Community Theater Green Room Discussion Board: Need cheaper publicity

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Kathy S
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Joined: 8/21/04
Location: United States
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Posts: 303

Posted: 1/23/05 at 12:07am

Last year after each production I asked our box office manager to see that I got names and addresses from the checks that came through the box office. Our mailing list has grown from around 350 names to over 500. We started out just mailing to our members, but realized that if we maintain contact with our audience through out the year we might be able to turn some of them into members too. It seems to be working.

It is important to experiment and try lots of different things, I think. Also important is to have someone in the organization like our friend Stagestar200 who is willing to pour her/himself into publicizing the show! Good work! Stay in touch and keep those good ideas coming!

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Scott B
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Joined: 12/08/04
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 239

Posted: 1/23/05 at 1:54am

Kathy,

I appreciate the information you sent me. The post cards look like a great idea.

I've already taken your idea of the dinner theatre up with our new board (of which I'm now president). We typically have been performing in a church that has a nice dining facility in the basement. I believe we'll ask them if they're interested in a joint venture for one of the evenings. We'll allow them to provide dinner to generate funds for the church. They'll promote it within the church and we'll be sending out flyers or post cards with the info as well.

I would think this would be a win/win situation for both of us.

Joining this forum has already paid off!

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Kathy S
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Joined: 8/21/04
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 303

Posted: 1/23/05 at 3:16pm

We have observed that we have more ideas than we have time or people to implement them, so it works well to share some of the opportunity with the church, for example. We decided we didn't really want to be in the food service business. Producing plays was plenty for us to focus on. There are also refreshments served at every show's intermission and when we started out, we solicited goodies from our membership and volunteers and put out a basket for donations. But again, we found that it would serve us just as well to give that opportunity to other groups in the community, so now we have service groups of all kinds who are willing to do a nights refreshments and gain some visibility and some cash for their programs. And we look good, too.

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Kathy S
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Joined: 8/21/04
Location: United States
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Posts: 303

Posted: 1/23/05 at 3:17pm

I should also mention that it brings new people into our theatre, too, which is always a plus.

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dougb
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Joined: 3/30/04
Location: United States
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Posts: 148

Posted: 1/24/05 at 12:16pm

A while back we started opening up our Dress Rehearsal to a local non profit organization as a dinner theater as a "Sneak Preview" before "Opening Night". All it costs us is another nights royalties plus some lost revenue from people who come to the fund raiser. They put on a dinner, charge whatever they want (usually about $25) and keep everything that comes in. We do the performance after dinner. We get an appreciative audience for our Dress Rehearsal and get the word of mouth moving sooner.

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Stagestar2000
Guest
Guest

Posted: 1/24/05 at 12:50pm

Dinner Theatre -

Eileen Moushey "Mysteries by Moushey" has great murder-mystery dinner theatre scripts

www.mysteriesbymoushey.com We are doing "Dr. Disco" in may

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Kathy S
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Joined: 8/21/04
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 303

Posted: 1/28/05 at 12:25am

We realized that we could cut some expenses by emailing some of our patrons instead of sending post cards through the regular mail. So we will verify the email addresses, and request permission to contact them this way (so it's not considered spam) and send as many electronic versions of our post cards out as possible by email. We will be able to reduce our postal mailing list by 135.

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looking2bcast
Player
Player

Joined: 10/05/05
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 21

Posted: 10/05/05 at 8:02pm

We use posters for both the auditions and the shows. We have found a business that will give us color 11X17 posters for .43 cents a poster. We then get about 150 of them. Each one of the board members then have a route that they put the posters up in local businesses that will allow us to do it (good to find out who the supporters are). We have enough of us that there is usually only 15 or so per person. We also have the actors take some and put it up wherever they can. We put the posters for auditons in different places depending on what kind of crowd we want to try out (like we just recently posted the Rocky Horror Show in several of the local bars colleges etc). We then use psas on the local tv,newspaper and radio stations. We also have an advertising deal with the local radio stations where they will match us dollar for dollar on all of our ad dollars since we are non-profit. We then get the local businesses to sponcer the ad. Because they are getting it half price they cant turn it down. We also use NPR alot which is the PBS of Radio (they broadcast nationwide so find the one closest to you). Then we do the chamber mailings too. We also switched to an online ticket service that keeps track of all of our customers and what type of shows they attend so we target customers that tend to see the same kinds of shows over and over as well. Then we do several other little things but that is the bulk of it.

