Latecomers

Here at Lyric Opera of Kansas City, we try to hold the very last row of seats in our Balcony for late seating. But thankfully, our audience is, for whatever reason, very good about being on time. We also allow seating during our curtain speech and sometimes during our prelude. If we have sold the last row of the Balcony, then we seat at a suitable break in the opera.

Best,

Christopher Cuhel

Senior Manager of Ticketing and Patron Services | Lyric Opera of Kansas City

From: Tessitura Ticketing Forum [mailto:forums-ticketing@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Dave Fleming
Sent: Thursday, April 16, 2015 9:40 AM
To: Chris Cuhel
Subject: [Tessitura Ticketing Forum] Latecomers

Hi all,

I'm looking at updating our latecomers policy and wondering what best practice is out there. Currently, we have 'Latecomers may not be admitted' on our tickets, our box office staff remind patrons numerous times during calls of the show start time and that latecomers may not get in, and it is advertised on our website. We still get latecomers though, which can't be helped.

When they do get here, we have a relay screen in the foyer showing the performance, then, if there is a scene change long enough, we get all latecomers to their seats then, otherwise, we wait until the interval. If it's a one act show with no interval, we can't get them in.

Does anyone do things differently, or how do you handle the negative feedback from patrons who do arrive late?

Thanks! 

Dave Fleming

Visitor Services Co-ordinator

The Abbey Theatre

dave.fleming@abbeytheatre.ie

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Hi! We print this on our tickets, online and lobby signage:   Yale Rep and Yale School of Drama make every effort to begin performances on time. For the safety of our patrons and performers, latecomers will be seated at the discretion of the theatre.

We do try to save some seats in the back of the house or balcony for late seating. We also have a monitor that plays the performance in our lobby for patrons to watch until seated. It’s rare that we don’t have late seating options during a performance, but if we don’t we alert patrons to that in advance via website messaging and an e-blast. We have very few complaints. The video monitor helps a great deal as at least they don’t feel like they’re missing something they paid for.

Best,

Laura

__________________________________________________

Laura Kirk | Associate Director of Audience Services

Yale School of Drama | Yale Repertory Theatre | www.yalerep.org

203.432.1522 office  |  203.577.7692 cell

From: Tessitura Ticketing Forum [mailto:forums-ticketing@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Dave Fleming
Sent: Thursday, April 16, 2015 10:44 AM
To: Kirk, Laura
Subject: [Tessitura Ticketing Forum] Latecomers

Hi all,

I'm looking at updating our latecomers policy and wondering what best practice is out there. Currently, we have 'Latecomers may not be admitted' on our tickets, our box office staff remind patrons numerous times during calls of the show start time and that latecomers may not get in, and it is advertised on our website. We still get latecomers though, which can't be helped.

When they do get here, we have a relay screen in the foyer showing the performance, then, if there is a scene change long enough, we get all latecomers to their seats then, otherwise, we wait until the interval. If it's a one act show with no interval, we can't get them in.

Does anyone do things differently, or how do you handle the negative feedback from patrons who do arrive late?

Thanks! 

Dave Fleming

Visitor Services Co-ordinator

The Abbey Theatre

dave.fleming@abbeytheatre.ie

This message was sent automatically to you by www.tessituranetwork.com because you subscribed to the Tessitura Ticketing Forum. You may reply to this message to post to the Ticketing forum or visit the site to search, read and post to the forums. In the interest of keeping the forum posts from becoming cluttered, we encourage you to delete previous message text from your reply before sending. Thank you!