Comps
Printed From: Community Theater Green Room
Category: Theater Administration
Forum Name: Running Your Theater
Forum Discription: General questions about how to make it work
URL: http://www.communitytheater.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2229
Printed Date: 11/22/24 at 5:50am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 8.05 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Comps
Posted By: Techiemama
Subject: Comps
Date Posted: 1/21/07 at 7:40pm
|
I am very interested to know what kind of complimentary ticket policies other theatres have in place. Our current policy is based on the ridiculous opinion of one very controlling director, and I would like to propose some 'real' ideas versus whatever her whim dictates.
Thanks!!!
|
Replies:
Posted By: Theatrestation
Date Posted: 1/21/07 at 8:12pm
|
Does the whim differ from show to show? What is their comp policy?
We do not actually offer comps to participants because then you have the line to draw as to where the comps stop.
Our prices are not such that they would be cost prohibitive. We do offer other non-profit groups tickets to chance off or as door prizes. It helps them with their fundraising and often brings us new audience members. ------------- http://www.castbuilding.com http://www.theatrestation.com |
Posted By: Techiemama
Date Posted: 1/21/07 at 8:28pm
|
This director's whim actually varies from person to person. This drama company produces so much drama, the audience would be suprised at what they get for their buck! I have often thought about putting a seat or two backstage and charging broadway ticket prices, because believe me, there is enough intrigue and conflict to be worth it.
Our cost per ticket is 14 bucks for the high end, 10 for the cheaper days. We have a 19 performance run, and a 300 seat house. Our cast and crew is close to 100. We RARELY if ever sell out, and it is my belief that if a cast or crew member has put in 100 hours or more on the show, they should be entitled to a certain number of comp tickets, unless the seats are unavailable. Or maybe there could be a voucher system...I just need some ideas to pitch.
I also have the belief at this point, that bottoms in seats are much more important to the cast than the almighty dollar. Wish I could get that idea across to the director.
any ideas??
THANKS!
|
Posted By: Theatrestation
Date Posted: 1/22/07 at 12:43am
|
I don't know what the budget is for your theatre so I don't know if this applies, but do they count on the cast and crews family and friends ticket purchases as part of the revenue from the show? You figure two tickets for each cast and crew member equals anywhere from $2000 - $2800 in revenue lost per run assuming that each cast and crew member normally has two people attending a show.
I don't know if that is considered a noticible amount of money for your theatre or not. You said the capacity is 300. Do you know what the average percentage of attendance is per show or per run? ------------- http://www.castbuilding.com http://www.theatrestation.com |
Posted By: dougb
Date Posted: 1/22/07 at 11:57am
|
We don't do comps but we have a one ticket policy for families of those involved - each member of the family can see all the shows they want if they buy a ticket the first time they see the show. If we're sold out, they're expected to stand at the back of the house. Of course our tickets cost $5 so it isn't a real burden. We started this policy when I noticed that parents of the children in one of our shows stayed for the show to take their daughter home rather than drive back and forth and they were buying tickets each night. That was back when double digit audiences were considered a good turnout and we always had empty seats. |
Posted By: falstaff29
Date Posted: 1/22/07 at 12:24pm
|
One of the theaters I regularly act with gives each cast member (I can't speak for which of the tech crew do or don't get comps) two comps for the run. The season is typically 6 shows, with casts of sometimes up to 15 or so, and usually smaller. The theater is fairly small (less than 100), and the runs are typically 12 performances. Ticket prices are usually 15 for adults, 10 for students and seniors. The group also has a liquor license, so they pull in a lot of money from that at intermission.
Comps are certainly a nice gesture, but if your director wants a better reason, one way to think of comps as being good for business: they spread word of mouth. If comps are wasted on people that would pay anyway (eg, parents, girlfriend), then they're a loss, but I usually give my comps to friends who I know wouldn't bother coming if they had to pay, but will enjoy it and carry good reports back with them. Unless you're doing exclusively shows that automatically generate audience (eg, Neil Simon, musicals), word of mouth is one of your best weapons. And, especially with a comedy, the more people in the audience, the more responsive they'll (hopefully) be, and therefore the better each show will be. (As much as we don't like to admit it sometimes, a good audience helps to focus actors and bring their performances to higher levels.)
