When Amy Kaissar wrote her graduate thesis on the subject of nonprofit theatre subscriptions, her primary argument was: They’re not useless; we simply haven’t invested in them. Now, 19 years wiser, and after 15 years in management positions, Kaissar, the present co-producing director at Bristol Riverside Theatre in Bristol, Pa., confessed, “I’m undecided I might 100% agree” along with her earlier evaluation.
The hedging is necessary right here—it’s not that her outlook has completed a 180. However a lot within the intervening years has difficult her earlier certainty, together with, in fact, the pandemic lockdown of the previous few years, which impacted each side of the trade. However even with out that bumpy chapter and its even rockier aftermath, the outlook for subscriptions has lengthy been multilayered. Even now, for all the general public hand-wringing concerning the state of the theatre, inventive leaders, audiences, and a quantitative survey of 84 firms from throughout the U.S. carried out by American Theatre presents a remarkably multifarious image somewhat than a uniformly bleak one.
The complexity begins with the very definition of subscriptions. Butts in seats is a straightforward quantity to measure (How full is the home? Down about 25-30 p.c nationwide, on common), however what makes a subscription a subscription? Trinity Rep in Windfall, R.I., and Shotgun Gamers in Berkeley, Calif., to call two examples, have embraced the versatile fashions which have gained traction lately (pay upfront for a set variety of tickets and redeem for the very best out there seat for any efficiency on any day within the present’s run), whereas 4th Wall Theatre Firm in Houston and Oregon Modern Theatre in Eugene are leaning into what many within the trade seek advice from because the “customary” or “conventional” mannequin (pay upfront for a similar seats on the second Thursday of each run, say). The REV Theatre Co. in Auburn, N.Y., has ditched flex passes totally.
Highway Much less Traveled Productions in Buffalo, N.Y., and Dobama Theatre in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, like a number of others within the survey, are rolling out what they name “memberships,” however practically all of those differ from flex subscriptions in title solely—with the notable exception of Open Stage in Harrisburg, Pa., which presents a pay-by-the-month mannequin patrons can cancel any time (and for the file, Open Stage says it’s doing nice—subscriptions are up 296 p.c since 2019). Omaha Theater Firm has a brand new rolling membership “much like museums” that permits patrons to leap in at any level within the calendar yr. So as to add to the number of the image, Native Theater Firm in Boulder, Colo., produces three reveals in a season, whereas Sierra Rep in Sonora, Calif., produces 9, and each supply subscriptions. You’re hardly evaluating apples to apples the best way you may with single-ticket purchases.
So broadly talking—if we are able to converse broadly in any respect—what are the traits? Are subscriptions in free fall, and if that’s the case, what does that imply for the persevering with well being of theatres? Are subscriptions nonetheless a viable mannequin, for both audiences or firms?
On their face, the numbers aren’t nice. Of the 66 firms responding to the survey that provide subscriptions and supplied full knowledge, 42 p.c stated the numbers are means down, with 30 p.c or extra of their subscribers gone because the pandemic, and 21 p.c of firms stated they’re considerably down (between 11 and 29 p.c subscriber attrition). That is virtually a photonegative of numbers for viewers attendance generally: As measured in a earlier AT survey, many extra firms are down reasonably in general attendance than are down considerably.
However the shiny spots are brighter too. Extra firms are doing nicely with subscribers than are doing nicely with general ticket gross sales: 20 p.c of firms report greater than a ten p.c subscriber improve since 2019, and 17 p.c have held regular (which we’re defining right here as staying inside a ten p.c improve or lower). Comparatively, solely 26 p.c of firms report regular or elevated attendance numbers general.
“There’s a lot that retains me up as of late, however subscription plans aren’t one among them.”
So greater than a 3rd of firms in our survey stated they’ve weathered the pandemic lockdown and are in steady or higher form, subscriber-wise, since reopening. Burning Coal Theatre Firm in Raleigh, N.C., as an example, reported subscription progress of 60 p.c over the previous 5 years.
“The subscription mannequin is simply advantageous,” stated Burning Coal inventive director Jerome Davis. “Younger folks aren’t loopy about it, however the good factor about younger folks is, they don’t keep younger for lengthy.”
