12-19-08
Theatres and the Economy: Part 1, Audiences
When the economy tanks, nonprofit theatres don’t necessarily feel the pain right away. Subscription audiences and multiyear grants can sustain a company through one bad economic year. Unfortunately, it looks like we’re in for more than just one bad year. How are theatres holding up?
I checked in with both subscription and non-subscription based theatres to find out how attendance has been this fall and what they are doing to prepare for the seemingly inevitable decrease next year. The news wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be. People are (for the most part) still coming to see shows, and subscription-based theatres are certainly faring better than others. However, even if a play sold out, generally speaking that would have paid for only half to two-thirds of the cost of doing business, and with year-end solicitations going out, we are just entering the woods of this crisis.
Michael Menendian at the Raven Theatre said that he’s noticed a “somewhat significant” drop off in audiences from last fall. They have a small subscription base, and this season they changed the subscription guidelines from a flex pass good for any three tickets all season to a flex pass good for one ticket for each show. Menendian admitted that he’s not sure how much the drop is due to the change in the guidelines and how much is due to the economy.
Menendian also noted that at this time last year, they produced Tennessee Williams’ Night of the Iguana—a piece aimed directly at their core audience. This year they produced Jesus Hopped the A Train by Stephen Adly Guirgis, much more of an artistic risk for the company. So is it the economy or the artistic choices that are affecting their audiences?
“I’d be curious to know how the Christmas plays do,” he said.
It appears that a strong subscriber base is what will carry many companies through this difficult time. Stephanie Kulke, director of marketing and communications for Remy Bumppo, said that the company has been focused on subscription growth for the last five years, and “it’s been really paying off.” The company now has 1300 subscribers, which account for 1/3 of their available seats.
“We’re delighted and happy with our subscriber base that we have. It would be difficult to not have that commitment of dollars and seats,” Kulke said. However, she found that this year it was harder than ever to get new subscribers, so they’ve stopped throwing money at it and decided to focus on keeping the subscribers they have happy. “We’re going to take the focus off growth and put it on maintaining until this recession is over.”
Remy keeps in close touch with their subscribers with personalized letters from the artistic director, invitations to first rehearsal receptions and a play reading series. For a three-play season, Remy subscribers have the opportunity to be with company artists and staff from eight to 10 times each year. Also, subscribers’ ticket costs will always be lower than that of a single ticket, and subscribers gain additional recognition for their commitment as they are listed in the program generally at the beginning or the end of the season—a “salute to the subscribers” as Kulke described it.
Remy and other theatres, such as the Neo-Futurists are turning more to social media outlets and targeted e-mails to get the word out about single ticket sales. As we saw recently with the Tribune bankruptcy, the print newspapers are struggling to maintain interest in their publications. Many arts organizations have found that their audiences get most of their information online, and that includes advertising. The frustrating part about that for Kulke and possibly others is that marketing in three outlets (Tribune, Sun Times and one other targeted publication) is no longer a sure thing. “You have to do 10 smaller things that net smaller results,” she explained.
The Neo-Futurists have been using “as much free marketing as possible, utilizing social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace,” said Lindsay Muscato, Neo-Futurists’ managing director. Their primary audience for Too Much Light… is high school and college students. Muscato said that they have noticed that TML has seen a noticeable drop in their Friday audience but only a slight drop in the Saturday and Sunday audiences.
In the single-ticket realm, David Hawkanson, Steppenwolf’s executive director, said that their non-subscription sales look strong for the rest of the year, and their subscription audience was up 6 percent this year, which is good, since subscriptions make up 65 percent of Steppenwolf’s ticket sales. “It’s been a pretty stable block of consumers over the past several years,” he said. “I’m optimistic that they will still place a high priority on Steppenwolf where they spend their entertainment dollars.”
Single ticket sales at Steppenwolf are also strong, even at the New York and London productions of August: Osage County.
Where Hawkanson is most concerned, though, is with the contributed side of their investment: 85 percent of Steppenwolf’s contributed income comes from their subscribers. If theatregoers find that they need to make a choice between buying tickets and donating money, my bet is on the ticket sales.
“It’s critical that we be straightforward about what we’re facing, said Hawkanson. “I’ve seen a lot of year-end letters that don’t acknowledge what [has happened economically].” It is important for all of us in the nonprofit sector to let our patrons know that we understand things will be different this year, and that they will be making choices. In Steppenwolf’s year-end fundraising letter, look for a suggestion that if the patron uses their institution with frequency and they value this institution, then please show it by contributing money. There may also be an appeal for donors with greater means to fill in for those who can’t contribute at this time.
Hawkanson wanted me to make sure people understand that although ticket sales are strong, Steppenwolf is not “fat and happy. I’ll tell you our horror stories when we get to your next article,” which, coincidentally, will be a look at year-end giving.