12-7-07
Hot Tix Online a "Resounding Success"
Last year around this time, the League of Chicago Theatres was starting a pilot program for putting its Hot Tix half price ticket program online. Hot Tix online was officially launched in February and, according to League executive director Lyle Allen, “It’s been a resounding success.” Overall Hot Tix sales, Allen said, are up about 30 percent and online sales represent 35 percent of all Hot Tix sales. The other 65 percent of sales comes from the two Hot Tix booths in the city and the one in Skokie.
Even more astonishing, Hot Tix had a record breaking summer, averaging sales of 1,700 tickets and $45,000 a week—all returned to the theatres. “Those are sales typical of the fall season,” Allen noted, adding that “smaller theatres are having more success than ever before.” Many of the online ticket buyers come from the suburbs, which gives Allen an opportunity to reach out to the growing number of suburban theatres to have them join the League.
More importantly, Allen said, “This whole program lays the foundation for our community box office,” an initiative which the League hopes to have piloted by early 2008, with an eye toward a fall launch.
The annual contract work week stats from Actors Equity Association have been delayed owing to the recent Broadway strike, but the preliminary figures for 2006-2007 in a few key categories are looking very, very good. As always, PerformInk will have a full report and analysis early in the new year, but for now we can tell you to expect the second record-smashing year in a row both nationally and locally, with CAT contract work weeks ringing in at 8,379, up by well over 500 work weeks vs. last year. To remind you, the most recent full Equity year ran from July 1, 2006 through June 30, 2007. You can expect the 13-state Central Region to increase by more than 3,000 work weeks over 2005-2006 with particular strength in the CAT, Production, LORT and Special Agreement categories. The overall national stats don’t look bad, either. Locally, you can thank Wicked and The Color Purple for a strong showing in the Production contract category, and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Forbidden Broadway: Special Victims Unit and Menopause, the Musical for much of the CAT increase. To hell with horsepower; up with CAT power!
A few folks cruising Bryn Mawr Avenue have noticed a sign reading “soon to be the redtwist theatre” in the window of Actors Workshop Theatre. Sure enough, founder and artistic director Michael Colucci confirms that a name change is in the works, but not an institutional change. His organization will continue to offer acting training and also produce shows. “We felt Actors Workshop was obsolete many years ago,” Colucci told PerformInk. “It bespeaks a training center rather than a professional theatre company.” And so redtwist (yes, lower case and one word) it shall be. The name comes from the company’s mission statement, promising “white-hot theatre in a little black box with a little red twist.” The official change over will come with the opening of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in early March.