The beautiful community of community theatre

Last weekend I had the distinct pleasure of adjudicating the American Association of Community Theatre‘s (AACT) Festival at the Southeastern Theatre Conference in Atlanta.  While I have participated in community theatre in various locations since I was 5 years old, I didn’t know there was a competition until I was asked if I might be interested in adjudicating.   As many of y’all know, there are few things I love more than theatre and giving my opinion.  I was thrilled when they invited me to join the panel.

I know exactly how egotistical this sounds, but I was under the impression that the talent I found at the Winchester Little Theatre in high school (and still find today) was an anomaly.  I was significantly under-prepared for the level of skill exhibited at the Festival.  These productions were more visually interesting and had more consistent acting than many of the professional productions I have seen in recent years.  But, these shows were more than technically good.  They had heart, soul, and at their core, community.

Besides the variety of genres represented, what struck me time and again throughout the Festival was the commitment the artists had to the work.  These folks chose to be there.  The teachers, lawyers, and nurses had to make room in their lives to participate in these productions.  I first thought the commitment and passion reminded me of the difference between a professional football player and college ball.  However, I think that analogy is actually a disservice to the artists at the Community Theatre Festival.  It infers that there is a lower level of skill which was absolutely not the case.  What was missing was the sense of entitlement and cynicism that is sometimes present in the professional theatre.  Openness and joy took the place of egotistical energy.  They not only started at a high level, they were also open to the feedback that I and the other two adjudicators offered after the performances.  It felt collaborative in the best way.

The only disappointment is that I won’t get to see the two productions we sent on to nationals perform in Rochester.

To the AACT, I say thank you for the tremendous opportunity to witness and respond to the work presented this weekend.  To the artists involved, I say thank you for sharing your joy and skill with me and each other.  I hope I have the opportunity to play with you all again in the near future.  To those of you reading this post, I say go find your local community theatre, participate, help build community through theatre.  Passion, craft, and joy … what is better than that?

Here’s a list of all the theatres from the Festival and the plays they presented (in order of performance, * indicates productions continuing to nationals, + indicates alternate to nationals):

Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhry – Just Over the Rainbow Players, MS
The Harry & Sam Dialogues by Karen Ellison – Sumter Little Theatre, SC
Heroes by Gerald Sibleyras, translated by Tom Stoppard – Springfield Community Theatre, VA
Falling in Like by Jerry Sipp – Haywood Arts Rep, NC (original work)
*Sunday in the Park with George by James Lapine (book) and Stephen Sondheim (music & lyrics) – Manatee Players, FL
The Passing of Pearl by Vain Colby – Summit Players Theatre, WV (original work)
Dead Man’s Cell Phone by Sarah Ruhl – Cookeville PAC, TN
Honky Tonk Angels by Ted Swindley – Artists Collaborative Theatre, KY
+Dixie Swim Club by Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope, and Jamie Wooten – Starkville Community Theatre, MS
*Second Samuel by Pamela Parker – Wetumpka Depot Players, AL
Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhry – South City Theatre, AL
Early Frost by Douglass Parkhirst – Colquitt County Arts Center, GA

 

Social Media Guidelines: help your bloggers and tweeters help you

At the American Shakespeare Center, we are getting ready to expand our social media footprint.  Internally, this plan has met with a rich combination of excitement and concern.  What happens when we let our ASC family loose on Twitter, YouTube, and blogs?  How can we make sure that we are all representing the ASC in a way that enhances our brand and deepens the conversation with all our communities?  In order to help ease fears and to help our social media volunteers feel supported, I began putting together social media guidelines.

Besides guidelines, we also felt it necessary to be clear on our goal for this social media outreach.  This is what we determined:

The overarching goal of all our social media outreach is to spread the word about what a fantastic organization this is and the passionate, compelling work that goes on in the Playhouse, office, classrooms, and on the road.  Also, to engage in conversation about who we are, what we do, why we do it the way we do, what we are learning, how much fun we are having, and what is going on in the industry.

After a lot of conversation on Twitter, I’ve decided to post our guidelines here.  Let me know what you think and feel free to pass on anything you find useful.

