How Many Playbills Do You Have? — Page 2
#27
Posted: 11/7/16 at 2:52pm
Way too many, and I am trying to condense/ clean house by selling some of the collection and using the money for things I need. I started an instagram account for this: playbills4sale
My Music Classroom Giving Page: https://www.donorschoose.org/MrHMusicRoom
#28
Posted: 11/7/16 at 6:06pm
A. Playbills/Programs. I have some other stuff but it's mostly random stuff from the Flea and I don't think that really counts as a collection. The few times I've bought merch at the theatre it was something I thought was special or clever on the part of the production.
B. It's become a habit now. But it's a question I ask myself enough that I'm not sure how long I'll keep collecting, or at least collecting as indiscriminately as I am now. But at least for the favorite things in my collection, looking at them evokes good memories and with the number of shows I'm seeing now it can be difficult to hold on to those memories in another way (unless I took a lot of notes coming out of a show). For some reason having something tangible makes it easier to find those memories in my mind.
C. Not sure I get this one but aside from some Flea items, I get Playbills and programs by going to see shows. I have a haphazard system right now of one large plastic bin and then everything else in scattered receptacles.
D. I think my earliest sense of "I would like to keep this" was around the early 2000's. I saw shows before then but I didn't think about hanging on to my programs.
E. Limited by the size of my apartment 
#29
Posted: 11/7/16 at 6:35pm
A. What you collect? (Playbills, Programs, other theatre memorabilia&hellip
Playbills
B. Why you collect?
I think they're a nice memento, and I like being able to go back and look at them to remind myself who I saw in which show.
C. How you collect?
I only collect/save Playbills from productions I've seen. I put the Playbills in mini sheet protectors that I store in mini binders (from Staples).
D. How long have you collected?
Since seeing my first Broadway show (The Secret Garden) in 2001, missing a few earlier ones that for some reason I didn't save.
E. Size of your collection?
Around 500 (including Broadway and off-Broadway shows).
Updated On: 11/7/16 at 06:35 PM
#30
Posted: 11/7/16 at 8:44pm
I have been a collector of PIaybills since I was about 12 and I'm about to turn 34. I consder them to be historical artifacts and a way to record something that can't really be recorded except in one's memory, as videos and cast recordings can never replicate a live performance. I was born in Manhattan and raised in the suburbs but now live in Phoenix. My brother lives in NYC and I visit him and see some Broadway shows once every sixteen months or so but I have someone who sees EVERY show that opens each year and sends them to me. An elderly relative who used to collect also gave me much of her old collection. I've bought a few on eBay too. I'm guessing around 500, maybe more.
Updated On: 11/7/16 at 08:44 PM
#34
Posted: 1/6/17 at 6:25pm
My wife and I have bought binders to keep all of them. As to how many, not really sure but let's round it up to 100.
Updated On: 1/6/17 at 06:25 PM
#35
Posted: 1/7/17 at 8:18am
I collect every playbill/program for all productions I've seen. Growing up my family never really went to the theatre, so my first broadway show was Hairspray in 2007 for a school trip to NY and I was looking through my storage bin of playbills last week and it was really nice to see a keepsake of that show. I really only started seeing shows 4 years ago (this can be a very expensive hobby) so I probably have about 30 - 40 but it sure is growing fast.
My follow-up question is: how do you guys feel about playbills for shows you didn't see? I have a few from friends who gave them to me as gifts and I know people buy/sell signed playbills online. While I think they are a great option especially since not everyone has the opportunity to see a specific show, I personally like collecting because there is the experience attached to it.
#36
Posted: 1/7/17 at 8:40am
I've been going to the theatre for nearly 37 years and have seen nearly 2,000 shows. I have a Playbill from each show except for the first one I saw which was The Wiz.
#37
Posted: 1/7/17 at 7:11pm
I'm in my 19th Playbill binder, as well as 3rd special edition Playbill binder.
#38
Posted: 1/7/17 at 9:08pm
I only have four so far from the two shows I have seem, Book of Mormon and Falsettos! My mom lets me keep here so I have a signed and an unsigned one.
I'm hoping to add An American in Paris, Wicked, Charlie and/or Dear Evan Hansen for 2017. ??
#39
Posted: 1/8/17 at 5:52am
Over 100. I keep them as memories of the shows I have seen and the trips to London and NYC.
