Regional Coalitions are Forming
From the Spring 2000 U.S. Outdoor Drama, pages 1-2
by Todd M Lidh
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All for one, one for all. Two heads are better than one. Great minds think alike. The sum of the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. These and many other truisms – or cliches, depending on whether one sees the glass half-full or half-empty – reflect a recent trend in the outdoor drama movement: the call for coalitions.
Last October, at the National Conference on Outdoor Drama, theatre representatives asked the Institute of Outdoor Drama to facilitate the establishment of informal regional coalitions of outdoor theatres that would pool their resources to purchase display advertisements in major travel and tourism publications whose rates would otherwise be too expensive for individual theatres. Each coalition would be autonomous, would function independently of the Institute yet operate informally without "official" incorporation. Subsequent to the meeting, the Institute has tentatively grouped together a number of history plays and Shakespeare festivals into cooperative advertising coalitions. Coalition leaders have been identified and contacted, materials faxed to those heads, and the leaders are in the process of contacting theatres within their geographic regions to ask if they would participate. At least one group has met on its own initiative already. What the Institute has called the "Central Coalition for History Plays" – Blue Jacket (Xenia, OH), The Legend of Daniel Boone (Harrodsburg, KY), Stephen Foster–The Musical (Bardstown, KY), Tecumseh! (Chillicothe, OH) and Young Abe Lincoln (Evansville, IN) – met in Cincinnati in December 1999. At the meeting, managers decided that their first step will be to purchase cooperative display advertising in two magazine publications, Bank Travel Management (a magazine for bank travel program directors) and Going on Faith (a newspaper for church and religious group travel). Ads will run twice in each magazine’s spring and early summer issues (March/April – June/July). Maureen Daly, general manager of The Legend of Daniel Boone secured donated services of a graphic designer to produce the ads. Central Coalition members plan to meet again soon and discuss other ongoing plans. Total cost for each theatre: approximately $910, which includes all four ads, layout and processing. According to Scott Galbraith, director of marketing for Blue Jacket, the Central Coalition meeting was an eye-opening experience. "As a newcomer to meetings like this, I was thrilled with the spirit of cooperation and giving. It was unlike what you find in so many other business sectors." The total list of coalitions identified by the Institute include: History Plays
Shakespeare
As soon as each coalition leader "signs up" all the theatres in his or her region, U.S. Outdoor Drama will publish a listing of theatres in a given coalition. In the meantime, theatres wishing to know the coalition with which they may be affiliated will be contacted by a coalition leader. Because of geographical location, some history plays and Shakespeare festivals are so distant from other theatres, an affiliation with even the closest coalition would be impractical. This is certainly true for the nation’s twelve religious dramas whose locations are so widespread that a close-knit regional coalition is impossible. This being the case, not all IOD constituent theatres will be participating in these regional coalitions. However, the Institute will continue to promote all theatres with which it is affiliated, regardless of location, genre or coalition participation. For those theatres in coalitions, however, the time to act is now. Galbraith may have said it best: "I strongly encourage other regions to do it. Everyone in our meeting understood the current business climate – we’re all battling the same issues, and we all want our individual dramas to succeed. But we also recognized that if the industry prospers, we all prosper." |
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