These guidelines were compiled with help from the guidelines of Intel, as published in Engage! by Brian Solis, and Time Warner Cable, as published in the Fast Company article, “Corporate Social Media Policies: The Good, the Mediocre, and the Ugly” (http://www.fastcompany.com/1668368/social-media-policies-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly).

Social Media Guidelines for the American Shakespeare Center

We are excited about the potential for engaging our current and potential audience through social media.  The connections made possible through blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and other social networks allow for a more direct conversation with all the people who love us already and those who would like to hear about us.  We hope that you will want to join us in these conversations and we want you to feel prepared when you do.  Below are a few guidelines to help everyone engage in a way that supports the brand values of the American Shakespeare Center: serious fun, life-long learning, community, and great language.

• Transparency is vital. Whether you are communicating on an official ASC channel or not, please know that you represent the American Shakespeare Center.  It is best to include a mention of your connection in your profile and also mention it when posting comments on blogs that are related to what we do.
• Private vs. Public. Don’t publish confidential or other proprietary information.  Anything having to do with legal, internal personnel, or confidential financial matters should never be discussed outside of appropriate internal communications.  Follow copyright, fair use and financial disclosure laws.
• Write what you know. Stick to your area of expertise and provide unique, individual perspectives on what’s going on at the ASC and in the world.
• Learn from others. Use the web to find out who else is blogging or publishing on a topic of particular interest and cite those individuals, including links to their work.
• Ask before you speak. Don’t cite or reference clients, partners or suppliers without their prior approval. When a reference is made, where possible, link back to the source.
• The web is a permanent record. Items posted online will likely be indexed by search engines and copied by other sites, so it can remain public and associated with you even if the original post is deleted. Post with care.
• Be professional. Treat others with the utmost respect in your conversations.  Ethnic slurs, personal insults, foul language, or conduct that would not be acceptable in our offices should not be used.
• Give the benefit of the doubt. Most everyone is doing the best they can with the knowledge they have.  Please assume that they meant no ill will until proven otherwise and then see the next guideline.
• Avoid the trolls. Refrain from engaging in heated discussion and use good judgment when expressing opinions that may pose a potential conflict. Do not post angry comments or attack individuals engaging in the discussion.  If someone attacks you, reply politely and disengage.
• Play nice. Do not insult or disparage ASC, its productions or offerings, or any fellow employees, even if specific names are not mentioned.  The same goes for other theatres or “competitors” of any kind.
• Proof your work. Knowing that the web often takes on a more casual tone, please remember that language is part of the bedrock of our mission.  Read it over before you post and keep in mind the writing guidelines Ralph put together.
• If it gives you pause, pause. Please don’t post something that you would not say openly to a room full of patrons, donors, and strangers.  If you are about to publish something that makes you even the slightest bit uncomfortable, stop and think.  Ultimately, what you publish is yours, as is the responsibility.  Also, do not alter previous posts without indicating that you have done so.

 

You are not for all markets: Embracing niche marketing

In my last post I talked briefly about creating the profile of what John Jantsch calls the “ideal customer.”  (Yep, another post inspired by The Referral Engine)  In the theatre world we tend to shy away from the idea of creating one customer profile because we like to think that, if we could just get them in the door, most people would love what we do.  Please, keep believing that.  Hope springs eternal.  However, think about the power (and return on investment) of taking a smidgen of your marketing plan and focusing it on your true, core, ideal patron.

As an example, I’ll profile who I think is the ideal customer of Synchronicity Theatre:

• Female
• Professional
• Well-educated
• Household income of $75,000 or above
• age 30-60
• liberal
• active member of a socio-political civic organization and/or corporate women’s affinity group
• living within the neighborhoods surrounding 7 Stages Theatre

Think about the focus this provides to the marketing initiatives.  Immediately we know which blogs we should be reading and leaving comments on, which organizations we should be partnering with, where we should be setting the Artistic Director up with speaking engagements, etc.  Being this specific does not mean that we are turning away politically moderate stay-at-home moms or men right out of grad school.  But, those niches aren’t our ideal patron.  Our ideal patron will jump fully into our mission and revel in every nuance of it, understanding immediately the power and purpose of our company.

