Confessions from the Queen of Paper Cuts

Posted by Annie Hulcher
What can you learn from stuffing envelopes?

I suspect anyone who has ever interned has asked himself or herself this very question. I was asking myself this question a few weeks ago, wondering what I could possibly gain from this besides multiple paper cuts.

I'll admit that after sitting in a classroom all day learning about calculus and reading Beowulf, it's nice to come to the welcoming environment of the Theatre IV offices and do something that is relatively mindless. I get to talk to the other volunteers I'm working with, or staff members who come and take a break from their own work and chat with me for a bit. Ultimately, doing this mindless work gives a girl time to think.

A major component of my mentorship course is writing a college style research paper on a topic related to what I'm doing “in the field." I've been thinking a lot about this recently, and the topic I keep coming back to is how technology is being utilized in the theatre community, specifically marketing and development.

The letters I was stuffing contained a plea to patrons to donate money so that Barksdale and Theatre IV can keep producing Broadway caliber shows, such as this past summer’s hit Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. As Bruce has stated in previous blog posts, Barksdale is taking steps to become a nationally recognized regional theatre, and they are well on their way. Obviously, without donations from patrons this wouldn’t be possible.

Any-who, while I was stuffing, I couldn’t believe so many trees were being killed when this could all be done via e-mail, facebook, or twitter. After discussing this with Barksdale's staff, I learned that right now, research indicates that approximately 44% of Barksdale's subscribers--the people most likely to contribute--don't actively communicate via email, much less twitter. I also learned that national research indicates that funding requests sent through the U. S. Postal Service initiate 72% of all contributions made in response to a written request. Only 28% of these contributions are made in response to email requests.

As each year goes by, more people respond to email, or give Barksdale their email addresses in the first place. Still, I am slowly becoming fascinated by how theatres around the world are reaching their widest base of patrons by using both snail mail and email. Barksdale in particular has patrons who have been committed to the theatre since the 50’s. Barksdale's job is to appeal not only to them, but also to budding theatre enthusiasts such as myself, and everyone in between.

Theatres today have to consider the demographics of their audience from all angles, including:

* what shows are selected each season,

* what language, images and media are used to market those shows,

* what creature comforts add most to the theatregoing experience, and

* what technologies and/or traditional dissemination methods can be used to reach all patrons.

What a perfect concept for my paper! Not only that, but how have theatres been making the transition from doing all of their marketing via mail, to incorporating e-mail, and now facebook, twitter, four square, and a variety of other social networks. Even this blog!

I will be doing extensive research over the next few months. Right now, it seems like a mix between the old and the new is the approach Barksdale/TIV is taking. I look forward to learning much, much more about this through observation and research.

And I thought I couldn’t learn anything from stuffing envelopes.

--Annie Hulcher

Virginia This (Tuesday) Morning

Audra Honaker and Jan Guarino. Photos by Jay Paul

This Tuesday, March 17, Jan Guarino and Audra Honaker, from the musical comedy Mona's Arrangements, will be chatting it up on WTVR Channel 6 – the only live morning program in Central Virginia, Virginia This Morning, which airs from 8:55 - 10 AM.

Interviewing them will be co-anchors Greg McQuade and Julie Bragg. Barksdale Theatre and Theatre IV actors have become favorite guests for Greg and Julie, because they always seem to have a lot of witty things to say!! Jan and Audra won’t be in costume, but they will project the lively, spunky spirit of Mona’s Arrangements.

Mona's Arrangements Online Tickets
Or CALL (804) 282-2620

Many thanks to Vogue Flowers for the beautiful flowers used throughout the show.
Thanks also to our season and show sponsors - The Supply Room Companies, JetBlue, Weinstein Properties, Union Bank & Trust and our media sponsor, the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

My Summer Internship

Each summer, Barksdale offers a limited number of administrative internships to university students. These positions allow theatre majors to get hands-on experience in the day to day operation of a professional theatre. They also provide Barksdale with enthusiastic helping hands and some fresh ideas. (More information about interning with Barksdale is available on our website.) Tamika Sayles from Longwood University has been an intern in our Marketing Department this summer, and this is her account of the experience...


