Sunday, November 13, 2016

5 Most Influential Theatres on Twitter

The Travel Channel compiled a list of the top 15 regional theaters in the United States. Using The Travel Channel's list, we've ranked the top 5 theaters in terms of success and influence on Twitter. The Klout score and Twitonomy report are both used to determine how well the Theatres are doing with engagement and building a strong Twitter following. Explore what makes these top theatres successful, and how are they are engaging with audiences using social media.

#5: Berkeley Repertory Theatre
Berkeley Repertory Theatre:
Broadway World

Berkely Repertory Theatre is a Tony Award-Winning regional theatre in Berkely, California. @berkeleyrep has a Klout Score of 61, and they have the highest average tweets per day: 3.24. However, quantity is not only qualifier for a successful social media presence. 75% of the tweets Berkely sends out are retweets. This means they have less original content. They use retweets to their advantage as well, because a high level of Berkeley's tweets are liked. Often times, when influencers and audience members have their Twitter posts re-tweeted, they will like that post. This increases engagement of Twitter followers with Berkeley Repertory Theatre on social networks.

#4: Arena Stage

Arena Stage.  photo by Nic Lehoux
courtesy of Bing Thom Architects
Arena Stage engages 15.1K followers on Twitter. The Washington D.C.  theatre has a Klout Score of 60, reflecting a high influence. Twitonomy reports over half of @arenastage tweets use hashtags and even more mention other twitter users. When Arena Stage receives attention, such as earned media and positive reviews, they promote it on Twitter. Arena Stage keeps a pulse on what influencers are saying about their theatre, and use Twitter to show it. On average, Arena Stage tweets twice per day, which keeps the theatre and their message in front of their audience.

#3: The Goodman Theatre

Chicago Stage Review
Out of the top 15 regional theatres in the US, Goodman Theatre in Chicago, IL has the second highest Twitter following. It also has the most tweets of the group, having tweeted 11.4K times. The Goodman Theatre has a Klout Score of 64. The Klout Score is a number between 1 and 100; the higher the score, the better your media presence. As a general rule, it is good for a Klout Score to stay above 50.




#2: Huntington Theatre Company



The Huntington Theatre company in Boston has over 7,000 followers, but they have the highest Klout score: 68. Part of the reason @huntington keeps such a high score is because over half of their tweets mentions other users, contain links and use hashtags. Mentions, links and hashtags are the triple threat of Twitter involvement and influence. The Huntington Theatre Company also tweets an average of 2.82 times per day. Less than a quarter of the material The Huntington tweets are retweets. These numbers given by Twitonomy show that the majority of their 9,000 tweets are original content and not retweeted. Of that original content, Huntington has videos posted on their Twitter account. Video is the most engaging medium, and followers are much more likely to pay attention to video than they are to text or photos.


The #1 US Regional Theatre: The Smith Center for the Performing Arts


In a previous blog, How the Top US Theatre Uses Twitter Successfully (Part 1), we take an in-depth look at the theater with the most Twitter followers: the Smith Center for the Performing Arts. The Smith Center has a Klout Score of 61 and has the most followers of the top 15 US theatres. This Part 1 blog breaks down how the Smith Center uses social media marketing to engage their large following. Read this previous post to learn excellent tips on how The Smith Center gained so many followers!

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

A Play In The Present

The play Women of a Certain Age is a relevant performance- down to the very moment. Last night, Richard Nelson's play about a fictional family waiting for the results of the 2016 election premiered in real time.

The Public Theater Graphic
Richard Nelson is a Tony Award-Winning American playwright. A few of his most notable works include Chess, James Joyce's The Dead, and Hyde Park on Hudson. Mr. Nelson has also worked with The Royal Shakespeare Company and served as the chair of the playwriting department at The Yale School of Drama. This year he wrote and directed a trilogy of plays that engage audiences on a whole new level. This trilogy is known as The Gabriels: Election Year in the Life of One Family.

So what does it mean to experience a play in "real time?"

Each play in The Gabriels trilogy opened in the night it was set. To accomplish this, Mr. Nelson was not finished writing these plays until shortly before they were performed in front of its first live audience. He updates lines and aspects of the show such as news events, the weather, and neighborhood activities. Mr. Nelson makes these changes in his shows up until the day the show is performed. What this does is create an intimate and real-time performing arts experience for the audience.

