Industry Pro Newsletter: Kelvin Dinkins, Jr New Executive Director at ART, Barbara Gaines to Retire from CST

With many of the pandemic restrictions being lifted in New York City this week, that the Broadway COVID safety team will celebrate their 2,000th performance on Broadway Tuesday night highlights the new phase of normalcy that the industry has entered. While much of the wider culture reduces restrictions in an effort to attract more tourists and audiences back into the seats, that leaves theatres and cultural institutions faced with the difficult task of balancing audience needs and desires, while keeping potential risk as low as possible to prevent having to shut down operations for any amount of time moving forward.

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Industry Trends

Your Current Audience Can't Sustain You

According to the recent numbers from IMPACTS, performance based cultural entities are experiencing a negative trend in audience replacement. For every 1 member of the audience that exits the population, only .9 audience members enter the population that consider themselves active visitors of a cultural institution. This means that engaging the full breadth of the potential audience in your region is more important now than ever. Read more...

Supreme Court Nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson is Former Theater Kid

In the biography of President Biden's historic nominee to the Supreme Court, Ketanji Brown Jackson, is her history with theater. For much of her young life she performed, and that continued through her time at Harvard where she was on their improv troupe. Read more...

Study of the New Victory SPARK Program Reveals Benefits of Arts Education Investment

The study, conducted by WolfBrown in coordination with New Victory's SPARK program shows the demonstrable benefits of investing in arts education for youth. Read more...

KeyboardTEK Licenses Now Available through Broadway Licensing

It is now possible to license the keyboard patches and drum tracks for select titles in the Broadway Licensing catalog. The licenses are available to all potential licensees, and include many of the most popular titles in the Broadway Licensing catalog. Read more...

Changes to Digital Marketing Rules Make First Party Data Options More Important

With the phase out of third-party cookies in Google Chrome, Apple's New Privacy Rules, and new rules preventing retargeting on the horizon, working with marketing partners (like BroadwayWorld) with comprehensive first-party data, and an audience with a deeply expressed interest in the performing arts is even more important to getting the most value out of your marketing investment. Read more...

Broadway/New York

Cort Theatre to be Renamed for James Earl Jones

The Shubert Organization announced last week that they would rename the theatre in honor James Earl Jones' tremendous contributions to Broadway throughout his life. Read more...

Broadway Cares Distributes Emergency Grants to Support Ukraine

The organization will give $100,000 grants to three organizations currently working on the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine on behalf of the New York Theatre and Broadway communities. Read more...

Ellenore Scott Discusses Broadway and Choreographing Two Shows at Once

Currently choreographing Funny Girl and Mr. Saturday Night (in rehearsals at the same time due to COVID related rescheduling), Ellenore Scott sat down with the Observer to discuss her work, and the future of Broadway. Read more...

New York Public Library Announces New Fellowship in Theatre and Technology

The program offers research support for a scholar working on a project that studies the technology documented in the libraries collection. Read more...

Betty Boop to Continue Development, New Creative Team Members Added

The musical based on the cartoon will continue development in 2022 according to recent casting notices. Bob Martin and Susan Birkenhead have also joined the creative team. Read more...

Broadway's COVID Safety Team Will Celebrate 2,000th Performance March 8

The team has been integral in getting Broadway back on its feet in the midst of the pandemic, and on Tuesday night, they will have helped 2,000 performances happen since Broadway reopened. Read more...

Regional

Kelvin Dinkins Jr. to be Executive Director at ART

American Repertory Theatre has announced that Kelvin Dinkins Jr. will be the institutions next Executive Director. Currently the Associate Dean of the Yale School of Drama and General Manager at Yale Rep, he will be the first Black Executive Director of ART. Read more...

After 36 Years, Barbara Gains to Step Down from Chicago Shakespeare

The founder will step down in 2023 - during her time leading the institution, she has directed 60 productions, including 33 of Shakespeare's titles. Read more...

Westchester Broadway Theatre Reaches Settlement to Refund Customers

Forced to cancel shows, and ultimately close, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Westchester Broadway Theatre had initially refused to offer refunds for ticketholders. After reaching a settlement with the New York State Attorney General's office, they will now refund more than $1 million to ticketholders who saw their scheduled performances canceled. Read more...

International

In Sydney, a New Arts Center Ready to Open Doors

After three years of construction, the new arts precinct is ready to open their doors in the latest iteration of the transformation of the Sydney waterfront. Read more...

An Eco-Friendly Solution to Touring?

In an experiment in sustainable theatre, Vidy-Lausanne Theater in conjunction with director Katie Mitchell have created a touring score that will play 10 countries between now and 2024, without any member of the creative team traveling to work on the show. Read more...

The Scottish Ballet Announces Use of Intimacy Choreographers

Believed to be the first ballet company to make use of intimacy choreographers (the company is referring to them as intimacy coaches), the Scottish Ballet has brought them in to work on their latest production which explores issues of sexual obsession, drug addiction, and mental illness. Read more...

Missed our last few newsletters?

February 28 - NLRB examines the Independent Contractor Question

The geopolitical landscape shifted in a major way over the weekend, with Russia invading Ukraine in an unprovoked attack on their sovereignty. The resulting conflict has caused many arts organizations, including New York's Metropolitan Opera, to cut ties with artists and organizations that are connected to Russian President Vladimir Putin, while also expressing unwavering support for the people of Ukraine. Moments like these not only put the work we are doing in the Cultural Industry in perspective, but shine a light on how important it is to speak truth to power in our art, as well as to bring beauty into a world that far too often has a lot of ugliness in it. Beyond the conflict in Eastern Europe, in the last few days, a lot of municipalities have announced major changes to their COVID policies, and we are also covering how the arts organizations in those areas are, or aren't, adjusting their own policies. Read more...

February 21 - Associates Get a Union, Gulfshore Playhouse Joins LORT

Congratulations to Gulfshore Playhouse on becoming the 77th member of the League of Resident Theatre's - a story we have under the regional section of this week's newsletter. We also have the story of Hollywood retaining their return to work protocols to keep their sets as safe as possible, even as several states and municipalities roll back their own mandates. And, with the SDC being recognized as the Union representing Associate Directors and Choreographers on Broadway, this all adds up to having been a great week for workers across the theatre industry. While we start to see operations returning to a broader sense of "normal" it is good to see that some of the work that was spoken about during the pandemic is coming true as that normalcy returns. Read more...

February 14 - Dramatic Publishing Wins Arbitration, Regional Jimmy Awards Competitions Announced

It's Valentine's Day - and to celebrate, check out our list of the most romantic Broadway love songs of all time according to Broadway stars, along with some other fun and games on our social channels. Across the industry last week, two trends have begun to emerge more fully: the first being we continue to have more data on just how bleak things were for the industry over the past two years. The second is that more companies are ready to emerge from that darkness stronger than ever - with new spaces ready to open and new seasons being announced. While much of the last two years have been filled with programs designed to bridge the gap between pre and post pandemic, it feels more like the current bridges are now landing on the mainland, and not another island in the midst of an uncertain landscape. Read more...

BroadwayWorld Resources

BroadwayWorld Stage Mag - A Fully Interactive Show Program

The digital solution to your show program needs - want to see what's possible? Check out the Stage Mag's for off-Broadway's Blindness and for Next on Stage Season 3! Then start building your own at stagemag.broadwayworld.com.

Add Your Show to our Regional Events Calendar

As audiences get set to return to in-person performances, and as your company works to market your own return to the stage, make sure you've got your upcoming shows in our regional events calendars. Listings are free of charge, with boosting options available. Get your show listed now!

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