|
Posted By: Linda S
Date Posted: 1/22/07 at 2:45pm
|
The three theaters that I work in each have different policies and it seems to be capacity that is the determining factor. In the two 125 seat theaters the casts and crews of straight shows get 2 comps, and the casts and crews of musicals get one. That is strictly a numbers decision. One of the small theaters has an opening night only policy for comps. The other theater's policy encourages that the comps be used on the first weekend, or on a night when they are not sold out. It is clear with both theaters that a comp does not guarantee a seat. You have to make a reservation. This past year one the box office people, making a arbitrary decision, didn't want to honor comps for a sold out performance. There was an incident when two people with reservations came together to see the show. One had a comp, the other was paying for her ticket. She only wanted to let one in. Thank goodness someone with a brain and more authority was standing near by and nixed that ill thought out plan.
The third theater seats 500 and 2 comps are given to all cast and crew for both musical and straight shows. Again, you have to have reservation to be sure that you have a seat.
Personally, I think it is great way to say thank you, and an even better way to get people in seats to help spread the word. When I had an opening night that had miserable opening night reservations I grabbed the tickets from the box office and gave comps to everyone who I thought would come. We made almost no money that night, but we had good house. The word of mouth was great , and we sold out the rest of the run.
Linda
|
Posted By: Techiemama
Date Posted: 1/22/07 at 6:04pm
We have an average of 250 attend per performance, and we bus in 2500 kids for school shows. I don't believe we are in the position to offer a comp per family, but I am thinking that some sort of structure for hours worked should be put into place. It really felt horrible to put in hundreds of hours on rehearsals, setbuilding and props and find out that I would have to pay for the three tickets for the people who helped me on the 192 props for this show. At a certain point, a sense of entitlement sets in. We donate time, money and energy by the fistfuls, and all I wanted was three lousy comps. Finally, I got it through to the director that she may say she appreciates people all she wants, but to SHOW that she appreciates them, she can offer a couple of comps and keep everyone happy.
|
Posted By: suzecue1
Date Posted: 1/23/07 at 9:41am
|
I'm involved with 2 different groups.
CT #1 - If you are in the crew but not on stage (director, producer, sets, costumes) then you get in free to any show you wish. You have to sit in an empty seat in the back, but you don't have to pay. This CT only gives out free comps tickets to people who helped us advertise, or as a radio publicity give away. Usually about 10 tickets given away for the show of their choice.
CT #2 - Gives out one comp ticket (for the opening night show) to everyone involved in the show - tech, sets, cast. We have a lot of families involved, so some families got 4 comp tickets for opening night. It filled the seats when we would have only had an audience of about 12 people, and then because of word of mouth, it helped fill the seats at the later shows. Granted we probably lost some tickets sales because of it. If they could come free the first night, then they didn't pay later to see it again. However, opening night is seldom full - and this seems like a nice way to give back to the cast/crew and fill the seats to gives the cast a nice first audience to perform for.
I'd rather have full seats! Nothing more depressing than performing to an audience smaller than the cast! ------------- Sue ***** So many hats.....so few heads! |
Posted By: POB14
Date Posted: 1/23/07 at 10:41am
|
I've never worked at a theatre that gave any comps (other than university / school theatres).
If your friends and family won't pay to see you, who will? ------------- POB Old Bugger, Curmudgeon, and Antisocial B**tard |
Posted By: 75director
Date Posted: 1/23/07 at 11:01am
|
We don't offer cast/crew comp tickets, however, we do offer them 10 tickets at a discounted price. There's a form they have to use and turn into the box office and they also need to pay for the tickets when they turn in the form -- in the past people would reserve cast/crew tickets and then not show up, not good if the house is sold out that night.
As far as other comps, next season we will be offering our program advertisers one comp per production. Our cooperate sponsors get 10 free tickets for the production they're sponsoring. On rare occasions we will comp someone if they donated a really hard to find prop or set piece.
|
Posted By: Techiemama
Date Posted: 1/23/07 at 11:44am
| This is a great idea! I will definately be sharing this one. Thanks! |
Posted By: Techiemama
Date Posted: 1/23/07 at 11:51am
I am personally buying more than 10 tickets and we have lots of friends and family paying for theirs, as well. I really wanted the comps more as an 'In Kind' for the work and donations of a few very special people who came through for me with props. I did have an email 'bout' with the director and she finally approved my request.
