As we once again find ourselves entering a winter of uncertainty, a few breakthrough infections and other illnesses have plagued major productions in multiple markets the past few weeks. While many continue to track the Omicron variant, a surge of Delta cases has made planning more complicated than most people hoped it would be. However, as we approach two years of virus related considerations, more best practices for that very planning are beginning to emerge. We are beginning to settle into a new normal - and that new normal begins with the creation of a new Artistic Caucus from four major regional theatres.
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The Music Man continues to climb the leadeboard following their announcement on social media the production has moved into the theatre. Mrs. Doubtfire saw a significant increase in engagement following their opening night.
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Baltimore Center Stage, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Long Wharf Theatre, and The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis joined forces to bring artistic collaboration to a new level: forming a caucus of theatre artists to expand the literary management process. The theatres have come together to join their resources in supporting a group of freelance artists who will engage with new work around the country as another way to feed into the development of work for the theatre companies that are supporting the cohort. Though this is the first of its kind collaboration, the Artistic Directors of each institution pointed out in a joint statement that these kinds of relationships have long existed in theatre, just in an informal way.
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Last week, the Dramatists Guild Foundation announced a new program to provide unrestricted grants of up to $1,000 for theatrical writers to start or continue their mental health program. The grants were born of conversations with member writers about what services they were most in need of.
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Though this number was more than double what The Grinch provided for NBC last year, it was still small compared to other past live musical efforts from NBC. However, this might be more attributable to an increase in the number of people who have cut the cord in recent years, as the production performed above NBC’s typical Thursday night, and was the second-highest rated program on Thursday night, coming in second only to the NFL.
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Though this year saw a slight decrease from 2020, NBC still reports that this was their highest rated special since last year's parade. The broadcast itself featured numerous Broadway performances and was a true showcase for New York City as a re-opened tourist destination.
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Writing for Howl Round, Jackson Cooper explores the ways in which arts fundraising must evolve as institutions work to emerge from the pandemic. While many donors stepped up in big ways during the shutdowns, we’ve also spent the last two years learning more about DEI initiatives and how these principles must be central to the work being done at arts institutions - and that includes work being done by the development department.
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Following the first ever K-Musical Conference at the end of November, Broadway Producer Cody Lassen remarked that he believes the style has global potential. With the continued rise in global popularity of other Korean cultural exports - namely K-Pop and the Netflix hit Squid Game - it is definitely an area of musical theatre development to keep an eye on.
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The report uses data from the United States non-profit theatres, and is a comprehensive statistical look at the impact of theatre in communities, as well as the overall financial health of the nonprofit theatre sector. The report for 2020, covering the period of Fall 2019 to Fall 2020, shows the deep impact that COVID had on the nonprofit sector - however, it also shows that despite the tremendous pandemic headwinds, the nonprofit theatre sector still contributed more than $2 Billion to the US economy.
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Following the lead of the UK Government in making masks mandatory on public transit and in stores in response to the new Omicron variant, the major theatre owners have joined together to announce a mask mandate for audiences of their own. Currently, the plan is to keep the mask mandate in place until at least December 19th.
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In this week’s edition of the new column, Michael Dale reflects upon the impact and importance of tick, tick…Boom!
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On December 1, Rian Durham of Situation Interactive joined the Industry Pro webinar to chat about the changing marketing cycle as the industry emerges from the pandemic - one of the highlights was his discussion of the longer consideration period that most audience members are going through - that period of time from when they first hear about the show to when they make that ultimate decision to buy. This shift has huge implications for your marketing, and if you weren’t on the call Wednesday, make sure to click the link above and give the replay a watch.
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