The audience. It’s the lifeblood of the theater. Theater artists create it, theater administrators produce it and sell it, and the audience supports it, keeps it alive, and makes every performance unique. Being part of the audience at a live theater performance is transformative. There is nothing else like it.
The audience is why I chose marketing theater as a career, and there is no place I would rather work than Renaissance Theaterworks (RTW). I first came to RTW in 2003 as their first “official” marketing director (part-time). My work helped Renaissance Theaterworks grow and achieve a reputation for excellence and an uninterrupted history of debt-free operation.
Nine years later, RTW’s growth prompted the need for a full-time Marketer. My husband and I were raising a child and I was living with multiple sclerosis, so I made the bittersweet decision to step down. In September 2022, I attended RTW’s fundraiser, “Raise a Glass to Renaissance.” Being there and experiencing the art, love, and community of this gem of a company, suddenly the words “I want back in!” were escaping my mouth. I didn’t know what I meant exactly, but I meant it. Two months later … well … actually a decade later, I’m once again RTW’s marketing director!
A lot has changed in 10 years. My MS has progressed, and I’ve had to learn to work with a disability. Marketing has turned upside down and backwards, and I’ve had to embrace new ways of reaching audiences. Milwaukee theater has pivoted in response to the pandemic and the explosion of streaming content available at home. And audiences are regaining the confidence to attend in-person performances, but haven’t returned at pre-pandemic rates … yet.
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Here’s what hasn’t changed. Renaissance Theaterworks is still committed to promoting the work of women, onstage and off, and creating provocative, courageous theater, connecting audiences with their shared sense of being human, making them feel more, think harder, and laugh louder.
Your next opportunity to be an audience for RTW, is our World Premiere of Tidy, by Kristin Idazsak. Tidy examines the holes in our lives we try to fill with consumption, how we decide what to keep and what to leave behind, and who and what will survive a mass extinction. And ... will it spark joy?
Tidy at Renaissance Theaterworks, March 24-April 16.
Visit Renaissance Theaterworks
Photo Credit: Erol Reyal
