The trouble is that it’s not "Theater" as an art-from that needs changing, nor the patrons who need the changes, it’s theater companies themselves. And if they don’t, they fail. Survival of the fittest, and all that.

One thing many theaters don't do well is keeping up with the marketing technologies that arrive in the information age. It’s no coincidence that the companies who refresh their websites regularly, have embraced social media like twitter, Facebook and YouTube to stay more dynamically in touch with their patrons and supporters sell more tickets

Your theater is in competition will all other forms of entertainment in your area: sports teams, cable and satellite TV, on-demand streaming, concerts, cinema's, and of course other theaters. Knowing who your audience is and matching appropriate programming is a critical skill.

Theater management, in particular in Community and Regional theaters is, is sometimes lacking. Sometimes well-wishing, hard-working and enthusiastic Actors, Directors, Producers run the company. Not a good basis for success. Theater is a business first. How to pay the bills should be addressed first, always. If you find a perpetual donor who writes a check each year, that's fine.

And it’s more important than ever for theater organizations to develop and build a strong brand of what it is that is unique about them. And then marketing that to the appropriate audience. On the topic of audience – many theatres often have an older subscriber base. Their current patrons won’t be around forever, so cultivating both a new and the existing is important.

It seems to me that some producers are spreading themselves thin with lavish sets and costumes without enough marketing power to attract new audiences. Just because Wicked had a multi million dollar budget and was a big hit doesn’t mean that’s the only way to go. Quality theatre is possible without a million dollars spent on a set, and quality is what audiences want to see.

Dutch Heetbrink specializes in mentoring and/or coaching of live-performance theater executives to achieve turn-arounds of failing organizations. Contact him for a free conversation or two and see if something can be done.