I challenge us all to take a moment with our key staff and construct the profile of our ideal patrons.  Then, for the entire next season, commit to targeting this patron in every way we can.  Notice nothing I listed above costs marketing dollars, but if you have the money, put some of it behind this experiment.  Plan out your key metrics now and track them against your general outreach and this targeted campaign.   Back to The Referral Engine, Jantsch lists these four goals as good measures to start with:

• Lead generation:  For our purposes, let’s count this as how many people you are getting your message in front of with each campaign
• Percentage of leads converted: How many folks from your initial list actually buy a ticket / attend an event?
• Cost per customer acquisition: This is important!  How much did you spend per converted customer for each campaign?
• Average dollar transaction per customer: How many tickets did they buy and at what price point?

I would like to add one more indicator:

• Total income generated per customer acquisition for the season: I contend that your ideal customer will come back more often than the general target.

Come on, try it with me for a year.  Let’s report back at the end of the 2010-2011 season and see how we did.

 

Analyzing the intrinsic impact of theatre on audiences

I was thrilled to read this post by Clay Lord at Theatre Bay Area! (thanks for pointing me to it, Thomas Cott!)  What Theatre Bay Area, WolfBrown, and their partners are doing has the potential to change the way we talk about who we are and what we do.

In the beginning the theatre industry (and arts community as a whole) did a lot of marketing via the “we are good for you, come see us and be better people” line.  Some still have a tendency to this … if you are one of them, STOP!  It doesn’t work!  No one wants to be told that they are lacking and need to do something to make themselves better.  Theatre is not medicine.

Currently we all seem to be on the economic impact train: Support the arts, we get people to spend money!  While this seems to be a better strategy than the medicinal one (especially among certain legislators), it leaves out the heart and soul of why we do this work and why people are drawn to it.

The thought that we could actually measure and communicate intrinsic impact of our work is a marvel to me.  If anyone can find a way to measure it, I know WolfBrown can, that is why I’m so excited.  Alan Brown, through a presentation in Atlanta sponsored by The Blank Foundation, was the one who broke me out of my limited view of what a survey could speak to and how to ask the right questions to get the answers you need.  I will be following the progress of this endeavor closely!

The thing we have to remember is that this information and ability to measure will only help in certain situations (like lobbying for government funding).  We still need to communicate the emotional impact of the stories we tell and the visceral experience of live theatre if we want to keep filling out theatres with new and returning patrons.  This is what makes people want to come back.  This is what makes people want to spread the word about us.

Side note:  Dave Charest over at the Fuzz Bucket blog posted this note about getting clarity on your company’s driving force and how clarity is vital for ease of communication and instant understanding.  Check it out.

 

Adjusting your initiatives today to turn tomorrow’s marketing challenges into opportunities

Chad Bauman over at the Arts Marketing blog published this post today as part of a series to have industry leaders express their thoughts on the biggest marketing challenges coming our way in the next decade.  While I find it intellectually interesting to hear what these folks have to say (he has an impressive list set to weigh in), I believe the exercise will only be useful if we take the challenges named and examine what we are doing now to prepare for / overcome them.  I think we, as an industry, have become skilled at naming problems from the past, present, and future, real and imagined.  However, we often stop there and wallow in what we couldn’t control (sound like the newspaper and music industry??)  Let’s try to avoid that this time, shall we?

So, I’m going to start by giving my thoughts on what we can do now regarding the challenges mentioned by Thomas Cott and Rick Lester in the current blog post.  Please, add your own thoughts.  And, please, let’s stay focused on concrete actions we can take and not get back into the “no, THIS is the REAL problem” conversation.

