Continuing the Conversation

Hello, it’s Andie Arthur of the South Florida Theatre League, back with my newest weekly installment on checking in on the national and international theatre conversation.

Intrinsic Impact

Arts administrators often talk about the economic impact of the arts – how many jobs the industry creates, how much money it brings back into the local economy – but the economic impact is not the only impact that the arts have on a community. Last year, Theatre Bay Area (the San Francisco Bay Area equivalent of the South Florida Theatre League) commissioned a study on how to measure the intrinsic impact of the arts. How does our work transform our audiences and communities? Theatre Bay Area and Wolf Brown worked with theatres across the country producing a variety of programming in vastly different markets to see how the audiences engage performances. Imagine being able to have measurements of how well your theatre is accomplishing your mission. I highly recommend reading Counting New Beans and for theatres that are at the right place to look into doing your own studies. It really could revitalize how you look at audience engagement.

Instagram – the next social media thing

I know a lot of theatres are just getting the hang of twitter and facebook, but there are a bunch of new social media sites on the horizon. James Sims of 2amtheatre discusses how theatres need to be aware of Instagram. Maybe for the next round of posts, I’ll feature theatres that are doing social media very well – not selling, but actively engaging their audiences.

Pre-Show Engagement

Frank Rizzo believes that theatres should take a cue from the dance and symphony world and have pre-show discussions.

Cover the Basics

Scott Matthewman writes that small theatres often forget their audience needs in website design. As someone who once got lost looking for parking at a new venue, I really agree with the need to post directions. When pulling over and looking up the location on my smart phone doesn’t work – there’s a problem.

Artful.ly

Fractured Atlas is offering an open source edition of their Artful.ly software for ticketing and donor management. This is a great opportunity for the brand new theatres who don’t want to spend money on software.

Kristoffer Diaz offers a Skype Playwriting Class

Caldwell Theatre Company’s performance of Kristoffer Diaz’s The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity this past January was one of my favorite theatrical experiences. So I’m really excited that Diaz will offering a playwriting class via skype – so that everyone who has an internet connection can participate. It’s coming up this Friday, but I hope that Samuel French does more skype classes.