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dam1
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bullet Topic: theatre audiences?
    Posted: 4/16/06 at 5:38pm

 I imagine this is a constinuous topic with all community theatres:  who is our audience.  Does anyone have any hard evidence--not anecdotal--about who are community theatre audiecnes: age, education, race, gender, anything that will help us better address and build a clientele.  We here tend to do everything ad hoc with no coherent plan of appraoch for a season.

 

Any ideas or help?

 

thanks doug

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Joan54
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bullet Posted: 4/17/06 at 8:12am

After our last play I did an informal exit poll and found that our audience is so varied that it would be quite impossible to "type" it.  Not only did they cover all age, gender and economic possiblities they heard about our play from a lot of different sources.

When we opened Romeo and Juliet last summer a very frail old lady showed up alone (she had taken a taxi).  Our theater has a long flight of stairs or a tiny, cranky elevator.  I helped her into the elevator and into her seat where she sat, rapt.  She was leaning forward, smiling and enjoying the play more than anyone else.  The next night she showed up again and brought an elderly friend.  I chatted with her while the elevator clanked along and she told me that she had lived in Manhattan all of her life, retired here (80  miles away) and missed the theater so much.  She lives in a big retirement community and you can bet that we will be advertising there..maybe even doing some scenes and offering discount tickets.

You never know where your audience comes from.....

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bullet Posted: 4/18/06 at 9:25am
We find that most of our patrons are the 'older, retired' crowd, however we did get a mix of ages at our last comedy.  When we opened our dress rehearsal night up to 'anyone who has never seen live theatre before' we got a real wide variety.  Some of these folks had no idea what to expect and had a blast!  Some came back and paid to see it again.  They also told their friends about it.

Of course, we also get the 'friends/relatives/work colleagues' coming to see the people in the cast.
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bullet Posted: 4/18/06 at 1:04pm

This is a question that we're continually debating at out ct.   Some of us want to do mostly popular or money shows.   Some of us want to do more edgey or challenging material.    My argument is that there's audience for almost every show and it's up to us to market it.

Seems as though our choices are based on how we did finacially the previous season or two.   If we've done well we're more likely to take on more risky scripts, if not we're more likely to do more well known things like a Simon or a good old fashioned thriller (or a relatively newer one like Veronica's Room like we are next seson).

BD

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castMe
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bullet Posted: 4/21/06 at 7:43am
Hi dam1.  I don't know about your area, but here is a good percentage of our audience. 

They attend shows at other local CTs
They go to the local independent movie theater rather than the Hoyts or Flagships.
They go to the local coffee shop, not Dunkin' Donuts.
They attend other events at the venue where we preform.
They read the local newspaper. 
They went to or are attending college.




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POB14
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bullet Posted: 4/21/06 at 9:21am

I've always wanted to see a survey of who DOESN'T attend, and why.  We're always doing things because "this is what our audience wants."  Well, what if there's an audience out there that WOULD want something different, but we don't know about it?

Why do people stay away?

  • Do they think it's too expensive?
  • Do they not like the shows we do?  What shows would they like?
  • Are shows too long?  Too late? 
  • Is our location bad?  Parking problems?  No place to eat before?
  • Do they think everyone in theatre is gay?  (I can't begin to count the number of times I get this reaction when people find out I do theatre.)
  • Are the shows too dirty?  Not dirty enough? :)

That's the kind of data I'd like to see.

POB
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k8tt
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bullet Posted: 4/21/06 at 6:42pm
We have asked and found that a lot of people in our rural area don't come to our plays because they are afraid of the unknown.  They have never seen live theatre and are used to going to/renting movies as their entertainment.  They think they will be bored.  Some have been to dinner theatres but that's very different from sitting and watching a play (at least around here).

Others reasons:  too hot in crowded room (we had to quit doing summer shows in places without AC); chairs too uncomfortable (we used wooden chairs); don't want to watch drama (odd reason since we only do comedies); think it will be like watching high school play - too amateur.

We are trying to build up our reputation for doing quality shows but it takes a while.  It helped that our first CT awards banquet was taped and shown on the local cable channel.  That got a lot of people interested in us.

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bullet Posted: 4/21/06 at 6:53pm

Originally posted by castMe

I don't know about your area, but here is a good percentage of our audience. 
.......
They go to the local coffee shop, not Dunkin' Donuts.

What's wrong with Dunkin' Donuts??!!   Some of the best coffee that's gotten me through a long tech or light hang into the wee hours of the morning. 

BD

"Dying is easy, comedy is hard."
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