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The show must grow on

01:00 AM EST on Sunday, November 19, 2006

By Channing Gray

Journal Arts Writer

Journal Illustration / tom murphy

At Trinity Rep, you can write your own review before the newspapers run theirs.

For a $500 donation, subscribers to Providence Performing Arts Center get a place to hang their coats and private rest rooms.

These are just a couple of perks offered by local arts groups in an effort to court new patrons at a time when filling seats is a major concern.

And it seems to be working. Subscriptions are up a whopping 15 percent this year at Trinity, where subscribers now get free tickets to other shows in town. Meanwhile, last season the Rhode Island Philharmonic saw an increase in attendance, which at least got a slight boost from a discount subscriber pass. The orchestra has been logging near-sellouts for its concerts.

“All of a sudden people are coming to the Philharmonic,” said marketing director Pam Kennedy.

Several arts groups have signed up for the new Providence Arts Pass, a joint marketing effort in which participants give out free or discounted tickets to other groups in the program.

At Trinity, for example, full subscribers get free tickets to the Philharmonic’s Thursday night Rush Hour series and Festival Ballet Providence, a pass to the RISD Museum, and 10 percent off selected shows at PPAC.

Philharmonic subscribers get tickets to Trinity and the ballet.

Festival Ballet, which has the fewest subscribers, about 370, expects to benefit the most from the incentive package.

“We are definitely bucking a trend,” said Trinity marketing director Richard Jaffe, the man behind the arts pass. Jaffe said sales are off at theaters across the country.

Besides the arts pass, the Philharmonic is offering a night on the town for subscribers to its popular Rush Hour series. Rush Hour programs are short, informal concerts with commentary by conductor Larry Rachleff.

Sign up for four Rush Hour concerts, and for $165, you can regroup at a couple of local restaurants for hors d’oeuvres and a chance to chat with fellow music lovers. Liquor is extra.

“It’s a fun evening out,” said Christine Parker of the orchestra’s development office. “It’s a shot of classical music with a martini chaser.”

Indeed, the orchestra is using a cartoon of Mozart holding a martini to pitch the new club.

Seeking broader appeal

Subscriber perks are nothing new. For years Trinity and PPAC have been offering patrons discounts at local shops and restaurants. But the push is on to increase benefits, making subscribing all the more enticing.

Trinity has just expanded its subscriber discount card, with twice the number of restaurants and more shops. With the card, you can get a room at the Providence Biltmore for $129, a significant discount.

Trinity subscribers also get access to rehearsals. And anyone can attend the popular talk-back sessions that now take place after each show. Those have been attracting about half the house.

Also popular is the new review night. On the Thursday after opening night, audience members get to discuss the performance over coffee and dessert, then file their own review on a printed form, or submit their comments later to a blog on the Trinity Web site, www.trinityrep.com. The written reviews also end up on the blog.

Trinity used to focus its marketing efforts on special nights for certain groups, such as singles and gays, but found that approach “too restrictive,” said Jaffe, who used to be head of marketing for Radio City Music Hall and Madison Square Garden. Not everyone could attend a show on a particular night.

“We wanted to make it broader,” he said, “to open it up.”

This has to do with new artistic director Curt Columbus’ notion of the theater as a “public square,” a place where people can meet before and after performances to discuss issues, not just see a play and rush home. The theater is now sending subscribers a 32-page glossy magazine containing a wealth of information about upcoming shows, so they arrive prepared.

(The Philharmonic has a monthly electronic newsletter.)

Jaffe said Trinity is seeing subscribers to three and four plays graduating to full subscriptions for all six. Subscribers pay $38 per play, rather than the $60 on Saturday night.

“It doesn’t make sense anymore to be a single-ticket buyer,” said Jaffe. “We are flexible enough and the benefits are so great it makes sense to become a subscriber.”

How much incentives are responsible for the bump in subscriptions at Trinity is hard to say. Jaffe believes it also has to do with an attractive season and the arrival of Columbus.

In the past, attendance has fallen off when a new director came on board. Audiences took a wait-and-see stance.

But Columbus has had a “significant impact from the day he walked in,” said Jaffe. “He’s practically gone door to door.”

Classical attraction

At the Philharmonic, it’s too early to tell whether the Rush Hour Club will result in new subscribers. But attendance for the Saturday-night classical series was up last year, running about 97 percent or 98 percent capacity.

Kennedy, the marketing director, can’t point to any one reason for the increase. The sellout for cellist Yo-Yo Ma seems to be a factor. That attracted a lot of new listeners, who may have returned for the remaining concerts. With some patrons turning back tickets, sales for the season finale ran about 106 percent.

“Once we get them in the door with one ticket,” said Kennedy, “they come back.”

The new Improvise! Card has also helped. For $99 patrons can buy tickets to all the classical and Rush Hour programs — a dozen concerts — as long as they are willing to take whatever seat is available. College students get a similar package for $39. A couple of students ended up sitting next to Governor Carcieri last season.

Takers for the $99 pass have been limited. Only 25 people signed up last year (75 students took advantage of the $39 card), although a number of skeptics called thinking the offer was too good to be true. So far this year, enrollment stands at 15. But with overall attendance running so high, Kennedy acknowledged there may be a point at which the orchestra will have to limit the number of discount passes it sells.

While seats are guaranteed for the $99 package, college students have to take their chances, a gamble that comes with the extra-low ticket amount.

Resident conductor Francisco Noya and box office manager Leann Atkins have been visiting college campuses, signing up students for the discount pass. The idea, said Kennedy, is to fill seats, even for a song.

The Philharmonic is also making discount tickets available to contacts within the business community who push them on their company’s intranet.

Incentives are nothing new

Even cultural giants such as the Boston Symphony Orchestra, with its $74-million budget, use similar incentives. College students get a pass for up to 12 BSO concerts and three open rehearsals for $25. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology buys 1,000 of them for its students, and the program has about 3,000 takers who use their passes about three times a year. (The BSO, which gives four performances of each program, is shooting for 20,000 subscribers this season.)

“It’s not meant to gain revenue,” said BSO marketing director Kim Noltemy, “but to build future audiences.”

The BSO, which puts on 87 concerts a season, also offers flexible subscription packages and discounts for a minimum of three concerts for listeners between the ages of 21 and 38. They get to attend a pre-concert reception where they hear a discussion about the music.

“I think everyone is required to be more flexible,” said Noltemy. “If you don’t meet the consumer’s needs, they have other choices.”

One of the more successful perks at PPAC is the year-old President’s Club, a sort of VIP lounge on the third floor where members can get free drinks and snacks (alcohol is extra), hang their coats and take advantage of private rest rooms. For a tax-deductible donation of $500, subscribers get two memberships. Non-subscribers must donate $1,000. The renewal rate for the club is running about 97 percent.

“It’s been a big success,” said PPAC president Lynn Singleton.

PPAC subscribers also get discounts on restaurants, the Feinstein IMAX theater, Trinity and the Odeum theater in East Greenwich.

Another element of the center’s marketing arm is a local box office. Large performing arts centers often use ticketing firms that handle dozens of clients from a far-flung location. But if PPAC tickets are lost in the mail, patrons know where to come to get satisfaction.

“No one has to guess how to get a ticket,” said Singleton.

But, said Singleton, no perk can beat a solid lineup of shows.

The public, he said, “isn’t interested in seeing 12 bad shows just to get a toaster.”