Meet the Flat Indies

We wanted to promote Indie Theatre with a social media campaign that would encourage participation by companies, productions, and audiences, while simultaneously educating the participants about Off-Off-Broadway history.  What we’ve come up with is (drumroll, please)… the “Flat Indies”.

We used the children’s book Flat Stanley as our inspiration. Flat Stanley is a child as thin as a piece of paper, which allowed him to be mailed to friends and family at various locations and have all kinds of wondrous adventures.

In 1994, a teacher in Ontario, Canada started the Flat Stanley Project. Students created their own Flat Stanleys and mailed them to relatives near and far. These relatives took photos with the Flat Stanley and returned them to the students who then tracked Stanley’s travels.

Our ‘Flat Indies’ are based on some of the most iconic artists of Off-Off-Broadway. You can download your favorite Flat Indie character, take it to the theatre, snap a photo and share it on social media. Or take a photo of a Flat Indie with your cast and crew.

These fun photos of people enjoying themselves at the theatre are shared, reposted, and tagged; and each time a photo is shared, information about your theatre and production is shared, too. Additionally audience members and artists learn about the Flat Indie characters they take with them to the theatre.  Don’t know who Judith Malina is? Or Ping Chong, or Richard Foreman? This is an easy and fun way to learn about these important artists.

We are hoping to make this a meme that can be passed on to artists and audiences throughout the city.


Want to participate?  Here’s how:

FLAT INDIE IN THE AUDIENCE

• Download a Flat Indie character
• Take it to the theatre and take a photo with you, your friends and the Flat Indie character
• Share it on social media 
• On Twitter and Instagram include #FlatIndie 
• Post it to our Facebook Group
• We will repost and share your photos
• Check out the Flat Indie map
• Do it all over again

FLAT INDIE IN A PRODUCTION

• Download a Flat Indie character
• Take it to the theatre and take a photo with you, the cast and crew and the Flat Indie character
• Keep it at the box office and encourage your audience member to snap photos while they wait for the house to open
• Share the photos on social media   
• On Twitter and Instagram include #FlatIndie   
• Post it to our Facebook Group
• We will repost and share your photos
• Check out the Flat Indie map
• Do it all over again

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @FlatIndie & Learn more about the Flat Indies!