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Select the show you want and secure the rights to a performance license.

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Auditions are tricky. The dread you feel at the inevitable heartbreak is balanced with the joy of seeing all the possibilities for your show and students. With over 80 students auditioning for our shows, we've learned a lot of lessons and streamlined our approach. Our goal is for students to have fun with auditions while still showcasing their abilities.

At our annual end-of-the-year banquet, we announce the shows of the upcoming season. The next day, we make scripts available to our company members for each show. Our students eagerly devour the material, often reading a script that very same weekend. For most students, they will read the scripts over the summer when they aren't as pressed for time. Reading through the script in advance puts actors a step ahead of other actors who have no idea what the play is about. (Making scripts available is also essential for students who are interested in applying for design positions.)

For each show, we put together an audition packet. Our auditions for the musical happen right as school starts, and providing the audition packet early allows students to prepare effectively. The audition packet contains need-to-know information like:

Name of the show to be cast

Brief description and/or tagline of the show

Names and descriptions of characters to be cast

Date, time, and place of auditions

When the production is slated to rehearse and run so that those with unavoidable scheduling conflicts won't waste their (or your) time

Contact information where they can ask questions

Attire for the audition. If there's going to be some dance, let the performers know so that they can dress accordingly

In the audition packet, we explain what students should prepare for their audition. For our musical, we have is a sample audition packet. cuts from songs of the show. If actors are auditioning for a specific role, we ask them to prepare that character's song. If actors are auditioning for ensemble, they can audition with any song in the packet. We do not have students prepare

We typically supply our students' audition materials to create a more even playing field. Asking students to select their own audition material is often quite stressful. Typically students do not know many plays or musicals and so we often see imitations of musical soundtrack or film performances. If a student selects poor material, we have no way to find out if the student can do something else better. For example, we asked students to prepare a monologue for a contemporary comedy, and we had three students perform dramatic Shakespeare monologues. Because our students are not professionals, they didn't have other material in their back pocket.
monologues for our musical because we believe performers should be able to act the song. I encourage our actors to treat this song as they would a monologue in their preparation.

We ask for our students to memorize their audition for a variety of reasons. One, it helps us see who has prepared effectively. There is a big difference in an audition where a student is focusing on recall and a student who is acting. Two, students have a tendency to hold their audition material in front of their face and with nerves, the paper is often trembling. Students become so invested in reading the material that they aren't able to act fully, and we can't really see them!

In the audition packet, we also include scenes that may be used in the call back process. In high school, you have students with varying levels of ability both as actors and readers. If a particular student struggles with reading, this allows them time to familiarize themselves with the material.

Once the audition packet is released, we hold audition workshops. The workshop walks students through how the audition works, and we teach the songs from the packet. This provides a more even playing field for our auditionees and helps students who are interested in trying theatre for the first time feel comfortable entering this process. If you are starting or growing a program, I highly recommend you run audition workshops.

To ease the transition between our middle school and high school program, we often run a separate workshop for incoming freshmen. We found that our incoming freshmen were often intimidated by our current company members and this separate workshop provided a safe and comfortable environment that would encourage them to actually audition.

Finally, it's time for students to sign-up for the auditions. We use a Google form to manage our sign-up process. We actually consider our audition sign-ups the first phase of auditions. Check out our musical form . On the form, we gather basic information from the actors, and also information that helps in the casting process. Many directors like to interview their actors, and this is the time we ask our actors those questions.

One of the first questions we ask our actors is what level of responsibility they would like. Level of responsibility typically reflects the amount of time students will have to invest in the production through things like rehearsal and line memorization. Leads are often your large responsibility, and roles like cameos are small responsibility. For students juggling many things in their life, this is very important and you should honor their requests. If we feel a student is perfect for a role that would require more responsibility, we ask them if they would consider a larger responsibility. Most often they say yes, unless they are not comfortable or they know they will not be able to invest the time.

If we know we are going to have a very large audition pool for a small number of roles, we will often ask questions like "What does hard work mean to you?" It then becomes very clear who is investing the time and energy into the audition, and this can be tremendously helpful in the casting process.