Thomas Cott: Thomas lists a number of challenges, among them the demographic shift in our country and the growing “minority majority.”  What are we doing right now with not only our marketing but our programming to embrace this change?  Refer back to Trish Mead’s 2 AM Theatre post on diversity and think about how you are approaching this issue.  I watched Babes on Broadway last night for the first time and thoroughly enjoyed its light, frothy feel right up until the last 20 minutes when Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney and the entire cast put on blackface for the minstrel number.  I was flabbergasted.  I thought, wow! I’m glad we are past the period in our history when folks thought that was OK!  Then, this morning, I thought, but what are we really doing today that is including all the voices out there in our conversation?  If they aren’t part of the conversation, you can bet they won’t be sitting in your seats.  What actions are you taking now?

Thomas also sites the change in spending habits for many Americans.  The only way we will get people to spend their hard earned dollars on our production is now and will continue to be that they see more value in the experience than they see in the money they spend.  What are you doing to demonstrate the value of your work in the lives of your patrons?  If we focus on the dollars we will lose, every time.  We must focus on what live performance provides that you can’t get anywhere else.  The visceral connection with the artists and the rest of the audience.  The emotional impact of communal experience and, yes, even ritual.  The lovely folks over at the Pew Internet and American Life Project published this report siting that people who are active on social networking sites are more likely to be out and about in their communities, too.  We are looking for more personal interaction, more real experience.  It is this experience that money does not dictate and it is this experience we need to sell.

Rick Lester: Rick highlights that we were actually once good at marketing to participatory audiences.  They may have performed chamber music in their living rooms whereas now we create music on our computers, but it is a participatory society nonetheless.  How do we harness this surge in the desire for arts participation?  (and, among those who we so bemoan didn’t have arts education in school … curiosity, if cultivated and encouraged, trumps formal training every time.)  How are you inviting your audience into the process?  Open rehearsals?  Reader’s circles for short-listed scripts for future seasons?  Classes?  Open mic nights?  Perhaps a series that brings talented amateurs in to showcase work they do that ties to your mission?  As I said before, you have to invite them into the conversation if you want them to come.

That is all I have time for right now, but I hope it gets the conversation for tactics started.  There are challenges in every era and rarely do people believe they are in a “golden age” while it is actually happening.  Let’s create our own golden age by adjusting now and prevent the need for reacting later.

 

Let’s all learn from the Brooklyn Museum

As I went down the rabbit hole of blogs and comments and links within comments this morning, I came upon this blog post from the Brooklyn Museum‘s Chief of Technology, Shelley Bernstein.  It is all about how they currently use Foursquare and how they dream of using it in the future (Shelley also gives a great overview of what Foursquare is for those who are new to the application).  This puts my little post on landing pages after buying tickets online to shame in a big way! I had been playing with ideas of how theatres could use Foursquare after hearing about a restaurant who provides free dessert to the current “mayor” of their establishment.  The Brooklyn Museum is getting creative with promos, too (click the link at the top of Shelley’s post to see their Foursquare promo).

The best thing is, the Brooklyn Museum isn’t just focusing on the technology and how it can help the organization.  They are using it to help their patrons, giving the gift of their expertise in whatever way the guests want to access it: in person, Four square, Yelp, etc.  The more we get in the mode of approaching social media as a way to give gifts, the more social media will bring us the returns of dedicated evangelists.  I can’t say it enough, social media is about giving not about selling.  It is our job to figure out what will make our patrons’ experience more enjoyable and more impactful and then figure out a way to deliver it or deliver the information that allows them to more easily get it themselves.  I plan to sit at the virtual feet of Shelley Bernstein for a while this afternoon and read more about all the digital initiatives the Brooklyn Museum has going.

 

Rethink who you consider potential partners

Did anyone else get the ArtsJournal digest email yesterday and read this article from The LA Times and this article from The NY Times back-to-back?  Am I the only one that thought the Wooster Group / Baryshnikov alliance is just the opportunity to provide exciting programming that McNulty found lacking in L.A.’s larger institutions? 

What if the rest of us took a cue from this partnership?  What if these larger companies that find they can’t afford to fill their spaces partnered with smaller groups of complementary nature?  Imagine the cutting-edge work of Sacred Fools filling the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Los Angeles.  Or the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta bringing Synchronicity to be in residence in their performance space?  Or Zoetic Dance Ensemble creating site-specific works within the galleries of The Contemporary?