At Actor’s Categorical in Atlanta, managing director Alex Scollon stated he wonders if the media bias towards well-resourced establishments is the explanation there’s been such one-note, sad-sack media protection concerning the state of the theatre discipline. “Usually midsize and smaller organizations are not noted of those conversations in favor of doom and gloom tales from LORT,” stated Scollon, who stated that Actor’s Categorical’s subscription numbers have held regular. “There’s a lot that retains me up as of late, however subscription plans aren’t one among them.”
Added Jen Uphoff Grey, inventive director of Ahead Theatre in Madison, Wisc., “General, I’m feeling exhausted by the messaging that ‘the subscription mannequin is useless,’ which lengthy predated the pandemic. Any such proclamations ignore the vast variations in theatre firms throughout the nation, and the big variety of audiences we serve.”
Certainly, the notion that the subscription mannequin has been on the wane isn’t supported by the information we gathered. Whereas not one of the 9 LORT member theatres that accomplished our survey have grown their base considerably, and solely two have held regular (each in Florida, with its endless stream of retirees), half of the surveyed firms stated their subscriptions had been on the rise within the decade previous the pandemic, with one other quarter holding regular. Although the survey didn’t immediately probe whether or not numbers had rebounded because the stoop most firms skilled in 2020 or 2021, a number of volunteered the information that they’re now trending in the correct path.
In sum, it feels untimely to make any pronouncements about whether or not the contraction in audiences post-pandemic-lockdown can be a dying knell for the subscription mannequin. The longer-term knowledge doesn’t point out a gradual or inevitable development in that path for almost all of firms.
Nonetheless, if you happen to think about theatres who think about themselves “holding regular” with subscription losses of beneath 10 p.c, practically two-thirds of our respondents say they’ve misplaced subscribers prior to now 5 years. Kaissar’s firm, Bristol Riverside, is a part of this bigger group, with subscriptions down 31 p.c because the pre-pandemic idyll of 2019. Although they’ve regained some subscribers from their lowest level over the previous couple of years, Kaissar stated she “wouldn’t name it a restoration in any respect. The diehards are nonetheless right here, and we’ve got not succeeded in getting new folks in.”
Sheldon Submit is a type of diehards. He stated through e-mail that he’s caught with BRT for 35 years due to the number of programming, “a mixture of comparatively unknown performs, very well-known performs, and ‘totally different’ takes on acquainted performs,” in addition to the perks, together with “the power to alter our efficiency date on the uncommon events that we have to,” and a profit that “allows subscribers to return on one other evening to see a play once more—no cost.”
That looks as if a great deal (although the power to alternate tickets has just lately been prolonged to single-ticket consumers at a number of firms without spending a dime or a nominal charge). So why have so many at BRT flown the coop, and so precipitously? Kaissar was hesitant to make huge pronouncements on the topic. “I fear about anybody who claims to know the precise causes, given the dearth of accessible high-quality analysis,” she stated, however did recall that in conversations with subscribers, “What we hear most constantly is both age-related issues, or they moved, or they didn’t just like the work we’re doing anymore. They need the work of the earlier technology.” She added that, for the file, her firm hasn’t pivoted from feel-good musicals to the work of Sarah Kane, however that it has been extra centered on attracting Gen X patrons and different latest empty nesters with titles they could acknowledge, like their upcoming Massive The Musical. Considered by way of one lens, which will appear to be crowd-pleasing programming, nevertheless it all relies upon which crowd you imply: Child boomers and above weren’t that film’s target market when it got here out in 1988.
“The present development of late buying has turn into a behavior. So long as there’s a seat out there, that is going to plague theatres for fairly a while.”
Different inventive leaders are in settlement with Kaissar, with many citing a greying of their subscriber base as a motive for declining subscription charges. The near-universal settlement is that subscribers, particularly to the “customary” fashions, are typically older. Within the 4 years since Covid hit, these viewers members usually tend to have handed, moved away, turn into infirm, or just gotten extra cautious about their well being. And for no matter motive, Gen Xers and millennials have a tendency to not make plans far upfront. Mentioned Lauren Halvorsen of the favored theatre Substack publication Nothing for the Group, “Theatres don’t embrace the spontaneity of youthful generations.”
So between the thinning older viewers and the last-minute-planning youthful viewers, it’s no marvel that conventional subscription numbers aren’t rising. “The phrase subscription scares folks off post-Covid,” stated Tracy Mitchell, govt director of Bay Avenue Theater in Sag Harbor, N.Y. “The present development of late buying has turn into a behavior. So long as there’s a seat out there, that is going to plague theatres for fairly a while.”