As students sign up, we make a list of the most important roles to be cast, along with their genders, and other potentially helpful information. But don't let yourself be boxed in here creatively. Don't just be color-blind when casting, but where possible, be gender-blind as well (if your contract allows it! Always read the fine print.). Get rid of your pre-set ideas about character and see what you get in the audition process -- you may be pleasantly surprised!

Once you've listed out the roles to cast, you'll want to rank them according to importance. The tougher the role is to cast, the higher it should be on your list. Make supplemental lists of supporting characters that can be easily cast from those who do not make the cut for the leads.

Whenever a cast list goes up, you will invariably be accused of favoritism, bias, or prejudice against actors- no matter what choices you make. Be proactive in preventing this, by using an audition panel to defend your choices. We prefer our audition panel to be 3 adults. For our musical, our audition panel is composed of the music director, the choreographer, me (the director). If you do not have a separate adult in each of these positions, reach out to other teachers to ask if they would sit on your panel (I ask two teachers to help me for our play auditions). Not only does using an audition panel prevent the casting decision as being seen as your opinion, this panel is helpful to the casting process because they will help you see things you did not initially and serve as a sounding board for your ideas.

Because we have so many students auditioning for a musical, we split the audition into four groups over two days. We call each audition session a round. At the beginning of each round, we bring the entire group into the audition space. We begin by introducing the audition panel, followed by a five-minute warm-up routine and short mental meditation. The mental meditation models healthy ways of thinking about auditions and gets performers in the headspace you would like them to be in. An actor that feels comfortable will be more likely to give you a better performance that reveals their skills.

As a group, we begin with a technique we call "cold singing." The music director teaches the entire group the melody of a very easy chorus from a show song. Once they've learned the easy melody, we ask the group to go on stage and perform this song as various characters (think similar to character walks). This part of the audition is not about singing or musical ability, but about students' ability to play, follow direction, and take risks onstage. The characters we ask for are sometimes show related but can also range from cats to military generals to opera singers. I encourage them to make strong physical choices, and to have fun with it! By making them go for it right away and being silly, it allows students to see that the audition is not so terrible and that everyone else is doing it. Their friends encourage them, you encourage them, and they are having fun.

After the cold singing, it's time for the individual auditions. To prepare for this, I have printed out each student's audition form and placed it in a binder in order. I make a binder for each member of the audition panel, so we all have access to the same information. If we want to use any rubric or scoring methods, we print that on the back of the audition form. Always take notes. Write down the first things that attract you in an actor's performance and any roles that immediately jump to mind.

Say something positive and final at the end of each audition. Remember, these actors are the ones sticking their necks out for you, and it takes a lot of courage. Always, always, always thank them! Again, this is not an acting class, so do not give notes on their performance. It's helpful to start by saying "Thank you so much for coming, I've seen everything I need right now." Then follow up with information or directions. Things like, "Please wait in the lobby for your dance audition" or "You are free to go home. The callback list will be sent out via email by Thursday night," work great because they communicate what the actor should do next.

After everyone has sung individually in Round 1, we begin the dance auditions. We combine two rounds together for one dance audition. The schedule often looks like this: Round 1 auditions from 2:30 PM to 4:00 PM; Dance auditions from 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM for Rounds 1 and 2; Round 2 auditions from 5:30 PM to 7:00 PM. We repeat this process for Rounds 3 and 4 the next day.

We finish our auditions with callbacks, and immediately sit down to determine the cast list. We always post our cast list on a Friday after school so that students have the weekend to process and recover if needed. We list the roles alphabetical by character name so as not to create any emphasis on a particular role because all roles are important. We also email the cast list to each auditionee so that they can open it and react in privacy (and not publicly in school).

The best way to gain and keep parental approval is to keep them informed. We send out a letter to all guardians of students who have been cast letting them know about the rehearsal schedule, expectations, and our "Meet the Company" night. "Meet the Company" night is where we explain our organization, how it works, and ask parents to volunteer. We have all company members and their guardians attend this event.

We allow audition feedback ONE WEEK after auditions. This allows for parents and students to remove the emotions from the situation. It is important that this policy is publicly placed prior to auditions. I also only give feedback to the student who auditioned, not their parent. At each audition feedback session, I start with two questions. What were you proud of in your audition? What do you wish you could have improved on?

