Repertory theater finds a home in many summer stock theaters, but ticketing for repertory theater has particular needs that cannot be met with all ticketing services. With repertory theater's generally short season, cost certainly factors into the equation when weighing a ticketing service. You'll also want to pay close attention to how your repertoire of performances are packaged along with requirements on how to discount package prices. Let's discuss some of those requirements specific to finding the best ticketing service for repertory theater and summer stock theater.
Repertory theater includes multiple performances that span over a few days in a given week or over a period of several weeks. Usually, these performances sell as a package with one ticket generated for entry into each performance. Alternatively, you may want access allowed using a single ticket.
ThunderTix provides multiple alternatives to ticketing these events. One option allows you to define a series of performance dates included in each package. Another allows customers to select the dates they wish to attend but purchase tickets in a single transaction.
Our "one ticket" option can be thought of as a "master ticket". The same ticket can be used to access each night. We even allow barcode scanning, and the same barcode can be reused for each performance in the repertoire.
In addition to grouping performances, these packages usually carry a discount to encourage patrons to commit to the full slate of repertory shows. With ThunderTix, you have a few options for pricing for package discounts. Let's cover two of them.
One option is to set a price for all shows in the repertoire regardless of the dates a patron chooses. This is more common to repertory theaters that have the same pricing for the entire slate of shows.
On the other hand, for theaters that have varying prices -- say, matinees carry a lower price than evening shows -- it might make more sense to assign a discount as either a dollar amount or a percentage off the usual ticket prices. This allows for easy mix-and-match scenarios where the pricing flexes with the chosen performance date.
With an advance commitment, it's important to provide flexibility to patrons when extenuating circumstances prevent them from attending a show. You'll need to have an easy and efficient way of transferring patrons to a different performance. It's also important to have the ability to provide a refund (if desired) when higher-priced tickets are swapped with a lower-priced performance. Likewise, you'll want to be able to easily collect additional revenue on higher-priced dates.
ThunderTix allows for both options easily. Further, vacated seats are immediately available for resale and our reporting clearly shows transferred seats along with patron histories.
Since summer stock and repertory theater usually have short seasons, it's important to have a ticketing service that does not require monthly contracts. There should be no hidden fees, and costs should be easily calculable. ThunderTix provides a platform of services such as built-in email capabilities, surveys, product sales for concessions, gift cards and loyalty programs in an all-in-one base cost and a very small amortized cost per ticket. Cancel any time without penalty.
ThunderTix is a total box office platform specifically built for the needs of theaters, and when it comes to summer stock, repertory theater, we have all the tools you need to ensure your staff, your volunteers and your patrons are happy.
What other needs does your repertory theater have? We'd love to learn more about your organization's requirements, so please contact us about your needs for a great ticketing service for repertory theater!
Refs:
Repertory is the Answer