By Tamika Sayles

Whenever I walk through Barksdale Theatre I see family, friends and people with whom I feel like I’ve spent my entire life instead of only eight short weeks. Interning at Barksdale has been the greatest experience in my life. Little did I know I would actually be good at marketing or better yet box office sales. I’ve always been an actor at heart - still am - but it was interesting to finally see the fundamentals of what goes on behind the stage and to find that I now consider it my career goal for the future.

When my professor at Longwood University first told me about the Arts Administration program I didn’t quite know what to think. I was the only theatre student majoring in both business and theatre, an oddity in nature, but none the less driven. I took Dr. Gene Muto’s advice and gave it a shot. A year or so later I decided that maybe this was the time to test this new major; when the interning position became available I jumped on the opportunity, not fully comprehending the true expectations, but thinking maybe it was a start in one direction or other. Couldn’t hurt to try, could it?

When I heard I had gotten the internship at Barksdale I remember feeling excited yet worried about being in corporate America. Heaven only knows why I thought it would be like corporate America. My mind got the best of me, but as the days went on I began to develop a new interest in marketing and design, and I asked Sara Marsden, Barksdale’s Marketing Director, to teach me everything she knew about designing posters. This led into an entirely new direction to my studies, and soon I began to decipher the variations of marketing designs, deciding what worked and what didn’t.

I started experimenting with a design program called Abode InDesign, which wasn’t easy. I’ve been working with computers since I was in the sixth grade, and there were moments where even I was stumped. Day after day, I practiced and came up with new ways of creating different designs to everyone’s liking. Then one day Sara told me about a website needing a logo. The site was RichmondVATheater.com, and I was more than eager to create one for them. I remember barely sleeping that night contemplating new ideas and colors, and I was even more excited to finally see it posted on their website with a shout out to me and my college.

I am more than thankful for the opportunity both Sara Marsden and RichmondVATheater.com gave me, but most of all I’m ecstatic, because I finally found my place in the world - that place is with the theatre. I plan to continue to act, design posters and advertisements and to work in the Arts Administration field. The ultimate goal is to someday run my own theatre company.

This is my last week at Barksdale, and who knows what direction life will really take me. One thing is certain though; I will never forget the friends I’ve made at Barksdale Theatre, and I want to say thank you to the Marketing Department, Box Office and all the great staff I’ve worked with for the past eight weeks for making this an extra special opportunity for me.

Tamika

Regional Emmy Nomination for Barksdale Ad

2007 Regional Emmy Award Nomination for
the Barksdale Theatre Commercial
Produced and Directed by Joel Traylor at NBC12!

Barksdale Theatre's television ad, produced and directed by Joel Traylor at NBC12, was nominated for a regional Emmy award. The awards show will take place Sat., June 14 at the Ritz Carlton in Washington, D.C. If you don't see the ad above, click here to go to youtube.

Where Are They Now - Steve Richardson

Posted by Bruce Miller

Steve Richardson is perhaps the only Barksdale/Theatre IV alum to step on stage to collect a Tony Award. I can think of at least three other Tony nominees (Pat Carroll, Emily Skinner and Elisabeth Welsh), but at 6:30 a.m. on a Saturday morning, he's the only one I can recall actually joining the "winners" circle. Please help me remember if I'm forgetting someone.

Steve's Tony encounter occurred when Theatre de la Jeune Lune of Minneapolis won the coveted 2005 Outstanding Regional Theatre Tony. Steve was Producing Director of Jeune Lune at the time, and a lot of his friends in Richmond watched the Tony broadcast closely that year to see Steve standing on the stage of Radio City Music Hall with his artistic coworkers to accept the award. The Regional Theatre Tony, regrettably, is one of the ones awarded before the TV broadcast begins, and so you see it only in those recaps that they flash across the screen.

But, if you didn't blink, there Steve was standing alongside Jeune Lune's designated speaker, winning a Tony for the theatre he had managed for the previous ten years. All of us in Richmond couldn't have been more proud. Jeune Lune is an artistically innovative, highly respected theatre that has earned international acclaim. Their current production of The Deception is pictured to the left.

Steve graduated with a BA in Philosophy from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota in 1986, and came to Richmond after graduation to intern for a year at TheatreVirginia. For three years beginning in '87, Steve worked as Marketing Associate and then Marketing Director at Theatre IV. In 1990, he won his dream job when he was hired as Marketing Director of Theatre de la Jeune Lune, taking him back home to the frozen north. In 1995, he was promoted to the top management position of Producing Director.

