Phoenix Theatre recently finished work on a new 250-seat black box theatre. This allows us more programming opportunities now that we have two venues (our other main stage is a 378-seat proscenium theatre).
Our question for the forum is if there are any other organizations that have added a new venue in recent years?
If so, how have you/how are you building an audience for the new space?
Are you doing more programming of what you had done before the expansion (with a focus on more offerings for your existing audience)?
Did you create a new product for this new venue (with a focus on developing a new audience)?
Did you do something else entirely?
We're currently reviewing how this year has fared for us and trying to plan ahead for the future of the venue and the company and wanted to put the feelers out there to the other organizations on the network. Any thoughts/examples you have would be appreciated.
Hi Trevor,
Florida Studio Theatre has opened 2 new spaces in the p[ast year and a half. and is opening a third one injust over a month. We actually used the new space so far as a way to expand the number of performances by overlapping shows (so our mainstage now bounces back and forth between two theatres and two shows can be playing simultaniously. We have also added some out of season single ticket events to fill in the gaps.
The new space we are about to open is going to be a little more independent. We are expanded our improv offerings giving the program a perminent homw. We are also adding performances completely different from anything we put on our other stages (a slightly edgier lab series) to try and bring in new audiences.