Community Theater Green Room Discussion Board: Reviving a Sagging Theater Group

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edh915
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Topic: Reviving a Sagging Theater Group
Posted: 4/25/18 at 4:19pm

No doubt about it. Our theater group has seen better days. Attendance has been falling off for the past five years. We're at 70% of where we used to be.

How do we turn things around?

We have two factions on our board right now. One faction wants to do safe, tried and true, audience friendly plays. The other faction is pushing for doing new, edgy, artistically challenging stuff.

We've tried sort of a mix of things for the last two years, but with no definitive results. We're in the dark and grasping at straws. --- Any ideas?

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jayzehr
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Posted: 4/30/18 at 8:44pm

What kind of community are you in? Unless it's a major city you're most likely not going to improve your numbers doing edgy, artistically challenging stuff. Maybe not even then. Our group had this argument for over 15 years and the numbers were irrefutable: People come to see Rumors and Steel Magnolias. They don't come to weird, new plays no matter how many people tell you that's what they want to see. YMMV.

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jayzehr
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Posted: 5/01/18 at 8:30am

I also wish there were still people here to bounce ideas off. We're down, too. I'm wondering if that's everywhere and maybe has something to do with the current climate of the country? Or maybe the audience is literally dying off? Maybe bad play selection on our part? Outside of children's theater. I"m thinking the safest bets now are big farces with no political or challenging content whatsoever. Fortunately, we have some cushion from the local Arts Council which gives us latitude as far as potential financial losses from more serious productions.

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edh915
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Posted: 5/03/18 at 12:06am

We're close to a major metropolitan area (specifically, Chicago) and many in the group are influenced by what they see being produced there. I tend to agree with you that TV sitcom stuff is more comfortable for our audiences to risk money on. They want entertainment - not a profound artistic experience (even though both are theoretically possible)

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edh915
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Posted: 5/03/18 at 12:09am

You may have a point about our audiences literally dying off. Entertainment comes in a wide variety of forms now. Who'd have ever thought that TV / Cable TV would ever be in danger of extinction? It's all "streaming" now. But how do you stream theater? Maybe we should try touting it as "something old is new again."

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edh915
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Posted: 5/03/18 at 12:11am

Thanks, by the way, for your thoughts. I was beginning to think I had been talking to myself.

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jayzehr
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Posted: 5/03/18 at 11:05am

Yeah, I don't understand what the deal is with this site. I've been getting that "server error" message for years on the main page and thought the site was gone as did everyone else, I'm sure. But somebody still has to be paying for the domain, right? You have to wonder why at this point. If there's a community theater discussion elsewhere on the web I haven't found it. Not on Facebook or Reddit or anywhere else.

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jayzehr
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Posted: 5/03/18 at 12:24pm

If you don't count the people who come because they have some connection to the cast or crew, I'd say the average age of our audience is well over 50. But it seems like it's been that way for years.

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hobbyactor
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Joined: 12/22/11
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Posted: 6/06/18 at 2:43pm

We've had pretty good attendance this year and our season has been somewhat mixed. We started off with a mystery/comedy (Done to Death) and had mostly sell-outs. We did a pretty unknown show for Christmas (Christmas Cactus) and it also sold well. The December slot has historically done well. We did One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest in February and it was sold out most nights. Then Nunsense II, using a large cast. We scheduled a few extra performances and most sold out. Our current show is not selling as well -- Brighton Beach Memoirs. I think it is partly the time slot, but who knows!

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Author	Message
edh915 Celebrity Joined: 11/19/09 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 325	Topic: Reviving a Sagging Theater Group Posted: 4/25/18 at 4:19pm
	No doubt about it. Our theater group has seen better days. Attendance has been falling off for the past five years. We're at 70% of where we used to be. How do we turn things around? We have two factions on our board right now. One faction wants to do safe, tried and true, audience friendly plays. The other faction is pushing for doing new, edgy, artistically challenging stuff. We've tried sort of a mix of things for the last two years, but with no definitive results. We're in the dark and grasping at straws. --- Any ideas?

	IP Logged

jayzehr Celebrity Joined: 8/11/05 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 537	Posted: 4/30/18 at 8:44pm
	What kind of community are you in? Unless it's a major city you're most likely not going to improve your numbers doing edgy, artistically challenging stuff. Maybe not even then. Our group had this argument for over 15 years and the numbers were irrefutable: People come to see Rumors and Steel Magnolias. They don't come to weird, new plays no matter how many people tell you that's what they want to see. YMMV.
	IP Logged

jayzehr Celebrity Joined: 8/11/05 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 537	Posted: 5/01/18 at 8:30am
	I also wish there were still people here to bounce ideas off. We're down, too. I'm wondering if that's everywhere and maybe has something to do with the current climate of the country? Or maybe the audience is literally dying off? Maybe bad play selection on our part? Outside of children's theater. I"m thinking the safest bets now are big farces with no political or challenging content whatsoever. Fortunately, we have some cushion from the local Arts Council which gives us latitude as far as potential financial losses from more serious productions.
	IP Logged

edh915 Celebrity Joined: 11/19/09 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 325	Posted: 5/03/18 at 12:06am
	We're close to a major metropolitan area (specifically, Chicago) and many in the group are influenced by what they see being produced there. I tend to agree with you that TV sitcom stuff is more comfortable for our audiences to risk money on. They want entertainment - not a profound artistic experience (even though both are theoretically possible)
	IP Logged

edh915 Celebrity Joined: 11/19/09 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 325	Posted: 5/03/18 at 12:09am
	You may have a point about our audiences literally dying off. Entertainment comes in a wide variety of forms now. Who'd have ever thought that TV / Cable TV would ever be in danger of extinction? It's all "streaming" now. But how do you stream theater? Maybe we should try touting it as "something old is new again."
	IP Logged

edh915 Celebrity Joined: 11/19/09 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 325	Posted: 5/03/18 at 12:11am
	Thanks, by the way, for your thoughts. I was beginning to think I had been talking to myself.
	IP Logged

jayzehr Celebrity Joined: 8/11/05 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 537	Posted: 5/03/18 at 11:05am
	Yeah, I don't understand what the deal is with this site. I've been getting that "server error" message for years on the main page and thought the site was gone as did everyone else, I'm sure. But somebody still has to be paying for the domain, right? You have to wonder why at this point. If there's a community theater discussion elsewhere on the web I haven't found it. Not on Facebook or Reddit or anywhere else.
	IP Logged

jayzehr Celebrity Joined: 8/11/05 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 537	Posted: 5/03/18 at 12:24pm
	If you don't count the people who come because they have some connection to the cast or crew, I'd say the average age of our audience is well over 50. But it seems like it's been that way for years.
	IP Logged

hobbyactor Lead Joined: 12/22/11 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 47	Posted: 6/06/18 at 2:43pm
	We've had pretty good attendance this year and our season has been somewhat mixed. We started off with a mystery/comedy (Done to Death) and had mostly sell-outs. We did a pretty unknown show for Christmas (Christmas Cactus) and it also sold well. The December slot has historically done well. We did One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest in February and it was sold out most nights. Then Nunsense II, using a large cast. We scheduled a few extra performances and most sold out. Our current show is not selling as well -- Brighton Beach Memoirs. I think it is partly the time slot, but who knows!
	IP Logged