A number of survey respondents, like Kaissar, did say {that a} perceived distaste for “newer” programming contributed to the decline in numbers. Nonetheless, for all of the right-wing media’s eagerness guilty “woke theatre” for this phenomenon, no respondent reported that this viewers aversion had an particularly political bent. Joe Miller, a one-time Bristol Riverside subscriber, stated he minimize the wire as a result of he and his spouse had been “seeing performs that we’re simply not that fascinated with. We like comedies, we like musicals, and a few of these are performs we’ve by no means heard of earlier than,” including that he discovered the theatre’s programming overly heavy on drama of late.
There are numerous comfortable or distinctive elements at play for subscribers who name it quits. For Lori Boswell in Portland, Ore., it wasn’t about programming however parking. She traded in her subscription to a LORT theatre for one at a non-union firm within the suburbs; each make “okay” work, she stated, however she was completed with what she considers the inconvenience of coming downtown.
One space the place there’s little settlement: cash. On its face, it could appear to be an apparent driving think about subscription traits, as a result of youthful individuals who may substitute older subscribers are much less more likely to have the disposable earnings mandatory for a lump sum upfront cost. Certainly, once we requested for feedback on Fb, the floodgates opened, with reflection after reflection from youthful trade of us stating in a technique or one other that they can’t afford to subscribe. One was Kathryn Huey, former enterprise supervisor for the Blue Man Group, present normal supervisor of D.C.’s Studio Theatre, who stated that subscriptions “are costly, very true. They had been nothing I may dream to do once I was youthful.” Maybe pushed by necessity, the present crop of theatregoers “greater than ever are on the lookout for a deal, or a technique to save,” argued Eric Pugh, director of promoting and communications of Asolo Repertory Theatre in Florida.
Chad Bauman, govt director of Milwaukee Rep, maintained that his firm has retained its substantial subscriber base in the course of the pandemic partly as a result of they provide low-cost subscription packages and keep away from last-minute offers for single-ticket consumers that “undermine the worth proposition of subscriptions.” Milwaukee Rep is within the minority on this level; at most firms, paying upfront doesn’t save subscribers a lot cash in the long term. A latest AT survey discovered that subscribers save simply $1 per ticket vs. single-ticket consumers, on common.
Even theatres the place subscriptions supply actual financial savings, like Bristol Riverside, haven’t seen a lift due to it, making it unclear whether or not value is known as a significant sign or barrier. In line with Kaissar, it hasn’t been “a profitable message once we’ve gone laborious on how low-cost it’s.” At Amphibian Stage in Fort Price, Texas, stated outgoing inventive director Kathleen Culebro, “Our hottest subscription package deal is definitely not our most cost-effective.” Numbers would appear to aspect with Kaissar and Culebro, no less than on a macro degree; our earlier survey discovered no clear hyperlink between traits in viewers attendance and traits in ticket pricing over the previous 5 years.
Regardless of the driving power, Kaissar understandably views Bristol Riverside’s decline in subscribers as an enormous drawback. Fewer subscribers signifies that her advertising and marketing funds has ballooned; loyal subscribers want solely a single e-mail yearly to remind them to re-up, however “my single ticket purchaser, I must promote to.” Articulating a model of the reasoning that, within the many years since Danny Newman’s groundbreaking e-book Subscribe Now! made subscription the dominant mannequin for a lot of performing arts organizations, Kaissar famous that with no vital subscriber bloc ponying up for an entire season upfront, every lesser-known title turns into a large threat. With out a sturdy base of subscribers, “I don’t understand how we make new work. I don’t understand how we push the artwork type ahead. I don’t understand how we introduce folks to issues they don’t know. I don’t understand how we assist playwrights.”
At Theater Mu within the Twin Cities, the subscription numbers aren’t so sizzling both, however Lianna McLernon, Mu’s advertising and marketing and communications director, and Wesley Mouri, the theatre’s growth director, don’t see it as an issue. Mu has misplaced about half of their subscribers since 2019, however single tickets are up twofold. Whereas McLernon is fast to emphasise that the theatre nonetheless does supply subscriptions and “they’re necessary to us and we love our subscribers,” Mouri defined that “being an Asian American theatre firm is exclusive within the sense that the Asian diaspora is probably the most various diaspora that exists.” In sensible phrases that signifies that Mu audiences are “very particularly keyed into the particular tradition of every present. The Hmong viewers shouldn’t be essentially going to come back see the Kung Fu Zombie present, which was about Lao experiences.”
