This year, the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater has become the first Pittsburgh venue to institute this pricing policy for every performance of every show, all season long.
And so far, at least, it seems to be working.
Monday, October 12, 2015
The Kelly-Strayhorn's “Pay What Makes You Happy” Policy
This year, the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater has become the first Pittsburgh venue to institute this pricing policy for every performance of every show, all season long.
And so far, at least, it seems to be working.
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5 comments:
Well this is a generous offer that the Kelly-Strayhorn Theatre is providing for those audience members who have financial issues. It allows so many people to appreciate the arts who are less fortunate. This reminds me of a time is high school where are shows cost money to the general public. But even for a $10 ticket, families would still struggle to come to our shows. This is why each student would get comp tickets so they are allowed to bring a certain amount of family members for free each year. I remember our director said she was concerned if this strategy would work and if the theatre would lose money, but surprisingly this did work. This allowed more families to come to the theatre and enjoy the experience. Each student only had 4 all year so they had to use them wisely, but there were other opportunities to get more. Students loved this because they were able to act and create a theatrical experience and have their family see what they've done.
I did a report on the Kelly-Strayhorn theatre for Susan’s class last year, and it is a great community place to gather and celebrate art. I had no idea, however, that places of business were beginning to use the pay-as-you-can models. The only occurrence of this model I have personally seen is the Panera Bread in Boston that has a pay-as-you-see-fit model, which has benefited many poorer citizens of Boston by giving them access to healthier food at any price that they can afford. It has also reaped benefits from generous people paying more than necessary, helping to keep the establishment in place. I feel that theatres could also be greatly benefitted by this model because people would be donating whenever possible as opposed to special occasions, and the less fortunate would be able to receive the same cultural influences as the wealthier people in the community. There seem to be many cultural benefits to this system, but I am unsure as to whether or not it could keep a business afloat. K
This is a great policy, but definitely a trick and risky initiative for a theater to put forward. It seems to be working for the Kelly-Strayhorn theater because the community that they are a part of wants to support them, and welcomes the unofficial practice becoming a policy of the company. I especially like that the change stems from an effort to maintain the community that the theater is a part of amidst the neighborhood changing, in what sounds like a classic case of gentrification. I hope that this initial success maintains itself over the course of the season. I wonder how much resistance Solomon encountered, and whether it was difficult to convince the board and other higher-ups in the company to make the change. The fact that some of the employees thought the policy implicitly devalues their work definitely surprised me, and I hope that its success will allow them to see that that's not necessarily the outcome of making their shows more affordable.
I love the idea of pay-what-you-can ticket pricing. A theater selling tickets for $20 a piece to a half full house is ultimately less well off than a packed house that paid $10 a ticket, because there is 50% less word of mouth travelling outward from the production after the performance. Additionally, you occasionally get the people who feel strongly enough about the work that they pay significantly over the "standard" ticket price. This is awesome in a couple of ways: one, it moves money from what could have been a donation, or contributed income, into earned income, which, at the end of the year, makes your theater look more productive. Two, it's a much more direct way of reaching out to patrons. Rather than sending an unending amount of postcards and emails about donating, by saying, effectively, "impact us as much as we impact you", they are giving the patron more visceral, emotional investment in the art.
I don't really like arguments that say pay-what-you-can cheapens performance by devaluing it. Entertainment is a market and, like all other markets out there, its inherent value is what people will pay to consume it. By saying that "our art is worth more than you want to pay for it", YOU are making it about the money, which can rub patrons the wrong way...
This whole concept is great. Everyone should be able to experience theatre whether they can afford it or not. Over the past several years I have seen ticket prices climbing because of the attendance of the theatre community. It is a shame to see so many empty seats because people can’t afford them. The way I see it, if there is an empty seat, that is $0 in the bank, but if some pays something as little as $1, that is better than nothing. For the people that can still afford the regular ticket prices, I highly doubt they will stop paying. People will understand that theatre quality will deteriorate with lower profits, that is not something theatre-goers want to see happen. I am a college student who doesn’t always have money to pay for full price tickets, but I am very interested in what the theatre world has to offer here in Pittsburgh. For now I am glad to be paying the five dollars for admission, but in the future, I will find a way to give back for all the years I didn’t pay full price.
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