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Marketing and Social Media

In this section, you’ll find content that engages with ideas and best practices around theatre marketing and the intersection of the art form and social media. Start with this video about anti-racism with marketing leaders or this essay on building your identity and fan base like a metal band.

The Latest

Five Ways to Maximize Your Theatre’s Social Media Presence
Essay
Five Ways to Maximize Your Theatre’s Social Media Presence
by Trevor Boffone
21 November 2023
Marketing and Audience Development Panel
Video
Marketing and Audience Development Panel
Wednesday 25 October 2023
New York City
How YDC Theatre Leaders Are Navigating Malawi’s Changing Theatre Environment
Podcast
How YDC Theatre Leaders Are Navigating Malawi’s Changing Theatre Environment
by Fumbani Innot Phiri, Bright Africa Makina, Evelyn Kaipa, Prince Kazembe, Deborah Butao, Ngwenyama Nkhata
4 January 2023
Trevor Boffone films an actress singing into a microphone onstage.
Five Ways to Maximize Your Theatre’s Social Media Presence
Essay

Five Ways to Maximize Your Theatre’s Social Media Presence

21 November 2023

When utilized fully, social media can function as a critical extension of work being done onstage. Trevor Boffone pulls from his experience as a content creator and social media manager to share concrete steps that theatremakers and theatre companies can use to leverage the unique potentials of social media. 

event poster for the fall forum marketing and audience development panel.
Marketing and Audience Development Panel
Video

Marketing and Audience Development Panel

Wednesday 25 October 2023
New York City

Audiences are not “back” to pre-pandemic levels, and there may be a variety of compounding reasons why. ART/New York convened a panel of marketing specialists with an array of perspectives to talk about what’s working, what’s not, and what new strategies we might try in order to best reach and engage our audiences.

Critical Stages in Malawian Contemporary Theatre teaser image with the title at the top and a picture of the guest in the middle.
How YDC Theatre Leaders Are Navigating Malawi’s Changing Theatre Environment
Podcast

How YDC Theatre Leaders Are Navigating Malawi’s Changing Theatre Environment

4 January 2023

YDC Theatre has been producing theatre consistently in Malawi, even throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. They join Fumbani Innot Phiri, Jr. to trace the connections between the company’s consistent work centering Malawian perspectives, their efforts to build an audience, and the political and funding climate that they must navigate.

Critical Stages in Malawian Contemporary Theatre teaser image with the title at the top and a picture of the guest in the middle.
Reinventing Malawian Theatre for a New Generation
Podcast

Reinventing Malawian Theatre for a New Generation

7 December 2022

Jack Msumba, creative director of Youth Developers Collaboration Theatre, has big ideas for the future of Malawian theatre. In this interview, he shares his plans to eventually build Malawi’s first theatre house by producing work consistently in schools, communities, and commercial settings.

Critical Stages in Malawian Contemporary Theatre teaser image with the title at the top and a picture of the guest in the middle.
Theatre Academics
Podcast

Theatre Academics

A Conversation with Roselyn Madalo Dzanja

2 November 2022

As a scholar, educator, and practitioner of theatre, Roselyn Madalo Dzanja knows Malawi’s theatrical landscape well. In this interview, she discusses challenges Malawian women face when pursuing an acting career, the need for artistic independence from international donors, possibilities for Chichewa-language drama, and more.

A screenshot of 3 actors on Zoom performing a musical in costume.
The TikTok Revolution
Essay

The TikTok Revolution

9 August 2022

Katy Zapanta champions TikTok as a platform with the potential to revolutionize the theatre industry’s systemic issues.

Parent Artists & the Pandemic
Event

Parent Artists & the Pandemic

Nicole Stodard and Kaja Dunn, in partnership with the Parent Artist Advocacy League, led a Twitter chat navigating work/life balance and anti-racist activism as a #ParentArtist during the COVID-19 pandemic.

5 panelists' faces on the event's poster.
Anti-Racism And The Arts (ASL-interpreted)
Video

Anti-Racism And The Arts (ASL-interpreted)

Marketing Leaders Respond!

Wednesday 19 August 2020
United States

Reynaldi Lindner Lolong presented Anti-Racism And The Arts livestreamed on the global, commons-based, peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Wednesday 19 August 2020 at 6:30 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4) / 5:30 p.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) / 4:30 p.m. MDT (Denver, UTC -6) / 3:30 p.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7).

