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• conversation starter, ideas, playwrights, social media

  It’s The Relationship, Stupid

  05.21.10 | Permalink | 1 Comment

  Again and again and again at the Theater Bay Area conference a few weeks ago I heard playwrights being given the cold, hard truth about why their work is not getting produced (and why it is). Here’s the facts: The open submissions process is a lie. Work does not rise up from a pile of [...]

• about 2am, conversation starter, social media

  Meatspace is like #2amt Squared

  05.07.10 | Permalink | 1 Comment

  I recently had the opportunity to meet up IRL (in real life) with @scottyiseri and @Chris_Ashworth, two gentlemen whose thoughts I have been following regularly through the #2amt hashtag on Twitter. Each time I was astonished, once again, at the value of translating the “idea” of a person… the strange amalgam of avatar, blog thoughts [...]

• about 2am, audiences, ideas, marketing, social media

  Top 5 Ways NOT to Build a Younger Audience

  04.30.10 | Permalink | 36 Comments

  It popped up in my newsfeed again: another article about an opera/museum/symphony theater company’s new initiatives to attract a “younger audience.” I open these articles with a combination of dread and excitement these days. Maybe this time, this new organization (that spent a couple hundred thousand dollars on a market research study) will announce a [...]

• audiences, marketing

  Filthy Lucre #3: Through the Looking Glass

  04.15.10 | Permalink | 20 Comments

  We price everything backwards in the theater. Tell me if this sounds familiar: You debate with your box office/marketing/artistic staff to find just the right price point that feels “accessible” (read, your friends tell you that this is what “they” will pay to see your work, despite the fact your friends are comped and rarely [...]

• funding and support, ideas, marketing

  Filthy Lucre Part Two: Redefining Reward

  04.02.10 | Permalink | 25 Comments

  We do not make theater to make money. I’ll say that again. We do not make theater to make money. Our donors don’t contribute to us so we’ll make money. Our boards don’t support us to make money. We don’t sit up at night dreaming of how we can tweak our business models to bring [...]

• audiences, funding and support, marketing

  Filthy Lucre

  03.25.10 | Permalink | 14 Comments

  A while back on #2amt, an extremely provocative gauntlet was thrown, on the OH so touchy subject of money. Filthy lucre. We can’t live without it. Most of us got into the theater profession to avoid having to think about it too much. Yet as some point we all are faced with the task of [...]

• audiences, conversation starter

  The Diversity Magic Bullet

  03.17.10 | Permalink | 4 Comments

  One of the recent #newplay conversations focused on the questions of how we can create more diversity, both in our content, our playwright relationships, and in our audience. Much of that conversation focused on the idea of “accessibility,” i.e. how we are not making theater “accessible” to minority groups through high ticket prices, or unfamiliar [...]

• Uncategorized

  The Benefits of Hearing the Bad Stuff

  03.03.10 | Permalink | 5 Comments

  So, you’re opening a channel for your audience to talk to you about your company, your work and their experience of it. It’s pretty much a guarantee that as SOON as you start talking about doing this, somebody in your organization is going to say, “WAIT JUST A MINUTE.” “This is all well and good,” [...]

• audiences, conversation starter, marketing, social media

  Softening the Ground for New Work

  02.21.10 | Permalink | 1 Comment

  Chad Bauman on the Arts Marketing blog first threw a gauntlet to the arts community with a controversial post called “How Marketing Directors Kill New Work.” After some heady response, he acknowledged that his initial post identified problems without proposing solutions. He proffered some GREAT solutions in a follow up post, which I highly recommend [...]

• audiences, designers, ideas

  Curating Your Audience

  02.12.10 | Permalink | 3 Comments

  As artists, we spend an extraordinary amount of time curating the creative communities in which we create work. We constantly seek new creative partners, vet them, develop affinities, establish trust, encourage growth and then build from there. Its a process that takes time, energy and thoughtful conversation before the relationship ever bears fruit. Then we [...]