I find that theater teaches students (and parents) how to deal with rejection, but for the most part, we put out a cast list and the kids have to figure out how to handle the rejection for themselves. We as teachers often miss the crucial step of modeling or explaining how they should handle the "rejection." I write a letter that accompanies our cast list to help students (and parents) through this process. I also always try to humanize myself in the process (helpful to remind others that we are, in fact, humans!). The last letter I wrote sounded like this:

"When I am not cast after what I feel is a great audition, my first reaction is a mix of anger and self-doubt. I prepared the material, I cried on cue, my tactics were unique-so why wasn't I chosen? I inevitably turn inward and start to rip apart my performance and consequently, myself.

These feelings are pretty normal and natural, but they're also not very helpful. So, take a breath and remember, many casting decisions are not about how talented you are, but who is the right fit. As much as we love Will Ferrell, he would never be cast as James Bond, or Amy Poehler as Katniss.

When I am not cast, I take the time to review my audition and write down what I did well, and what I can work on. I turn my 'rejected' feeling into motivation. Download the music from 'Rocky' and start focusing on your next move. Get pumped. Set goals. Use that energy to make changes and improvements for your next audition."

While this is what we've found for our program, we are constantly evolving. How you create and run your auditions is up to you, but the idea "directing is 65% casting" really holds water. What audition practices do you use to create great audition experiences?

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Auditions are tricky. The dread you feel at the inevitable heartbreak is balanced with the joy of seeing all the possibilities for your show and students. With over 80 students auditioning for our shows, we've learned a lot of lessons and streamlined our approach.

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You can't do everything on your own!

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Making a Musical

Key Players: The Creative Team

by John Kenrick

(Copyright 2000, Revised 2002)

The composer writes the music – the lyricist writes the words. It is not unusual for one person to act as both composer and lyricist. In most cases, composers leave the dances or underscoring to the orchestrator and dance arranger. (See our section on Elements of a Musical for more on scores.) Some lyricists act as their own librettists. Only a very few people have succeeded as composer, lyricist and librettist – such as George M. Cohan, Noel Coward, Meredith Willson and Jonathan Larson.

For many years, Broadway composers and lyricists made much of their income from the sale of sheet music. With the change in musical tastes and the near-disappearance of sheet music, they get little beyond the chance to share 2% of a show's profits and (if lucky) part of the long-term rights income if the show is ever leased for international and amateur productions. The only way for theatrical composers or lyricists to "strike it rich" is to become their own producers - as Andrew Lloyd Webber did with his Really Useful Company.

Also called the "book writer," the librettist creates the book – or script – of a musical. In musicals where the dialogue is almost completely replaced by music ( Cats, Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables), the librettist is essentially responsible for making sure everything weaves into a coherent dramatic flow. Librettists are most often blamed when a show fails, and not without reason. A show with a strong score and a bad libretto usually fails, while a show with a so-so score and a great libretto usually succeeds. (Note: The success of Footloose and Saturday Night Fever seems to contradict this once-solid rule.) (Our section on "Elements of a Musical" has more on musical books.)

Up to the 1940's, writers and producer's had the concept - the director was expected to stage a show and supervise rehearsals in a way that made that concept shine through. Starting in the 1950's, directors took an increasing degree of control over the creative process. Today, few producers or writers have the clout to overrule a top director's decisions.

The person who stages the dances and musical scenes of a show was once called the "dance director," but the title changed when ballet choreographers like George Ballanchine and Agnes DeMille began working on musicals. Since the 1940's, many musicals have been staged by directors who also choreograph. A choreographer must give a musical a sense of movement that helps hold the show together visually.

Set Designer

Until the 1970's, even the most lavish Broadway productions used painted flats as sets, creating 3-D paintings that were more suggestive than realistic. Since the 1970's, sets have become increasingly realistic, taking up more space and far more of a show's budget. Sets must move swiftly, allowing a show to flow seamlessly from one scene to the next. Scenic effects can make or break a contemporary musical, but you know a show is in trouble if audiences leave the theatre "humming the sets."