Michael Lee Photo of The Public Theater
The first production of The Gabriels trilogy was Hungry, opening on February 27, 2016. What Did You Expect, the second play, opened on September 10, 2016, and Women of a Certain Age premiered on election day. The latest play will run until December 4 Off-Broadway at The Public Theater.

The trilogy follows the Gabriels, a family living in Rhinebeck, N.Y. The three shows occur in the family's kitchen while they prepare a casual meal. This starts as an easy conversation between close family members in the comfort of the center of their home. The show goes beyond family conversation to resonate with audience members and reverberate the thoughts and feelings of Americans.

Michael Paulsen with the New York Times spoke with Mr. Nelson about The Gabriels trilogy, and he explained, "I would hear conversations about the country- and how people's lives related to the country- in my living room with friends, and overhear them in restaurants and on the train, but not on the news or on television or from comedians... I thought theatre was a good place to do that."

The Public Theater Photo of The Gabriels
The Gabriels is not the first of Mr. Nelson's real-time plays. He wrote a series known as The Apple Family Plays. They are 4 plays from 2010 to 2013 written either about an election or a significant historical anniversary. Mr. Nelson says he likes to write plays set in real time because "It allows my characters and the audience to be in a very similar place, and feel like they are connected before even a word is spoken, because they're both going through the same event."


A play so relevant in the moment couldn't hold its relevancy past that moment... could it? Though it may seem like these shows could be limited to a short shelf life, Mr. Nelson has found that his works resonate with audiences beyond borders and past election time. "When I wrote the first Apple play," Mr. Nelson says in his interview with The New York Times, "I wrote a note in the program that I considered it a disposable play, and I was convinced of that. But we took them on a tour of Europe, and what I learned was a lesson that most writers learn at a much earlier age: The more specific one is, the more universal one can be."

Friday, October 14, 2016

Live Streaming The Phantom of the Opera's 30th Anniversary

Andrew Lloyd Webber's world famous musical "The Phantom of the Opera" celebrated its 30th birthday! This 1986 musical is the longest running musical on Broadway. To commemorate the anniversary of one of the most successful pieces of entertainment of all time, West End put on a 30th anniversary performance at Her Majesty's Theatre this week. The evening on October 10th featured current company, members of the original cast, and special guests, including creator Andrew Lloyd Weber. The current cast, led by Ben Forster in the title role, with Celine Shoenmaker as Christine Daae and Nadim Naaman as Raoul, was accompanied by members of the original cast such as Michael Crawford.

From left to right: Ben Forster (Phantom of the Opera), Andrew Lloyd Webber (Music),  Michael Crawford (Original Phantom of the Opera) and Celinde Shoenmaker (Christine Daae) during the curtain call 

Photo Credit: @HerMajesty'sTheatre
Her Majesty's Theatre in London is the only location where the show has been playing for 30 years, putting on over 12,000 performances. This theatre is where the Phantom of the Opera first opened in 1986. The website references 4 theaters on the site of Her Majesty's since 1705. Though the building has changed over the years, its early history as an opera house makes it the perfect location for The Phantom of the Opera.
To celebrate the milestone, West End engaged Phantom of the Opera fans from across the globe by live streaming the event. Thousands of fans tuned in to see the red carpet before the show and the musical's finale streamed live from London. Choosing to live stream parts of the anniversary show brings this timeless classic into the 21st century, and includes audiences who wouldn't have had the opportunity to see it otherwise. Fans could view the live streaming event through the @PhantomOfTheOpera Facebook page, which increased that page's online presence. West End social media managers did a great job of keeping viewers from around the world informed, updating them when the show's tune-in time changed due to delays. "#Phantom30th" was used in reference to the event.


The box revenues for the classic musical are higher than any film or stage play in history, including Titanic, ET, Star Wars and Avatar. The Phantom of the Opera has played to over 140 million in 35 countries and 164 cities around the world. The original cast recording was the first in British musical history to enter the charts at #1, and the show has won over 70 musical theatre awards. The Phantom of the Opera has earned widespread acclaim, leading to great success of the live stream anniversary event on October 10th. 




Sunday, September 25, 2016

How the Top US Theatre Uses Twitter Successfully

Performing Arts Promotion: Basics

According to Andrea Rodi, improviser by night and marketer by day who wrote Marketing & Social Media for Theater Owners, there are three things all theatre owners should ask themselves before they market their theatre on any medium:

  1. Is what I’m promoting genuinely relevant to my audience (consumers) and/or am I marketing to the right audience?
  2. In what context does it make the most sense to share this information with my audience? (e.g. social media, press releases, flyers)
  3. Is the way in which I’m sharing this information helping me to make a genuine connection with my audience in the sense that they are feeling good about the relationship they have with my business.
These three basic guidelines apply to social media just as easily as they apply to other marketing strategies.

