February 13, 2009
Ticket Selling Proposition
My day job deals in the futures market for live events. Seeing as how I had no idea what that was before I started here, I’ll give a short description and example.
Let’s say you want to see the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XLIV. At our website, you buy dibs — or reservation — on face-value tickets to see the Bears at the Super Bowl. The reservation cost for Super Bowl tickets generally starts out at 20 bucks.
You buy dibs on the Bears at the Super Bowl. If the Bears make it, you’re only paying $20 + face value for the ticket. How much is street value for Super Bowl tickets? At least a thousand bucks. If the Bears don’t make it, you’re only out $20. The condition here is that the Bears make it to the Super Bowl. If they make it, you get tickets. If they don’t, you don’t get tickets.
This is genius for us, because it allows us to sell the same tickets more than once. There are 32 teams in the NFL Playoffs. That means for the Super Bowl, we can sell the same tickets 32 times. We only have to pay out for the two teams that make it to the Super Bowl. If each reservation goes for $20, and we sell 100 tickets per team, then we’ve made $60,000 per team and had to pay out $4,000 in tickets. Make sense?
We’ve decided to branch out into other markets, including music concerts and theatre.
So here are my questions to you guys:
1) Would this model be interesting to you?
I understand that most of you don’t want to take money from patrons if they’re not going to get anything in return (unless, of course, they’re donating money). Totally understandable, and I even agree with you. However, think about it this way: You don’t have to guarantee all your tickets. Just take however many tickets you usually wind up with at the end of each run and put them up. Say you have capacity for 300 seats over the course of the run, but you usually only sell about 250 tickets. You can put the other 50 up with our system — you probably weren’t going to sell them anyway). This way, you’re only putting up tickets that probably wouldn’t have sold in the first place — win/win situation! The minimum reservation fee is $5, so you’d get (5 dollars) x (number of tickets reserved) x ( possible outcomes ). This leads to my next question.
2) What conditions, if any, could be imposed on storefront theatre to determine who gets tickets?
There has to be a condition. We don’t sell tickets — just reservations. There has to be at least two possible outcomes, or else the whole model is pointless. This is the part we’re struggling with. For larger theatre organizations, like Broadway in Chicago and The Goodman, we can set up a “If Show X comes to town before 2012, we guarantee face value tickets”. In fact, as far as I’m aware, we already have a set-up like that with Broadway in Chicago. The question here is for storefront theatres. What conditions can be established on a storefront theatre, most of whom generally focus on world or regional premieres? How would anyone else know about those to request them? The “If Show X comes to town” condition wouldn’t work here.
What other conditions could there be?
As I said, I understand that some of you are opposed to this idea. It sounds like gambling. It kind of is, except instead of getting cash, you’re getting tickets. However, many theatres already do this kind of thing. Wicked, for example, would raffle tickets an hour before the show. I think that if thought out properly, this model could generate some much needed extra cash for shows, generate publicity (through our website), and give more people an opportunity to attend our shows.
What do you guys think?
February 8, 2009
Unexpected handcuffs are fun
I’ve realized that I really suck at the whole review thing, so I’m basically just gonna say that you all need to see “Maria’s Field” by TUTA. While the concept of the play isn’t exactly my thing (literally tying space and time together), the rest of the show was phenomenal: acting, scenery, costumes, etc. Great stuff. Tickets aren’t that expensive ($15, I think) and you can grab them the DCA Theater.
Last night I went to see “And They Put Handcuffs On The Flowers” by The Right Brain Project. It was pretty amazing. Again, I suck at reviews, so I’ll just leave it at “Amazing.”
Afterward, Bob and I went with the cast to a bar where we proceeded to… okay, I take that back.. where THEY proceeded to drink (and I watched). The first little bit was a little awkward for me, because I’m not great at social situations like bars. Partly because I don’t drink.
Anyway, I met a ton of my fellow bloggers and got to see a few people I hadn’t seen in awhile, so all-in-all, it was a great great evening.
This coming weekend I’m going to try and make a performance of Touch, as I’ve heard nothing but rave reviews about the show, from the direction of Jessica Hutchinson to the lights and sound to Dan Granata’s Don-Hall-Bawling-Like-A-Baby inducing performance. I’m really looking forward to it and to getting back out there and into theatre again.
If any of you readers in Chicago want to meet up for dinner, drinks, shows, or just plain sit around and talk, hit me up.
More thoughts to come soon.
December 3, 2008
November 26, 2008
I think…
…I might’ve made a big mistake.
Not a good feeling.
Oh, happy thanksgiving to all and to all a good night. Or something.
November 14, 2008
Technical Difficulties
To both of my regular readers, I’m sorry. Something came up and I won’t be able to concentrate on my project for a few days. Hopefully this situation will be over by Sunday and I’ll have some new posts for you on Monday.
For the rest of you who don’t read my blog regularly and have no idea what i’m talking about, go read someone who actually has interesting things to say like Don Hall or Isaac or Nick.
