The new publication: Why I’m on this journey
I’ve been blogging on arts marketing for a few months now, and I figured maybe it was time to talk about why.
In 2008, when my theatre company, Music Theatre of Madison, was having some very big troubles, I decided something that was both brilliant and stupid: Focus our work on lesser-known, seldom-performed works that Madison audiences hadn’t yet had the chance to see.
It was brilliant because it wasn’t being done (and still isn’t) in our neck of the woods, or really very many places at all. Few musical theatre companies in the US are devoted solely to asking audiences to try something brand new. To be honest, I was thinking from a budget standpoint. Newer, weirder shows were smaller and cheaper to produce, and would allow me to continue my dream of paying actors, also a rarity in Madison. Long-term, I had no idea how much this decision would change my life.
After training in theatre and musical theatre at the Interlochen Center for the Arts, I earned a BFA in musical theatre from the University of Michigan’s acclaimed program. Four hours after arriving in New York City, I booked a job on the national tour of Cats…and once that was done, I knew the life of the New York performer was not for me. I didn’t want to do the same show over and over in order to collect a paycheck. I wanted to inspire people, be in charge, create, challenge, educate, enrich. I was sick of flimsy musicals that didn’t do the art form justice. I wanted to show just how powerful musical theatre could be.
“It’s not what I asked for…”
So I did what any 23 year-old would do (HA). I started a professional musical theatre company in Madison, Wisconsin, where my parents lived but where I had few friends or connections. Blindly optimistic about how much Madison would embrace my efforts, I forged ahead, charged up a lot of credit card debt, and put on a production of Hair in a park. (THAT, my friends, is a story for another time. And oh, what a story).
Suffice to say, not one iota of this turned out the way I planned. But the theatre is now going on its thirteenth season, and for eleven of those years we’ve focused specifically on “the weird stuff.”
But the question has always loomed: How do we get audiences on board with lesser-known works? Too many days were spent frantically scrambling to get people to show up, and I laid awake far too many nights worried sick about how I was going to fulfill the monetary commitments I’d made. Some of our shows did well. Others were painful to go to because so few butts were in the seats. What was the answer? How do we make these pieces interesting to people?
It’s the question that has chased me for years, and a question that I finally accepted has no definitive answer. And it’s becoming clearer that companies doing lesser-known pieces aren’t the only ones taking a hit. As of this writing, attendance is down across the board, even for things that have instant name recognition. In Wisconsin, we have 14 cents per capita in arts funding provided by the state, which has devastating effects on the economic potential of the arts, and the cuts may keep coming. There’s also a disastrously pervasive assumption out there on behalf of funders and audiences that to be accessible, the arts must be free.
Now what?
Last year I conducted first and second-hand research on and wrote a full thesis about marketing lesser-known works. Now, I’m on a crusade. If we don’t market the arts better, and consider that what we’ve done in the past may not work for the future, our industry will become obsolete. Millions will be out not just of of jobs, but of creative outlets and enrichment opportunities. Voices will be even more silenced. That may sound dire, but really, think of a world without the plentiful arts experiences we now enjoy? Things change, and marketing, an art in and of itself, must change with them.
My goal is to spend the rest of my life understanding how to make the arts economically viable, interesting, engaging, and inspiring through the use of marketing. I welcome any and all thoughts and contributions to my Medium publication, as I definitely can’t do this alone!
PS
If you haven’t guessed from my random cat pictures in my articles, I’m a Certified Crazy Cat Lady. No, it’s not because of Cats… I don’t think. Anyway, expect cat pictures because marketing is hard and fuzzy faces make it a little easier.
LINKS:
My personal website featuring my performance and arts management work (still a work in progress)
My HowlRound page (second article coming this fall)
My Americans for the Arts National Arts Marketing Project session page (November, 2017)
