No-Brainer Secrets Revealed!

UPDATE: Welcome, NYPost readers! In case this is the first time you've visited the site... hi. My name is Isaac Butler. I'm a theatre director and a freelance writer. This blog focuses on theatre + politics, with lots of pop culture digressions and, when it's tennis season, the occasional paean to Roger Federer. Hope you enjoy the site, and please subscribe to our RSS feed! . I also co-run another site called Critic-O-Meter which is sort of like Rotten Tomatoes or Metacritic for NY Theatre reviews. 

***

Went to a panel yesterday about theatre.

Want to guess what the discussion eventually focused on at length?

I'll give you a hint... it's the thing that all public conversations about theatre eventually gravitate  to.

Still don't know?  

Why, it's how to attract younger audiences, of course! With the sub-conversation how do we use the twitters and the facebooks and the internets to do it?

So I'm going to reveal, right now, the secret to getting young people to come to your theatre and see shows. Because it's a no-brainer and I'm tired of having this conversation (For reasons that should become obvious in a second). Here's the secret:

(1) Do work they want to see.

(2) Endeavor to do it well

(3) Offer it at a price point they will find reasonable 

You know what's not on that list? Twitter. Facebook. The internets. Beer pong nights. Those are marketing channels, we'll get to how to do those better in a moment.  

Now for those of you who say: WILD SPECULATION! I will say: CORALINE! That show extended before it was reviewed, largely because of Neil Gaiman and Stephin Merritt fans. If it had gotten better reviews after opening, it probably would've kept going and been a bigger hit.  But that initial audience bump was largely made up of people who don't usually go to see MCC shows.

But the truth of the matter is, and this only gets reinforced the more I see these panels and take part in these conversations:

Theater companies and producers for the most part do not want to do the above three things. What they want to do is do the same work and use marketing to trick younger audiences into thinking it's what they want to see.

So the next time we have this conversation... can we please have it honestly and start asking some more interesting questions, some more difficult questions?  Questions like: Do you actually want younger audiences, or do you just want their money? or Would your theater company be able to sustain itself on a younger audience base? And if not, are you just fucked? Are you just riding it out for as long as possible knowing it's not going to work out in the long run?

Now let's say for a moment that you are a theater producer or larger theater and you want to do the above three things. You just don't know how. That's fine!  Here's the secret to solving that problem:

There is probably a theater company in your area that is succeeding at doing those three things. Produce their next show in your space.

You know where this happens with some regularity? Chicago and D.C.  Both quite healthy theatre towns with interesting, vibrant scenes with quite a bit of interplay between more established theaters and young up-and-comers. This is not a coincidence.  

I'm sick of this shit.  The answers aren't that hard, they're only hard because the answers are things that people don't really want to do, so they're trying to find ways to cheat. Well, I'm sorry, you can't cheat. It doesn't work that way.

And if you don't want to do that, that's okay. If you don't want to do that kind of work, that's okay. Just stop claiming you want younger audiences.  You don't want them. You feel entitled to them. There's a difference. Be proud of the audience you have and keep making work for them. Do the work you actually believe in. That's okay, for the most part.

Just stop asking about twitter already.

Comments

[Derek Ahonen]

There's no way to really know what people want to see and it's a tricky road to walk down. I think you just have to do plays you're willing to take a financial loss on because you believe in the substance of the material. As producers you have to not have any personal debts that would get in the way of you losing money on theatre. It's better not to have a family that demands your time and it's great to have a good day job to make those losses hurt less. If youre fine with all of that, just put yourself in a position to get lucky with a good publicitst and hope your show catches on. I don't see how a theatre company could do much more than that.

[Sean]

You've hit on a very important point here, Isaac. Twitter and Facebook are not free, they require a lot of upkeep and, frankly, a mental shift in the way you perceive your day and yourself.

