Blogroll & a survey!

Hello lovely IT readers!

I researched this week's blog by dipping into my Google reader to catch up on the Arts blogoshere, and was smacked into realization that I was WAY out of it. Job submissions and auditions don't necessarily allow you to catch up on your arts blogs…

I remembered an event I had intended to go to, and was sorry to have missed:
Saving our Cultural Capital: the challenges facing Independent venues and artists in Manhattan. It featured some amazing organizations (The Tank, Chashama, Fractured Atlas, New School for Management and Public Policy, to name a few), and speakers (Manhattan Borough Pres. Scott Stringer and The Flea's Jim Simpson), and I am kicking myself for not going, but thankfully createquity did a wonderful job of wrapping it up.

One of my favorites is Technology in the Arts, which always gets my creative juices flowing in a really interesting way. Check out this post for ArtistData – a site for musicians (beta) in which you can enter performance info ONCE then sync it to all of your social networking sites (facebook, myspace, etc.) could you imagine what that could do for independent theatre?

I found an informative article on Beth's Blog: How non-profits can use social media about WikiSpaces, which my friend over at Resources for emerging arts leaders is an advocate for, as well.

Things should get interesting (we hope) this week with the National Performing Arts Convention happening in Denver: check with the Artful Manager and Technology in the Arts this week to see what they're up to.

And it IS festival season! To read everything you could possibly could about EVERY SHOW in a festival this summer, check out nytheatre.com, and Martin's blog nytheatre i.

DON'T FORGET to take the New York IT Awards' newest Demographic Survey

The first completed groundbreaking study was on OOB production budgets and how productions spend their money, published here: STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF OFF-OFF BROADWAY BUDGETS.

The published analysis opened the New York theatre community's eyes to the economic potential of Off-Off Broadway. You can read the NYTimes article here: 'Examining the economics of Off-Off Broadway' The New York Times, 4/12/08

We are inviting the entire Off-Off Broadway community to help us reach our goal of 6,000 participants by October. In order to get involved in our groundbreaking research, you can take the survey here. When you have taken the survey, take a moment to tell your friends.

All of our surveys are anonymous and take about 5 minutes to complete. We will use the information provided for statistical purposes only. Plans for broader and more in-depth surveys such as an audience demographic survey and an economic impact survey are currently in development. These future studies may be conducted in partnership with other respected New York theatre community organizations.

xoxo,
Morgan Lindsey Tachco
Community Relations Manager

Advice for working with an OOB publicist

Go OBAMA! (That's my News and Politics...)

Here is some insight on working with a Publicist/Press Agent.

* Once you decide to work with a press agent the most important thing you can do is have coordinated communication with them and make it a collaborative process. Make sure that you provide them in a timely manner with the following:


Name of Show
Playwright
Director
Cast List and contact info plus bios
Company Name and bio/mission
Dates
Schedule
Theater (and address)
Ticket Vendor
Available Discounts/codes
Website Address
Running time of show
Synopsis
Photos, from previous productions, from rehearsals, headshots and high-quality production photos
Video, from previous productions
Past Press
Script

* Working with a publicist should require more interaction from the company, not less. Constantly present your publicist with story ideas, contacts to press, and follow-up with them to make sure that you feel that they are working in your favor. However, do not contact the press on your own, once you hire a press agent, it is their job to be the sole contact on behalf of the production with the media.


* If you don't know how to write your bio, contact the press agent for support. S/he should be able to walk you through the process so that you will have a bio to build upon.


* Make sure you have a great headshot (if you are an actor). That is your tool to promoting yourself. Before picking your final photo, have at least 3 people look at the options, including a publicist.
Please contact me if you have any questions.
Katie Rosin
Publicist IT AwardsKampfire PR
917-438-9223
katie@kampfirefilmspr.com