Whatever you see a Broadway actor wearing onstage did not come off a store rack. Stage costumes have to stand up to heavy use and daily cleanings – and last for as long as possible without looking threadbare or tattered (unless they are for the beggars in Les Miz). Designers must balance sturdiness with the needs of performers to dance and sing comfortably. When the original Kiss Me Kate (1948) ran short of money, designer Lemuel Ayers used heavy-duty curtain fabric for some of the period costumes.

Lighting Designer

This is one of the least noticed and yet most crucial members of the creative team. Costumes, sets and actors are not worth a damn if no one can see them. With the exception of the music, nothing sets the mood for a scene as quickly or clearly as the lighting. This is one of the least noticed and yet most crucial members of the creative team. Costumes, sets and actors are not worth a damn if no one can see them. With the exception of the music, nothing sets the mood for a scene as quickly or clearly as the lighting.

The musical director is much more than the conductor of the orchestra. He or she is in charge of everything involving the musical aspects of a show -- from song rehearsals to maintaining musical performances through a show's run. Consequently, the MD has a tremendous effect on the sound and pacing of performances. An MD must be ready to smooth over technical glitches, reassure uncertain understudies, and handle anything else that might stop the music. The MD is also in charge of hiring and managing the orchestra. In many cases, the musical director is a frequent absentee, and hires a conductor to stand in at some or all performances.

This technically demanding position was not credited in Playbill listings until the 1980's. In the 1950's, a stage manager just turned on some foot mikes at curtain time, allowing basic amplification for the folks in the balcony. Now everyone in a Broadway cast wears a wireless body mike to provide full amplification – a complex proposition when there are dozens on stage. Through the 1990s, many complained that theatrical amplification could be distracting, but technical improvements have led to much more naturalistic sound in recent years. Technical staff are on hand during all performances to check each piece of equipment and continually adjust every microphone's input levels – a task managed from a bank of computers, usually stationed at the rear of the orchestra section.

The composer writes the melodies, but the orchestrator determines what those melodies will sound like when an orchestra plays them. For example - Richard Rodgers wrote the melody of "Shall We Dance," but orchestrator Robert Russell Bennett made its famous "BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!" sound a reality. The challenge for orchestrators is to make sure their arrangements do not drown out the singers – a task made much easier by electronic amplification. Most composers let orchestrators create the overture as well as the underscoring and scene change music.

Composers frequently allow dance arrangers to handle the time consuming task of working with a choreographer to score the dance sequences. Shows with minimal dancing may not have a dance arranger at all, leaving that function in the hands of the orchestrator.

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Making a Musical: Key Players - The Creative Team

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Making a Musical by John Kenrick (Copyright 2000, Revised 2002) The composer writes the music - the lyricist writes the words. It is not unusual for one person to act as both composer and lyricist. In most cases, composers leave the dances or underscoring to the orchestrator and dance arranger.

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Creating a rehearsal schedule can be a daunting task, but it is absolutely necessary for your production. Staff and students (both actors and crew members) must know the schedule expectations, so they can accommodate the production into their schedules. Having a clearly laid-out rehearsal schedule ahead of time will ease headaches and reduce conflict clashes, smoothing the overall process.

For the purpose of this blog post, I assume that you (the teacher/director) are creating a rehearsal schedule for an extracurricular production and will be rehearsing solely outside of school hours. However, you can also adapt these guidelines to an in-class production.

When I am creating a rehearsal schedule, I like to start from the performance week and work backwards. Once you have decided when the show will run and how many performances will occur, calculate how many hours you feel you and your students will need to get the show on its feet. This will differ from director to director and show to show. If you have directed shows in the past, go back over your schedule and count up how many hours you used to mount each show. Did you feel adequately prepared, or rushed?

From there, determine how many times per week you will be rehearsing, and for how many hours per rehearsal. Would it be more useful to rehearse for two hours, three times a week, or for three hours, twice a week? If you are starting early and have four or more months until show time, you might want to start with rehearsals twice a week and then increase the number closer to performance time. But if you have fewer weeks to prepare, you'll need to rehearse more frequently.

