Author: Rebecca Hodge

Many institutions are rethinking their approach to diversity in the light of renewed protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. Theatre companies throughout the nation are a part of this wave, rethinking everything from season planning to staff structure. Yet one of the largest issues at hand is the lack of diversity in audiences.

Theatre audiences are dwindling, and those audience members that remain tend to fall into a very narrow set of demographics: usually older, white, and affluent. Theatre companies will have to reach out to new groups if they want to continue working and thriving well into the future.

Regardless of how successful outreach is, it means little if those new audiences are not coming back. With the younger generation’s ability to reach entertainment and social connection through a single tap on their phone, it can be a challenge to ensure this generation returns to the theatre. As such, we are left with a major question: how can audience engagement practices effectively retain and deepen relationships with younger, diverse audiences?

Current Audience Trends

To look toward the future, we must begin with the status quo. What do today’s audiences look like? As of 2018, about 79% of audiences are white, and about 50% of audiences are over the age of 45. This does not reflect the diversity of America, nor the stated ideals of diversity and inclusion that many theatres proclaim.

As such, we must look toward the younger, racially diverse demographics who Culture Track calls experience omnivores: people of younger generations who want to experience a little bit of everything.

What, then, do those audiences need? At the top of the list is flexibility. As explored in a research report by the NEA, many people find they have less money to spend on entertainment paired with a lack of time.

This lack of time and money is strongly reflected in ticket sales trends. According to the 2018 TCG Theatre Facts report, there has been approximately the same increase in single ticket income – 6.9%– as the decrease in subscription income – 6.8%. Even so, this increase in single ticket income is not enough to make up for the loss of subscription income.

Alongside greater flexibility in ticket sales and attendance, audiences are seeking personal relationships. ArtsMidwest and the Metropolitan Group’s research project Creating Connections shows that audiences feel theatrical experiences must be active and social, invoking a very different kind of audience loyalty than that of a few generations ago. The current generation of experience omnivores is constantly seeking the new and the different, a little taste of everything. With connection through social media and on-demand entertainment, many younger generations are drawn to technology that fully adapts to their own tastes and desires. How, then, do you keep these people coming back to the theatre? The key is a personal relationship formed of comfort, diversity, activity, and social experience.

Case Study: Steppenwolf Theatre Company

Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, Illinois took on the task of deepening its relationship with existing single ticket buyers, as explored in a case study illustrated in Bob Harlow and the Wallace Foundation’s The Road to Results. After some audience research, Steppenwolf found many single ticket buyers already felt that they had a very strong relationship with the theater and its values. As such, the guiding question became, "how do we get these people to really deepen their experience with Steppenwolf so that they keep coming back?"

Rather than trying to push subscriptions on these audiences – a calculated decision given the lack of time and money for many audience members – Steppenwolf cultivated intellectual conversations around their work. These manifested in a variety of forms, including increased in-person talks connected to shows, online forums that allowed direct audience discussion, and dispersal of supplemental information in programs and on their website.

Notably, none of their audience engagement efforts changed any of Steppenwolf’s art. Their efforts were all completely in line with their mission. But through dedication to cultivating conversations, Steppenwolf saw repeat visits by single ticket buyers increase by a massive 61%.

Case Study: Portland Center Stage

In 2015, supported by the Wallace Foundation, Portland Center Stage outlined its goal to increase diversity in their audiences. However, after some research, they realized what they wanted to focus on was not any given race, gender, or sexual orientation. Rather, they determined that the best way to increase diversity was to focus on age. As such, they focused on the 25 to 45-year-old age group, more or less the Millennial generation that had boomed recently in the Portland area.

Much like Steppenwolf, Portland Center Stage focused on planning pre- and post-show events to encourage audiences to deepen their thinking about the work and their experiences as a part of a community. Another unique aspect Portland Center Stage implemented was an audience loyalty system, which served to gamify the process of coming to multiple shows, rewarding repeat audiences with discounts and free tickets. Unfortunately, this system has gone defunct due to logistical difficulties. Nevertheless, this sort of loyalty-based technology is familiar to Millennials and Gen Z, typical of businesses such as Chipotle and Starbucks who give discounts and specials to returning customers through an app. Meeting these younger age groups where they are could provide excellent opportunities for growth to theatres like Portland Center Stage.

