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Free Nights of Theater, Dance, Music and Art 2010

Attract New Audiences and Patrons
Build Your Single Ticket Buyers
Join a National Movement

Each October, Arts Orange County, in partnership with Americans for the Arts (AFTA) and the Theatre Communications Group (TCG), will be coordinating and promoting National Arts & Humanities Month and Free Nights of Theater, Dance, Music, & Art.

Arts Orange County joins these national efforts in order to seek out new audiences for every arts discipline, invite current patrons to try a new arts experience as well as ignite interest and create awareness about the variety of arts experiences across the county.

WHY YOU SHOULD GET INVOLVED

Since its inception in 2005, Free Night of Theater has boosted awareness of our nation’s regional theater companies, while building new audiences and driving single ticket sales.

The National 2008 results of this program are impressive:

• 72% of those attending Free Night of Theater tried going to an organization that they had never been to before!
• 31% of these had never been to any kind of theater performance.
• 41% of new theater patrons returned to that theatre and purchased a ticket!
• The program also has a track record of attracting significant numbers of people from non-traditional theatre participant categories; including infrequent theatre-goers, young people, and diverse populations.

BEST PRACTICES FROM AROUND THE NATION

Welcome Novice Art-Goers: Many FreeNighters will be unfamiliar with the rituals of arts-going and need a certain amount of special treatment. Consider a pre-show lobby talk, a welcome sign in the lobby, a special follow-up, a staffed "FreeNighter Central" table acting as a greeter so they can skip the line at the box office. You can also consider a program insert, a welcome packet given to them with their tickets, or even welcome them officially in a curtain speech.

Limit No-shows:  Send a pre-performance email reminder with some insider information about the show or an invitation to ask for their "free gift". The email should include details that may seem obvious including directions, start time and how long the show will be.

For more tips, read an 8-page Summary  taken from A Compilation of Best Practices Manual for Free Night of Theater by Clayton Lord, Director of Marketing and Audience Development, Theater Bay Area, San Francisco, CA.

WE INVITE YOUR ORGANIZATION TO PARTICIPATE

Participation is easy! Arts Orange County takes care of all marketing, communications, management of the program and the ticket distribution. You supply the opportunity to try out your organization for free!

Step 1. Indicate your interest in participating by signing up!

Step 2: Choose one or more events that will take place anytime between October 1st and November 1st in Orange County. Choose a date(s) where you will offer free tickets or admission. You are welcome to list tickets at multiple performances, and list as few or as many tickets as you like. However, we are encouraging a minimum of 50 tickets per organization. You can also change your allotment at any time if ticket sales require you to take back your allotment to us.                                                                                                                        
Step 3: Arts OC will request detailed information and ask you to return by August 20th.                                                                                            
Step 4 - You will receive a login and password to manage your event directly or you can ask for assistance from Arts OC.  The TCG website will allow you unlimited access to manage your information, ticketing allotment and patron information.

Step 5. By September 3rd- Submit event details that will be posted in a special section on Spark OC and on TCG's website as a preview to the public.

Step 6. On September 27th - Ticket vouchers will be made available for events scheduled for first two weeks of October. On October 11, the balance of ticket vouchers are made available. You can access list of patrons and ticket activity at any time and make up-to-the-minuite decisions about ticket allotments.

Contact Sharyn Case, Free Night Coordinator at 714-556-5160, x10 or email scase@artsoc.org.