Monday, October 27, 2008
Free Theater Night Brings New Audiences
NPR: "There may not be free lunch, but last week, all across the country, there was free theater. More than 600 non-profit theaters in 120 cities offered a Free Night of Theater, to hook new audiences."
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9 comments:
Very cool idea. Trying to get new audiences by having a free night is very cool. Hopefully this helped teh theatres wrangle in new audience members who will come back for more shows.
This is a good idea, but I can't see how it will really help out the theatres in the long run. It would be interesting to here farther down the line whether or not the money lost by doing "free theatre night" was equal to the money gained by these people coming back. I have a feeling that they will not really get that big of a new audience, and they won't gain back that money.
As small and seemingly insignificant this article may seem, I think that this is a great way for theatre to become a well known prominent art form in our society. Not that it isnt already but this is a way for people who are not theatre goers, to have a free oppertunity to view theatre at its best! Shows that are non-profit can either be two ends of the spectrum, wonderful or horrible, as every show. Even if the show doesnt gain money it is still a good way for people to be introduced to theatre.
I agree with everyone else this is a great idea and I hope the theatre audience broadens. I wonder if these audiences will only show up on free theatre nights or if they will come back and pay for shows if they get hooked. It is an admirable gamble. There is not much to loose on the part of the theatre. Bless em.
I agree with everyone, however I believe that this kind of program also has other benefits. Free theatre would open the theatre performance up to many more people, and thus the audience would be much more dynamic and span a wider range of people. This can only be beneficial to the production. People say that a play is never fully flushed out until it is shown to an audience… So the larger the audience the more complete the performance!
I love this idea. Theatre, as sad as it is to admit, is a slowly dying art. Fewer and fewer tickets are being sold, and fewer young people are attending. This brings in new crowds, especially crowds that wouldn't normally attend shows.
In my opinion a free night of theater is a great way to get audiences interested in theater. However it is also a great chance to expand the audiences that usually attend the theater. This combination will result in a new experience for both those doing the show and the audience.
It's always good to get new people more involved in theatre. Since some agreed that they would "definately" return for other performances while still having to pay full price, I beleive that this was a worthwhile task.
Like everyone, I think this is a really good idea. It does several things to help the show and the theater grow. I creates larger, more interested houses (always a plus), but on a more serious note, free theater night will hopefully increase the theater-going public, especially if it is continued or there are discounts available for "free theater night" patrons. This is also a good way to expose younger people to theater as an art form and hopefully they will grow up to enjoy it and support the art.
It will be interesting to see if the theaters actually gain from this plan. Will the money lost by giving out free seats outweigh the number of new subscribers brought in?
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