An Audience Outreach Year in Review
When I moved to Seattle in 2015, I almost immediately started an audience engagement group called Let’s Go See a Play! What started as a way to get MBA students to leave the University of Washington campus quickly grew to include new friends, theatre professionals, and acquaintances interested in introducing theatre to their lives. My mission evolved to embrace what was already happening: we would only see plays and musicals written by traditionally marginalized artists, including but not limited to playwrights of color, LGBTQIA+ voices, and women.
2015 - 2019
A lot has happened between October 2015 and now. I’ve organized 28 outings, built a mailing list of 48 audience members, and wrote two articles about the experience. (Here and here.)
But as I look back on the last year of data, it’s clear I need to make some changes to the program in order to fulfill my mission. I organized 11 outings in 2019 alone (!!!), and with the exception of Kim’s Convenience at Taproot Theatre, The Last World Octopus Wrestling Champion at ArtsWest, and Pass Over at ACT Theatre, most of those outings only had one to three attendees, not including myself.
2019
In 2020, I’ll be relaunching the program under a new name, with a curated season of four plays — complete with pre-show events. It’s my hope that the ability to plan in advance and the promise of a social component to the evening will result in a more active and joyful cohort of audience members — folks that feel encouraged to invite their friends and seek out theatre on their own.
Join Me, Won't You?
I end every invitation with the phrase “Join me, won’t you?” But many don’t. It’s really wonderful to log into my mailing list and see 48 names there — a huge increase from the 5 names I started with in 2015 — but the reality is 58% of that mailing list has never attended a show with me. Seventeen percent have attended one show with me and 11% have attended two shows. I’d love to say that I want to see all 48 of those people in one lobby or another over the course of 2020, but I know that’s an unrealistic goal. What I do think is possible is this: I’d like to see more folks than not. I’d like to flip that ratio.
What can you do?
If you live in Seattle and you’re you’re not already signed up for my audience engagement mailing list, sign up using this link. You’ll get a little preview of the new name and mission when you sign up. Already involved? I’d love it if you filled out this short survey. Your answers are incredibly valuable.
Not in the Seattle area, but love this idea and the work that I’m doing in this realm? I want to invite you to throw a few dollars my way on PayPal to help pay for my theatre tickets and the time I put into this outreach. This is a passion project through and through — one that takes a significant amount of time to pull off.
Please spread the word to all your Seattle friends!