Artistic leaders are often hesitant to form these types of partnerships with other theatres due to the fear of competition and ultimately loss of audience.  I believe that given two companies that have distinct and specific missions, this need not be the case.  What you get instead is a very diverse group coming through the doors of your institution.  However, if inviting a smaller theatre company into the space is too big a leap, perhaps partnering with other, non-theatre, arts organization is the way to go.  It works both ways, smaller theatre companies without homes of their own should be talking established dance companies, and even galleries, and museums.  Many of these have performance spaces that often go under-utilized.

If the current economy has taught us anything, it has taught us the old status quo will never return.  Let’s work on creating a new one.  One that is sustainable and not only makes individual companies, but the arts community as a whole stronger.

 

I’m a little tired of hearing about the “Arts Leadership Void”

When I started reading this article from Charles McNulty in The Los Angeles Times, I was more than a little afraid that it was yet another cry of hopelessness around this seeming lack of anyone fit to fill the shoes of the geniuses that began the regional theatre movement.  (It turned out to be a wonderfully written article with a lot of things to think about, in fact, I will probably refer back to it again tomorrow.  But the first paragraph set me off and I feel the need to voice my thoughts.)  Don’t get me wrong, the founders of our major (and some minor) regional theatres across the nation deserve the praise that they receive; they cut a new path and created a new way to produce theatre.  Many of us owe our ability to pay our bills through work in the theatre to these trailblazers.

However, to say that no one is ready to take the reins, or that those who are out there are woefully unskilled or under-qualified for the job is ludicrous.  Look around (you don’t have to look too hard).  We are the artistic directors, associate artistic directors and managing directors at small and midsize theatres; we are the regional theatre directors working at your theatres, or your peer theatres, for over a decade; we are the marketing and development directors within your own organizations who volunteer their time to serve on the boards of other nonprofits.  We are here and we are more qualified than you think.  Those years at smaller organizations have given us concrete knowledge of the same things that you learned as you grew your organizations into the multi-million dollar institutions that they are today.  The time we spend on these other boards have taught us to look at the big picture and developed our skills in board leadership.  We are passionate about the field and the mission-driven work.  We are more likely to take calculated risks that reaffirm that mission than the corporate folks your boards seems so enamoured with over the past few years. 

Worried about the lack of institutional knowledge?  Perhaps that isn’t what the organization requires right now.  We bring a new perspective, one that is sorely needed.  One that puts aside the things you may still only be doing because you’ve always done them and can run honest analysis of multiple options without the baggage of history.  A perspective that honors why you built this theatre in the first place: to create great art.  The financial and production history we can easily learn. We can read financial statements and examine budgets with a new eye.  We can also debate the finer points of the voice (or lack thereof) the organization is using on social media sites.

We may or may not be attending the fantastic Emerging Arts Leaders meetings that Americans for the Arts and local arts advocacy organizations facilitate across the nation.  We may not see ourselves as “emerging” at all, but rather fully present and arrived.  We may not be of your generation, your race, or your gender, but we are here and we are ready.

—————-

Side note to those leaders who are emerging: if you look to take the reins yourself one day and currently see gaps in your skills, take action now.  Check our the emerging arts leaders groups, here’s the link for more info about the Metropolitan Atlanta Arts & Culture Coalition’s meetings. There are fantastic classes that can teach you the knowledge base, but, also, get yourself onto the board of an organization you love.  Your skill set will grow and your perspective will broaden in ways you can only imagine.  Set yourself up for success.  Your passion will take you the rest of the way.

 

What do your patrons see immediately after purchasing online?

We are missing a big opportunity with landing pages after the online purchase of a ticket.  Right now most theatre companies send you to a “Thank You” page or back to the home page after a purchase, some just have a generic confirmation page.  How does any of this help the customer?  Except confirming that their purchase went through, not at all. 