Yet, this is easier said than done.


So what are successful theatres actually doing to gain and engage followers on Twitter? 

The top 15 regional theatres in the US according to the Travel Channel are all present on social media, but one stands out from the crowd.

The Smith Center for the Performing Arts in Las Vegas has the most Twitter followers, coming in with 31.9K followers on their Twitter account: @SmithCenterLV.

Photo Credit: Carl
Judging by the Smith Center's activity alone, they haven't had to follow many other Twitter users to call attention to their page- they are only following a meager 711 Twitter pages. For many other theatres in locations with less traffic and tourism, following other theatres and theatre patrons is a good way to let them know your theatre is active and interesting.

What is the top theatre doing to gain such an impressive following?

Further analysis of their activity shows the Smith Center has tweeted 3,637 times and liked 2,615 posts. They have been just as active with other accounts as they have with their own. The Smith Center also has a Klout score of 61.

To gain further audience involvement, the Smith Center features guest tweeters. Performers who are preparing for upcoming shows at the performing arts center will host the Smith Center Twitter account. The content they post ranges from photos of rehearsals to asking followers about the bar and restaurants in the area to try. Allowing performers to Tweet on behalf of the theatre gives your audience an inside view from that performer's perspective. This can make the audience members feel more involved in the preparation of the show, which may encourage more ticket sales.

Further ways the Smith Center is engaging audiences is through free ticket giveaways announcements on their Twitter page.


To show followers the Smith Center benefits the community in a multitude of ways, they participate in local charity events and tweet a photo of it. It is important to share the unique and interesting things your theatre does in addition to the norm because it enhances your image and diversifies your mission. Why should people feel good about spending their time and money at your theatre?

Andrea Rodi, the writer of the before mentioned blog (posted by Drea Elyse,) says making people feel significant is the key to driving them toward your theatre. "If through your marketing you make people feel incredible about an experience or potential experience, this is how you create long-term followers and long-term followers are what make your theatre really grow."

The Las Vegas theatre also writes features on the Smith Center Website about upcoming artists and links the bio in a Tweet to promote an upcoming show. This brings audience members who may be interested in learning more about an upcoming show or performer directly to the site where they can purchase tickets.


The Smith Center has built a major Twitter following by engaging audiences in a variety of ways. Using social media tactics to engage followers, the Las Vegas performing arts center builds a relationship with their followers. If you are a theatre looking to drive loyal followers to your shows, always have a driven purpose and a goal behind your posts.  

Stay tuned for my future blogs, where I will delve into what the remaining 14 of the top 15 regional theatres in the US (according to the Travel Channel) are doing on social media to gain their success.

This post is Part 1 of a series looking into how theatres use Twitter successfully. Take a look at Part 2: The 5 Most Influential Theatres on Twitter!


Thursday, September 15, 2016

Engaging Your Audience

Welcome to the blog that explores performance arts theatre marketing and how theatres today use social media, such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, to not only attract but also engage new and diverse audiences. I am a senior at the University of Northern Iowa studying public relations with a minor in marketing. My passion for theatre and desire to research and explore the public relations side of theatre drove me to create this blog. I have an interest in Theatre Marketing because of the exciting opportunities to integrate social media as a way to bring new demographics into the world of theatre.


Through the rise of social media and its role in promotions, "Marketing" has become a major buzzword. The "why" of using social media for advertising is no longer the question- rather, organizations often lack the "how." All marketers know it is important to reach out to current and future audiences through social media, and theatres have the most to gain from this medium. However, it is easy to get burnt out or lose sight of what should be going on your theatre's social media. Social media allows for interaction between an organization and its audience, which builds relationships while delivering a message. This relationship building leaves a longer lasting impression on a viewer than an advertisement or even a direct email.

The two go-to social media platforms for organisations are typically Facebook and Twitter. If used properly, these social media sites can generate buzz about upcoming performances. While Twitter is good for short snippets to grab audience attention, Facebook is where compelling storytelling can shine through. In order to build a strong following on social media that generates enough attention to translate to audience engagement and ticket sales, it takes creativity. 
Through research and interviews, I will look at what theatres around the country have in terms of a social media following, then analyze what they did to earn that following. Theatres large and small have something to gain from their use of social media as a marketing tool.