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Newsletter Box Office: Effectiveness and
Training It isn't very often that an actor gets on stage having never rehearsed, not understanding the director's vision, or not having read the script. But this happens countless times for the staff and volunteers in the box office-they are given the vaguest of instructions, while working in inadequate space or with ineffective tools. And yet the box office is a patron's first impression of a theatre company-and the primary generator of a theatre's revenue. Today's patrons demand a high level of customer service, but box office staff and volunteers aren't necessarily trained sufficiently or given the proper resources to be the best "sales person" possible. Does the box office staff know the theatre's policy on refunds or exchanges? Do they know what local restaurants are good? Can they give accurate travelling directions to the theatre? Have they read or seen the play they are selling? It is unrealistic to assume that someone can be placed in a tiny room with a bunch of tickets, a phone, a five minute prep-talk, and suddenly operate an effective box office. The need for workshops, peer-networking and published resources is evident for the continued success of box offices, and therefore theatre companies. A recent partnership between Theatre Ontario and Equity Showcase Theatre created the training opportunity "Connecting Artists and Cultural Workers Through Videoconferencing." Support for this project was provided by the Career Initiatives in Culture Program of Cultural Careers Council Ontario. On October 16, representatives from various theatre companies met to learn more about the "Basics of an Effective Box Office." But what made this workshop so unique was that many of the participants were hundreds of kilometres away from the workshop leader! The University of Ottawa and the University of Toronto played host to this inaugural videoconferencing workshop. With seven participants in Ottawa and fifteen in Toronto, workshop leader Richard Carter led participants through ticketing history, hard ticketing, basic accounting (why we keep those stubs), and creative ways of ticketing and discounting which other companies have had success with. Workshop leader Richard Carter first became involved with ticketing when he established a box office in 1965 for touring Broadway shows at the Minneapolis Orpheum Theatre. In 1974, he became the Ticket Manager for the opening of the new Orchestra Hall, the home of the Minnesota Orchestra. The following year he installed a computer ticketing system, making it the first orchestra in the US to be fully computerized. He came to Canada in 1981 to become the Ticket Manager for Roy Thomson and Massey Halls. In 1995 he joined the Art Gallery of Ontario as Manager of Visitors Services, where he spearheaded the ticketing for the Barnes Exhibition. The following year he redesigned all the admission programs and patron policies, and designed a unique computerized ticketing system that uses bar codes to track admissions for the Gallery. He co-founded the International Ticketing Association, and founded the Ontario Professional Ticketing Association. At the workshop, Richard shared some interesting facts about ticketing. "If using hard tickets, complimentary tickets are often hole punched, making it easy to count up the number of comps. These tickets are called 'Annie Oakleys.' During the days of Wild West shows, Annie Oakley would go to the town square and give a ticket to a gentleman. The gentleman would hold the ticket in the air, and Annie would shoot it from a distance. This 'hole punched' ticket allowed the gentleman complimentary admission to Annie's show." The Ontario Professional Ticketing Association (OPTA) is an association of professionals concerned with the support for and further development of fair ethics and high standards with regards to marketing, sales and service in the ticketing industry. OPTA hosts bimonthly meetings, which provide members with the opportunity to share ticketing policy ideas with their peers. Workshops and discussions also examine the challenges in today's ticketing industry, including ticket service charges and subscription benefits. Theatre Ontario sells the publication Basics of an Effective Box Office: Essentials of Hard Ticketing written by Richard Carter and Michael A. Bronstorph. This great resource includes information such as methods of ticketing, discount coupons, accounting, the ticket as contract, and revenue-making opportunities. You can order this publication for $15.00 plus tax, by calling Theatre Ontario. Theatre Ontario is dedicated to assisting theatre companies and artists in reaching a high level of successfulness and efficiency. Theatre Ontario will continue to examine box office policies, procedures and resources, and will be offering other box office workshops in the near future.