It is time to dig deeper into what the customer wants and how we can facilitate the fulfillment.  What is the first thing you think of after you buy a theatre ticket?  If the theatre is in town, perhaps where to have dinner?  If the performance is the impetus to take a trip, where to stay?  We should all be forming partnerships with restaurants, cafes, B&Bs, hotels, parking garages, anyone who may benefit from our patrons’ night out.  Why not bring these partnerships to the landing page? 

Imagine that you have just completed your purchase of tickets to a local theatre and the site takes you to a “Thank you for your purchase, below are some great restaurants convenient to our venue” with a little insider info about the place and direct links to either the restaurant sites or, even better, their Open Table (or other) reservations page.  For destination theatres, this page should also include links to accomodation options.  Options for after-show drinks and/or dessert are excellent, too.

Of course, if you are lucky enough to control your own parking and even your own restaurant, you can include these options in your ticketing process.  I’ve been impressed at how seemlessly The Woodruff Arts Center does this with their tenants: The Atlanta Symphony, The High Museum, and The Alliance Theatre.  They treat their parking deck as a theatre and sell the spots through Tessitura the same way they do their tickets.  Patrons simply print their parking reservation off at the same time as their print-at-home tickets.

We already know (though hate to admit) that the actual performance is only a portion of the full experience of our patrons.  It doesn’t take much time to make their lives easier.  They will remember it and tell their friends.

 

The arts leadership dichotomy and why it works

I read this blog post by James Undercofler on the ArtsJournal site (thanks to Thomas Cott for highlighting it!) on Monday and it got me thinking about this strange dual leadership model we have in the performing arts.  Undercofler talks about a model where an Artistic Director, in theory, leads the artistic vision of a company while only actually in residence for as little as 15 weeks a year.  Meanwhile, a Managing Director does the work of running the company on a daily basis and, in many cases, making decisions that intimately affect the artistic output, all the while trying to appear to only do administrative work. 

While I hear this is often true at symphonies, opera companies, and the like across the nation, I find a very different reality in the theatre world.  Most of us don’t have the funds to have a support staff that allows an artistic director to go off to do other projects for 3/4 of the year and, more recently, we seem to be cutting costs by having our artistic directors direct all or almost all the productions in our season. (this is a topic for a completely different post!)  So, instead of the conundrum listed above, we find ourselves with the potential to have the best of both worlds.  I know many companies are choosing to save money by combining the roles of artistic and managing director right now (we just made this decision at Synchronicity) and, especially for smaller companies, this may be the way to go for the short-term.  However, I believe for companies with budgets of $500k or more, this dual leadership model is necessary for the long-term health of the organization.

Not only is it extremely difficult to find leaders who have to aptitude, desire, and concrete skills to perform all artistic and managerial roles, our leadership dichotomy can actually allow for greater artistic freedom and stronger support of the artistic product.  It allows the artistic director to dream big and concentrate on what would be best for the artistic health and growth of the mission, while the managing director sets about to facilitate that vision.  When I say “facilitate” I don’t mean “make it all happen this year.”  It is the job of the managing director to figure out an appropriate timeline that allows for the raising of the needed funds for the A.D.’s big projects and helping the A.D. to find fulfilment along the way.

I do think that there are some fundamental structural needs to allow this partnership to work in the best way possible.  First of all, the A.D. and M.D. need to both feel secure in their positions and understand the nature of their roles, there are few things more destructive to this model than an A.D. who fears a strong M.D. (I’m sure the other way around is equally destructive, but I haven’t actually seen that scenario play out).    Next, they need to be true partners.  That means appearing side-by-side on the org chart as well as both reporting directly to and voting members of the Board of Directors.  It can be difficult for the managing partner to do their job (especially during difficult times) if they are in a subjugated position to the artistic head.  Finally, communication is the key.  Actually, this one probably should have gone first.  If the A.D. and M.D. cannot learn to speak the same language, and be completely transparent with each other, you will see nothing but crashing into brick walls.  However, I do think that the feeling of security and true understanding of the roles helps tremendously with communication.

When it works, our strange and unique leadership model brings out the best in the organization and allows it to thrive artistically, financially, and administratively.