A Local Theatre Embracing “Community”

27Jun10

For those of you who don’t know, I’m a bit of a theatre nerd. I have my B.F.A. in Theatre and I direct locally in Baltimore. A lot of times my worlds collide and this happens to be one of those times, so I thought I’d share:

Single Carrot is a local theatre company in Baltimore. Originally from Colorado, they chose Baltimore as a place to set up shop because they believe in the Baltimore arts community.

Recently they’ve taken a new step – trying to turn audiences in “fans”. (via a recent Baltimore Sun article)

They are opening up their doors to their subscribers (now called “members”), making sure they have tickets to all the season shows and galas, access to rehearsals and allowing the community to hear read-thrus of new plays.I find it interesting that groups other than associations (like Third Tribe or Community Roundtable) are thinking about membership and the type of value and investment of the individual that brings. Yet I hear from association folk that the traditional membership model might be dying.

I feel a little like Cynthia, but it begs the question: how can associations open their doors to help get members engaged in the way they want to participate?