Box Office and Printing Tickets Quandry
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=5269
Printed Date: 11/21/24 at 4:51pm
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 8.05 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Box Office and Printing Tickets Quandry
Posted By: magnolia
Subject: Box Office and Printing Tickets Quandry
Date Posted: 2/24/12 at 11:08pm
Hello!
We are trying to set up better procedures for our box office. We would like to figure out how to handle printed tickets vs. E-Tickets. For example, Patron A, buys a ticket online then comes to the show with their printed confirmation in hand (we hope) then we see their name on this list and give them a pre-printed ticket with a numbered stub. Patron B comes in as a Walk Up and buys tickets at the door. They pay and we give them a pre-printed ticket with a numbered stub.
Here is the problem and question...we have been printing all the tickets we MIGHT sell in our 85 seat theater for EACH date of our 12 show run. That's a full set of 85 for the regular, then a full set of 85 for the senior/student for EACH date!
We feel like this is a waste when on any given night, we might only actually use 50 of those tickets.
What do others do to provide a printed ticket? Do you not include dates? How do you handle different prices for regular, senior, student?
Do you provide a printed ticket? If so, how is it designed?
Thanks to anyone who answers...
Maggie
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Replies:
Posted By: edh915
Date Posted: 2/25/12 at 9:14pm
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Unless you have a reserved seat policy, there's really no reason to have printed tickets for an 85-seat venue. We have a venue similar in size to yours. We hand out programs to people once they've bought their tickets. The program acts as a de facto ticket. Simple. No problems yet.
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Posted By: Tallsor
Date Posted: 2/28/12 at 10:09am
Do you use assigned seats or open seating? If open, no need to print out tickets for every seat, after all.
The college I went to had generic tickets for the show, with all dates listed, all types listed (shorthand), and a blank to put the seat #. The box office would circle the date and type, and then put the seat # down when down (advance tickets would already be written down).
If your box office is big enough to hold a printer and laptop/computer, I also know there are some ticketing software programs out there that will let you print out on an as-needed basis.
I did a quick search, and found this thread over at Control Booth:
http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/stage-management-facility-operations/13991-ticketing-software.html
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Posted By: sethnic
Date Posted: 3/15/12 at 6:38am
We use mostly e-tickets, which the patron prints and brings. The beauty of this is that there is no waiting on line for them. Almost all e-ticket recipients prefer that.
At each show, I prepare a master list, with seat assignments, and a map of the available places.
We then have a booklet of blanks, to be hand-written, for both people who couldn't print the e-ticket and for walk-ins.
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Creating a new company!
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