Stage Directions Guide to Getting and Keeping Your Audience (Stage Directions Guides) [Paperback]

Neil Offen (Editor), Stephen Peithman (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0325001138 | ISBN-13: 978-0325001135 | Publication Date: May 5, 1999

Today, theatre competes with many forms of entertainment for people's leisure time. So how does a theatre attract and maintain the audience it needs? This book tells you how, providing essential information on advertising to motivate ticket-buyers, creating attention-getting mailings, using newsletters, numerous successful marketing and promotion tips, why audiences don't come, and much more.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Two under-appreciated theatrical specialties, technical production for the novice and audience development, take center stage in these two thorough works. With hundreds of production/design/technical credits behind him, Campbell has written what will certainly become a standard introductory text on technical theater. All facets of production are clearly explained in jargon-free prose, and unfamiliar terms are highlighted and defined in an appended glossary. In addition to separate chapters on the more traditional elements of technical theater (lights, sound, scenery, properties), Campbell gives equal weight to the venue, design, stage management, corporate theater, and checklists. As valuable as this comprehensive manual is for the neophyte, experienced techies will also benefit from its common sense. Everyone involved with theater should have acces to this most welcome text. Stage Directions, "the practical magazine of theater," is to the theater community what the U*N*A*B*A*S*H*E*D Librarian is to librarians. This guide to cultivating and retaining an audience, the most perplexing and financially significant problem facing every theater, is the latest entry in Heinemann's "Stage Directions" series, compiled mostly from previously published articles in the magazine. This practical compendium, arranged in three sections, addresses how to attract and retain a constituency and profiles several theaters that have been successful in both areas. A more focused and audience-specific work, this title will be of value to theater administrators and marketers as well as smaller theater groups seeking practical and empirically tested ideas and solutions.ABarry X. Miller, Austin P.L., TX
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

It is called by different names in almost every industry. Within the visual and performing arts, marketing means audience development. A compilation of articles from Stage Directions magazine explains for community theater professionals the steps required to attract and retain subscribers. Short chapters encourage readers to adopt different approaches, from drafting market research questionnaires to crafting outreach programs in the schools and churches. A dearth of buzzwords and jargon, and a host of real-life examples from theaters big and small (including Chicago's Goodman and the Rainbow in Lancaster, Pennsylvania) help most plan and visualize how to generate SROs. Barbara Jacobs

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Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Heinemann Drama (May 5, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0325001138
• ISBN-13: 978-0325001135
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,424,179 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars review on stage directions book, June 29, 2001

By 

Kathy Sprague (Bellingham, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stage Directions Guide to Getting and Keeping Your Audience (Stage Directions Guides) (Paperback)

Recently I travelled around 10 western states on a car-camping trip. When I wasn't driving, I read this book out loud to my partner. Since I am a new president of a struggling community theatre this year, I thought what a great opportunity to learn more about marketing and keeping an audience while I sit in the car. I particularly liked the way this book addressed issues and gave possible solutions to the low occupancy and attrition rates associated with our theatre. This proved to be a very informative source and gave us new ideas I'm anxious to try.