MEMBER PROFILE Theatre Ontario member Sue Hall has an enthusiastic passion for learning-and for sharing that learning with others. In 1990, she helped found the Lakeside Players, a community theatre group in Ottawa, when she decided to stay home before the birth of her second child. The Lakeside Players fills a unique niche in the area by presenting an annual British-style panto, complete with cross dressing, a comedy duo, an animal character and lots and lots of cast--25 kids and 15 adults singing and dancing their way through a fairytale! Like so many community theatre artists, Sue has done it all-acting, stage managing, directing and producing. Some of these skills she learned while earning a degree in recreation from the University of Waterloo, while others, she learned at Theatre Ontario's annual Summer Courses. This past August, Sue celebrated her tenth year of attending Theatre Ontario Summer Courses. Her past courses have included Everything You Wanted To Know About Acting, Commedia dell'Arte, Physical Theatre and the Text, Triple Threat, Lessons from the Lens, Actor as Creative Artist, Actors in Space, Intensive Directing, and Musical Theatre Workshop. "Summer courses have great instructors," exclaims Sue. "Each one is so understanding of the needs of community and professional theatre. They're able to work with a group of people at different levels of experience, and bring out the best in everyone." Sue takes away a lot from the Summer Courses. "The courses really pump you up-they get you ready for another year of theatre," she states. She is quick to apply the skills she's learned to her theatre work. After participating in the 1995 Triple Threat course, Sue finally had the courage to audition for a musical theatre production. "This was a great class. On the first day we 'auditioned'-everyone having to sing a solo song and do some cold readings. We were given parts, and at the end of the week we presented 101 in the Shade, singing off-book and with choreography." Having never directed before, Sue was a little unsure about taking the Intensive Directing course in 1999. But like everything, she jumped right in. For Sue, this course opened up a whole new world; since then she has gone on to co-direct three productions. "One of the things I really appreciate about Theatre Ontario is the 'extras' provided during Summer Courses," she says. "In the directing course, we got to have a backstage tour of the Shaw Festival, talk with an assistant director, and see a dress rehearsal. You don't really get that opportunity anywhere else." In 2001, Sue took the course Getting Into Shakespeare. "When I told people I was taking a Shakespeare course, they would say 'why, we're never going to do Shakespeare.' But I want to learn new things. I did learn a lot from the course-how to look at Shakespeare with a new eye. And just because you aren't going to be doing Shakespeare later on, doesn't mean you won't come across it. I was co-directing a production of Jitters, and there are lots of Shakespeare references in that. My kids were doing Shakespeare monologues recently in school as well." When not taking Summer Courses, Sue is the Co-ordinator of Volunteers at Centrepointe Theatre (Ottawa). Centrepointe is a fantastic performance space for community theatre companies and cultural groups which seats 974. Approximately 180 volunteers work each year in the theatre as ushers, stage crew and marketing and hospitality crew. Sue's role is to find the new recruits, maintain the operations of the Volunteer Company and organize the recognition of their efforts. She is very proud of Centrepointe's contributions to the arts community. "Centrepointe is an excellent trainer for technical theatre. Our stage volunteers learn skills in areas of lighting, sound, stage and flys. Lighting volunteers don't just hang lights-they learn to operate the computerized lighting board. We also have a new Midas Heritage 3000 56 channel soundboard with lots of bells and whistles. It's great for community theatre groups," says Sue. "They come to Centrepointe and get a full crew of competent, trained volunteers. Some of the volunteers become designers for the community theatre companies in the area and others have gone on to professional roles." Sue has taught weekend drama
classes and puppet classes to youth, as well as pre-school classes in
storytelling and creative play. She is often invited to schools to
lead theatre workshops, extending the skills learned at summer courses to
the students. Sue looks forward to attending Summer Courses, taking place at Brock University, St. Catharines, August 11 to 18, 2002. "Theatre Ontario Summer Courses are a great holiday; a getaway where you don't have to worry about food or accommodations. And all the while, you're learning. I never took theatre or drama at school, so Summer Courses are my university degree."
