Meet a Marketer: Angel Azzarra, Director of Marketing at The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis

This interview originally appeared in the new BroadwayWorld Monthly Marketing Update, a monthly email designed for theatre marketing professionals. In each update, we'll share data and trends from our audience, wider trends in the marketing industry, helpful tools and resources that you can use to promote your shows and seasons, and, introduce you to some of the best marketers working in the arts today.

Don't miss the next issue - subscribe now!

Angel Azzarra is a dedicated marketing professional and the Director of Marketing at The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, where she focuses on building lasting, meaningful relationships with audiences. With a background in consulting and experience as a Director of Photography, she blends her visual storytelling skills with strategic audience engagement to create campaigns that inspire loyalty and enrich the theater experience. Beyond her marketing expertise, Angel is an opera singer, an advocate for inclusivity, and the creator of the popular educational YouTube channel, ANGELOPERA, which reaches millions annually. She resides in St. Louis with her Russian wolfhound, Percy.

What is your biggest challenge marketing productions at the moment? How are you facing it?

I'm sure other theatres are experiencing this as well so it may sound repetitive, but right now, our biggest challenge is balancing the need to attract new audiences while retaining our loyal patrons, especially after the disruptions caused by the pandemic and some significant shifts in leadership in a short amount of time. And also- audiences' expectations have shifted—they want more from their theater experience than just attending a show, and we need to meet those evolving demands with creative engagement both online and in person.

To address this, I have focused on building stronger community partnerships, like those with Cinema St. Louis, the World Chess Hall of Fame, the St. Louis Renaissance Festival, and Webster Arts. It's important to me and the entire team at The Rep to expand our reach into different cultural sectors, and to leverage our platform as a cultural institution to highlight and uplift other fantastic St. Louis organizations. We're also leveraging new initiatives, such as our regular comms from our executive and artistic leadership which feature more unique and immersive marketing strategies like behind-the-scenes emails, curated top picks, and an almost Substack-esque aspect to dramaturgy and anecdotal relationship building. And as always, as a marketer I'm always focusing on data-driven decisions to understand audience behavior, while being flexible enough to pivot when needed. I think every successful marketer in theatre has pretty cat-like reflexes! 

What advice would you offer to other marketers based on what is working for St. Louis Rep at the moment?

I don’t just think of marketing as selling a show; The Rep is sharing an experience. That mindset has been central to our recent success and is a shared sentiment throughout the company. People don’t come to the theater just for entertainment—they come for the emotional connection, the conversations sparked afterward, and the memories made. My role as marketer is to convey that every production is an opportunity to be part of something meaningful. And we are making this happen through behind-the-scenes content, partnerships with local organizations, curated experiences like our bespoke cocktail recipes and curated playlists (we most recently had a Dial 'M' for Manhattan and "Music to be Murdered By" playlist, all homages to Hitchcock)... the list goes on. We aim to engage audiences in ways that make them feel like they’re partof the creative journey. This shift in perspective from show to experience has been key to not just reaching, but SMASHING through sales goals and growing our audience.  For other marketers, I’d say: try leaning into this philosophy and just see what happens!

How do you approach designing the various assets for your campaign? Is it driven by the marketing department, the show's creative teams, or a hybrid?

From brainstorming visual concepts to executing the final designs, we pretty much cover it all. I am incredibly fortunate to have two brilliant designers on the marketing team, our Graphic Designer Dee Eddington and our Digital Marketing Associate Ash Thompson, who understand both the marketing objectives and collaboratively work alongside me and the artistic team. And on a more personal note, I've been artistically inspired by everything from Kinfolk Magazine, David Carson's interior design, artists like Edward Hopper, David Hockney, Philome Obin, the films of Pasolini, Wes Anderson, Mira Nair... I love consuming art! I feel like even a walk in the park can fill me up with ideas. 

Why do you utilize BroadwayWorld as part of your marketing mix?

I mean, honestly, the targeted audience reach is a no-brainer. You have a dedicated audience of theatre lovers, and the regional segmentation makes ita reasonable buy-in for so many theatres' budgets. We're enabled to connect directly with individuals who are already passionate about live theatre and more likely to engage. The enhanced visibility of event listings and promotional content is also the tops, in my book. And I LOVE that my direct team at BroadwayWorld is so game for whatever crazy idea I cook up- we had a Character Quiz for our recent production of Dial 'M' for Murder that the team at BroadwayWorld went above and beyond on. It was a blast putting together that content! 

What has been your favorite show that you’ve had the pleasure of putting together a campaign for?

One of my favorite shows that I’m currently putting together a campaign for is Million Dollar Quartet Christmas, running at The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis Dec 4th-22nd. This production beautifully combines classic rock (which I love) with the holidays (which I also love, and which St. Louis goes HARD on- winter in St. Louis is so festive!). 

In crafting the campaign, we're focusing on vibrant visuals and sound to capture the energy of the music while conveying just, the absolute "kicking-your-feet and giggling" energy of the holidays. Tickets for Million Dollar Quartet Christmas are still on sale, and the event is listed HERE. And we've even had our Johnny Cash, actor Scott Moreau do an interview with BroadwayWorld discussing his work and journey into becoming Johnny! You can read it HERE. Can you tell I'm excited?

Don't miss the next issue - subscribe now!

To post a comment, you must register and login.