Chicago Now

Chicago Now is trying to make it easier for theater companies to get their info posted on the Off Broadway in Chicago blog. All you need to do to publish your press releases on Chicago Now is email them to: offbroadwayinchicago@chicagonow.com and they will publish them automatically.

Classified

Wellington Avenue United Church of Christ, 615 W. Wellington Ave., is looking for a home for three solid oak pews measuring 108" long X 35" high from an 100 year old Arts & Crafts era church available now. (free will donation welcome) call 773-935-0642.

Steppenwolf Event Opportunity

Steppenwolf Theatre Company needs your help to pull off an event in Chicago. People with any kind of movement or dance experience preferred, but if you can catch the beat at the club you can hang with us.
Time commitment: 6-10 pm Monday October 5, 9 am – 5 pm Thursday October 8. Compensation: our undying gratitude, lots of food, tickets to Steppenwolf, and a rad t-shirt. Interested: please email name and phone number to cpeters@steppenwolf.org before Friday, October 2 at 5 p.m. and we’ll be in touch.

Industry Ticket Offers

Animal Crackers – Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn, is offering half-price tickets to performances September 30 and October 1 at 7:30 p.m. Please RSVP by calling the box office at 312.443.3800 and mentioning your organization. Tickets are limited and offered on a first come/first served basis. For information on the play, visit: www.explorethegoodman.org/#show1. (Limit 4 tickets.)

C’est la vie - Light Opera Works Second Stage, 1420 Maple Avenue in Evanston, is offering half-price (regularly $21) industry tickets for previews on October 4 at 3 p.m. and October 7 and 8 at 8 p.m. For tickets call 847-869-6300 or visit www.LightOperaWorks.com and use code "Jersey." Tickets must be purchased in advance. No door sales.

Explore the World of “Fake” – Steppenwolf Garage, 1624 N. Halsted is offering tickets to this FREE event on 10/2 at 5:30 p.m. with food, drink, music and more celebrating the ideas and themes of the play. Click here for more details: http://www.steppenwolf.org/calendar/detail.aspx?id=163. RSVP to Steppenwolf Audience Services at 312.335.1650.

Free Tickets for The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later

About Face Theatre is offering 40 free tickets to League of Chicago Theatres members to a one-night only performance of: The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later. About Face Theatre will join forces with Tectonic Theatre and 120 other theaters around the United States to simultaneously present this reading, which will culminate in a live, nationwide Q&A session.

Starring Mary Beth Fisher, Directed by Bonnie Metzgar
Presented at the Goodman Theatre, Benefitting About Face Youth Theatre

October 12, 2009
Doors Open at 6:15 P.M., Performance begins at 6:45 P.M.

Mayor Richard M. Daley, Honorary Chair
Cathy Nathan & Peter Calibraro, Benefit Co-Chairs

More information about the Play:
A decade after the groundbreaking docudrama The Laramie Project, the creators of the play returned to Wyoming to focus on the long-term effects on the people and community most directly impacted by the murder of gay college student Matthew Shepard. Members of the Tectonic Theater Project traveled to Laramie last October to ask: has the town changed as a result of this event? What does life in Laramie tell us about life in America 10 years later? What impact has his murder had on the path of his mother? His murderers? These powerful interviews make up The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later.

If you are interested in these tickets, please email Ben at ben@chicagoplays.com and provide the following information: name, address, phone number, email address, theater affiliation and number of tickets. No more than two tickets per theatre. Tickets can be picked up on the evening of the event, in the Goodman Lobby.

The Inclusive Arts and Culture Project

Open Doors Organization has received a generous grant from the Chicago Community Trust to host the Inclusive Arts and Culture Project for Chicago theatres, museums, and other cultural venues. The objective of the program is to assist our arts community to improve both accessibility and outreach for people with disabilities and older patrons. From October 2009 to January 2010, ODO will be holding 4 free-of-charge workshops at various cultural institutions in downtown Chicago. Program participants must attend at least 3 of the 4 sessions. The workshops are entitled: Attracting and Embracing the Community, Enhancing the Customer Experience, More than Nuts & Bolts, and Victories & Challenges. Betty Siegel of The Kennedy Center and Jay Cardinali of Walt Disney Parks & Resorts will be presenting along with many other knowledgeable guest speakers. For additional information on the Inclusive Arts and Culture Project click here or to RSVP, please contact Program Coordinator Brittany Stern: brittany@opendoorsnfp.org or 773-388-8839.

Space Availability

January/February available at the Viaduct Theater. Recession rates available. Viaduct is trying to keep rental rates down for theater companies by programming music after theater. We are offering 74-seat Studio for $700 per week and 125-seat Mainstage for $900 per week if you can finish each night by 9PM (7 or 7:30 start time is okay) and if your set and lighting are reasonably simple and workable for the music series. Regular arrangement also still available. Viaduct offers full box office services, full-service bar, parking, and new heating and air conditioning system. Contact Whitney: whitney@viaducttheater.com or 773-544-4029 or check website for details: www.viaducttheater.com.

Classifieds

The Building Stage is currently available to rent for performance from November 2 through the end of December. As these dates are fast approaching, we are open to negotiating steep discounts and length of rental from a single performance to the full seven weeks. If you are in need of space, please contact Blake Montgomery at (312) 933-4858 or blake@buildingstage.com.

Village Players Performing Arts Center is looking for a xylophone for You Can't Take it With You opening in mid-October. Contact vptmanagement@gmail.com.

New Industry Offers

New industry offers posted this week. For a complete list of industry offers click here.

The Darkest Pit - Prop Thtr, 3502 N. Elston, is offering ½ off tickets ($7.50) for industry professionals and 2 for 1 tickets for anyone on Monday, September 28 at 8 p.m.! For tickets call 773-539-7838 or visit http://www.propthtr.org/.

