How can you partner with local schools to boost ticket sales for a children's theatrical production?

I find the school secretary to be an amazing resource in finding out who runs which programs and who to contact to initiate a partnership. If they help you it’s always nice to send a thank you card.

Planning your children's programming with the curriculum of local schools is an excellent way to ensure that the teachers will coordinate with you to ensure their students get the opportunity to see your production. Reaching out at the beginning of the school year or before planning out your season is an excellent way to ensure your programming will be beneficial and welcomed by the schools in your area.

A valuable tool in promoting local school events is partnering with local businesses. Local business owners are an integral part of the community and usually willing to help promote local activities, as well as many of the workers/owners may have children attending the school and very willing to help. Here are some ideas to get the word out in the local community:

I like to go into the schools to perform a snippet and do Q&A. It's promo for my show and a valuable offering for the students. They get exposure to the arts in a way they might not otherwise. I underscore how my performance relates to fun and successful literacy, math, and social-emotional development.

A tool that I find helpful is doing a pre or post show with the schools. This is when representive of your production or staff would go to the school and do a workshop about the the show they would be coming to see. This will allow the students and teachers to get the real world experence before seeing the show. It also shows how you are active in the community.

1. Print flyers businesses can post on the door, windows, etc. or make available at the register. 2. Encourage viewers to snap a pic of the flyer for reference or place a QR code that might take you to the school website page that promotes the production. 3. Small postcards are also a great tool where a small stack can be placed at multiple spots in businesses, public spots, administration offices, etc. Postcards make an easy 'take-away' with the info needed. Always make sure to get approval before leaving a stack of cards.

Make theater (writing, acting, directing, decorating) an integral part of a school's curriculum, involving every student in his or her own chosen discipline within the larger course curriculum. This of course means allocating resources, money, time and energy to a school-wide discipline. The very most a student might do is writing theater; the very least, door-to-door ticket sales.

Offer the school group two things: -A reduced group ticket price for specific performances to give them ideas when when to see the show. -A talkback with the actors & the rest of the team for the students to learn more about the production, and meet the people they saw on stage. -Offer free tickets to any adult chaperoning the trip. -This is often the favorite, offer a workshop with the actors and the students after the show.

Incentives are one method of boosting sales, albeit of short term value. From my experience, a local Children's Theater with a clear vision of getting established in the community will boost ticket sales if offering: after-school programs and summer theater camps for school kids. This benefits the family community, engages kids and brings in revenue. In this case a long range productions plan is needed- specific seasonal steps such as offering a summer camp first, followed by seasonal fall- winter- spring productions and after- school programs that bring educational and local historical/ cultural value to the community adjacent to the curriculum. Offering long term value to the school community is far more efficient in increased sales.

Another avenue to research is local cable access channels that are starving for local information. Do not worry about having a professional commercial, usually a digital version of the info flyer is all that is needed. On any flyer that may only be displayed for a short time, be sure to follow these rules: 1. Keep the copy short and simple - only the pertinent facts. 2. Be sure copy is legible and not hidden with pictures or graphics. 3. Have a clear call-to-action - What do you want the reader to do? Contact number for more information? Show up at a certain place and time? Call to order tickets?, etc.

Encourage students to write their own scripts. I have donated script writing software to the theatre department for their use.

Absolutely, providing educational materials to classroom teachers and students completly increases the production's educational value and its partnership with the school. But it's not only that! Did you know that moving groups of kids from their classroom to different instructional spaces disrupts the entire dynamic of the school day? Those educational materials truly save the day for the kids and the teachers. Even more so, kids then go home and have a tangible peace of work they can share with family. Therefore the value of this partnership truly increases.

As a thank-you follow-up, let the school know about your next show that kids would enjoy. Give them dates, name of the show, the reason they might love it, and the intended age group. Follow up with them a few months before the production goes up and check on interest, ready to run this cycle again.

Create an engaging, school-appropriate version of the show and tour this show to local area schools in the weeks leading up to the performance. This also gives performers a chance to perform live before the show and connect with their communities. Condense the show into the main plot points, workshop the characters with students. Tour with a wind quintet or string quartet and teach the students about any musical themes and leitmotifs. Effectively providing the students with a behind-the-scenes understanding of the production so that they would be able to talk about the production to their friends or parents in the same way that they might discuss the themes and intricacies of their favourite TV shows or video games.

It is crucial to involve school districts and instructors before show selection. Here's why: - Producing a show that is related to in-school instruction makes it easier to sell the event. For instance, if you know that all third-graders in your district read "Charlotte's Web," then that would be a great title to produce on your stage. - Always ask about the per-student budget for field trips. If a school can only afford $5 per student and you're charging $15, it will be a tough sell. - Keep in mind that scheduling buses for field trips can be very challenging for school systems. So, if your show is scheduled for 9:30 AM but the buses can't deliver students until 9:45 AM, be prepared to hold the curtain.

One thing I've found to be helpful is to make a script for yourself that includes pertinent information so you can present your show well and answer any questions the schools may have.

If you can partner with local schools, by putting on a mini performances for the kids so they can see things in action. Performance could be 2 scenes from the current show. Kids will go home and tell the parents about what saw and they want to see the show. Send kids home with a flyer that has a link or QR code link to the tickets to make things super easy for parents. Also, as an incentive you can also hold a competition and the family that purchases the most tickets or referred other friends has a chance of winning Tickets to the next show or a VIP Meet and Greet experience.