Regional Theatre Marketing Plan

The Players Theatre Company

Situation Analysis

The Players Theatre Company has just emerged in the press as a reputable, quality theatre company. There has been an increased interest in the community in our classes and productions. Currently, traditional theatre is available to the public, but there has been a call for educational performances. We want to take advantage of this current popularity to grow in funding and in audience (both quantitatively and geographically).

We are experiencing growth in interest in theatre from the community and the current trend in education and entertainment. Also our demographics are widening, encompassing more and more people from different walks of life. There is definitely an opportunity here to be seized.

Market Geographics

The value of live theatre is immeasurable. The Players Theatre Company offers self-growth and education to all of its audiences. Our classes for students are focused on building self-confidence through theatre games and performance. Our classes for educators offer new and interesting ways on how to approach traditional academic subjects such as math and social studies. We also teach new ways on how to relate to students and how to optimize the learning time in the classroom. Moreover, The Players rework traditional pieces and create new pieces to fit in with the fast-paced times of the end at the 20th century. Our performances are always a new experience for audiences even if it is a new rendition of Romeo and Juliet. We try to relate as performers to our contemporary audience and offer new insights on our society.

The trend in education is towards breaking traditions and discovering new ways in how to teach and how to relate to students. For example, teachers are going to seminars about the different ways people learn: visual, aural, etc. The call for something new is where our theatre company steps in. Not only do we offer classes but also performances that draw from history, social issues, and literature, and we present them in a new non-traditional format.

The market trends discussed in the previous topic point toward a market growth currently estimated at 30% for the next two years. We would like to take advantage of this and try to create growth in our audience by at least 50% by expanding our tours beyond our home county and then outside of the state, and so on.

The following is an outline of The Players Theatre Company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Currently our strengths and opportunities outweigh our weaknesses; however, our weaknesses punctuate our need for more of the following resources: time, employees, and funding.

• Dedication of volunteers and management.
• Creative company members.
• A cooperative work environment.
• Members are well-educated in areas of expertise.
• Efficient in use of materials.
• Low overhead and designed to adapt to the market's needs.
• Offering an affordable theatre experience.

• Limited employees.
• Limited time because of employees.
• Limited financial resources.

• Excellent reviews of current productions.
• Letter of recommendation from local school district head.
• Possible interview with American Theatre magazine.
• Need for live theatre in our market.
• Diminishing experiences offered through schools and other publicly supported performance activities.

• Loss of government grants.
• Bad reviews.
• Change in audience attendance (most hurtful).
• Competitive experiences, including dinner theatre.
• Challenges securing performance facilities.

Other local theatre companies offer performances of lesser quality compared to ours, which has been stated repeatedly in newspaper and theatre magazine reviews. Also, our tickets are priced from $3-$8 less than other companies, making us more accessible to a wider audience. Two companies: the Shakespearean, and the Downtown, have opened classes to students at, however, a higher price, and in a limited venue. We take our classes to the schools and offer a sliding fee scale, so that any student can attend. What is most unique about The Players, is that we take our performances on tour to regional school districts and will sometimes, depending on our financial situation, offer these free to poorer communities.

• Live theatrical performances cost us $1,000 for a four week run for a general audience.
• Theatre seminars cost us $50 per class.
• School/Tour performances cost us $1,000 per show (sometimes already accounted for with an established show) plus travel expenses ($500-$1,000) for educators and students, and occasionally a general audience in a small community, ie. Warm Springs Reservation.

The following we consider to be our keys to success:

Our major issue to face is lack of audience. We have a solid foundation of dedicated, creative workers that make things happen, but our business depends on there being an audience--a good-sized audience at that. If our following decreases even to 500, that is not enough for us to grow or even sustain our business. However, with the combined experience, education, dedication, and innovation of our company, we can implement plans and strategies that will not only guarantee a growth in audience but in our business as well.