Once you've determined the number and frequency of rehearsals, you'll need to schedule your technical and dress rehearsals. Technical rehearsal (or "tech rehearsal," for short) is where the technicians, stage management, and actors get to work together for the first time with lights, sound effects, microphones, and special effects all together in the theatre, rather than in a rehearsal space. The dress rehearsal is exactly what it sounds like: running the show with lights, sound, costumes, props, hair and makeup-it's one last chance to rehearse everything before an audience comes in. These rehearsals are longer than regular rehearsals (usually 5-6 hours each) and often stressful, but absolutely necessary for your performance to be a success.

Continue to work backwards. Your last few rehearsals before tech and dress should be devoted to show run-throughs. Some can focus on just Act One or Act Two, but you should aim to have a minimum of two full run-throughs of the entire show for timing purposes.

If your show is a musical, you will also want to include a sitzprobe rehearsal. Sitzprobe is a German word meaning "seated rehearsal." This is where the band/orchestra and cast play and sing through the musical together for the first time, without any staging or production elements. A sitzprobe is beneficial for the actors so they'll know how the music truly sounds and how their vocals blend with the music (or get drowned out by the band!). It's also beneficial for the band, so they get familiar with the cast and know the tempos and volume level they need to play at. Better to work out band/vocal problems now before tech rehearsal.

Next on the backwards rehearsal schedule is costume fittings and costume runs. Students will need time to be fitted for costumes, have a costume parade (so the director can see and approve the costumes), and rehearse in their costumes (so they know if they have any problems, like an impossibly fast change or restricted movement due to the costume). Note: Be sure to be adding props and furniture throughout rehearsals, so actors can practice entering, exiting, and interacting with these items. It's much easier to integrate them throughout the rehearsal process than to try and add everything during tech and dress.

Moving back to the beginning of your rehearsal schedule, your first few weeks of rehearsals will be devoted to an initial read-through, cast bonding exercises, establishing blocking, developing characters and relationships, and for musicals, learning music and choreography. Allot time in your schedule to visit every scene twice: once to approach the scene and create the initial blocking, and then a second time to review, adjust, and add nuances and depth. You will want to leave some rehearsals near the middle of your schedule as "TBA" or "TBD" ("to be announced/determined"), so you have some wiggle room in case you need to revisit some scenes or work ahead.

Making a rehearsal schedule is not an exact science. You'll need to adjust as you go along. It takes practice! Every show, cast, and rehearsal process will be different. Be as prepared as possible, but always leave yourself room for flexibility!

Click here for a downloadable PDF example of a rehearsal schedule.
Kerry Hishon is a director, actor, writer, and stage combatant from London, Ontario, Canada. Check out her blog at www.kerryhishon.com

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Creating a rehearsal schedule can be a daunting task, but it is absolutely necessary for your production. Staff and students (both actors and crew members) must know the schedule expectations, so they can accommodate the production into their schedules. Having a clearly laid-out rehearsal schedule ahead of time will ease headaches and reduce conflict clashes, smoothing the overall process.

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You want an audience to enjoy the fruits of your labor!

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If you've been following Sold Out Run for a while, then you already know how much I emphasize using a marketing calendar to organize the attack plan for promoting the show. Of course, you need to have some killer marketing tactics to flesh out your calendar. That's where this big list comes in.

Not all of these ideas will make sense for all productions, but I guarantee that you will find quite a few ideas here that are a great fit for your show - no matter what your show is about or where you are performing it.

There are also a handful of ideas included that focus on long-term marketing beyond the current show, but I trust you'll forgive me for including those in the mix. 🙂

So read on and start selecting tactics to populate your marketing calendar:

1. patronize other theatres regularly to see which of their shows are selling well - then look at how they marketed those

2. most links to online ticket sales are unwieldy and ugly, create a redirect using a link shortening service like Bit.ly - or better yet have yourdomain.com/tickets redirect to your online ticket sales service

3. leave (appropriate) comments on the online articles of your local arts journalists so they get to know who you are in a context where you're not asking them for anything

4. host/sponsor a playwright festival

5. offer a complimentary popcorn or soda on the night you know is going to have the weakest attendance

6. offer an early bird discount for the first 100 tickets purchased when your tickets go on sale