October 11, 2008
My Goals for the Future
So here I am in Chicago, starting to get finished getting settled in and starting to look around for theatres to be involved with. I’ve met a few people here and there and I’m starting to get a feel for what the theatre scene is like here, but I’ve yet to really connect with anyone but Nick. As I was talking to Nick today, I realized that I’ve got to figure out what it is that I want out of the theatre scene before I go up to a group and say “Hi. Let me in.”
So, in the interests of soul-searching or whatever, here goes.
I want, above all, to meet people and to have fun. I want a group of people that I can connect with, who share the same interests as I do, who love theatre and creativity as much as I do. I want to be involved, active, and productive. I want to be part of a good group whose goal is to advance themselves as thespians and improve themselves as people.
In terms of theatre, I want to have the opportunity to learn from more experienced members in my chosen fields: acting and directing. But I don’t want to exclude other areas. I’m certainly interested in learning about lighting design, sound design, set design, carpentry, box office management, marketing. In short, I want to learn as much as I can.
I know a lot of theatres offer internships. What I don’t want to be is the company’s bitch. I don’t want to be stuck ushering every night, taking tickets every night, making everyone’s coffee. I don’t mind participating in those activities in support of the company, but taking tickets and ushering are not why I want to work with a company.
I’m not great at improv and I can’t sing worth shit, so if the company focuses on those, then, while I’m open to learning more about those, I should probably look elsewhere.
I’m interested in just about everything else, including (but not limited to) children’s theatre, straight dramas, comedy, Shakespeare, and avant garde.
In addition to theatre skills, I can also offer my web design services in support of the company.
So if you’re a theatre person in Chicago, and your company is looking for extra help, don’t hesitate to let me know.
That will be all.
Play Reviews: “Six Years” and “Million Dollar Quartet”
I’ve been kind of busy this week, between work and seeing two plays in Chicago. I plan on taking tomorrow to relax and enjoy the nice weather we’re having.
The first play I saw was on Thursday night at the New Leaf Theatre. The show was called “Six Years” and followed the lives of married couple Phil and Meredith. The name comes from the time shift between scenes — each scene takes place six years after the previous scene.
I was very impressed with the show. The acting kept me rapt with attention throughout the show. Jessica Hutchinson did an excellent job with the direction, making several choices that really made the show unique. One of the choices that impressed me the most was the scene transitions. Rather than having stage hands come out dressed in black, she had the leads, Phil and Meredith, move slowly (about half-time) while the other actors changed scenery at a regular (or slightly faster than regular) pace. The effect was very dramatic, especially when you add in the special lights shone down on them and the music playing in the background. A very nice effect that really blew me away.
If you’ve got a chance and you’re in Chicago, check out “Six Years” at the New Leaf Theatre. The show runs on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm through November 22nd. Check it out! You won’t regret it.
The second show I saw, courtesy of Nick Keenan, was “Million Dollar Quartet” at The Goodman Theatre. If you’re a fan of Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash, you’ll love MDQ. The story follows a gathering of the four famous musicians in a sound studio in 1956 and what follows is the birth of rock’n'roll! I had a blast, since the kind of music embodied in the musical is my favorite kind. I was tapping my feet to the beat and mouthing along with the words, too!
This is definitely a must-see if you’re any kind of music fan at all. Check it out at The Goodman Theatre as soon as you can! The show runs through October 26th.
October 9, 2008
“Six Years”
Tonight I’m going to see “Six Years” at the New Leaf Theatre in Chicago. I’m pretty excited.
I’ll try and keep mental notes so I can give a review.
Also, nachos.
October 6, 2008
October 1, 2008
Why now? Why this?
The other day I mentioned that I had two ideas for plays, both of which are experimental in nature. I asked for your opinions, and you responded with some very good questions for me to think about.
I’ll start with a question from Dennis: Why now?
That’s a complicated question, but I’ll do my best to answer. Firstly, I think they are interesting concepts that would be entertaining for me to watch. Not sure about others, but I would certainly enjoy it, I think. Second, as a rookie director, this would be a good experience in bringing the concepts to life. The hard part would be making it entertaining and understandable to others, with the right amount of “Hey, watch this” and “Can you figure out the puzzle?” elements to it.
Unfortunately, like the Prof said, that might be something that I wouldn’t want to subject an audience to. He suggested that I undertake the project on my own, but not subject an audience to the play if it’s just “noodling around” with techniques.
That’s understandable. In fact, I agree completely. What I’m not sure about, however, is whether or not these concepts are “noodling around” or actually strong ideas that would work. Clearly, I’d have to write the scripts first, before I can make such a determination.
So let’s assume Professor Walters is right: this is just “noodling around” and it’s not worth subjecting an audience to. Now what? How do I take this experiment to its logical conclusion? Get actors together, direct them, put together a show and… what? Don’t show it to people?
I can definitely see the benefits to doing it in private, in terms of learning the techniques, but in terms of.. well.. it’s the principle of the thing. A show is meant to be.. well, showed!
Am I missing something?