This week, Steve left Jeune Lune after 17 years to accept his new position as Director of the Arts at his alma mater. He is charged with developing the arts at Carleton, promoting arts outreach to local schools, the Northfield arts community, and the Twin Cities area arts community and beyond. He is responsible for management of the new interdisciplinary arts center, coordinating major art events, and performance and exhibition series, along with managing curricular and co-curricular arts activities. He’s also in charge of arts publicity and work with Carleton’s career center to connect students with internship opportunities.

As if that weren't enough, Steve will serve as the liaison between the College’s faculty and building design team for the new arts center that will be located in the former Northfield Middle School. He will work with faculty and students to develop innovative collaborations in the arts, seeking ways to integrate the arts across the College’s curriculum.

Throughout his distinguished career, Steve has always included his Theatre IV affiliation in his resume--something we've greatly appreciated. The one aspect of his work here that he never claims is his brief foray into acting. During our Summer Lights Festival in the late 80s, Steve played the dashing young man opposite Jan Guarino and Tye Heckman in George Bernard Shaw's How He Lied to Her Husband.

We wish Steve the greatest success in his new position, and continue to be proud of his outstanding accomplishments.

--Bruce Miller

Barksdale on Air

Posted by Jessica Daugherty
The video currently gracing the top of our homepage is a new Barksdale television commercial produced by NBC 12's Joel Traylor, who worked with our Marketing Director, Sara Marsden and Marketing Assistant, Catherine Dudley. Look for it to air on Channel 12 beginning on Friday, September 28.

Barksdale theatre-goers will recognize several familiar faces from past productions, and the clip ends with the incomparable Ford Flannagan - an accomplished actor, and Theatre IV's Company Manager for many years. He casts all those touring actors that Bruce has been introducing in the blog posts below. Small world... Speaking of which, it turns out I went to high school with our new ad's producer back in the day. Go Lancers!

Visit our homepage to see the commercial.

--Jessica Daugherty, Internet Services

3's a Charm

Posted by Jessica Daugherty

In the Marketing Dept. we are always looking for ways to show you something new and exciting while at the same time crafting a certain look, something that when you see it immediately says Barksdale. It's a trick to do both at once, but we have been spoiled rotten by the terrific artwork of freelance illustrator Robert Meganck for the past two seasons. He gets to know our season, talks with us, reads scripts, and then manages to distill it all down to one evocative image per show that gives you a real sense of what you'll see at the theatre.

Our newly announced 2007 - 2008 Signature Season is no exception. He's brought our titles to life for a third time, and in the capable hands of our excellent graphic designer, Kate Carpenter, our new brochure has become a thing of beauty. But don't take my word for it; see for yourself - Download the full brochure in pdf format. (It'll open in a new window). Or if you'd rather, you can have us mail it out to you the old fashioned way.

More about the illustrator:

Robert Meganck is a freelance illustrator, president of Communication Design, Inc., and a professor of illustration, graphic design and digital imaging at Virginia Commonwealth University. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Center for Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan, and a Master of Fine Arts degree from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

Robert has received numerous professional awards and been recognized for excellence by such organizations as The Society of Illustrators (N.Y.), The Society of Illustrators Los Angeles, The Art Directors Club of New York, The Art Directors Club of Metropolitan Washington, The American Institute of Graphic Artist, and The Illustrators Club of Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia. His work has been included in a variety of national reviews including Communication Arts Magazine’s Illustration Annuals, American Illustration Annuals, Print Magazine’s Region Design Annuals, and The Society of Illustrators Annuals.

In the past 10 years, Robert’s work has been in a state of transition, moving from graphic design to illustration, from traditional media to digital media. His illustrations appear regularly in the Washington Post, The Washington City Paper, and a variety of magazines.

Born and educated in Detroit, Michigan, he has taught at California State University in Fullerton, at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and now resides with his family in Richmond, Virginia.

• Illustrator: Robert Meganck's website.
• Graphic Designer: Kate Carpenter's website.
• Us: More about our new Signature Season
• Ready to jump in? Get a Passport Subscription! You can also call 804.282.2620 to subscribe.

Jessica Daugherty
Internet Services Mgr.
Marketing Department

Barksdale and Friends

Barksdale recently joined Facebook to promote free programs on offer for students and to get their feedback. Maintaining the page is giving me an education in the ease of the latest social networking applications.

