A medical receptionist in Seattle became an theatre fanatic overnight when she and 200 others were offered free tickets, Brendan Kiley writes. Now other companies are trying to replicate that success - but at what cost?
'Intiman Theatre is embarking on a radical experiment — so radical, it’s got “radical” in the name.
The phrase “radical hospitality” has been pinging around the theater world since 2011, when Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis started giving away all its tickets, to every show, for free. Now Intiman, the 47-year-old Seattle theater that has gone through dramatic changes over the decades (Tony Award in 2006, very near-death experience in 2011, reinvention in 2012, retiring all its debt in January), is giving radical hospitality a try.
The initiative, artistic director Jen Zeyl explained, is about more than the standard theater problem of getting “butts in seats.” (Though, of course, there’s that.) It’s about getting the butts one wants in seats — not just the people who can afford to take the $25+ crap shoot known as a theater ticket, but the people who can’t: the woman at the corner store, high-school sophomore, the guy asking for spare change on the sidewalk.' ...Keep reading on The Seattle Times
'Intiman Theatre is embarking on a radical experiment — so radical, it’s got “radical” in the name.
The phrase “radical hospitality” has been pinging around the theater world since 2011, when Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis started giving away all its tickets, to every show, for free. Now Intiman, the 47-year-old Seattle theater that has gone through dramatic changes over the decades (Tony Award in 2006, very near-death experience in 2011, reinvention in 2012, retiring all its debt in January), is giving radical hospitality a try.
The initiative, artistic director Jen Zeyl explained, is about more than the standard theater problem of getting “butts in seats.” (Though, of course, there’s that.) It’s about getting the butts one wants in seats — not just the people who can afford to take the $25+ crap shoot known as a theater ticket, but the people who can’t: the woman at the corner store, high-school sophomore, the guy asking for spare change on the sidewalk.' ...Keep reading on The Seattle Times