7. partner with an organization that accepts donations of food, clothes, or toys and have a night where people get free admission with their donation (use photos, videos, and press releases from this event to drive sales for all your other performances)

8. strap a GoPro camera to an actor during rehearsal for an intricate dance, fight, or flying scene and share on social media

9. create a video showing publicity or production stills with the actors doing voice over of their best lines

10. put a sandwich board out on the sidewalk with rotating taglines that say things like, "free cupholder with every seat" (assuming, of course, your seats have cupholders)

11. send an email or postcard to everyone who came to see one of your previous, similar shows and tell them why if they liked that one, they're going to love what you have coming up next

12. create a magazine ad - even if you never run it - because it will help you get clear on how to quickly, concisely convey your marketing message

13. have a night where your subscribers or best patrons can bring a friend for free and give them the royal treatment so they look like rock stars in front of their friends

14. hold a press junket with all the other local theatres where the press and arts bloggers can come get the scoop on all the upcoming shows at once

15. create a Foursquare special for a free drink and advertise it to your regulars

16. write down what you would do if you had an extra $10k to spend on marketing, once that's done - and only after it's done - look at how you can do a leaner version of those tactics with your current budget

17. specialty printers online will create professional style trading cards for little league baseball teams - use these services to instead print trading cards of your cast

18. work with a nearby restaurant to create a special that's themed after the show and cross promote for each other

19. send an invite to social influencers and bloggers to have lunch with the director and talk about the show

20. write a letter to the editor of the local paper about why an issue that your show deals with matters to your community

21. create a ticket package with another theatre or arts organization where someone can buy tickets to an event at both places at a discount

22. call repeat visitors just to thank them for their patronage, and if the opportunity presents itself ask them what they'd like to see you do more of

23. offer free seat upgrades to regular patrons when available

24. create a short podcast series talking to cast members and the production team about the show

25. hold an open Google Hangout where the general public can meet the leads and ask them questions

26. instead of (or in addition to) postcards and flyers, print business cards to promote your show

27. print custom decks of cards with your show's art on the back and distribute to influencers

28. take out a classified ad: audience wanted

29. posters are great for store windows, but in residential areas create yard signs like the ones used in local political campaigns (at least, they are here in the U.S.)

30. do a 1-3 minute preview of your show right before the performances of whatever show is being produced at your venue right before you - just like a movie trailer

31. get a custom domain name for your show (i.e. www.nameofshow.com)

32. keep a production blog going for your show in the weeks leading up to opening

33. create a custom audience in Facebook based on your email list and run highly targeted ads to a lookalike audience

34. take your local arts journalist to lunch when you don't have a show in production just to get to know him/her

35. create a media contact list of all the writers, radio producers, bloggers, and social media aficionados who talk about theatre in your market

36. assemble a digital media kit with show art, contact information, publicity stills, pre-packaged quotes, the press releases, and anything else you think someone covering the show would need

37. offer tickets to the show to other local arts groups along with an explicit personal invitation to come see the show

38. create video postcards from the cast thanking donors and VIPs

39. record a video tour backstage showing how any dramatic scene changes, costume changes, or other technical elements of the show are pulled off

40. create a short exit survey you can email to audience members the day after they come to the show

41. grab a video camera and ask people in the lobby during intermission or right after the show what they like about it

42. prepare a 2-minute excerpt of the show (heavy on movement, not just talking) that you could pitch to local television shows

43. prepare talking points about your production and submit those to local radio show producers

44. pick a hashtag for your production and make sure the cast, production team, and everyone involved knows to use that hashtag when they post on social media to build momentum

45. if there's a technical element of the show that you could add with a little extra money (like a rotating stage or more advanced flight rigging) create a Kickstarter campaign to fund that specific addon and use the campaign as a promotional tool

46. start a local Meetup group that acts as a book club for plays (make sure you give some love to other theatres around town, not just yours)

47. take your production team to the park, turn off all your phones, and spend 30 minutes talking about what makes this show cool

48. create a mastermind group to share marketing ideas with other similarly-sized theatres in faraway cities

49. join Toastmasters and become amazing at talking in front of people

50. if one of your performance dates falls on the birthday of a regular patron, offer them complimentary tickets for that date

51. create a door prize related to your show and present it during the curtain speech

