10/5/18
Since Fall is officially here, we are ready to gear up for the start of our 2018-19 Season. While things are really getting active now, there was still a lot of interesting activity this summer. Here’s a quick look at some reports from around Trinity Rep.
BOX OFFICE
Our Box Office worked hard processing all of the subscription tickets for the upcoming season. We recently switched over to a new ticketing software, PatronManager, and have been learning how to use the system as orders rolled in. Within the past few months, they have printed and over 20,000 tickets and sent them out to over 1,600 households!
MARKETING
The Marketing team welcomed the newest member of their team, Alexander Haines, who is taking care of Group Sales and Advertising. In addition to Alex joining us, we have been trying to keep the box office busy with more subscriptions. We also combed through all of the data from our last season to find any interesting trends that we can learn from as we work to grow and diversify our audience base. In addition, we have been busy updating our website and getting everything ready for this season.
FRONT OF HOUSE
Our Front of House Manager, Bradly Widener, was busy this summer developing an all-new, all Rhode Island-based concessions lineup that includes Yacht Club Soda, Granny Squibb’s Organic Iced Tea, Borealis Coffee, Radia Herbs black and herbal teas, Foolproof Brewing, Narragansett Beer, Beautiful Day granola bars, Virginia & Spanish Peanut Co., Sweenor’s Chocolates, Inpopnito gourmet popcorn, and Ice Cream Machine cookies, brownies, and, you guessed it, ice cream! Additionally, we have some exciting new Trinity Rep merchandise for purchase this coming season, so keep those eyes peeled. Last, but certainly not least, we have been busy reinvigorating our volunteer ushering program by building a brand new scheduler and developing a rewards program for our dedicated volunteers. If you’re interested in volunteer ushering, email Bradly at bwidener@trinityrep.com.
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
Despite the popular belief that our summer is slower for Community Engagement, our Artistic team was very busy all summer planning three major projects:
Context & Conversation is our open forum performance discussion hosted at special venues, where community speakers talk about the themes of the production and how it relates to their own stories; discussions are free and open to the public. This summer was spent finding this year’s venues, speakers, and working with Christina Belivacqua in partnership with the Providence Public Library to prepare the upcoming season.
America Too is our annual fall event that creates an opportunity to gather in theatrical activism in support of a community topic or issue. We spent a lot of time this summer preparing for it. This year, we are partnering with Direct Action for Rights and Equality’s Tenant and Homeowners Association to discuss the housing crisis. Join us on October 22 at 7:00 pm to see short plays by local playwrights April Brown, Julia Izumi, Vatic Kuumba, Eli Nixon, David Rabinow, and Gina Rodriguez.
A Christmas Carol is our favorite holiday tradition here at Trinity and this year, we are inviting a different choir to sing at every performance – 56 choirs total and the number keeps growing! This has been the most time-consuming part of the summer for our Artistic Department, reaching out, scheduling, and coordinating how to get 56+ choirs in and out of Trinity Rep every day for almost 2 months! All this hard work will certainly pay off when each audience is greeted by a different community of singers with every performance – making each night special and unique.
DEVELOPMENT
Development worked very hard this summer – between preparing for our annual audit, running and reviewing lots of reports for the end of our fiscal year, and learning alongside Marketing and the Box Office just exactly how to use PatronManager. Preparing for the upcoming season, we have been hard at work scheduling and preparing for our annual fundraising galas: our Project Discovery Gala on November 14, 2018 and the Pell Awards in June.
An exciting season awaits and we are so excited to share with you all of the hard work we have been doing. This summer was non-stop and we are so excited to begin the new season. Check out our amazing lineup of shows and find out what else we’ve got in store for you throughout the 2018-19 Season!