There are various methods to measure progress, and Mu’s latest efforts to diversify their choices outdoors the East Asian neighborhood have meant a large inflow of recent audiences. Their audiences are typically youthful and extra economically various than the standard theatregoer too; Mu presents a Pay As You Are program to each efficiency of each play, permitting patrons to buy tickets for as little as $10. Institutional giving to the theatre has additionally doubled, a rarity lately, which helps launch the stress on ticket income to foot the payments.
Whereas a theatre like Bristol Riverside sees subscriptions as a technique to subsidize threat taking, at a theatre like Mu, the other is true. As Mouri and McLernon put it, Mu’s “concentrate on the diversifying of tales and illustration” wouldn’t be attainable in the event that they had been catering to “the identical 200 folks.” As Bay Avenue’s Tracy Mitchell put it, “Subscriptions are beneficial for a few of us, and never for others.”
Whereas some survey respondents, like Mu, nonetheless supply subscriptions however have begun to direct their advertising and marketing methods away from retaining and gaining subscribers, Chicago’s Congo Sq. Theatre “shifted away from subscriptions utterly” to concentrate on “a radical generosity mannequin to fight excessive prices related to theatre,” as inventive director Ericka Ratcliff put it. Individuals’s Gentle in Malvern, Pa., has centered its efforts on participating common attendees who aren’t subscribers. Although subscribers “will be terrific model ambassadors for us,” as former managing director Erica Ezold put it, “our general advertising and marketing technique has shifted from subscribers as the primary precedence.”
However even most theatres who’ve misplaced subscribers haven’t deserted the mannequin, no less than not for now. Many firms are providing perks, like drink tickets, subscriber-only occasions, and parking passes, to entice folks to subscribe. Metropolis Lights Theater Firm in San Jose, Calif., is emphasizing the worth of neighborhood and belonging as a main profit to subscriptions, writing tailor-made welcome emails to every new subscriber.
American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco is concentrated first on bringing in single-ticket consumers, then on changing them to subscribers; equally, ZACH Theatre in Austin waits till the primary present of every season has closed to roll out one among their packages. Cadence Theatre Firm in Richmond, Va., is providing early-bird reductions; Amphibian Stage has launched an under-40 package deal. Weston Theater Firm in Vermont stated they’re “streamlining” the subscription course of. Penobscot Theatre Firm in Bangor, Maine, is experimenting with a “three-tiered method,” together with a $20-per-seat package deal for first-time subscribers and a premium-level “true value of the ticket” package deal. TheatreWorks Silicon Valley is seeing success with smaller packages. Principal Avenue Theater in Houston is rebranding subscriptions as “season tickets,” as a result of “subscriptions is what the month-to-month cost for streaming is known as,” reasoned govt inventive director Rebecca Greene Udden.
Clive Worsley, govt director of Cal Shakes in Orinda, Calif., stated he believes that the “days are numbered for the single-entity subscription mannequin,” and thinks the reply lies in “providing membership packages that would get you within the door to a number of places, like a passport.”
The sheer multiplicity of opinions and knowledge traits is each exhausting and exhilarating. As there isn’t any clear image on the state of subscriptions, they’re a little bit of a black field: They could be a monetary barrier or a democratic alternative. They are often versatile or inflexible. They’ll stifle or empower. They could be a huge monetary engine, an ancillary profit, or a distraction. And there’s no clear crystal ball about the place they’re headed: Many are up, twice as many are down, lots are recovering. Amid the dizzying number of approaches, one common fact is that each firm is transferring someplace on this challenge; nobody is assembly this extraordinary second by standing nonetheless.
As she struggles to determine what’s driving the drop in subscriptions, Kaissar stated, “The mannequin, whether or not subscriptions or the rest, is outmoded, and we’ve acquired to get it in control, quick. Long run, folks clearly need to come collectively to listen to tales; 10 years from now it would look higher than it did earlier than.” Pausing on that little bit of hopeful pondering, she added, “Within the brief time period, how we get there’s terrifying.”
Rosie Brownlow-Calkin (she/her) is an Fairness actor and assistant professor of theatre on the College of Nevada, Reno.
Associated