52. if you have a cool poster, publicity still, or some other marketing piece that you're particularly proud of, create a behind-the-scenes video of how it was created

53. have some or all of your cast make public appearances in a basketball tournament, quiz show, open mic night, or anywhere they have a chance to introduce themselves and show off their skills

54. send a secret shopper to your box office to ask questions about your show and the venue

55. set up Google Alerts with the name of your show, the theatre, and your leads to monitor any new online buzz about them you might want to piggyback on

56. create a video contest where people can submit a YouTube video talking about the show

57. use social media to plug all of the live theatre going on this weekend, and be specific about who would really like each show (i.e. if you love over-the-top slapstick comedy don't miss... )

58. take pictures or video of the first table read when you get everyone together in the same room - who knows when you might use those on social media or as part of a larger marketing collateral piece

59. buy a domain to redirect to your best marketing piece (i.e. if I have a great promo video about a production of Hamlet here in Indy, I might buy the domain indyhamlet.com that points directly to the video and use that in all my marketing)

60. send text messages to SMS subscribers with immediate, short-term specials

61. selectively invite some folks to be a focus group for your show - which is a lot like a preview, but you'll get feedback and if you end up taking the feedback, those people feel a small sense of affiliate with your production

62. give people a free drink when they tweet a picture of themselves from the lobby during the show

63. set up an affiliate program for ticket sales where people earn a commission for bringing you paying customers

64. take the marketing director of another theatre out to lunch and ask what made last year's best attended show so successful

65. have an honorary press campaign where you invite a handful of people with no press affiliation to receive the media kit, receive comps, and have access to ask you questions about the show on the condition that they take a stab at writing a review (which you will then take care of promoting)

66. during your curtain speech, invite patrons to post an update about seeing the show (perhaps with your custom hashtag) before silencing their devices

67. write the ideal review that you'd like to see in the paper the day after opening, then work backward to figure out what needs to happen to get the right person to write that review

68. keep a "morgue file" of great marketing ideas that for whatever reason didn't work out this time that you can quickly refer back to for future productions

69. create a marketing budget - you don't have to spend it all, but know what you could spend if you had enough brilliant marketing ideas

70. offer some tickets to local organizations that do raffles or charity auctions

71. provide an optional gift-wrapping service for your tickets at no charge so that if someone wants to purchase them as a gift you provide them in an attractive display that is immediately ready to hand to the recipient

72. find a mentor that does professional marketing in something other than the arts

73. record your director talking about the strength of each of your leads and then edit together a video with the director's words over b-roll of rehearsal

74. pick up the latest issue of a magazine that appeals to your target audience and flip through the ads, looking for a image, message, or concept you can use in your own marketing

75. call a local business with a fair amount of employees and speak to the HR department, then invite them to buy a block of tickets for employees or VIP clients at a group discount

76. hide free tickets or other cool swag at local retail locations and restaurants (with their approval) and provide clues over social media to help your most adventurous patrons track them down

77. put a fish bowl in the lobby for business cards, and choose one randomly each month or production to get free tickets, a subscription, or an upgrade - then put the contacts from all the business cards on your mailing list

78. pick a paid tactic you were considering using and scrap it - use that money instead to get the best photographer you can afford

79. invite your social media followers to create captions for funny/shocking rehearsal photos

80. segment previous customers who have bought more than 4 tickets at once, and send them an invitation to use a special group rate

81. have a performers night on your slowest day of the week where local performers can bring in a recent program of a show they've been in for a discounted ticket

82. do a Google image search for posters people have used in other productions of your show for crazy, random inspiration

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The Big List of Theatre Marketing Tactics

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If you've been following Sold Out Run for a while, then you already know how much I emphasize using a marketing calendar to organize the attack plan for promoting the show. Of course, you need to have some killer marketing tactics to flesh out your calendar. That's where this big...

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Once the choreography, blocking, and music rehearsals are complete, run a technical rehearsal.

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Once the choreography, blocking, and music rehearsals are complete, run a technical rehearsal.

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Stage Managers -  What You Need To Know For Your Tech Rehearsal

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Actors do a full run through of the show in costume!

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Break a leg! Go team!