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Author	Message
Kathy S Celebrity Joined: 8/21/04 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 303	Posted: 1/23/05 at 12:07am
	Last year after each production I asked our box office manager to see that I got names and addresses from the checks that came through the box office. Our mailing list has grown from around 350 names to over 500. We started out just mailing to our members, but realized that if we maintain contact with our audience through out the year we might be able to turn some of them into members too. It seems to be working. It is important to experiment and try lots of different things, I think. Also important is to have someone in the organization like our friend Stagestar200 who is willing to pour her/himself into publicizing the show! Good work! Stay in touch and keep those good ideas coming!
	IP Logged

Scott B Celebrity Joined: 12/08/04 Online Status: Offline Posts: 239	Posted: 1/23/05 at 1:54am
	Kathy, I appreciate the information you sent me. The post cards look like a great idea. I've already taken your idea of the dinner theatre up with our new board (of which I'm now president). We typically have been performing in a church that has a nice dining facility in the basement. I believe we'll ask them if they're interested in a joint venture for one of the evenings. We'll allow them to provide dinner to generate funds for the church. They'll promote it within the church and we'll be sending out flyers or post cards with the info as well. I would think this would be a win/win situation for both of us. Joining this forum has already paid off!
	IP Logged

Kathy S Celebrity Joined: 8/21/04 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 303	Posted: 1/23/05 at 3:16pm
	We have observed that we have more ideas than we have time or people to implement them, so it works well to share some of the opportunity with the church, for example. We decided we didn't really want to be in the food service business. Producing plays was plenty for us to focus on. There are also refreshments served at every show's intermission and when we started out, we solicited goodies from our membership and volunteers and put out a basket for donations. But again, we found that it would serve us just as well to give that opportunity to other groups in the community, so now we have service groups of all kinds who are willing to do a nights refreshments and gain some visibility and some cash for their programs. And we look good, too.
	IP Logged

Kathy S Celebrity Joined: 8/21/04 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 303	Posted: 1/23/05 at 3:17pm
	I should also mention that it brings new people into our theatre, too, which is always a plus.
	IP Logged

dougb Celebrity Joined: 3/30/04 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 148	Posted: 1/24/05 at 12:16pm
	A while back we started opening up our Dress Rehearsal to a local non profit organization as a dinner theater as a "Sneak Preview" before "Opening Night". All it costs us is another nights royalties plus some lost revenue from people who come to the fund raiser. They put on a dinner, charge whatever they want (usually about $25) and keep everything that comes in. We do the performance after dinner. We get an appreciative audience for our Dress Rehearsal and get the word of mouth moving sooner.
	IP Logged

Stagestar2000 Guest	Posted: 1/24/05 at 12:50pm
	Dinner Theatre - Eileen Moushey "Mysteries by Moushey" has great murder-mystery dinner theatre scripts www.mysteriesbymoushey.com We are doing "Dr. Disco" in may
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Kathy S Celebrity Joined: 8/21/04 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 303	Posted: 1/28/05 at 12:25am
	We realized that we could cut some expenses by emailing some of our patrons instead of sending post cards through the regular mail. So we will verify the email addresses, and request permission to contact them this way (so it's not considered spam) and send as many electronic versions of our post cards out as possible by email. We will be able to reduce our postal mailing list by 135.
	IP Logged

looking2bcast Player Joined: 10/05/05 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 21	Posted: 10/05/05 at 8:02pm
	We use posters for both the auditions and the shows. We have found a business that will give us color 11X17 posters for .43 cents a poster. We then get about 150 of them. Each one of the board members then have a route that they put the posters up in local businesses that will allow us to do it (good to find out who the supporters are). We have enough of us that there is usually only 15 or so per person. We also have the actors take some and put it up wherever they can. We put the posters for auditons in different places depending on what kind of crowd we want to try out (like we just recently posted the Rocky Horror Show in several of the local bars colleges etc). We then use psas on the local tv,newspaper and radio stations. We also have an advertising deal with the local radio stations where they will match us dollar for dollar on all of our ad dollars since we are non-profit. We then get the local businesses to sponcer the ad. Because they are getting it half price they cant turn it down. We also use NPR alot which is the PBS of Radio (they broadcast nationwide so find the one closest to you). Then we do the chamber mailings too. We also switched to an online ticket service that keeps track of all of our customers and what type of shows they attend so we target customers that tend to see the same kinds of shows over and over as well. Then we do several other little things but that is the bulk of it.
	IP Logged