two doors and one desk and chair.  It worked beautifully - the audience wasn't distracted by cheesy attempts to emulate a more-elaborate setup, and the performers could concentrate on the performance, not trying to get some bit of fakery to look natural.  Sometimes we overthink what actually needs to be on the stage.  I'm not saying every production should look like Lars von Trier - there's a danger of edging over into pretentiousness there - but not every show has to be Spectacular Spectacular!

Thankfully, for those of us who are primarily verbal, many plays succeed or fail on the basis of the playwrights' words and our abilities as performers to do justice to those words.  When that works, well, then you have something like Wit, that leaves people stunned with its eloquence.

There is also, to return to the original subject (I do have rather a tendency to wander, don't I?) a definite perception that, if talent has been imported, it must of necessity be better than what's found locally.  Otherwise, why would it have been imported?  And I have to echo Keith's earlier sentiments of Balderdash for that particular idea.  The difficulty, though, is convincing an audience steeped in celebrity culture that someone who's appeared on Broadway or one episode of some crappy TV show is not automatically possessed of some degree of talent or charisma lacking in performers without such credentials.

[Roger Tang]

Thankfully, for those of us who are primarily verbal, many plays succeed or fail on the basis of the playwrights' words and our abilities as performers to do justice to those words.  When that works, well, then you have something like Wit, that leaves people stunned with its eloquence.

There is also, to return to the original subject (I do have rather a tendency to wander, don't I?) a definite perception that, if talent has been imported, it must of necessity be better than what's found locally.  Otherwise, why would it have been imported?  And I have to echo Keith's earlier sentiments of Balderdash for that particular idea.  The difficulty, though, is convincing an audience steeped in celebrity culture that someone who's appeared on Broadway or one episode of some crappy TV show is not automatically possessed of some degree of talent or charisma lacking in performers without such credentials.

This goes back to the marketing.

Instead of convincing the audience that they're wrong (which is a losing proposition no matter what endeavor), perhaps we should back to the drawing board and figure out what they DO want out of local theatre and of small theatre. If they're convinced that "small" theatre is "amateur", then we shouldn't waste any time trying to disabuse them of that notion. The only who can do that is that person themselves.

We need to work around that and figure out what DOES appeal to them. The marketing seminars was focussing on tapping pre-existing networks and pre-existing identification of audience members. Perhaps we can do better by focussing on that.

[Roy Arauz]

"I envision a day where TPS or Seattleperforms not only has listings of shows, but the best clip from a selected scene or a single song from a show.   Someone finds it funny or compelling and shares it...a show gets word of mouth buzz.   That's how movie's do it.  That's how TV shows do it.  Theatre is sooooo old in its thinking on marketing and we are afraid to explore."

Theatre websites such as Broadway.com and BroadwayWorld.com already do this. They have clips for every Broadway show, and cover opening nights like big celebrity events, which in turn creates buzz and anticipation. It would be great if SeattlePerforms could transition eventually into something like that.

[Louise Penberthy]

There is also, to return to the original subject (I do have rather a tendency to wander, don't I?) a definite perception that, if talent has been imported, it must of necessity be better than what's found locally.  Otherwise, why would it have been imported?  And I have to echo Keith's earlier sentiments of Balderdash for that particular idea.  The difficulty, though, is convincing an audience steeped in celebrity culture that someone who's appeared on Broadway or one episode of some crappy TV show is not automatically possessed of some degree of talent or charisma lacking in performers without such credentials.

This goes back to the marketing.

Instead of convincing the audience that they're wrong (which is a losing proposition no matter what endeavor), perhaps we should back to the drawing board and figure out what they DO want out of local theatre and of small theatre. If they're convinced that "small" theatre is "amateur", then we shouldn't waste any time trying to disabuse them of that notion. The only who can do that is that person themselves.

We need to work around that and figure out what DOES appeal to them. The marketing seminars was focussing on tapping pre-existing networks and pre-existing identification of audience members. Perhaps we can do better by focussing on that.

Funny, what I remember from the marketing seminar was that marketing is not figuring out what the audience wants and giving it to them.  Marketing is telling your audience how they benefit from what you do.

[Roger Tang]

There is also, to return to the original subject (I do have rather a tendency to wander, don't I?) a definite perception that, if talent has been imported, it must of necessity be better than what's found locally.  Otherwise, why would it have been imported?  And I have to echo Keith's earlier sentiments of Balderdash for that particular idea.  The difficulty, though, is convincing an audience steeped in celebrity culture that someone who's appeared on Broadway or one episode of some crappy TV show is not automatically possessed of some degree of talent or charisma lacking in performers without such credentials.

This goes back to the marketing.

Instead of convincing the audience that they're wrong (which is a losing proposition no matter what endeavor), perhaps we should back to the drawing board and figure out what they DO want out of local theatre and of small theatre. If they're convinced that "small" theatre is "amateur", then we shouldn't waste any time trying to disabuse them of that notion. The only who can do that is that person themselves.

We need to work around that and figure out what DOES appeal to them. The marketing seminars was focussing on tapping pre-existing networks and pre-existing identification of audience members. Perhaps we can do better by focussing on that.

Funny, what I remember from the marketing seminar was that marketing is not figuring out what the audience wants and giving it to them.  Marketing is telling your audience how they benefit from what you do.

Well, you still have to match that message to the right audience piece. It's not something you can do for all audiences--there's still some awareness of what need you're meeting for what audience. It's more defining or finding AN audience that matches up with what you're doing and developing  a message for that set of people...and the self-identification of that set of people is part of that.

[Louise Penberthy]

Well, you still have to match that message to the right audience piece. It's not something you can do for all audiences--there's still some awareness of what need you're meeting for what audience. It's more defining or finding AN audience that matches up with what you're doing and developing  a message for that set of people...and the self-identification of that set of people is part of that.

Right.  But you don't change your programming because of it.

[Karen Lane]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/thearts/2004401007_artsletters11.html


Letters | Theater size and location don't determine "legitimacy"

I'm the production director out at Whidbey Island Center for the Arts and read Misha Berson's article, "Smaller theaters are thinking big," with great interest. We just fought for and won the rights to David Lindsay-Abaire's "Rabbit Hole" for April 2009. We've never had to fight so hard. Dramatists really wanted the first Seattle production to be professional, and we had many conversations with them about "legitimate" theater.

Which got me thinking: Aren't we all legitimate? Isn't every level of theater a steppingstone to the next and part of the entire art form? Doesn't everyone have to start somewhere?

Those with training, talent and experience who don't get that "lucky break" still have a desire to do professional-quality theater and may have to choose to keep their art in the fringe or community level in order to have a career at all. But isn't it still a legitimate career in the American theater?

Thank you for your comment, "I hope they wind up on whichever stage can truly do them justice," and I would like to add, "and in whatever community most needs/wants to hear that story."

— Deana Duncan,

production director, Whidbey Island Center for the Arts

Send letters to Arts & Life, The Seattle Times, P.O. Box 70, Seattle, WA 98111 or to ljacobson@seattletimes.com. Please include your name, city of residence and phone number for verification. Letters become the property of The Seattle Times and we reserve the right to edit for length or content.


Way to go Deana. Did any one else send in letters? Would have been interesting to read a whole page worth! 

Karen