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BROADWAY: LOWERING ITS PRICES, NOT ITS STANDARDS
By Amy Wheeler
POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y., Oct. 11 --- Marist College has been offering discounted tickets to Broadway shows for years. Now, Broadway is following in its footsteps, in hopes of drawing in younger crowds.
“I can't think of many better ways to spend a Sunday than in the city seeing a Broadway show,” said Kelly Vlkovic, Marist College senior and secretary of the Student Programming Council.Luckily, for Marist students, this Sunday afternoon experience won’t empty their wallats. Marist College offers a $25 package that includes tickets to a popular Broadway show and transportation to and from New York City. Vlkovic explained that Marist is able to get these discounted tickets by booking the shows in advance and getting a group rate.
Junior Kelly Lauturner, a theater enthusiast, said she knows a deal when she sees one.
“I went to my first Marist sponsored Broadway show and it was so great because they take care of the show and transportation for half the price of a TKTS discount ticket,” she said. “Being so involved in theater, I'm so glad Marist offers so many opportunities to go see professional theatre performed.”
According to Vlkovic, the Student Programming Council organizes between four and seven trips a semester, with around 90 tickets available for each play.
Marist College is not the only institution that realizes the importance of making Broadway shows available at a low cost.
According to an article at NYTimes.com, two years ago, the Signature Theater Company, an Off Broadway company, convinced Time Warner to underwrite the cost of tickets. The tickets, which were normally $45, sold for $15 for every performance of every show during the regular run.
This initiative was a huge success, with the most significant change being in the audience demographics. After the program was initiated, one-third of audience members were 35 or under. Although this may not sound high, it is a drastically higher percentage than before this program was in place. In addition, the number of theater-goers with an annual income of less than $50,000 grew by 25 percent and half of the audience was new to the Signature Theater Company. The Signature recently announced that Time Warner would continue the subsidies through the 2010 season, with discounted ticket prices at $20 each and an “official” price of $65.
Gerald Cox, an associate professor of English at Marist College, understands what a feat it was to increase the number of new attendees.
“One might conclude it is easier to sell tickets to those who enjoy theatre than it is to get tickets into the hands of those who don't understand theatre,” he said. “For the latter group, education is needed and that is best delivered by a teacher or professor, one who understands the ‘goals of theatre.’”
According to the NYTimes.com article, the Signature’s artistic director, James Houghton, was not sure their plan was going to work.
“What we discovered pretty quickly is that if you take that financial barrier away, there is a lot of interest in theater,” Houghton said. “I didn’t know for sure that there would be, frankly. It was an experiment, but the results have really been clear.”
Viviana Suavita is a senior at Marist College who had the chance to go on one of the $25 trips to New York City for a Broadway show offered by Marist.
"Being from Massachusetts, I had never had the chance to go to a Broadway show until I got here,” she said. “I don't know much about Broadway but I knew that $25 for transportation and the ticket price was a really good deal. I had a great time, didn't spend that much money, and was able to do something that I probably wouldn't have done on my own or if I had to pay regular price. I think it's amazing how many Broadway trips Marist offers the students, but mostly, at the prices that they do."
The students who take advantage of these trips range from theater buffs to those who have never seen a play.
“There are a small group of students who go to many shows throughout the semester. However, we always see new faces on every trip,” Vlkovic said. “While there are students who go because they already are interested in theater, the Broadway trips also expose other students to theater for the first time, which is a great thing.”
Cox agreed that exposing students to theater is very important.
“While attending graduate school I taught in a high school in New York City,” he explained. “The majority of the students I taught had never seen a play. Together we organized field trips to see a Broadway production. That was years ago and today I still hear those now former students say how their lives were changed by the experience and how their interest in theatre continued to grow. So, start early. Select appropriate plays to open the door to lifelong enjoyment of theatre.”
Most major not-for-profit theaters have student-outreach programs or discount offers for younger theatergoers, but they tend to focus on audiences who are already interested in theater. The Signature program simplified the process. Instead of having to sign up for a program or visit a theater’s Web site, all you had to do was buy a ticket.
However, even though The Signature was successful, it does not mean all New York theaters will be following suit. Producing a show is extremely expensive and the not-for-profit theater companies already rely heavily on outside contributions to meet their budgets. At these institutions, ticket sales cover only about half of the expenses of producing first-class theater, opera or ballet.
Still, some institutions may be loosening their approach to discount tickets and are attempting to start programs aimed at bringing in the younger audiences. The Metropolitan Opera had a donor underwrite the cost of 200 orchestra seats to weekday performances, so that seats that are regularly priced at $100 are sold for $20. The Met has also reduced its cheapest tickets to from $25 to $15. The New York City Ballet followed suit, cutting the price of its cheapest seats from $30 to $15. For the ballet, this was a success, as they saw sales triple.