Fedra: Queen of Haiti –Lookingglass Theatre, 821 N. Michigan Ave. is offering $10 industry tickets for the Wednesday, September 30 performance at 7:30 p.m. For tickets call 312-337-0665 and mention code word “industry.”

A Hampstead Hooligan in King Arthur's Court - Chicago dell'Arte at the BoHo Theatre at Heartland Studios, 7016 N. Glenwood is offering $10 industry tickets with headshot resume for performances through October 3. For tickets call 773-957-4191.

boom - Next Theatre Company, Noyes Cultural Arts Center, 927 Noyes St, Evanston is offering $10 industry tickets for Friday 8 p.m. performances through October 2 and Wednesday 1p.m. performances on September 30 and October 7. Call 847-475-1875 x2 or go to http://www.nexttheatre.org/ and use code INDUSTRY.

Treasure Island- Lifeline Theatre, 6912 N. Glenwood, is offering $10 industry tickets for performances on September 24, October 1 & October 8. For tickets, call 773-761-4477 and ask for "Industry Tickets". Subject to availability. For more information, visit http://www.lifelinetheatre.com/.

Village of K___ - Bruised Orange Theater Company at The Sideproject Theater, 1439 W. Jarvis. is offering $12 industry tickets on Thursdays (8pm curtain) through October 11. Call 773.336.2682 for reservations and mention this industry offer. Please present P/R or business card at box office.

The Last Unicorn- Promethean Theatre Ensemble at City Lit, 1020 W. Bryn Mawr Ave, is offering $10 industry tickets, for all Thursday at 8 pm and Sunday at 3 pm performances through November 11, as well as at the show's preview on Friday 10/16 at 8 pm. Call the box office at (773) 305-2897 and mention this offer, or use the discount code "redbull" when purchasing tickets online. Please have proof of industry affiliation to present at the door.

Ten Square - MPAACT and Pegasus Players, 1145 W. Wilson Ave, is offering $10 industry tickets to the following preview performances: September 25 & 26 @ 8 p.m. and September 27 @ 3 p.m., October 2 & 3 at 8 p.m. and October 4 at 3 p.m. This offer is also good for all Thursday performances beginning on October 8 at 8 p.m. and continuing through November 19. Tickets may be purchased online at http://www.pegasusplayers.org/ or by calling the box office at 773.878.9761, ext 17. Use code word: industry.

Broadcast News

In an effort to get more information to more people in a more timely manner, we are going to start redesigning the broadcast a little. We are going to send out four or five bullet points and links to things like industry offers, etc. Turns out some people prefer to get their information in an RSS feed. So, you can have the blog pop up in your feed. Instead of waiting until Thursday to always share everything, it will come out as we receive it and be posted to this blog. So, broadcast emails will be shorter and easier to read. Folks who like all their news at once will still have that through the broadcast, but will have to hit the links to the website for industry offers, jobs, etc. Whaddya think?

Deb

Why We Use Ticketmaster

Everybody hates them. I know it, you know it and Ticketmaster knows it. But here’s the deal, they are the only company that can handle Hot Tix and here’s why:

1) Ticketmaster is the ONLY ticketing company that can handle a big on sale, i.e. on-line, phone and walk-up for a particular event, say Joffrey’s Nutcracker or The Addams Family. That is thousands of people all buying at the same time for the same event via three different sales methods. That is why lots of theatres use them, including some of our smaller venues.
2) It is my understanding, although I am certainly not privy to the contracts people make with Ticketmaster, that Ticketmaster does not allow sales through other ticketing systems. i.e. a Ticketmaster house cannot sell their tickets through other on-line ticket brokers. I don’t see their tickets for sale on other on-line brokers, so I have to assume that is true.
3) We sold over 60% of our Hot Tix last year to Ticketmaster houses. Hot Tix cannot sustain itself without those theatres.
4) Ticketmaster has consistently worked with me over the past year to keep our fees low, and they have sent out e-blasts to their lists promoting Hot Tix.
5) It has come to my attention that some of our fees might be out of whack and I will work to fix that.

Deb

TCG Conference

By now I hope you all know that the Theatre Communications Group conference is happening in Chicago June 17-19, 2010. The League is hosting. What we are most energized about is the opportunity to showcase Chicago theatre, 800 theatre professionals from across the Country will be here and we don’t want anyone to leave without understanding the depth and breadth of our community. We are also looking to have every single theatre in Chicago involved in the conference, there are going to be all kinds of opportunities for that to happen. We have put together a host committee for Chicago that is charged with organizing the “late-night event,” hospitality for attendees, Chicago specific programming, and of course showcasing Chicago theatre. We have had one meeting and the next meeting is Monday, September 14 at 4:00, if you are interested in serving on the committee, please email me at deb@chicagoplays.com.

Deb

Community Database

I want to let you all know about a very exciting new project we are embarking on – a community database, also known as a big list.

What is it?
It is a database into which we all submit our patron data. We will be using eMerge, a web-based data management and mining application designed by Target Resource Group (TRG) for marketers to mazimize efficiency and usability of patron data.

What will it do for me?
If you don’t have a database, this will provide you with one, the list will enable you to exchange lists, merge/purge, perform NCOA, run reports on your patrons and in general enable you to do much more sophisticated and targeted direct mail marketing. You can enter emails and phones into the list and do analysis on those for more targeted marketing, but that information cannot be traded.

How much does it cost?
TRG is providing the service to us for free. The above services will be free for League members, additional services from TRG are available at an extra cost.

How do I find out more?
Email Deb at deb@chicagoplays.com. TRG is offering webinars and we will direct you to one.

When will it launch?
January of 2010.