Thanks for all of the input! I will be sharing some ideas for policy changes. Our current policy of 'if the director feels like it , you get free tickets' has got to go!
-TechieMama
|
Posted By: Kibitzer
Date Posted: 2/06/07 at 3:14pm
|
I have found that in general, most theatres get way too hyped up about comp tickets. When the curtain goes up, what's that empty seat now worth? Same as an airline ticket as soon as the plane takes off. Nothing. It may be even a little more extreme with theatres than with planes. If I can get someone into my theatre to see a show, I might be able to get that person to come back for another and another and the next thing you know, they become a subscriber! Think of comps as an extension of your marketing program: it's an investment in a future paying customer. If you charge, say $15 for a ticket, that means you can spend up to $15 to get someone in that seat to break even. Giving a ticket away doesn't cost you much, if anything, to get a fanny in that seat. The question of giving cast/crew comps is a little different. You see, they're part of your "sales force". I'll be talking a lot more about marketing in an upcoming "Kibitzer" article, but suffice it to say for now that when your sales force starts giving away your product, there's something that just doesn't feel right about it. It's actually counter-intuitive. I think there are ways to have your cake and eat it too on this one. Your cast/crew deserve some sort of freebie now and again, but what shape and form that freebie takes can be really important. Let me give you just one idea on this: Every participant in a show get's ONE comp for EVERY OTHER show in your season. "YIKES!", I'll bet you're thinking. Actually, I've seen this one in action. First, it builds a sense of community among all your participants of all your shows because everyone shows up for everyone else's shows -- there's mutual support. Secondly, you're only giving away ONE ticket per show. Certainly, many people will go with each other, but how many will go by themselves? Chances are many will end up buying another ticket for someone who will accompany them to the shows. In addition to all this, unless you don't have a problem selling out your shows, what kind of audience would you like to have out there? A half-empty house, or one half-filled with supportive and knowledgable audience members? Which one will give you the best "buzz"? Okay, I'll shut up now. Your always, The Kibitzer ------------- "Security is a kind of death." - Tennessee Williams |
Posted By: Gaafa
Date Posted: 2/06/07 at 7:12pm
|
I whole heartedly agree Kibizer. Primarily I believe in the P J Barnum practice, of giving out one comp to every one he meets. Especially in a new town that his circus rolled into for the first time, thus investing in future audiences. History proves the success of that ploy. When I started up our theatre group a few years ago. I gave out a comp to every theatre group in the state & two to all those groups who were members of our Theatre Association. For our inaugural production of ‘Stepping Out’. Along with at least 2 to every member of the crew & cast, the sponsors & anyone that donated things to the show. I made up a few donation boxes & placed strategically around the foyer which worked well! In fact one of the smallest house we got, while their was no ticket sales as such, at the end of the performance was one of the better grossing nights we had. Even though I was continually berated & admonished by our committee, I never become a member of the group or committee. Preferring to lurk in back ground, unfortunately they give me a life membership. Which in my experience, is like getting the gold hand shake & a nice way of being informed to evaporate. Which I did for a while, until I got the inevitable urgent phone call - While I released it was not for my body, so it must have been for something else? But whatever, it is always nice to feel wanted! Anyhow they had reverted in my absence to a no comp policy & it didn’t seem to work that well, even with the returns of the donation boxes. So I pushed for them to not charge a ticket price & only have admission by donation, which turned things around. The only thing which became a stmberling block, was the City who owned the venue, placed a key card swiping locks on the door to the hall & sent exorbitant hire fees for every time we went in, even just to pick something that had been forgotten, With a bit of lobbying we eventually got a peppercorn lease on premises at another City Council building, to use for storage & rehearsals. The problem now is the group has not done any shows since then & may have lost the gains from the no charge admission. However now they have a home it will be easier to regain any losses in the future - but that’s all another story! ------------- Joe Western Gondawandaland turn right @ Perth. Hear the light & see the sound. Toi Toi Toi Chookas {{"chook [chicken] it is"} May you always play to a full house} |
Posted By: Kibitzer
Date Posted: 2/06/07 at 8:57pm
|
Well, there's another "counter-intuitive" point! Forget about ticket prices altogether, comp the whole world, ask for donations, and make more money than when you charged for tickets! Art is all about taking risks. So is the art of management. ------------- "Security is a kind of death." - Tennessee Williams |
Posted By: dougb
Date Posted: 2/07/07 at 12:27pm
| We charge between $5 and $10 for a ticket depending on the expenses of the production. We also have a pay-what-you-can night. The revenue from the PWYC night runs between $8 and $12 per ticket. (many drop a $20 into the jar) Go figure. |
Posted By: VPA1
Date Posted: 2/14/07 at 12:43pm
|
A couple of indisputable facts we have discovered at our 173 seat CT after 32 years:
The only reason anyone should participate in a production is for applause and for your own self-fulfillment. If you feel you need to be thanked for your hours of effort and toil, you're in the wrong theater. The more comps we give out, the less revenue we realise. Our theater does not run on good will, it runs on money. We survive only on the basis of good ticket sales. This is no art without an audience. |
Posted By: Techiemama
Date Posted: 2/15/07 at 12:28pm
|
I appreciate your comments, and I did take a solid look at it. You are right. It is thankless. It doesn't have to be, but it is.
