9/6/22

Before I met with my mentor, I read and summarized a section of the

Conte/Langley textbook on professional management roles in theatre. I found that there
were many titles for a variety of specific roles, such as Executive Director and Artistic
Director, and subtleties for each one. I met with Aprille at Starbucks on Tuesday and
discussed what I had read in the textbook. She explained that because of the size of
Clear Creek Community Theatre, every board member and professional has many
roles. As an example, Aprille described how earlier that day she and Demi, one of the
board members, drove around to local businesses to sell ad space in the playbills for an
upcoming show. While this was a responsibility reserved for Director of Advertising
Sales per the textbook, it was just one of the many responsibilities Aprille takes on as
the theatre President.

9/12/22
Before meeting with my mentor, I read and summarized a section of the
Conte/Langley textbook on the process of picking a show. The part that I read which
was most relevant to Clear Creek Community Theatre was the one that described the
rights behind adapting a public domain work for the stage. I learned that whoever
makes the adaptation only has the right to that version, but that it doesn’t bar others
from adapting the same work and securing rights for their adaptations. When I spoke to
Aprille about this topic, she described how community theatres can cut costs in their
play selection process. Choosing to produce a show that is still in the creative process
can be cheaper or offer certain benefits. Being the first theatre to produce a show can
give that theatre a right to advertise themselves in all future iterations of that show. I
also learned that theatres get access to new materials by hosting playwright
conventions for local playwrights to show their work. This encourages local artists and
gives the theatre access to new and cheap to produce shows.

9/20/22
The first thing I this week was writing my summary over the work I completed the
previous week. Next, I read a selection of the Conte/Langley textbook on forming
relationships with other organizations, such as schools and other theatres. I could relate
what I read to the current CCCT operations. CCCT maintains a relationship with the
Bayou Theatre at UHCL by renting and performing in that space. They also have
relationships with local businesses by trading donations for theatre benefits, such as
season passes and advertisements in playbills. Later, I found an article on adapting
books to stage. I picked this article because I’ve been working with Aprille over the past
few weeks to find a Poe story to adapt for a Halloween play. I learned how the tools of
the stage like lighting and sound can translate the tone from the book into a stage
production. One important factor of adaptation is highlighting aspects of the show that
relate to current events to make the show more relevant to the audience. I didn’t get to
see Aprille this week, so I didn’t get to discuss this with her.

9/26
The first thing I did this week was meet with Aprille. We met at Starbucks and caught up
on what we had missed the week before. I told her my opinions on Fall of the House of
Usher and Some Words with a Mummy after rereading them. I noticed a few new things
on the rereading, like how vivid the description of the house is in Usher, the mental
illness that plagues Usher himself, and the puns and social commentary present in
Mummy. We then spoke about how CCCT could connect to local schools. I found out
that each school has its own method for collecting thespian points, so I decided I’d have
to reach out to individual schools to find information on getting student volunteers for
CCCT. Aprille pitched the idea of reaching out to the district arts director for
opportunities to connect with the district. We finally settled on a plan of creating a
survey to send out to theatre directors in the district to gage their personal and
educational investment in community theatre and whether CCCT could offer them
benefits to come see shows. Later in the week, I continued to look at our options for
reaching out to district administrators. I made a survey for the district directors and am
waiting to show it to Aprille before sending it out.

10/3/22
Aprille and I met up in a different place than usual. We got together on Monday and
went to the Bayou Theatre to watch tech rehearsal for 9 to 5. Aprille explained to me
how the show moves into the theatre five days before the show and it has that long to
get used to the space, set up lighting and sound, and practice scene changes. I was
surprised at how late rehearsals typically go. Because most of the cast and crew are
adults with day jobs, rehearsal usually starts at seven and goes to eleven. And Aprille
said this was a reasonable time to release the cast! All of the actual acting has been
perfected by the time the show makes it to the new stage space, so tech rehearsal
really covers the technical aspects of the show. For two hours we watched the cast
practice bringing set pieces on and off and running quick changes. When I saw the
show later that week, it was amazing to see how smooth the transitions were knowing
how much practice went into them. As we watched rehearsals, I had Aprille look over
the survey I created for theatre directors in the districts. She approved of most of it, but
had me add a free response question for the respondent to share their general opinion
on community theatre. For the rest of the week I drafted and sent out an email to the
district directors and went to see 9 to 5. The show was so much fun! The leads were all
very talented, although the ensemble looked bored and the sound had some issues. But
overall it was a nice time. I may suggest starting the show earlier because it started at
eight and went until eleven. It was also strange that the theatre website didn’t mention
when the show started.
10/11/22
I met with Aprille at Starbucks on Monday this week. We talked about 9 to 5, which I
had seen the previous Friday. The size of the audience on both Friday and Saturday
night was about 200, and the cast received a standing ovation on the second night! She
told me about the cost of the show and how when picking 9 to 5 the estimation of
audience size was a significant factor. We talked about upcoming projects, mostly White
Christmas. It will be held in the Jet Pack theatre, so some elements of the show will be
collaborative with the people over at Jet Pack. The White Christmas set will incorporate
pieces of Jet Pack’s set to minimize the time it would take to switch sets around and
make the rehearsal process more efficient for both productions. Then we talked about
my midterm presentation, organizing the time she needed to be there and picking
artifacts. For the rest of the week I worked on my midterm presentation.