If you think of your online presence like a bank, then every time you write something that people think is interesting or funny, you are making a deposit, and every time you write "Come See My Show" you're making a withdrawal. Unlike banks, you can't withdraw the same amount you've deposited.

In fact, with your bank, you generally make a couple of really big deposits, and a hundred small withdrawals. It's the opposite with online social media, every time you make a withdrawal, it sets you back a ways. You have to give way more than you ask, because the giving (140 characters or 400 words in a blog) isn't the same as the asking (a physical person taking a trip and spending 2+ hours in a hot room and uncomfortable chair where they have to pay attention and can't talk or eat)...

So, yeah - in order to get anything from the "free" online applications, you have to do a lot of work. And work is the same thing as money.

[microgaming]

I agree the idea of getting fresh blood to the world but how to do it is very complex. Actually theatre is all the opposite to internet, it is a live show with little to no technlogy in it. Using new technologies to attract younger audience sounds good, but difficult to do in the end. Theatre is not a global business, a show is only displayed at a single theatre for a limited period of time and that's quite difficult to target on the internet.

[Rob Ready]

Adding:

Sorry to sound like I'm straight promo-ing all this PianoFight garb, it just bugs me when people say "Young people don't go to theater!" Because young people do go to theater, in droves, so long as you're doing work they give a rip about -- and I know this from the audiences as our shows.

To give a non-PianoFight example -- Berkeley Rep's "American Idiot," a musical version of the Green Day album of the same name. The show's been extended twice already, and would go longer but Berkeley Rep has the rest of their season to stage. I attended on a wednesday night and the Rep's 500 seat house was effing packed. It helps that the Rep has a policy of offering half price tickets to anyone under 30-years-old.

Goes back to your three things Isaac:

(1) Do work they want to see.

(2) Endeavor to do it well

(3) Offer it at a price point they will find reasonable

"American Idiot" and Berkeley Rep nailed these things, and the kiddos flocked to the show. Expect "American Idiot" out on Broadway sometime in the next year or so.

-R

[OldInNYC]

I agree with you totally. There is such ageisn in raising the issue to begin with, as if young people are somehow different/better and it takes more than just doing good work to interest them. I don't think cutting ticket prices is any more than pandering. They have money for everything else, so why not for theater that they enjoy? Isaac, do stay away from "The Royal Family." It's a well-made, grown-up play as well as hugely sentimental and gloriously dated. At least it was in 1975 or so, when I saw it, probably at the age you are today. I loved it, you wouldn't. Note that taste and perceived value always play a role in discretionary spending choices. Anyway, like you I'm tired of the discussion, and have been since I saw "Hair" on Broadway in '69 after it had been polished and rehearsed and professionalised into a tame "youthful and vibrant" entertainment for gray heads of my day.

[Thomas Garvey]

So the "secret" is do theatre that the people who can't afford to go to theatre want to see, and then price it so they can come. Wow, thanks for that incredible insight! Now everyone here run out with that business model and start your super-successful theatres!

[Abe Goldfarb]

Thomas. Seriously. You are only here to drive traffic to your blog, where you openly admit you can't find work writing about the arts. It's not your trenchant wit and mindblowing insight that has led to you being shit-canned everywhere you hang your hat. It is the fact that you add nothing to the conversation but an odd and pungent blend of ridicule, sanctimony and finger-in-the-ears "na na na I can't hear you" childishness.

"Desperation is a stinky cologne."
-Daniel Von Bargen, 2001

Once and for all, fuck off, troll.

To address the actual article, well, I agree. You could say that if it was that simple, everyone would be doing it. But of course it is not easy. It's just that we must take those totally not-easy building blocks as our starting points and head upward. Hostage Song got a totally insane response from the younger audiences who came in, and Honest-to-God True Story of the Atheist the same. Neither was aimed young. They just played because they were good. Most theater aimed at "youth" is depraved pandering. "Youth" like shit which owns and does not suck. Of course, sometimes they like nonsense like Transformers 2, but it had robot fights, and is thus on some level impervious to criticism. But when I was young, anything I could afford and relate to was mind-chow. And I was lucky enough to discover theater REAL young.

