momorantings

In honor of Theater Communications Group's 50th Anniversary, the performing arts service organization solicited "what if" manifestos for their upcoming annual conference . In that spirit, I decided to point the "what if" in the direction of the the non-profit business model by asking what would happen if resident theaters abandoned up their non-profit status. I am by no means the first to address this topic. On Tuesday, May 17, Thomas Cott featured the three great articles addressing this issue in his " You've Cott Mail " that day: L3C Cha, Cha, Cha by Diane Ragsdale Questioning Old Dogmas by Colin Tweedy Revenue Means More Than Business Models by James Undercofler The Assumed Argument: Mitigating Financial Risk by Relying Less Upon Volatile Funding Sources I assume that the proponents of reexamining the reliance upon the non-profit business model by our resident theaters comes from those who feel that theaters could mitigate their operating ris...

The predominant method of pricing to attract young audiences involves the last minute discounting of available inventory, usually resulting in what is commonly referred to as a "student rush." At Arena Stage , we had a similar system called our "30 and Under Program," which allowed patrons 30 years old and younger to access $15 tickets beginning at 10:00am on Monday for that week's performances. The $15 ticket price represented a 75% off discount from our typical average ticket price, so these tickets were in high demand. With such a popular program, you might be asking why are we trying to fix something that is "working" by launching a "Pay Your Age" program specifically designed to replace the previously popular "30 and Under" program? Well, if you dig a little deeper, you'd find that it wasn't working because... We were losing them at 31. Imagine if you had spent ten years paying $15 for a good seat to the theater, and o...