Not to be confused with Dave19.
#40
Posted: 1/8/17 at 5:08pm
Too many to count, well, except for Hamilton, which is currently 16.
"Whether you think you can or you can't, you're right." ~ Henry Ford
#41
Posted: 1/8/17 at 5:48pm
Soooo many. I've seen a pretty good number of shows, but most of the ones I own are rare ones from back in the day that I was fortunate enough to find on eBay...Gypsy with Ethel Merman, dated two days after opening night; Funny Girl with Streisand and Chaplin, which I also have the program for; Annie Get Your Gun with Merman; OBC of West Side Story; OBC of Phantom of the Opera; OBC of Dreamgirls; OBC of Sweeney Todd; OBC of Wicked, plus a Playbill from what was supposed to be Idina's final performance; OBC of Rent...eBay has been very good to me in terms of old theatre memorabilia! Today at a thrift shop, I found a souvenir program from The Sound of Music with Mary Martin and the OBC for $5. I love my collection and none of my friends could care less, so sorry for the neverending post!
#42
Posted: 1/8/17 at 6:31pm
kjck89 said: "My follow-up question is: how do you guys feel about playbills for shows you didn't see? I have a few from friends who gave them to me as gifts and I know people buy/sell signed playbills online. While I think they are a great option especially since not everyone has the opportunity to see a specific show, I personally like collecting because there is the experience attached to it."
I don't care for them, just like I wouldn't care about an autograph if I wasn't the one standing there meeting the actor while they signed my playbill. Like you say, it's the experience attached to it that makes it have importance to me.
#43
Posted: 1/8/17 at 7:11pm
None. I toss them. They usually hang around for a month or so, if I want to read them, explore the cast credits, etc., but then it's off to the bin.
#44
Posted: 1/8/17 at 10:04pm
kjck89 said: "My follow-up question is: how do you guys feel about playbills for shows you didn't see? I have a few from friends who gave them to me as gifts and I know people buy/sell signed playbills online. While I think they are a great option especially since not everyone has the opportunity to see a specific show, I personally like collecting because there is the experience attached to it.
"
Don't care for them. I only save the Playbills for the shows I have seen for the memories.
Not to be confused with Dave19.
#45
Posted: 1/8/17 at 10:11pm
"My follow-up question is: how do you guys feel about playbills for shows you didn't see?"
I don't have one from a show that I did not see. I feel that the idea behind collecting a Playbill is to remember a show you experienced. Others may just want to collect them but not me, to each their own.
#46
Posted: 1/19/22 at 4:37pm
Dollypop, Do you still have 3,782 playbills? Just wondering.
Updated On: 1/19/22 at 04:37 PM
#47
Posted: 1/19/22 at 5:16pm
kjck89 said: "I collect every playbill/program for all productions I've seen. Growing up my family never really went to the theatre, so my first broadway show was Hairspray in 2007 for a school trip to NY and I was looking through my storage binof playbills last week and it was really nice to see a keepsake of that show. I really only started seeing shows 4 years ago (this can be a very expensive hobby)so I probably have about 30 - 40 but it sure is growing fast.
My follow-up question is: how do you guys feel about playbills for shows you didn't see? I have a few from friends who gave them to me as gifts and I know people buy/sell signed playbills online. While I think they are a great option especially since not everyone has the opportunity to see a specific show, I personally like collecting because there is the experience attached to it."
Re: shows I didn’t see. The only ones I have like that are significant to shows I’m a fan of. For example I didn’t get to see Waitress at A.R.T. but when I found one on eBay I absolutely bought it. If there are understudies on that rarely get to go on I ask for those with the slip, etc. only significant ones. For shows I didn’t see-maybe I do have them but I have WAY too many so I’m trying to sell them.
#48
Posted: 1/19/22 at 7:40pm
I have like 4 full playbill binders…. So probably around 60
#49
Posted: 1/20/22 at 8:20am
I don't know the exact number, but I am at 6 full binders and counting. Each sleeve has two playbills in them back to back. I can say that I do have some valuable ones though that will NEVER part ways with me.
The idea is to work and to experiment. Some things will be creatively successful, some things will succeed at the box office, and some things will only - which is the biggest only - teach you things that see the future. And they're probably as valuable as any of your successes. -Harold Prince
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