Let's hope that the current generation isn't turned off of it for good.

[twitter.com/PavementGroup]

Hey everyone, as a member of Pavement Group I wanted to add a few bits of info to the conversation and address a few points about Steppenwolf's Visiting Company Initiative in it's latest incarnation as the Repertory Series. I know this info is a bit late as all this was discussed last week, but I’m late to the party.

1) The ticket price for all Visiting Company Repertory shows will be $20 each, with the option to buy a festival pass (one ticket to each of the 3 shows) for $45. The productions will be in the 100 seat Garage Theatre.
1a) Tickets aren't on sale yet for a number of reasons, the biggest one being that Steppenwolf is having the 3 visiting companies create the calendar, set the ticket prices, etc., and it has taken many weeks for the 3 companies to figure all this out collaboratively. We have all decided to put the festival passes on sale December 1.

2) Steppenwolf is putting some marketing dollars behind the repertory, but the design and content is primarily in the hands of the visiting companies. We will have access to Steppenwolf's email list and mailing database if we like, but we don't have to use them. Chances are we will – we want to invite everybody, young and old, to come see our shows. Whether or not they are interested in the subject matter (adolescent twin girls who don’t talk to anyone but each other, punk music/punk identity, and cannibalism and love, for the three shows respectively) or are willing to take a chance on smaller companies is up to them. There isn’t any advertising yet (@Jack Worthing) because we’re all still working on marketing images and language – the shows don’t start running until the middle of February, so it’s too early for that anyway.

3) The repertory is not part of the Steppenwolf subscription season for a number of reasons I'm sure (I'm not privy to most artistic conversations) but there is one big reason - Steppenwolf announced their 09-10 subscription season in the beginning of February 09, and the repertory companies were still in the midst of applying. The programming is just simply on separate calendars. Also, in order to accommodate the thousands of Steppenwolf subscribers the repertory plays would each have to run for way more performances then any of the 3 small companies could institutionally handle, and wouldn't be able to run in the 100 seat Garage Theatre which is much more suited to the plays (and to the 3 companies aesthetics) then the 515 seat Downstairs Theatre. Also, if the plays moved to the 515 seat house to accommodate subscribers Equity would come into play and none of the companies are Equity, or can afford to pay Equity fees for actors and stage managers. Ah, someday!

To wrap it up, all we can say is Pavement Group is trying to make theatre that is 1) all new plays 2) speaks to people who don’t know they might actually like theatre (our friends who’d rather go to a concert at Double Door than a play) 3) creates opportunities for our generation of actors, playwright, directors, designers and arts managers. We're working on doing exactly what Issac outlines in his post, as are most of the young theatre companies in Chicago. We'll see as the years go by how this all plays out.

Also, that rehearsal hall at Steppenwolf is the historic Yondorf Hall, and the building isn't equipped to handle an audience (no restrooms on the same floor as the theatre and I'm not sure they're technically ADA compliant, since it is an old building and there are only so many changes that can be made to a historic landmark). Phew.

[Josh]

@Pavement Group

"Also, that rehearsal hall at Steppenwolf is the historic Yondorf Hall, and the building isn't equipped to handle an audience (no restrooms on the same floor as the theatre and I'm not sure they're technically ADA compliant, since it is an old building and there are only so many changes that can be made to a historic landmark)."

Whatever. That space was amazing, and only OLD people need a bathroom on the same floor as the theater. I don't know this "ADA" is, but here in New York some people would kick their mother in the vagina to produce in a space like that. :)

[Josh]

@Abe Goldfarb

On the flipside, older audiences loved MilkMilkLemonade which was most certainly aimed at young audiences. So maybe older audiences would like "young" work after all. I guess my point is, can't we all have a crack at this theater thing?