Portland Center Stage saw an increase in ticket revenue along with new and larger donations from the community Additionally, they saw growth in the targeted audience, demonstrated through a youth subscription pass selling 700 units in the first year.

What to do?

Look internally first.

While audience engagement is centered around the audience, the focus must start from within a theatre company. The company’s approach to audience engagement is vital to success. A major conclusion in The Road to Results is that it is essential to have a clear mission that is compelling and ever-present in the staff’s minds. This mission is then looped into engagement efforts, which in turn support the mission, creating a strong sense of momentum. This requires a dedicated effort from the staff, including learning new skills and planning for the long term. As such, having everyone rally together around the mission becomes vital.

Another aspect that affects the internal operations of a theatre company when addressing engagement is the having diversity both on and off stage. One of the best ways to draw in and keep in more diverse audiences is to have those audiences reflected in everyone from the actors to the directors to the ushers to the box office staff. Making diversity a core tenet for all aspects of staffing provides a feeling of welcome and safety, rather than tokenization, when someone who does not necessarily fit those whiter, older demographics enters the space.

Make use of technology.

Once the internal operations have been addressed, the big question becomes audience-facing shifts. One major area that theatres can increase their use of is technology, especially in the way that younger Millennial and Gen Z audiences use technology to develop a personalized and social experience. Social media, loyalty apps, and other forms of technology can easily be applied to theatres hoping to retain younger audiences. An example of this is Portland Center Stage’s loyalty program, particularly in how it emulates digital loyalty programs already used by many younger potential audiences.

Technology can also be used to gather audience feedback. For instance, someone could type out their response to a piece on a computer in the lobby, and then their response gets automatically added to a word cloud of audience responses. Or, perhaps, a person could record a video that is then added to a collage of other audience videos that can be used for publicity. The possibilities are endless. Using these kinds of technology allows for a more personalized experience, as there is both an individualized impact on and from audience members. 

Allow ticketing to become more flexible.

Another vital aspect is ticketing. Many younger, more diverse demographic groups are lower on money and are lower on time, as found by Culture Track 2017. As such, the traditional subscription model is harder to sell. But there are plenty of worthy alternatives! Many theaters around the nation have started using flexible subscription models, where people can select a few of the shows in the season and not have to go to all of them and still get a reduced price, encouraging repeat visits.

Additionally, single tickets can be priced at a more dynamic rate for certain circumstances. For instance, Pittsburgh’s City Theatre offers Pick-Your-Price-Previews (how that works). While someone who may not be able to afford a $30 to $50 ticket to go see a show – never mind the cost of a Lyft, dinner, etc. – a $10 ticket might be much more possible.

Foster a sense of comfort and home.

Personalized experiences are a major recurring theme in successful audience engagement efforts, as shown in The Road to Results. People in younger, more diverse groups are drawn more to experiences where they feel a personal, authentic connection to the business they are working with. This can be something as simple as making sure that an email is targeted to different sectors of your audience – not sending the same email to a subscriber of 10 years and someone who has only seen two shows in the last year or two. Ensuring that people are getting that personalized experience, that they feel the theatre company is taking care of them by meeting them where they are, is immensely important.

Similarly, increased comfort and openness can eliminate barriers. This is most important for minority groups, especially racial minorities. A theater can be an unwelcoming place, especially if no one in the audience looks like you, is not of your same demographic group, or you can’t identify with any of the staff working there. Awareness of how minority audiences may experience a theatrical event, then, is key to making the theatre feel like a home for younger, diverse audiences. That feeling of commitment should be the goal of audience engagement.

At this moment in time, there is no excuse not to work toward retaining an audience that properly reflects the desires for diversity spoken by so many theatre companies. Now that the energy of Black Lives Matter has exposed this lack of diversity, it is time to take a step forward and fully commit to audiences of a new generation.  

About the Author

Rebecca Hodge (she/her) is a dramaturg-director-writer, and all around theatre artist based in North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Currently, she is a BFA Dramaturgy student at Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama. She attended the Kennedy Center New Play Dramaturgy Intensive in 2019, and formerly contributed to the Theatrical Board as Acting Editor-in-Chief. 

Resources

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Creating Connections. ArtsMidwest & Metropolitan Group, 2015, http://www.creatingconnection.org/research.

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