| Central Core of Difficulty |
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| Questions or Comments? |
| Please send them to Sarah |
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| Increase Ticket Sales Obviously, ticket sales are the main source of income for any theatre, and Theatre 7 is no exception. In order to be a successful business, and in turn, a successful theatre, you have to get people to come see your shows. The question is how do you do that? The fact of the matter is that a lot of things contribute to the financial success of any given show. The title of the show for starters, is it a well known show, or one that no one has really heard about, the length of the run, the size of the cast, the cost of tickets, the time of day that the show is run, and advertising all play a role in how large a shows audience will be on any given night. This season, Theatre 7 has chosen to revive old classics for their 40th year in business. The season includes Guys and Dolls, Barefoot in the Park, and Arsenic and Old Lace. All of these are good shows, with excellent scripts, and sizable casts, however the last two, Barefoot in the Park, and Arsenic and Old Lace are defiantly targeted at a much older, and subsequently smaller audience. No amount of advertising is going to get teenagers, or even people in their 20's to come out and see two shows that are for all extents and purposes, before their time. Again the success of a season starts with the shows. Theatre 7 would be wise to consider a show that create diversity in their season, and appeal to a wide spectrum of audience members Increase Ticket Sales The reason why we chose ticket sales as one of our five Central cores of Difficulty is because it is the main source of income that Theater 7 has, which keeps the Theater 7 continuing their shows. One of the many things that Theater 7 can do to increase their ticket sales is by involving the community more with their plays. For example, if you have children from the nearby Jr. High Schools, High Schools, and even Millikin University students take part in the plays that Theater 7 has. For example, the parents of which children are taking part In plays would most likely come to the plays to watch their children perform, and as for Millikin University students, friends of theirs would want to come and see their friends in the play, or as in teachers can make it an extra credit option for their students to go see the plays. By doing so we feel that Theater 7 will receive an increase in tickets sales, and by increasing ticket sales, it will allow Theater 7 to have a higher income for spending needs for when it comes to new plays and/or other expenses Theater 7 might have. Raise Money For New Facility A new facility for any established business is of course a welcome addition, but financing the endeavor can be somewhat of a challenge. How do you raise your income in order to still pay the bills and have enough left over to begin financing a new building? The first, and most obvious choice is to fund raise. Start with your established audience, your members. Ask them if they would be willing to contribute five dollars more each month, or three, or two. Even one dollar extra each month from all of you members can really add up. Once you've moved passed your members, focus your fundraising energy on the general public. Create advertising slogans, have an artist create a drawing of what the new building would look like. This way, the people giving money have and idea of just what their hard earned cash is being used for. Another way to generate extra income is to raise ticket prices, however this can be a risky endeavor. Any theatre that raises prices risks a drop off in sales, but if you're smart about it, it can be pulled off. Make the raise minimal, two dollars at most, and be sure to make your reasons for raising the prices clear to everyone. With a little luck, and a lot of determination, a new facility is a reasonable goal for any business, and of course Theatre 7 is no exception. Raise Money For A New Facility As we just discussed in our last Core of difficulty, which was the increase of ticket sales. It takes us into raising money for new facility which is another core of difficulty we have. As we achieve in the increase of ticket sales, we will have the income to cover other expenses with the extra money that we have raised, for example, raising money for new facility. As we rely on this method of income, it is not an only option that we have to do so. We also feel that another way to raise money for new facility is more shows to be put out by Theater 7. By putting out more shows it will create more income in revenue. Sure by having more shows put out by Theater 7 will cost a deal of money, but to make money you must spend money. Have the theater become more popular for its shows that they are putting out. The more shows it has, the more extra revenue it will collect and therefore they will be able to have the income and revenue raised for a new facility for Theater 7 itself. Gain More Community Involvement Community involvement is what makes any community theatre thrive or die, and getting the involvement needed can be somewhat of a trick at times. It is important to remember that it is the theatres responsibility to keep their volunteers, actors, and all other community theatre participants happy, and wanting to come