Welcome to the Bruised Orange Theater Company.
“We try to strive for a small intimate setting to get in touch with our audience”, says Sam Bianchini, an actor in the theater company, “Well that, and because we are trying to keep the cost of space down”.
Just as the economy has hit many other areas of the Arts, the Theater is no exception. For small theater companies in Chicago like Bruised Orange, a redirected focus on marketing through social media is an important tool in keeping theatergoers coming though the door.
“It was pretty rough for awhile”, says Bianchini. “But once we got the word out on the social media sites, business really started picking up. That’s saying a lot in times like these”.
Bianchini knows what she is talking about. In the annual fiscal report on theaters in America, put out by Theatre Communications Group, total paid attendance of performances in 2010 has declined 5.8% from just one year prior in 2009.
“Those findings really represent what a lot of small theater companies in Chicago are going through right now”, says Bianchini. “In a city of over 200 theater troupes, you really need to find a creative edge to get ahead in the game”.
When Bruised Orange noticed a small drop in ticket sales, they began implementing a plan to claim back their patrons. First they started with 2 for 1 ticket sales. When that didn’t work, the theater company began “Pay What You Can Thursdays”. Still, there were too many open seats at shows.
“When we got on Facebook and Twitter, that’s we started to see a slow turn around”, says Bianchini.
But still faced with economic woes, the company needed funding for new projects. That’s when they discovered Kickstarter.
Kickstarter.com is a philanthropic website that allows visitors to the site to pledge money to projects that interest them. The website gives the artist a concrete time period in which they must reach their monetary goal. If they do not reach the goal, the artist does not get the money and pledges are refunded.
“Overall it’s been a Godsend for us”, says Bianchini. “We post a project on the site, explain what we are trying to do with a video, and people just start pledging money if they like it”.
But what is in it for those who pledge money?
“Each artist on the site does it differently but we like to have a ‘you scratch our back, we will scratch yours’ mentality” says Bianchini. “We tend to give out half priced tickets or signed memorabilia from our shows for those who help us out”.
Bianchini hopes that future creative projects will one day let her own her own theater company by getting support through Kickstarter, but for now, she is content with the turnaround of her Company.
"Bruised Orange is bruised no more!" laughs Bianchini. "I like that- I think I'll go tweet it".
