New Season Selection--Community Theater Woes

[theatahguy]

Posted: 8/6/07 at 1:29pm

Looking for advice or or input or discussion, please...

Our theater is approaching a 20th anniversary--an idea for our new season is to have the audience/public at large select it. It would go like this--

Board will review all plays/musicals we've done previously, put together a slate or ballot of X number of plays & X number of musicals that were successful in the past both artistically and financially. This slate will be published and our patrons, etc will then vote on which plays & musicals they'd like to see. The shows with the highest number of votes after a specified time period will then become our new season.

That's the gist. Lots of already-worked-out details have been left out of this explanation, but you get the idea.

Has anyone ever done anything like this before? How did it work out for your theater?

Thanks--I look forward to your opinions. Feel free to private message if you'd rather not post on the board.

[singingbackup]

Posted: 8/6/07 at 2:01pm

I would take the voting into account but be mindful that many people love to vote for something but they don't follow through. Meaning they might vote for certain shows but end up not going. Think of AMERICAN IDOL. Millions of votes have never translated into record sales for the winning IDOL.

[JRybka]

Posted: 8/6/07 at 2:32pm

When I worked at Dutch Apple Dinner Theater years ago, they used to have a questionaire that would ask what shows people would like to see. The staff would brainstorm on ideas for shows and then we would put it to the audience to find out if they wanted something (or if we could even do it...seeing as we were in a very conservitive part of PA)-- We were shocked to find out that some shows were always in their list.. My Fair Lady and the such but they were willing to seek out newer and possibly questionable shows.. The Full Monty, Jekyll and Hyde etc...

[sidneybruhl]

Posted: 8/6/07 at 4:19pm

In cases like this, I sometimes think people vote for what they're familiar with, not necessarily what they will go see. I personally think it is a bad idea to allow patrons to select an entire season.

[Dancin Thru Life]

Posted: 8/6/07 at 4:51pm

Why not just serve cake and coffee?

CONGRATULATIONS on your first 20 years!

Here's to the next 20!

[JRybka]

Posted: 8/6/07 at 5:53pm

How many shows are you guys going to do? Have you thought maybe letting them pick just ONE PLAY and ONE MUSICAL.... that might be cool and then allow the company that does the shows to pick the rest that they want to do.

[LoringsGuy]

Posted: 8/6/07 at 6:06pm

A theatre company I've worked with chose the first two shows of their upcoming season themselves. For the third show, they did something called "Choosical," a fundraiser for the theatre which gave patrons the opportunity to vote for the remaining show. It served several purposes----it got patrons involved in the decision-making process, it raised funds for the theatre, and it was only one show instead of an entire season so they weren't giving up complete control.