Covid has left a huge hole in the performing arts in the last year. Theaters and music venues are shuddered, leaving all of us reckoning with the reality. The industry is a hopeful one, and many are seeking ways to temporarily shift to online experiences. However, the fact of the matter is online productions just aren’t a substitute for in person performances.
While the reality of the current situation is harsh, I believe the forced shift to online content for many venues has the opportunity to create entirely new ways to experience live theater and music. Specifically within community theater, I believe there is a huge opportunity to reach new and larger audiences than ever before.
I recently had the opportunity to work on a virtual production for a local community theater which gave me firsthand experience to explore these possibilities. The combination of low-cost production tools, streaming platforms, and affordable licensing creates a recipe for theaters and venues to get a foothold now, and explore a post-covid hybrid experience for the future.
The data abounds about in-person community theater audiences skewing older, in 2012 75% of audiences were 35 and older (https://www.arts.gov/sites/default/files/2012-sppa-jan2015-rev.pdf). These age demographics have continued to skew older since, and many theaters have attempted to adjust their marketing and education programs to attract younger audiences. In 2017 the trend of online consumption of theater productions, such as musicals or plays, or even content about the productions stood at 16% of adults surveyed, with a higher distribution in the 18-25 demographic (https://www.arts.gov/sites/default/files/US_Patterns_of_Arts_ParticipationRevised. pdf). Millenials are online, and seeking new ways to experience the arts. I believe this is not a replacement for in-person, but an augmentation of live productions that can meet new audiences.
What this means for theaters is finding ways to present their performances and productions with online content that is entirely unique from the stage show. Many for-profit theaters have established an online presence leveraging social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Typically this content is entirely marketing driven, putting a spotlight on stage talent or the play itself in order to draw more ticket sales to the live event. This is different than the production augmentation I’m referring to here. The ultimate goal is to increase audicen both online and in-person over time by present a multiple perspectives on each performance. It’s in addition to any marketing material typically developed, and ultimately, should integrated directly into existing campaigns.
The future Opportunities I predict could become the future
- Streaming behind the scenes
- Augmenting Arts Education programs
- Online-only mini-productions
The tooling I had the opportunity to work on an online production for Edmond’s Driftwood Players as part of their christmas show this year. I was amazed at what we accomplished in over the course of 3 weeks, the quality of the content, and how easy it was to stream. For community theater, I think virtual productions could be an easy additional revenue stream to fill the gap between seasonal productions each year. They are quicker to produce than a regular show and relatively easy to market and stream.
Adobe $40/month - It’s nearly essential, but not required. You can execute perfectly well with Zoom or other tools. I’ve seen ACT shows that were exceptionally well done without any fancy tooling. Remember, it’s about the story telling, everything else is icing on the cake
Zoom - Connecting the actors for the production
Streaming to your platform of choice
Licensing - Pioneer Drama has a very reasonable licensing structure for online content. This is one place that is slow to catch up with the latest trends. Royalties can be inconsistent between plays and publishers.
Overall I’m excited to see how the community arts industry embraces the post-covid world.