Tuesday, October 14, 2014
Tapping back into lost audiences
ARTSblog: You know that question, “how do we build new audiences without losing current ones?” Here’s a thought exercise for you: what if you flipped it, reframed the question? What if you prioritized the audience you’ve already lost, rather than the audience you might lose?
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I really like the energy and understanding this author has on the draw companies use to get new and excited audience members. And I especially like how she crushes that appeal. By turning the tables of perspective, the author shows really how effective it is to have waves of all different walks of life surging in and out of theatres as opposed to sticking to a protocol in an attempt to keep the old audiences coming back. In a way, this article is about not being exclusive overall and instead being inclusive of everything, which is a great message in the theatre business.
This article makes me think of a couple of interesting things, both good and bad. First, when the author states the list of things you need to do address audience development, the first thing they essentially state is for people of that theatre company to "live like they're dying". This should not always be true I don't think. While adaptation and change does have it place in theatre, that doesn't mean you can not let something remain static. However, I do like the idea of incremental and sweeping changes. It is helpful to be a morphing, adapting company and this will let you do that but you also may need to remember if that it isn't broken, don't fix it.
I had this conversation recently about Steve Jobs and how Apple took over the world. The audience for Apple ranges from all ages and region in the world. However, there has been a decease in technology value after Steve passed away. Steve had a vision and stay with his own vision and it met with what the audience wanted. However, now the company seem to focus only on what the audience wants. But Steve had his vision and told people what they wanted and it was a success. Just like this article, I think the company needs to change change their focus and instead of guessing what the audience wants, they should have a vision and go with with it. One idea doesn't work for everyone, but everyone can appreciate a brilliant idea. Tell the audience what they want and they will beg for more.
Keeping an audience interested is not an easy task especially if you are a theater company that has been a around for a while. The author demonstrates three very effective methods of keeping your audience engaged and keeping your theater alive. To me it seems best to have new types of pieces to keep getting new audiences so there are always more people coming. If you just keep the people you have they could eventually get bored and you will lose money or they will be all you have you also won't gain any money.
Keeping an audience interested is not an easy task especially if you are a theater company that has been a around for a while. The author demonstrates three very effective methods of keeping your audience engaged and keeping your theater alive. To me it seems best to have new types of pieces to keep getting new audiences so there are always more people coming. If you just keep the people you have they could eventually get bored and you will lose money or they will be all you have you also won't gain any money.
This article reminds me of one I read a little while ago, or a discussion we held in class one time. The audiences we have, we don’t want to lose them, and if we try to do something they don’t particularly like they get mad. By trying to diversify the selection of what is performed, we make certain those choices are the right ones. We do try to bring about new audiences. For some theatres they make the choices upon which many of their older sponsors can agree with, but it excludes the younger audience in turn makes them look the other way, because it is yet again the same type of story that has been put on over and over again. There are certain steps to be taken, and going to social media has a new way of bringing about a new and diverse audience to the theatre. We want people to come and see the shows, so what better way to make that happen, than to start going to a source that can make it a more feasible choice.
My friend and I (Jordan Sucher, a dramaturg), have been puzzling over this question, although on a much smaller scale. We book bands around Pittsburgh and are really involved in the DIY music scene, but we are both obviously interested in theater. We've made it our mission to bridge the gap between the DIY music and theater scenes in Pittsburgh by colliding music, performance art, poetry, fine art, and installation into single shows. While some people are really into the hybrid, others are turned off by the branching out. On one hand we could simple forget about those who are uninterested, but that would defeat the purpose, for we are trying to make art and theater more presentable to those who may be turned off by their lack of "punk vibe." (Although let me tell you there is plenty of super punk theater in the world.) It was nice reading this article and seeing that there are others who struggle with, and work to solve this issue of exposing audiences to new art forms or approaches to art! I am going to take their advice to heart and I think it will be useful when booking our next show!
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