10/17/22
This week I started by continuing to work on my midterm presentation. On Monday I
organized my flashcards, added pictures to all slides, and cited my sources. I practiced
my presentation with my little sister to make sure it would be ready for Wednesday. On
Tuesday I met with Aprille as usual at Starbucks and discussed the midterm
presentation. I had her review my powerpoint and look over my flashcards. I also gave
her a quick practice presentation to see what she thought. On the next day I read a
textbook excerpt about publicity from the Conte/Langley textbook. I learned that
publicity is what other sources report about an organization, such as reviewers or
newspapers. Clear Creek Community Theatre has had quite a lot of publicity over the
years, linked on their website. I looked through a couple of the links and found that
many of the recent shows have been covered in thorough news articles by local
newspapers. The Houston Chronicle frequently covers CCCT shows, so I wonder if
Aprille or someone else in the theatre has connections there. It’s likely that Aprille’s
experience with news throughout her career has given her access to other news
sources that can support the theatre.

10/24/22
Before meeting with my mentor, I read a chapter from the Conte/Langley textbook on
marketing. By the textbook definition, the difference between publicity and marketing is
that publicity is what other sources report on an organization and marketing is what an
organization does to promote itself. Before marketing can even happen, there are many
kinds of data that need to be analyzed. Past ticket sales, audience turnout, audience
demographic, and information on what kind of shows certain audience members come
to are all kinds of information that must be looked at before creating or distributing
marketing materials. Individual ticket sales can be compared to subscription data and
the purchase of group tickets by independent or business-related groups. According to
my research from the NYT article, subscriptions to season tickets have been decreasing
rapidly in recent years due both to changing social trends and Covid-19. This kind of
change will affect how marketing for the season looks, maybe with a decreased focus
on gaining subscribers. I wrote my Research Summaries on marketing and publicity
based on my recent readings. I met with Aprille on Thursday over the phone and she
described how my readings apply to CCCT. For CCCT, publicity grows the brand as a
whole and marketing is for individual shows. Both can be done by the organization itself.
She said that much of the coverage CCCT gets from local news sources comes from
connections, like at the Houston Chronicle. She says she submits an outline of the
information she wants to be covered in the article and allows the writer to fill in the
blanks.

10/31/22
I met with Aprille on Tuesday at Starbucks. We discussed what I had read about in the
Conte/Langley textbook regarding marketing and publicity. We talked about what I will
be doing for my marketing mini project, and she gave me the choice between
advertising a show or advertising the season. I chose to advertise the upcoming
Christmas show, White Christmas. She showed me how CCCT usually does their
marketing on Facebook, and we clicked around for a while. Facebook advertisement
allows the advertiser to see the feedback on their posts. They can collect data on how
much engagement each post is getting, what age and interests the typical clicker has,
and how many sales result from each post. When Aprille makes posts, she uses the
same image with different slogans to target a variety of ages and interests. Facebook
can post pictures and videos as advertisements. I took a look at the marketing calendar
for CCCT as well. It’s part of a google form that outlines what is supposed to be posted
each day. For my mini project, I was assigned with coming up with slogans to target a
younger age group, which usually isn’t targeted by CCCT advertisements.

11/7/22
Most of what I did this week was more of the same. I wasn’t able to meet with my
mentor on Tuesday so we set up a meeting for Thursday. During the week I worked on
creating advertising slogan for the upcoming Christmas show. White Christmas is a
nostalgic show, so Aprille had suggested that I tap into that. One of my ideas for an ad
was an image of a 50’s living room, family on the couch, White Christmas advertised on
the screen. I thought this would appeal to older audiences, especially those who
remember seeing the original movie on tv. I like how this image captures the family
feeling of Christmas. Charged with targeting a younger audience, I thought up a couple
phrases to entice teens and young adults to see the show. I asked my dad and he said I
should advertise the show as a date night. I was particularly proud of the phrase “Warm
your heart with a White Christmas!” After asking around and crafting my ideas, I spoke
to Aprille over the phone on Thursday. I shared my ideas with her and she liked them a
lot. I emailed my slogans to her and then she charged me with creating slogans to get
more people to buy tickets online. That’s what I worked on for the rest of the week.

11/14/22
I really didn’t do too much this week! I had a lot of drama I had to sort out regarding my
college applications this week, which detracted from my other work, but I did what I
needed to. Aprille works at Fox, so she was busy on Tuesday with the election and we
moved our meeting to Saturday. During the week, I wrote more marketing slogans, this
time focusing on enticing people to buy tickets online. I carried over some of the themes
from last week’s slogans, like “set a date!”, where I tried to tie in the date theme while
getting the audience to plan ahead in picking out their tickets. I also did some cornier
phrases like “give the gift of a memory.” Framing the tickets as a possible gift motivates
audiences to buy early because you can’t give it as a gift if you don’t plan ahead or if
you just buy tickets the day of the show. I worked on my powerpoint which is due today
as well. I had to change the font color because it was too hard to read during my
Midterm presentation. I added my additional artifacts and added another slide for my
second case study, but there was little I had to change.