Do physical theatres constrain community connection?

Its more of a thought bubble this week...

Does the presence of a physical theatre and the need to manage such a resource prevent city, county/state or territory funded Performing Arts Centres from achieving everything they could achieve?

How would say the “BIG NEW SUBURB PERFORMING ARTS CENTRE” be different if it didn't actually have a BIG NEW PERFORMING ARTS CENTRE to manage and populate with shows?

Are we tying up valuable arts funding in capital expenditure when we could be using it in other ways?

What if the programming/marketing/backstage/ticketing/FOH activities that performing arts centres generally deliver to communities happened but without the constraints of having to happen within a set of fixed four walls?

Programming would be entirely site specific, education programs would happen almost universally in schools, communities would naturally be more engaged in the creation of work as it would be happening all around them and work would HAVE to be created to spec. Maybe the conversation would be less around the programming off-the-shelf Williamson touring productions and more focused on the needs, issues and interests of the community being served.

I dunno, I just find the focus on large monuments is sometimes a distraction from the real purpose of workplaces like ours…

Its certainly a distraction for politicians and bureaucrats when it comes to big picture vision thinking. It's all about getting their name on a plaque and not about achieving real results for communities.

Persuasive letter writing

Does anybody still write letters? We still do from time to time, either A. because our email list has been hammered yet we still want to talk directly to some specific patrons (I know. I know we should use better segmentation tools), B. We've made what we beleive to be a very well executed form of printed collateral and we just want to get it directly into people's hands or C. you have to craft an argument that takes a bit more explaining than you might otherwise have room for in other media.

With this in mind and noting that as it is Subs Season, lots of us are actually writing letters, here’s a quick tute on persuasive letter writing.

• Scope out on a bit of paper (Or wherever) your key messages before you start. Don't have too many maybe three, max.
• Write in the format of your end letter – it helps make sure you keep to length and are seeing it how the end reader will as you draft.
• Remember that direct mail writing is one-to-one communication not one-to-many, write accordingly.
• Write with an individual in mind that is your target audience – put their name after DEAR… I write my Subs letters to "Denise", a real subscriber that I know.
• Use Headings, Pull Quotes and PS’s – some people will only read these so make sure that read in isolation the headings etc actually carry your key messages and form a lose narrative of their own.
• Tell ‘em once, tell ‘em again then tell them what you told them. You can repeat your key selling point up to three times (Or more) just find different ways to phrase it. Heading, intro, body copy and conclusion.
• Always seek to use active not passive language. A good tip for active writing is to make sure all tenses are in present tense where possible - not past or future. don't get held up by technicalities here, effective selling copy trumps strict English boarding school grammatical copy everytime.
• The shortest way to phrase an idea is usually the best.
• NEVER precede a noun (Like "performance") with any more than two adjectives. One is best. "Smith delivers a thrilling performance.", "Smith delivers a thrilling, haunting and moving performance." - see? Trust me the shorter one is better.
• Think about how the shows you are selling will impact on the reader, don't just describe the show, paint a picture of how it will me THEM FEEL!
• A synopsis is NOT Marketing copy. It just isn't alright. Look: "Avatar is a movie about some security guards that travel to a far away jungle planet to guard a mining operation and  one of them begins to sympathise with the local tribes." This is what synopis driven marketing copy reads like to your patrons.

I think that's it from me for now. Happy letter writing!

Ricky