THE HISTORY OF
TICKETING Theatre ticketing started as early as the 6th century BC, long before the Golden Age of Greece. It began on the hillside of the Acropolis, which served as a 17,000-seat theatron or "seating place." A few seats were set aside for the state; the rest went on sale to the public for a modest sum. Some of the Greek tickets were stamped with designs referring to specific performances. Archaeologists have found that the tickets actually showed what section of the theatre the bearer could sit in. In ancient Rome, things were on a grander scale. Theatres in Rome were amphitheatres with as many as 40,000 seats. Performances ran all day much like movie palaces. Admission was free but the good seats were reserved for the Senators, for which tickets were required. These events where seen as a great public relation by the government. Eventually, tickets were used for all seats, to prohibit overcrowding. The tickets were called tessera. Tickets were originally made of wood and later carved ivory. In the Middle Ages, theatrical troupes wandered the countryside of Europe playing in city squares and passing the hat. In England, most performances were of a religious nature. After a time, they were superseded by secular performances, often held in the courtyards of inns. Patrons paid an admission at the gate. Gradually permanent theatres were established and by Shakespeare's time, there were two types of theatre, private (members, only, these were often covered), and public (for everyone generally not covered). At first there were no tickets but attendees were charged an entrance fee. Sometimes it was hard to get a seat and no one was allowed to save a seat for anyone else. As time went on and seats became hard to get, Management added to their income by charging an additional fee to sit on the stage, for which a ticket was issued. Young fops seized these stage seats and used them as an opportunity to show off their fine clothes. This custom went on in England and France until the 19th century. It still exists for those sold concerts and events in North America. The embryonic form of today's ticketing comes from the English Restoration period. Ticket windows were divided up according to the sections of the house-the pit, box and gallery offices. The patron paid admission to a doorkeeper and received in exchange a metal check labelled pit or gallery with the theatre name on the other side. The tokens were collected on the inside. This gave only right of admission, not guaranteed specific seating. Metal tokens were used until the late 19th century. In the meantime, the first paper ticket had come into use for special occasions. These were introduced by actors for their own fundraising nights. It was easier to send out paper tickets than metal tokens in letters requesting patronage. Soon paper tickets began to be used for all performances. An 18th century text started off "to prevent the many disappointments of the public and the heavy losses sustained by the Managers by Boxes and Places being given up every day of performance." Tickets were "delivered to house who wish to secure places for each night's performance, in paying half the ticket price at the time of taking them, the remainder in the night of admission, the half so deposited to be forfeited in case of disappointment." Most importantly, these tickets were sold with a warning. They were printed with "the name of the particular night they are designed for, and will not be admitted on any other." From this arrangement, evolved, by the end of the 18th century, printed dated tickets. The modern system of prepayment was born. By the end of the 19th century, the pit and gallery offices were merged with the box office. The system of numbering specific seats did not start until late in the 19th century. Tickets became the vogue for things other than theatre. Hogarth etched a ticket in 1735 for a public execution of the notorious criminal, Jonathan Wild. In the American west of the 19th century, tickets were used for admission to houses of prostitution. Sometimes on metal, other times on paper, the name of the house or madam appeared on side. On the other would be a legend, "Good for $5 on trade" or some such. One ticket in Denver read, "10 cents Lookee, 25 cents Feelee, 50 cents Doee." Today tickets still come in many shapes and forms and continue to be the essential means of entrance to events. The methods of ticketing are changing rapidly due to the advent of computer and the World Wide Web. Over the last 40 years, ticket purchasing has changed from only over-the-counter sales and mail-order orders to include, telephone sale, self-serving ticketing machines, and online ticketing sales. In many venues today, online ticketing represents 40% of sales. New
technology uses interactive recording devices, which records a patron's
ticket request and automatically process the ticket order. If you
order through the web, you can print your bar-coded ticket off on your
home computer. Bar-coded ticket information can now be downloaded to
your cell phone display. The ticket taker scans the phone's bar code
and let's you into the theatre. There is amazing technology
available all designed to make it easier for the patron to purchase
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