I disagree however that if you give comps you lose revenue. Word of mouth has effect on ticketsales. An empty seat is an absence of audience, and a wise person once said, There is no art without an audience.
 The show ended. I purchased around 20 full price tickets when it was all said and done, and I was eventually offered two comps to give to the people who donated a $300 set piece, so all is well and good now that it is over. I will be encouraging the director to come up with a policy for future shows, and I will run by her the suggestions that I heard from this forum. If the policy was 'no comps' I would not necessarily have a problem with it, but the lack of any policy meant directors friends get comps, all others pay cash. It caused some harsh words, needless to say.
Thanks for all the input,
TM
|
Posted By: dougb
Date Posted: 2/18/07 at 11:05am
|
We don't do comps. We do have a one ticket rule for families of those directly involved on stage or with running the show. If they buy one ticket, family members can see the show as often as they want. If we are sold out we ask them to take a less desirable seat. Several years ago, I was directing a show at a large nearby theater that gave two comps to every advertiser in the program (almost 400 free tickets compared with 1,000 sold tickets!!!!). That represented a loss of almost $5,000 in revenue - these were people who always came to the theater. Then they had the nerve to complain that they didn't make their revenue target. |
Posted By: jdlewallen
Date Posted: 2/27/07 at 11:27pm
Both of the local theatres that I work with here give two comp tickets to cast members .... small "pay" for hours of rehearsals and work.... ------------- "Every theatre is an insane asylum..." ---Franz Schalk (1863-1931) |
Posted By: whitebat
Date Posted: 8/13/07 at 11:36pm
| In HS, I think they did 2 comps per person. I believe the local chapter of Sweet Adelines has a "no comps" policy. I understand we did a "comps for advertising" trade with the newspapers on our last show. I think it might depend some on how many shows are in your run, since Sweet Adelines usually do only 1 show. Our CT is so small, whoever sells tickets likely knows the family of cast members, so they might just be letting them in without tix. |
Posted By: bbpchick
Date Posted: 8/16/07 at 12:13am
|
We do the 2 comp per cast/crew member. Yes the argument is that we loose revenue, but that word of mouth bit really works. We are struggling right now to bring our CT back from the brink of extinction after 10 years of do nothing boards so we are basically starting from scratch. We give away a lot of comps to get people back in the seats and remind people that we are still here. We still make enough money to put on our next show, and since our goal is to get people thinking about us and telling their friends, we are doing what we set out to do. The old addage that you have to spend money to make money is true.
Spend a little extra money on color posters...you get more people noticing them (and more respect actually...that was wierd but then agian, our competition is all professional theaters)
Give away some tickets....you get people who come back and pay next time.
For our theater it's $10 for adults and $8 for children and seniors. A couple comps per cast member isn't much when you think of what word of mouth can do for you. I usually encourage my cast members to give them to people who wouldn't ordinarily come. It's like gettin a free trial hehe
------------- Kendra http://www.murphysblackbartplayer.com - www.murphysblackbartplayers.com You are NEVER too old to dress up! |