Audience Development: Will Steppenwolf Take the Lowe Road?
Remains Theater, meanwhile, will try a radical new gambit when it moves into its new home, a 350-seat theater at 1800 N. Clybourn, on September 14: the company will introduce a daring $10-at-all-times ticket policy and a rotating repertory of three plays under the title “Changing Nightly”–a gamble meant to compete with the seemingly invincible Goliath of the movies, which have always attracted young audiences with their relatively low prices and ease of admission. Remains believes its new approach–completely circumventing subscriptions and the money in the bank they promise–will give the ensemble and its audiences maximum freedom. “Putting on a subscription season,” explains ensemble codirector Bill Petersen, “limits what a theater company can do and when they can do it.” But other theater executives in town maintain Remains could be heading for financial suicide, or at least a quick shift back to a more realistic pricing strategy. “I don’t know how you can make it charging $10 on Saturday night,” says Pegasus Players managing director David Dillon. “That traditionally is when theaters earn a large chunk of their money.” The Remains bargain-basement approach comes at a time when other producers are raising prices. Other People’s Money last week broke through the $30 barrier off-Loop, with a top-priced weekend ticket of $31.50. Other executives warn that without subscribers Remains will be under pressure to present hit productions every time out, even at $10 a ticket. “The appeal of the product is still of paramount importance,” notes one theater insider; “people obviously are lining up to pay $55 to see Phantom of the Opera.” Remains also will require a large and effective marketing strategy to make the public aware of its unorthodox policy. But these are tired times on the Chicago theater scene; whatever the outcome of its experiment, Remains deserves a salute for trying something new.
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Peter Gatien’s Floating Nightclub
