Dayton Live Celebrates First Birthday and Plans New Season

On March 10, 2020 Victoria Theatre Association gathered 2,000 of its closest friends and announced a new season and a new brand identity for the storied arts organization: Dayton Live. Two days later, its acclaimed venues - the Benjamin & Marian Schuster Performing Arts Center, the Victoria Theatre, The Loft Theatre at the Metropolitan Arts Center, and the PNC Arts Annex - were shuttered and performances halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the state of Ohio's mandates.

Now, one year later, these venues are open for specific resident company performances at 25% of total capacity and the organization is moving forward to a full reopening later in the fall.

"We couldn't be more excited about the incredible lineup of shows we'll be announcing in just a few short weeks," said Ty Sutton, Dayton Live's President & CEO. "On April 6, we'll announce the new Premier Health Broadway in Dayton series as well as many performances on the Projects Unlimited Star Attractions and Universal 1 Credit Union Music Series, with more events being confirmed for later in 2022."

In the meantime, during this extended intermission, Dayton Live has turned its attention to a variety of mission-focused activities to engage audiences with its venues and its new brand. Here are just a few of the achievements from the past year.

Dayton Live Education launched two successful Virtual Field Trips. Streamed performance and educational programs with STEP AFRIKA! and BLACK VIOLIN served a total of more than 70,000 students and educators from all over the region. A third Virtual Field Trip is planned for April with FULL STEAM AHEAD WITH MISTER C.

Dayton Live Education experimented with how to create a positive learning experience for students and keep everyone safe with two socially distanced Summer Camps: Pop-up Puppet Camp and Comedy Camp. Eighteen students participated and were thankful for the opportunity at a time when many other summer camps were canceled. Plans are in the works for summer 2022.

The Dayton Live Behind the Scenes video series debuted in October 2020 and gained momentum, serving 80,000 individuals with seven episodes produced to date. Theatre lore and backstage information is shared in an engaging fashion, featuring Dayton Live's fabulous venues as the stars.

The Dayton Live Ticket Center, with its brand-new website DaytonLive.org, quickly adapted to the needed virtual environment, implementing new technology to enable agents to work from home and assist thousands of patrons with questions about their performing arts tickets.

Dayton Live teamed up with more than 15 venues across the region to organize a huge #RedAlertRESTART event, lighting up venues red to draw attention to the Save Our Stages Act. Dayton Live led the charge in the Dayton region. The state-wide campaign resulted in 3,305 direct messages to Representative Mike Turner and thousands more in messages to Senators Portman and Brown. The act passed as part of H.R. 133 and became the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG).

Dayton Live chose to take a leadership role in getting the word out about the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG) by creating a special website - svogrant.org - and sharing it with venues and potential grantees around the region through social media, email and press stories.

Dayton Live participated in two arts audience research projects - Culture Track: Community & Culture in a Time of Crisis and Audience Outlook Monitor from AMS/WolfBrown. These national and in some cases, international studies are gauging patrons' reactions to digital programming, willingness to return to in-person performances, desired safety protocols, receptiveness to vaccines, and more. Dayton Live has recently committed to staying with the Audience Outlook Monitor project which has been extended through 2021.

Dayton Live is active with a variety of industry groups, including the Performing Arts Center Consortium, The Broadway League, Ohio Arts Presenters Network, Ohio Citizens for the Arts, National Independent Venue Association, and others, where similar institutions share best practices and plans for reopening.

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