There’s nothing quite like being in the same room with a live storyteller. From the earliest records that mention theater in 600 B.C. until today, everyone becomes entranced when a performer commands attention as they walk up to center-stage. Theaters continue to be a source of entertainment for groups of all ages, as they coexist with a person from a different time, place, or someone in a situation that can sometimes seem all too familiar.
Developing a theater space in your community will take a great deal of time and money, not to mention the hard work you need to get there. But the reward for a passion project such as this one is priceless as you’ll be able to provide a platform for performers from just about anywhere to share their craft with everyone else.
At the same time, you’ll be providing youth in your community with an extracurricular activity they can take part in. An expressive art form for people to partake in will develop an improved sense of well-being, engagement, and confidence. So here are some key steps you can take to create a business opportunity out of a theatrical experience:
1. Sustainable Financing
No matter how enthusiastic you are about opening a theater, it’s not going to be worth much unless there’s money for you to start with. As mentioned earlier, this sort of undertaking is going to take a lot of cash flow. You won’t want to be doing this at an expense to your financial stability, so you can try looking into ways of financing a build as costly as your own theater.
With any business, you’ll need to start small and then work yourself up towards the main goal of creating an establishment for the arts. Looking into ventures that you can work side by side with later on can help cut down the capital a theater will need. For example, you can look into lighting franchise costs. Businesses like these will reduce the capital you need at the beginning of construction because you would have already owned a franchise that is complementary to the needs of a theater.
Not only will you have a venture that can provide services and products for your main project, but it can also become a source of funding. Allotting a portion of the profits from any business you start into the main goal of establishing your own theater will help you mark that aim faster. At the same time, you won’t have to pay for an expensive theater out of your own pockets. You’ll even make some extra income while gaining assets along the way.
2. An Accessible Location
If your goal is to allow your whole community to experience the magic of a live performance, and if you want to keep the theater as financially self-sustainable as possible, you should make sure that it’s in an accessible location. People will be more likely to buy tickets to shows if they can get to where they’re being held.
Look into available spaces in public places, like malls, that already have a transportation system to get people from elsewhere to those spaces. In the instance that it might seem too crowded in public places, try checking out stops for bus routes or any other form of public transportation that will make it easier for ticket-buyers to access your shows. Creating a broad audience for your theater will provide the much-needed word of mouth for it to succeed.
3. Diversify the Acts
The more diversified the shows are, the easier it will be to reach a wider range of people visiting your theater. It’s crucial to be open to new forms of theater as it continually develops.
Furthermore, diversifying the acts doesn’t just mean working with different genres or styles. It also means working with talents from all walks of life. Theater tends to become more personal when your audience sees themselves on stage someday.
Aside from ticket sales, this strategy will also allow you to earn income from producers. They’ll be paying you a fee whenever they want to put on a show. Everybody wins this way because they’ll have somewhere to perform while you and your theater make money.
You probably already know this but: build a theater, and the people will come. The stage commands attention from everyone, and it usually gets paying visitors in a world where art is valued and monetized. Pairing up your passion with a business opportunity will make sure generations of performers thrive.
