FREE NIGHT OF THEATER 2008 PARTICIPANT SURVEY

Prepared for:THEATRE COMMUNICATIONS GROUP520 Eighth Avenue24th FloorNew York, NY 10018

Prepared by:SHUGOLL RESEARCH7475 Wisconsin Avenue, Suite 200Bethesda, Maryland 20814(301) 656-0310www.shugollresearch.com

July 2009

Section Page

Study Overview 1

Key Conclusions 4

Study Findings by Objective 8

Objective 1: Profile Free Night Of Theater Participants 9

Objective 2: Ticket Usage 16

Objective 3: Evaluation Of Program 25

Objective 4: Impact Of Free Night Of Theater On Choosing A New Type Of Theatre Experience42

Objective 5: Impact Of Free Night Of Theater On Theatregoing Since The 2008 Program 57

Objective 6: Awareness Of Non-Profit Theatres 76

Objective 7: Reasons For Not Attending Theatre More And Strategies To Overcome 84

Appendix A: Online Survey A-1

Appendix B: Sample Composition By Region B-1

Appendix C: Participant Profile By Region C-1

Table of Contents

Study Overview

Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national service organization for the American not-for-profit theatre, developed the Free Night of Theater program as part of an initiative to increase exposure to and attendance at the theatre. In October 2008, 31 regions participated in the Free Night of Theater program:

Atlanta

Austin

Baltimore

Charleston, SC

Chicago

Cincinnati

Cleveland

Connecticut

Dallas

Indianapolis

Kansas City

Lexington, KY

Lord Leebrick Theatre (Eugene, OR)

Los Angeles

Maine

New Jersey

Study Overview

New York City

New York State

North Carolina

Oregon Shakespeare Festival (Ashland, OR)

Philadelphia

Portland, OR

Sacramento

San Diego

South Florida

St. Louis

Theatre Bay Area (San Francisco Bay Area)

Theatre Puget Sound (Seattle Area)

Utah

Washington, DC

Wisconsin2

Shugoll Research conducted an online quantitative survey with program participants to understand the impact Free Night of Theater had on the their theatregoing habits and the profile of people who attended. Twenty-eight of these regions provided respondent contact information for the survey and are represented in the overall results. The three regions that did not provide contact information for the survey, and are not included in this report, are Lexington, KY, Lord Leebrick Theatre (Eugene, OR), and Sacramento.

The percent of the total sample by region is shown in Appendix A of this report.

The online survey instrument (see Appendix B) was sent to 28,588 viable email addresses provided by theatres participating in the Free Night of Theater. Respondents qualified for the study by confirming that they reserved tickets for the Free Night of Theater program in October of 2008.

– 6,007 people responded to the survey, yielding an overall response rate of 21 percent.

– Of the 6,007 people, 136 terminated because they did not recall reserving tickets for the Free Night of Theater program, leaving 5,871 people who completed the survey.

– Respondents took an average of 8 minutes and 15 seconds to complete the survey.

Study Overview

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Key Conclusions

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The 2008 Free Night of Theater was a success on every level measured in this research. It met all goals established for it by TCG. Key conclusions follow.

Key Conclusions

1. Participants were extremely happy with the Free Night of Theater program overall (92% rated it excellent or very good) and nearly all (91%) said they are very likely to participate again in 2009. This is consistent across all regions and is true for all subgroups, including non-traditional theatregoers.

2. As hoped when the program was created, Free Night of Theater attracted a significant number of people who fall into non-traditional theatre participant categories, including infrequent theatre attenders, younger people, less educated, non-white and those with lower incomes. Specifically, 31 percent of those at Free Night of Theater attended the theatre 2 or fewer times in the last year, 35 percent are under age 35, 20 percent have less than a college degree, 30 percent are non-white, and 36 percent have incomes under $50,000. Diversity is evident in all regions.

