Online Ticketing and Moss Hart Applying

Today was extremely productive! Ms. Miller and I discussed how we were going to distribute pre-sale tickets to the SHREK students and parents, and thought we would use the same system from the breakfast fundraiser: print paper tickets, cut them, put in stacks, and fill an envelope for each student so that they can sell them to family members.

I had an idea - why not try to set up an online ticket purchasing system? It would not only save us hours of cutting and labeling, but also be easier to keep track of how many tickets we're selling and money we're collecting. We found a great website called "showtix4U.com," where we registered NPS as a new user, plugged in the dates, times, and prices of the performances, and set up a schedule for selling pre-order tickets (started today, January 13th) and then general admission tickets (starts January 27th). Now everyone can purchase their tickets online, hassle free! All they have to do is go to showtix4U.com, click "Buy Tickets," and "SHREK: The Musical" should appear on their screen! I hope this new system works out, because it could make the ticket-selling process 1000x less stressful. We will also be able to sell tickets at the door by printing sheets of tickets from the "showtix" website, which will in turn keep track of how many are printed so we know how many seats are still available.

After the last performance on February 9th, I will be able to print a summary report of the total number of tickets sold, and will also receive a check for our earnings (minus the small fee the website charges for credit card transactions). This way, we won't have money floating around everywhere and will have most of the it (besides money from tickets purchased at the door) in that single check.

In addition, we discussed the conventional assigned seating policy NPS Theatre has used in the past. I've talked to parents who dislike assigned seating because it's really hard to keep track of the seat numbers and which families want which seats. Ms. Miller and I decided together that "general seating" (first-come, first-served) would be a much easier way to go.

We also assembled a packet of information for each member of the cast, explaining how to order tickets online and how to request advertisements to be put in the program. These packets will be distributed to the students on Wednesday, so that we can get requests for advertisements back as soon as possible and start putting the program together.

Also, no report from Hendricken yet about which costumes were destroyed and which were saved, so we can't rent from RIYT until we know exactly how many outfits we need. Hopefully, I will get some news from the school later this week.

I spent some time in the cafeteria today observing rehearsal. The entire show is blocked now, so it's just a matter of PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE. Here, our choreographer, Chelsea, demonstrates a move to the dancers to tighten up some choreography:

Finally, I have started the application process for the Moss Hart Memorial Award, which is given to an exceptional "Children & Youth" production in New England every year (courtesy of the New England Theatre Conference - NETC). The program won this award last year for its production of The Wiz. I hope we can defend the title with SHREK!