The Friday Five, November 25, 2011

Top Five Ways To Promote Your Play

Let's face it, theatre can't compete with videos of cats on the Internet. A thirty second clip of a cat falling asleep has ten million views, and the last theatre show I was in struggled to fill a house of one hundred. Perhaps the problem lies in promotion. Most theatre shows with a small to medium sized budget will do little in the way of advertising, since most of their funds will be spent paying the cast and crew, then burning what remains in a holy effigy to the God of theatre, Ed Mirvish. But fear not! I've compiled a list of five ways to advertise your theatre show without breaking the bank. 

by Kyle Gatehouse of Matt and Kyle and Matt

1. Whispers

The next time you're taking public transit, whisper the details of your play into the unsuspecting ears of your fellow travellers, then look around, bewildered. Blame the whispers on the bus ghost. Offer to call the Ghostbussers. Laugh at your sort-of pun. Repeat.

2. The Obituaries

Theatre is all about drama. What's more dramatic than death? How fitting to write an obituary advertising your play! Imagine if your play was a comedy? You could be all, "you'll die laughing".

3. Banknotes

People rarely throw all their money in the garbage. They almost always throw fliers for theatre shows in the garbage. Solution: Write all the information about your upcoming theatre show in permanent marker on every piece of paper money in your possession. Then hand out your money like theatre fliers. 

4. A Seeing Eye Dog

Shave the details of your show into the side of a seeing eye dog. It's a walking billboard, and the owner won't even care because he can't see it! Win-win. 

5. In Your Triweekly Comedy Blog

Where better to promote your hilarious upcoming theatre show, The Whiteman's Whiskey Comedy Revue Presents: One Of Everything For The Boys, than in your very own theatre blog? You could post a link to your show's IndieGoGo campaign: http://bit.ly/sDVNgN. Then you could post a link for buying tickets online: http://bit.ly/roKroW. Then you could ask whoever is reading this to please spread the word about both the show and it's fundraising campaign! Wow!

Thanks for sending all those emails and Facebook messages and twitter tweets to everyone you know, telling them about the upcoming Whiteman's Whiskey show, you did that super quickly! Looks like we might be able to beat the Internet cats after all!