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Valley theaters band together to spread buzz
By GUY D’ASTOLFO
YOUNGSTOWN
Seven local theaters have mounted an effort to improve communication among themselves and to the community.
The group will periodically have roundtable discussions on matters of mutual benefit and has launched a Web site — mvtheaterbuzz.com — that includes news of auditions, upcoming productions and more.
Participants are Boardman Community Theatre, Oakland Center for the Arts, Salem Community Theatre, Stage Left Players of Lisbon, Victorian Players, The Youngstown Playhouse and Youngstown State University Theater.
Other theaters — including Trumbull New Theatre, Kent-Trumbull and New Castle Playhouse — have expressed interest in participating in the future.
Representatives from the theaters first met in January to discuss several topics, including coordinating season schedules, joint marketing efforts and raising the profile of the theater scene.
Michael Dempsey, a Salem native and professional television and theater writer-director who returned to the area last year from New York, organized the roundtable.
He was surprised when he realized that no structure was in place for area theaters to help one another.
“Once we sat down together, it was instantly apparent that there was real enthusiasm for working together,” he said.
Scheduling is the first problem the group tackled.
“Just last week, Vindicator [writer] Milan Paurich wrote an article decrying the dilemma theater-goers face with so many good productions stacked on top of each other,” he said. The roundtable has already helped the Oakland, the Victorian and the Playhouse to coordinate their 2010-11 seasons to avoid having multiple productions playing on the same weekends.
Roundtable member Cheryl Games pitched the Web site idea. Like Dempsey, she also recently returned to the Mahoning Valley to live.
“I’d had success doing theater marketing and running this kind of online presence for the Falcon Theatre in Burbank, Calif.,” she said. “So I knew that by coordinating the marketing efforts of all of the smaller theaters, we could make a big impact in gaining awareness and building our audience.”
Games is an actress and playwright who also teaches marketing at YSU. She was most recently seen in the Oakland’s “Dinner With Friends.”
Games has also created a free bimonthly e-newsletter for theater patrons. To sign up, go to mvtheaterbuzz.com.
Dempsey said the Roundtable will remain a very loose affiliation.
“We’re not interested in creating an arts council or another YACTA [Youngstown Area Community Theater Alliance],” he said. “But the dialog will be ongoing.”
YACTA is primarily known for staging the annual Marquee Awards, which honor the best in Mahoning Valley theater.
Games said that YACTA officials have attended the roundtable meetings and were very supportive. “It’s something they always wanted to do,” she said.
The roundtable has no formal name and no regular schedule of meeting. “It will remain informal,” said Games.
Future projects under consideration include producing a documentary about local theater history, a theater hop and joint fundraising and advertising.