Free Night of Theater- Austin

Austin Circle of Theaters (ACoT) is a 32 year-old nonprofit performing arts service organization working to create greater public awareness, appreciation, and support local performing arts since 1974. ACoT serves over 130 large and small Central Texas organizations from the music, theater, dance, and film arenas, as well as their audiences and supporters, and has long been known as the region’s central information hub for the performing arts. ACoT's most prominent programs include the annual B. Iden Payne Awards, Texas State Auditions, Let’s Go Austin, a bimonthly events guide with its online counterpart (www.letsgoaustin.org) as well as its ancillary weekly updates in Spotlight and Callboard. It also operates AusTIX, the half-price ticket booth in the Austin Visitors Center. ACoT provides marketing, ticketing, and capacity building programs along with numerous other services for emerging theatre companies and local performing artists and has launched a host of exciting theater companies - including the Rude Mechanicals, Vortex, Salvage Vanguard, and Austin Cabaret Theatre - through its sponsored project program. With a mission to cultivate an environment where the performing arts can flourish, Austin Circle of Theaters consistently takes a leadership role in advocacy efforts for the performing arts community on the local, state and national levels. Says Executive Director Latifah Taormina, "Like our sister organizations, we work from a conviction that the performing arts are an essential public good and critical to a healthy and truly democratic society."

Participating Theaters - 25

Budget
$7500 total project budget/scope for the localized Austin program that included the following:

Event Director (estimated on percentage of E.D. time) $1,350.00
Staffing Additional (Ticketing Management @ 80 hrs) $250.00
Printing (event postcard) $2,400.00
(TCG provided for $1300 toward this expense) Event Donation (in kind) $2,400.00
(included as project scope total budget for possible 06)

Total $7,500.00

Service Organization Staffing

Most of the entire workload for Free Night of Theater was absorbed by executive director Latifah Taormina exclusively. One additional person was added to handle the ticketing management and reconciliation efforts. The position consumed 80 hours of total time and was a part time paid position for two weeks worth of work.

Latifah estimated that approximately 10% of her total workload for the entire year was dedicated to this campaign in consideration of conference calls, prep and advertising and PR consulting within the performing arts community in Austin.

Community Impact

Austin box offices reported that totals for Free Night of Theater provided for over 1000 giveaway tickets on October 20, 2005 and Austin experienced about an 80-90% pickup rate. (10-20% no shows)

Overall, Austin experienced a less than desirable campaign turnout due in most respects to the fallout and localized ripple effects felt by the hurricane Katrina aftermath and Austin's close proximity to New Orleans and the Gold Coast areas most affected. The need for redirecting multiple civic resources and budgets at all levels left reformatted and dropped venues and budgets in the form of sponsorship dollars at a time when they were needed for city/state/national Emergency Response efforts or were simply overtaken by government and donation responsibilities.

Austin looks forward to replenishing those coffers and commitments at all levels for participation in the 2006 campaign with a strong emphasis on the education of our local consumers towards differentiation of this effort versus previous "BIG Ticket Giveaway" run in prior years. Additional staffers, including a Marketing Director and a Communications Director were added to the Austin Circle of Theaters organization in late 2005 to begin development of sponsorship and campaign details for a banner Free Night of Theatre 2006 campaign.

Also of note was the Vortex Theatre's experience as a sample focus group from the curtain speech and box office report. This theater was showcasing a performance of Vampiress that night. For a 75 seat house approximately 80% of the seats were filled before show time and all seats that night were for the Free Night campaign. (No paid admissions) With 20 seats left they had to start a waiting list for the remaining walk ups. Upon polling the audience approximately 50% had not been to a live theatrical performance in over a year and close to 80% had not been to this particular theatre before which were interesting notations for audience demographics for that night.

Media Coverage

Advertising & Promotions

Email: Ad blasts to Arts/Entertainment community consumer households and database memberships

Website: Theatre is Alive and ACOT sites dedicated listings and program information/education to drive campaign Print:

Public Relations

The Austin market also provided for the contributions to the master national campaign in significant ways by securing the Wingo/Sanders Agency (formerly SWG&M) contact as primary national advertising agent responsible for creation of the Theatreisalive.com website and the rollout of the '05 effort. This same collaboration provided for numerous other contributing media and photographic/graphic art pieces used in other markets and postcard piece as well as additional strategic advertising/promotion efforts for both Philadelphia and San Francisco.

Post event quote:

According Latifah Taormina, executive director of Austin Circle of Theaters "Here in Austin, the whole experience was full of learning, growth, wonder, and some anxiety. The collaboration process was especially exciting for us, to be part of a larger national community that reached across the country and share this historic event with Philadelphia and San Francisco."

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