Pittsburgh Arts, Regional Theatre, New Work, Producing, Copyright, Labor Unions,
New Products, Coping Skills, J-O-Bs...
Theatre industry news, University & School of Drama Announcements, plus occasional course support for
Carnegie Mellon School of Drama Faculty, Staff, Students, and Alumni.
CMU School of Drama
Tuesday, February 24, 2026
Dramatic Marketing Episode 3: Why Crowdfunding Godspell Worked (and Almost Didn’t)
Ken Davenport: The interesting thing about the idea of crowdfunding Godspell is this:
I had the idea years before we actually did it.
Whenever I come up with an idea that feels like “Oh, THAT might be interesting,” I don’t rush it. I file it away (mentally, and literally) on a piece of paper. And I wait.
2 comments:
Abeni Zhang
said...
This is so new to me! I never knew Godspell was crowdfunded, and my gut reaction to this was also impossible. Ken Davenport describes the whole experience in such an easy way that the readers don’t seem to realize how ambitious it was to start this project with crowdfunding. When I’m thinking about this, I also thought it should be impossible for shows to crowdfund before the production, since the nature of theater is the magic that happens in the theater after everything has been put up on the stage. It feels like an extremely challenging job for Ken as a marketing person when he says the nature of marketing is that “The marketing message has to match the artistic message.” The mismatch there is the first challenge, and with more to come. It is impressive to learn from Ken’s experience on this because not a lot of people will get the chance to accomplish something seemingly impossible like this.
First of all, Ken Davenport has a lot of great online resources on his website and social media. I’ve seen him come across my social media feed a few times now, and have learned a few simple yet interesting things about producing and Broadway’s functions. This article feels very in line with previous statements of his I’ve read, in that the bottom line is the people, not the profit. The marketing message matching, and even elevating (and vice versa) the artistic message is so important, and I feel as though this is where a lot of modern media - theatre and otherwise - misses the mark these days, and as such the audience is confused as a result. Patience is a virtue in any artistic endeavor, including marketing. I know very little about penny stocks and Regulation A, but to have such government involvement is a definite risk. Clearly, it worked out with a variety of buy-in with investors and a lot of support from the whole team.
2 comments:
This is so new to me! I never knew Godspell was crowdfunded, and my gut reaction to this was also impossible. Ken Davenport describes the whole experience in such an easy way that the readers don’t seem to realize how ambitious it was to start this project with crowdfunding. When I’m thinking about this, I also thought it should be impossible for shows to crowdfund before the production, since the nature of theater is the magic that happens in the theater after everything has been put up on the stage. It feels like an extremely challenging job for Ken as a marketing person when he says the nature of marketing is that “The marketing message has to match the artistic message.” The mismatch there is the first challenge, and with more to come. It is impressive to learn from Ken’s experience on this because not a lot of people will get the chance to accomplish something seemingly impossible like this.
First of all, Ken Davenport has a lot of great online resources on his website and social media. I’ve seen him come across my social media feed a few times now, and have learned a few simple yet interesting things about producing and Broadway’s functions. This article feels very in line with previous statements of his I’ve read, in that the bottom line is the people, not the profit. The marketing message matching, and even elevating (and vice versa) the artistic message is so important, and I feel as though this is where a lot of modern media - theatre and otherwise - misses the mark these days, and as such the audience is confused as a result. Patience is a virtue in any artistic endeavor, including marketing. I know very little about penny stocks and Regulation A, but to have such government involvement is a definite risk. Clearly, it worked out with a variety of buy-in with investors and a lot of support from the whole team.
Post a Comment