I’m a Generation Xer, born in 1970. I remember downloading short movie clips at 24kb and getting excited the next morning when one was finally on my Apple2e, and I could watch a minute of grainy mush. But these days, if there’s something the younger Gen Y can’t Google in a sec, Wikipedia will at least tell them what it is. Social networking sites like Facebook allow them (and anyone else who’s game) to create a page where friends can write and add photos, video, music and more, and where their content updates so fast that a blog with one post a day looks achingly slow by comparison.

150,000 members a day are joining Facebook, and hours after Barksdale joined, we were loaded with friends who've been associated with us through the Greater Richmond High School All-Star Musicals. I added a large album of Disney’s High School Musical photos for the cast, crew, parents and fans. I started to add an event listing for HSM at The Steward School, but the cast had already done it, and they had hundreds of confirmed RSVPs responding to an exponentially increasing number of invites; word of mouth spreads quickly.

But it’s not just High School Musical information on offer at our new Facebook home. Our blog posts are imported automatically, and more importantly I get a chance to promote Barksdale Theatre Workshop events. BTW is a community-wide initiative designed to establish new connections between Barksdale and high school theatre lovers. It began in 2005 when Bruce Miller and Chase Kniffen met with a group of area high school drama teachers to find out what they thought would be of use to them and to their students.

Current high school students can join BTW for free (by emailing Chase at c.kniffen@barksdalerichmond.org) and as members, they can purchase $10 tickets to special Saturday matinee performances. Members are also invited to attend Play On!, a discussion series featuring our leading professional theatre artists - and pizza - free of charge. Both the discounted matinees and Play On! Discussions were recommendations from area educators.

Facebook gives us an extra chance to introduce this program to students, and it’s also a great place to promote local high school productions (another teacher suggestion) like Chicago, opening at Godwin tonight! The students already created the event; all I had to do was click, and it posted itself on the Barksdale Facebook page… Things are so easy these days.

Barksdale’s Facebook page (a shortened page will be visible to those who are not yet friends)

Jessica Daugherty
Internet Services

Three Days at the Kennedy Center

Anne Murphy Douglas, President of the Board of Theatre IV, and Bennett Fidlow, new Board member at Barksdale Theatre, joined Phil and me for a three-day seminar with Michael Kaiser and others at the Kennedy Center. We returned yesterday afternoon after a highly informative, intensive and fun learning experience. We’re eager to put our newfound insights to good use here in Richmond.

For those who don’t know, Michael Kaiser (who also recently spoke at the University of Richmond’s Modlin Center) is a world-renowned arts leader. Prior to becoming President of the Kennedy Center in 2001, Michael served as Executive Director of the Royal Opera House (the largest performing arts organization in the UK), Executive Director of American Ballet Theatre, Executive Director of the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater (the world’s largest modern dance organization), and General Manager of the Kansas City Ballet.

Spending two and a half days with Michael feels a little like cramming a year of arts administration training into 20 hours. Part of his brilliance is that he is able to speak clearly and simply, boiling down his extensive experience and research into comprehensible two-hour sessions. His focus areas at seminars such as this include Building an Effective and Energized Board, Strategic Planning, and Institutional Marketing. Other senior executives from the Kennedy Center staff spoke from their areas of expertise: Business Management, Development, Technology and Program Marketing.

Phil and I have been in our positions for 32 years, and never have I felt more in sync with a speaker. In point after point, it was clear that Michael knew exactly what he was talking about. And the points he made applied not only to mammoth international organizations (the Kennedy Center has an annual budget of approximately $160 million) but also to large regional organizations like Barksdale Theatre and Theatre IV (combined annual budgets of approximately $5 million).

If you’ve been to many seminars like this, you know that experts can sometimes speak for hours in a theoretical realm, offering little practical advice. Michael knows how to cut to the chase—how to identify the challenges we face and then offer specific suggestions on how to address these challenges. It really was a terrific learning experience, very validating, mind-stretching and informative.

Special thanks to the Virginia Commission for the Arts for funding our participation through their Technical Assistance grant program, and to Anne and Bennett for giving up their time to join us. This is one seminar that I think will pay off handsomely in the futures of Barksdale Theatre, Theatre IV and the Metro Richmond arts scene in general.