3. Since it was free, Free Night of Theater encouraged participants to try new things, including a venue or company they hadn’t previously attended or a type of play they usually don’t see. Over two out of three (69%) choose to attend a theatre they hadn’t been to before, something repeated in each region and among non-traditional attender groups. This underscores the ability of the program to identify new audience for participating theatres. Significant numbers, overall, in each region, and across demographic categories, said an important reason for attending Free Night of Theater was that they could try something different without worrying about whether they would get their money’s worth. For example, many said they attended because they could risk seeing a play they hadn’t heard of since it was free (64%), they could try a new theatre without worrying about the cost (49%), or they could see a type of play they usually don’t choose to see (46%). A modest, but significant number (18%) said Free Night of Theater gave them the opportunity to see theatre for the first time in a while, again a fact in each region and for non-traditional attender groups.

4. Of those trying a new theatre at Free Night of Theater, 34 percent have been back to that theatre as a ticket purchaser since then, including 3 percent who purchased a subscription to that theatre, showing the benefit of the program to the participating theatres. Overall, 42 percent have returned to their Free Night theatre. This is true in each region where from 27 percent to 64 percent have purchased tickets to the theatre from which they received free tickets.

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Key Conclusions

5. Seventy-eight percent of those attending Free Night of Theater have gone to a theatre since the program, including 42 percent of those who only attend the theatre infrequently (0-2 times in the last year). Further, 34 percent say they go to the theatre more now than before the program and 84 percent of them say they go more because of Free Night of Theater. Again, these responses are repeated in all regions and across demographic groups.

6. Some theatres have voiced concerns that giving away free tickets will not motivate people to buy full price tickets in the future. This year, of those going to the theatre after attending Free Night of Theater, most bought full price tickets (40%) or subscription seats (9%), with the rest buying some type of discounted ticket (51%).

7. Progress has been made in addressing past problems in some regions with the ease of making ticket reservations. Another concern is that, given the demand for tickets and available inventory, only about half of participants were able to get their first choice of play. Subsequent data submitted by the regions participating in the program suggest no shows also continue to be a problem in some theatres, although policies developed by TCG seem to be reducing this problem.

8. While word of mouth was important in people becoming aware of Free Night of Theater, the program also seems to have successfully utilized online media. Significant numbers say they heard about Free Night of Theater by email (29%), on websites (23%) and on social networking sites (3%). Moderate numbers learned of the program through print media including major newspapers (11%) and alternative newspapers (10%).

9. While Free Night of Theater has successfully brought non-traditional attenders to theatres, encouraged attenders to try new theatres, and increased interest in attending the theatre, its impact is ultimately limited by the amount of inventory made available by participating theatres. Given the proven benefits for participating theatres, TCG must attempt to increase inventory from each theatre in the future to reach a larger audience.

10. Many respondents (39%) acknowledge that they typically don’t know if they are attending a non-profit or commercial theatre. Given the types of theatres they say they go to (on average respondents say 64% of their attendance is at non-profit theatres, a number that seems overstated), the number not knowing whether a theatre is non-profit seems even higher. This is a communications challenge in promoting attendance at our non-profit theatres.

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Key Conclusions

11. While ticket cost is the major reason those in this study don’t attend theatre more often (65%), their attendance is also limited by concerns about spending money on something they may not like (23%), being busy (19%) and, as a result, finding it hard to commit to attending in advance (18%), as well as not hearing about what is playing (16%). Aside from reducing price, strategies that can help increase their theatregoing include allowing people to change dates when they have a conflict (49% would be much more likely to attend more if the could do this), if they could get information about plays running from one website (47%), if tickets were set aside for day of performance sale (34%), and if they could learn more about a play in advance of attending (28%). These same factors are most motivating to respondents under 35.

12. Significant numbers of younger thearegoers often chose a play at Free Night of Theater because it had themes relevant to their age group (26%). A number of non-white theatregoers said they chose a play that spoke to their racial or ethnic background (14%). These numbers are quite large given the limited pool of such plays available in each market and suggest that performing work audiences can relate to is a key to growing the non-traditional theatregoing audience.

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