Why is it so difficult to discuss how we price tickets? I want to note right away that I’m not asking why we struggle to SET ticket prices; for very good thinking about pricing, I suggest you read through Trisha Mead’s posts on the subject. I’m asking why we struggle...
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At least twice a rehearsal, a potential audience member wanders in and asks what we’re doing. They ask what play this is, if they can watch us rehearse, when we’re performing, whether we need more performers, and if we ever hold open mic nights. These are people from the neighborhood...
(This photo was taken with a fancy rented underwater camera rig by Portland Center Stage photographer Owen Carey. Pictured is Kevin Reed as Joe Gillis in Sunset Boulevard.) Got your own great photo from your show? Don’t you want to see it EVERYWHERE? Read on. Recently, The Royal Opera House...
Mashable proclaims that QR codes are poised to hit the mainstream. So what’s a theater to do? First, what are QR codes? QR = Quick Response. They are square bar codes packed with more dense information than the traditional bar code you recognize, and are most often linked to a...
In the fairly recent past, an active subject of conversation that kept resurfacing was the content of current shows in the commercial sector. Namely, the fact that a majority of new productions on Broadway are based on pre-extant Intellectual Property. Of course many artists aren’t too thrilled about this when...
At the recent Chicago Theater (anti-)Conference hosted by Theater Wit, I received a lot of questions about events. I’ve got some pretty strong feelings about them. I’ve planned about a zillion and I gotta say, I rarely love the process. But, I like going to events. I enjoy knocking back...
This past weekend at the Chicago Theatre anti-Conference (#ctac, if you feel like swimming up the Twitter stream), erstwhile arts-administrators-turned-funders Christy Uchida, Boeing Chicago’s Community Investor, and Paul Botts, from the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelly Foundation, gave conference attendees the gift of some hard-won insights through a discussion entitled, “If...
So in the last blink of the internet a poor AD in Edmonton dropped his guard for a moment, blew off some steam, and didn’t get away with anything. At all. Ever. Mr. Jeff Haslam still thinks people are unhappy with him because he commented publically not because of what...
Before we get to the post, a joke. The joke. Man goes on vacation, leaves his cat with his parents. A week later, he comes home, goes to pick up the cat. And his dad says, “Sorry, son, the cat’s dead.” “Jesus, Dad, you couldn’t have broken it to me...
Speak softly and carry a big stick. — Theodore Roosevelt Before we begin, if you haven’t already, read a cautionary tale about comments by the artistic director of Edmonton’s Teatro La Quindicina and then his explanation of those comments. I can wait. Are you back? Okay. There’s a difference between...