Theatre Arts Marketing Alliance Launches Audience Survey

Theatre Arts Marketing Alliance Launches Audience Survey at 21 Theatres throughout Greater Boston

The Theatre Arts Marketing Alliance (TAMA), formed in 2002 by StageSource, is a group of marketing personnel representing over 20 of Greater Boston's mid-sized, small and fringe professional theatre companies. TAMA's mission is to increase ticket sales and audiences through cooperative and collaborative marketing efforts, as well as through the sharing of ideas and resources. To this end, this fall an unprecedented collaboration of 21 midsized, small, and fringe theatre companies in the Boston area will administer audience surveys to conduct a strategic assessment of their audiences through an audience development survey. The survey is designed to elicit information about the people who are currently attending theatre performances — their buying patterns, preferences, and demographic characteristics.

Twenty-one companies are currently scheduled to participate in the survey. The participating theatres are: Actors Shakespeare Project, Boston Playwrights' Theatre, Boston Theatre Works, Company One, Devanaughn Theatre, Gloucester Stage, Jewish Theatre of New England, Lyric Stage Company, Mill 6 Theatre Collaborative, New Repertory Theatre, Nora Theatre Company,

Publick Theatre, Puppet Showplace Theatre, SpeakEasy Stage Company, Stoneham Theatre, Súgán Theatre Company, Theater Offensive, Theatre Cooperative, TheatreZone, Wheelock Family Theatre, and Zeitgeist Stage.

The questionnaire was developed during the spring of 2004 by TAMA members working with a consultant. The survey will be administered via questionnaires inserted in program books at theater performances that take place between August and November of 2004. Audience members will also be invited to enter their names into a drawing for theater tickets.

The survey project is being directed by a task force of TAMA members that includes Charles Baldwin of Wheelock Family Theatre; Jeff Poulos of StageSource; Jeremy Thompson of Stoneham Theatre; Jim Torres of SpeakEasy Stage; and staff of ArtsBoston. TAMA has engaged Janet Bailey, a professional marketing consultant, to design the survey, oversee administration, and assist TAMA in analyzing the results. This survey project is being funded by The Boston Foundation, FleetBoston, StageSource, ArtsBoston and the 21 participating theatres.