July 4, 2009

Free Night of Theater 2009 Participation Guidelines

Theatre Communications Group | Managing Partners | Theatre Companies

Participation in the Free Night of Theater program is not available for open enrollment and and is dependent on the potential partners’ agreement to meet the participation criteria outlined below.  If you would like to participate in the 2009 program, and are located in a region that is already involved in Free Night, please contact your regional representative about joining the program. For a list of regional representatives, please click here.

PLEASE NOTE:  The deadline for new organizations (or theatre companies) to contact TCG about participating in the Free Night 2009 program is March 30, 2009.  To be considered for participation in the 2009 program, contact Phillip Matthews, director of audience programs at pmatthews@tcg.org.

Final participation guidelines for the 2009 program will be posted on this site by February 16, 2009.

TCG's 2009 Program Responsibilities

TCG will design, manage and oversee all aspects of the national Free Night 2009 campaign.  As part of the program administration, TCG will:

  • Disseminate 2009 program information to local management partners and/or individual theatre companies
  • Approve participation of all interested partners in 2009 program
  • Facilitate regularly scheduled program teleconferences and committee meetings
  • Provide management support and program updates through the Free Night web pages
  • Manage and assume fiscal responsibility for all programmatic research and analysis performed by Shugoll Research
  • Manage advertising agency relationship
  • Assume fiscal responsibility for design and creation of advertising elements per advertising Scope of Work agreement
  • Work with advertising agency to design Free Night information on the all collateral materials
  • Approve all final elements of the national advertising campaign
  • Provide management partners templates of all advertising elements
  • Design, host and maintain the Free Night of Theater 2009 website (www.freenightoftheater.net)
  • Manage the online ticketing reservation system through national site
  • Assure that the program information is available and current, as well as, linked to managing partner organization websites Back to Top

Managing Partner's Responsibilities:

Since the launch of the program in 2005 , Free Night of Theater has helped fulfill the missions of our managing partner organizations by increasing their membership, providing new sponsorship opportunities (corporate, foundation, government and in-kind) and significantly expanding local media exposure.

Managing partners are responsible for all aspects of the Free Night of Theater 2009 in their area and agree to:

  • Recruit and manage the participation of local theatre companies
  • Commit modest financial resources to support the ongoing management of the program
  • Assign specific staff to asssit in the day-to-day manangement of the program
  • Disseminate 2008 program participation criteria to individual theatre companies
  • Provide prominent billing (with links to the national Free Night and TCG websites) on local organization websites
  • Use the national website for online ticket reservations (unless agreed by TCG that your existing website can handle reservations in same manner as national site)
  • Use the national online ticket reservation survey provided by TCG
  • Participate in post-event program evaluation conference calls scheduled by TCG
  • Provide post-event program summaries as outlined by TCG, including:
    • Demographic Survey results
    • Theatre attendance reports (including no-shows)
    • Theatre "best practices"

Best Practices

Past Free Night campaigns have shown that program success is directly linked to the dedication of organization resources by our management partners. Free Night partners agree to:

  • Pursue funding opportunities to support the production of the local campaign
  • Create a local media plan/strategy to publicize Free Night
  • Create local PR plan to promote the Free Night campaign
    • Consider holding a press or special event to launch the campaign
  • With appropriate sponsorship, consider the following:
    • Place prominent advertisements in local papers
    • Create a printed program listing all participating theatres to be distributed in advance of the event
    • Provide posters and/or banners to be displayed in participating theatre lobbies
    • Place ads on billboards, bus and telephone kiosks and local mass transit system
    • Create e-mail flyers promoting the event
    • Print postcards to distribute through community specific ticket outlets, local postcard distribution networks and 2007 participating theatres
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Individual Theatre Company's Responsibilities:

Free Night of Theater has a proven track record to attract new theatregoers, which can lead to increased ticket sales; diversified as well as broadened theatre audiences; deepened relationships with audience members; expanded media exposure for local theatres; and new funding opportunities (corporate, government and foundation). Free Night also promotes a national collaboration among theatres through participation in this successful program.

In order to participate in the 2009 program, individual theatres must agree to:

  • Assign administrative and/or box office staff to manage the program
  • Present performance(s) on or about, but no earlier than October 15, 2009
  • Offer any additional performances within a timeframe TBD (most likely 2 weeks)
  • Provide all available single ticket inventory outside of subscriptions
    • If single ticket inventory is unknown, or for theatres without subscriptions, then at least 25% of the house (a larger % is greatly encouraged)
  • Offer tickets through the national Free Night ticket reservation system
  • Release tickets at an agreed upon time before curtain
  • Capture name/addresses/email of anyone accessing free tickets (automatic through the national website)
  • Issue a 48-hour email reminder to Free Night patrons (automatic through the national website)
  • Manage post-performance no-show list
  • Fill out attendee ‘no-show’ document provided by TCG within TBD timeframe
  • Participate in national/local post-event surveys and research studies (facilitated by managing partner and TCG)

Best Practices

Past Free Night campaigns have shown that an individual theatre's success is greatly influenced by the commitment and direct participation of the local theatre company. Theatres reporting the highest level of satisfaction and success with the Free Night program have implemented effective promotional strategies developed by TCG and our partners, including:

  • Promote the campaign in their production programs prior to the Free Night launch
  • Include program inserts (template provided by TCG) on day of performance
  • Present theatre curtain speech welcoming new theatregoers to the theatre "family" on the day of the event performance
        (this has been the single most effective tool to get patrons to return and purchase tickets)
  • Distribute an e-postcard (template provided by TCG/ local organization) promoting the event to the company's email list
  • Publicize the event on the company website with a link to the managing partner, national Free Night and TCG websites
  • Distribute event postcard (template provided by TCG/local organization) to audience members
  • Communicate with their subscribers to encourage them to attend another theatre on that night and to enlist them as advocates in encouraging their friends and neighbors to participate

Contact

For more information on how to participate in Free Night of Theater please contact Phillip Matthews, 212.609.5900 x261.

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