HF36: The 2amt Challenge Redux

So you’re at the Humana Festival of New American Plays and you’ve got a few minutes. You’ve seen the art, you’ve looked at the gifts, you’ve had a bourbon. Maybe you’re in the mood to play a game. Maybe you’re looking for something to engage audiences at your own theatre company.

Take the 2amt challenge. We did it last year & we’re doing it again. (We thought about calling it “The Humana Games,” but that sounds like playwrights fighting to the death in a dystopian future.)

First, download the SCVNGR app on your smartphone. Don’t worry, it’s free.

Sign in and create an account if you don’t already have one. Then, let it locate you at Actors Theatre of Louisville. You’ll see a list of four simple tasks. These are simple things like taking a picture of playwrights, checking in, etc.

One simple one: find me, Gwydion Suilebhan and/or Stephen Spotswood and take a picture with us. Find us one at a time, find us together, you can rack up points with each picture. An extra bonus: find someone else who’s part of the 2amt conversation, take their picture and surprise us.

Each of these tasks is simple, part of a “game layer” on top of the real world, as the SCVNGR folks like to say. For the theatre world, it’s a fun way to engage your audience with more specific tasks and challenges themed to your current productions or festivals. It’s also a way to drive patrons into your sponsors’ places of business–one of the tasks this year will take you across the street to the Galt House hotel for a 2amt meetup. Check in to the meetup & get points, it’s that simple.

Ideally, audiences would engage not just with the challenges and the production but with the sponsors’ business as well. Of course, tasks at sponsors’ locations can be more involved if you’d like, we’re keeping it simple this time for demonstration purposes.

Best of all, this game layer can be activated at any time–you can create “treks” filled with challenges ahead of time and let audiences complete them as their schedule permits. Our game has no set limit of points, but you can set a limit and/or goal if you want. Use challenges & treks to build awareness for upcoming shows. You can make it a real live contest, first person to X number of points wins two tickets to the next production, or the tenth person, fiftieth, etc.

Which reminds me. First person to 15 points gets a drink on me. And the grand prize winner might get some ATL swag…

See you this weekend at the Humana Festival!