back. An easy way to do this is to offer incentives to people who work on the show; a couple of free tickets for people who contribute wouldn't be a bad idea. This way volunteers can have their friends come and see what they've been working on, and will increase audience size, which is always a nice thing. Another way is to eliminate the rule that all actors in a show must be members of Theatre 7. Not everyone wants to be a member, and some may look at the 15-dollar fee as them paying the theatre in order to be in a show. Get rid of that, and audition numbers will rise, which in turn will give you a larger pool of people to select your casts from, and give you more diversity from cast to cast. Gain More Community Involvement One of the most important Cores of Difficulty any business can have is community involvement. By having the community taking part in what your business/ organization is doing you gain a lot of community support. We feel that you must also give back to the community. To do so Theater 7 can do many things, one of those things that Theater 7 can do is that they could offer specials, like free tickets. To obtain this, the community could perform volunteer work to contribute to what Theater 7 has to offer. Therefore the community can see what Theater 7 is all about and if the community feels that what they are doing for Theater 7 is something that they would consider giving more spare time into they could do so. So by Theater seven finding more ways to involve the community, and having the community spread word of mouth out into more of the community, they could receive the benefit of more members that Theater & has. As many other things the theater could/can do as well. Appeal to a More Diverse Audience A diverse audience is something that every theatre depends upon, your not going to have everyone like every show that you do, and the larger, and more diverse your audience is, the more likely it is that each show will be a success. Creating a diverse audience starts with the choice of shows that a theatre puts on. As discussed before, Barefoot in the Park is not going to appeal to a younger audience, and it might be hard to get older people to come see a show like The Laramie Project. But this is precisely why you don't have a one-show season. Make your season diverse, and the diversity of you audience will follow. Find shows that will appeal to the type of people you want to sell your tickets to. If you want teenagers to come and see your plays, you can't be putting on Arsenic and Old Lace. Also, the larger the cast of any given show, the larger, and subsequently more diverse your audience will be. It is wise to do at least one large, full-length production each season, this is usually the musical. Pick a show with a large chorus (West Side Story, over Jekyll and Hyde) and you will have a large audience. Appeal to a More Diverse Audience By having a more diverse audience, the more of likely of a chance that Theater 7 will have a chance to increase their ticket sales, which means that they will have more community involvement, which will give Theater 7 the chance to gain the Income and revenue for a new Theater 7 facility, or other things that Theater 7 might feel that they could improve on. To do so, there are many ways to reach this goal. As a core of difficulty, the appeal to a more diverse audience is important, the reason for this is because you just do not just want to focus on one target audience. You would want to have many different varied plays. By doing so, your ticket sales would increase because different diverse audience would come to every different type of shows that are being performed. Attract a Younger Audience Young audiences can be very elusive for any theatre. Younger crowds are usually very fickle in their tastes, and can be very difficult to appease. The key to getting younger audiences to come to your shows does not lie with what show you choose, but rather, how many young people you cast. Young people, especially teenagers, want to be involved. The more young people you cast in any given show, the more friends will be in the audience to see what their peers have been up to. Also you will realize that once you give a few roles to younger people, more young people will be knocking on your door asking to help with the show. The bottom line here is that no one likes to be excluded from something touted as being a community endeavor. Involve the youth with what you are doing, and the youth will in turn become involved with you. Attract a Younger Audience A way to involve and attract a new younger audience is something that can come from the appeal to a diverse audience. To have a diverse audience it also means that you will most likely attract somewhat of a younger audience. To do so you may have the option to have plays that involves younger crowds, to have this done you van post flyers in middle schools, elementary schools, as well as high schools. If you want to also take it to another level, you can involve Millikin students. Not only in role playing parts in plays, but in “behind the scenes” work. You can have Millikin students help with the building of sets, and also other things like helping the younger audience in training for their roles and other help they might need in order to learn what to do, because it is likely that younger kids might have a harder time in preparing for plays. |