Lifting Up What We’re Throwing Down
Essay

Lifting Up What We’re Throwing Down

Company One’s Use of Amplify Language

23 June 2020

Kirsten Greenidge discusses how being the Playwright in Residence at Company One Theatre gave her a stronger appreciation for the work of the staff, particularly around speaking to the social justice goals of all the company’s programming.

two actors onstage
A Playwright’s Guide to Self-Producing: Part II
Essay

A Playwright’s Guide to Self-Producing: Part II

3 March 2020

In the second half of this two-part deep dive, playwright John J King continues his exploration into self-producing, looking at the production phase and marketing.

a person with a large bean bag over their head standing alone in the desert
Bring the Conversation
Essay

Bring the Conversation

On Twitter, What We Leave Behind, and Processing Trauma

23 September 2019

Demi Nandhra and Rajni Shah talk about their performance practices, social media, mental health, ego, and more.

It Doesn't Have to be #MeToo
Event

It Doesn't Have to be #MeToo

Progress of Education and Prevention in The Theatre

In recognition of National Sexual Assault Awareness Month, Yvette Heyliger of the League of Professional Theatre Women and HowlRound Theatre Commons facilitated a Twitter chat to discuss about preventing sexual harassment, misconduct, and assault in the creative workspace.

Art Forms in Flux
Essay

Art Forms in Flux

An Artist’s Interpretation of State Park in “Rod”

2 May 2016

In this installment, Koy Suntichotinun discusses his process for creating a performance piece interpreting Aaron Weissman’s State Park, in which he incorporates social media.

Our Spiciest Year, or How We Accidentally Became Theatre Critics
Essay

Our Spiciest Year, or How We Accidentally Became Theatre Critics

12 January 2016

The development and origin of Hot Pepper Theater, spicy hot and succinct theatre reviews.

Twitter Plays
Essay

Twitter Plays

When Theatre Connects with Reality

11 September 2015

Playwright Jeremy Gable discusses his process and the aftermath for creating his Twitter play The 15th Line.

Re-Tweeting Jeremy Gable’s The 15th Line
Essay

Re-Tweeting Jeremy Gable’s The 15th Line

11 September 2015

Professor Erin Mee discusses her decision to re-tweet Jeremy Gable’s The 15th Line and the dramaturgical questions she has for the project.

Building Your Identity and Fan Base Like a Metal Band
Essay

Building Your Identity and Fan Base Like a Metal Band

13 July 2015

In this installation, Seth Lepore compares theatre artists to metal bands, and realizes theatre artists have a lot they can learn.

A Facebook post.
(Re)Search
Essay

(Re)Search

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Social Media

21 August 2013

(Re)Search is a six part series by Bree Windham a current graduate student in dramaturgy. It details her experiences as a young dramaturg navigating different resources and the ways she has come utilize them through trial, error, and advice from others.

Logo for Dramatists Guild.
Social Media from the Playwright’s Perspective at Dramatists Guild
Video

Social Media from the Playwright’s Perspective at Dramatists Guild

Tuesday 21 May 2013 
New York, NY, United States

Dramatists Guild of America presented Social Media from the Playwright’s Perspective livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Tuesday 21 May 2013 at 2:30 p.m. PDT (San Francisco) / 4:30 p.m. CDT (Austin) / 5:30 p.m. EDT (New York) / 21:30 GMT / 10:30 p.m. BST (London). View the conversion into your local time here.

A cartoon depicting someone on a phone with various apps surrounding her.
The Galaxy's Guide to Digital Media
Essay

The Galaxy's Guide to Digital Media

The Dying Dinosaur—E-Blasts

6 February 2013

Though marketing through e-mail still lives, it is key to keep up with the current social media trends as it will keep you relevant after the final demise of e-mail.

A list of goals for Signature Theatre's social media.
The Galaxy’s Guide to Digital Media
Essay

The Galaxy’s Guide to Digital Media

#SigDMC

23 January 2013

With new positions like Digital Media Coordinator, Mallory explains the role and necessity of this position in reaction to how the world is changing.

Exploring Twittergate
Essay

Exploring Twittergate

Lessons Learned from Woolly’s Infamous Tweet Up Experiment

1 March 2012

Woolly Mammoth debriefs on what did and didn't work in their forray into Twitter, and how other theatres can replicate and learn from their experiment.

A logo that reads "2AMt: thinking outside the black box"
Theater, Twitter, and Revolution
Essay

Theater, Twitter, and Revolution

24 April 2011

"All the hand-wringing about tweeting in the theatre is really nothing more than a distraction from the far more important, positive, and legitimate ways in which Twitter is changing our art form."

ART/New York Fall Forum
Series

ART/New York Fall Forum

ART/New York convenes their first Fall Forum to foster community, support collaboration, and encourage resource sharing among their members.

A cartoon depicting someone on a phone with various apps surrounding her.
Galaxy's Guide to Digital Media 
Series

Galaxy's Guide to Digital Media 

A series exploring the role of digital media in the theatre realm.