Podcasts by The Sold Out Run Podcast: Theatre Marketing / Promotions
Theatre Marketing, Promote a Show
Further podcasts by Clay Mabbitt: Arts Marketing Consultant and Blogger
Podcast on the topic Darstellende Kunst
All episodes
SOR 73: Janice Hibbard Discovers What Works To Market Her Show From the Ground Up from 2015-09-16T17:58:01
If you ever feel like arts marketing is something that only an expert can tackle, this episode is for you. I’ll be the first to admit there are very smart people who have a thorough understandin...
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SOR 72: Promoting In a Fringe Festival As an Out-Of-Towner from 2015-08-11T14:13:58
The Indy Fringe Festival starts up this week. There are a lot of shows that I’ve been hearing about for weeks now, and some of them really have me chomping at the bit to see them. The kicker her...
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SOR 71: Shara Ashley Zeiger Shares the Secrets to Selling Out Her Extended Off-Broadway Run from 2015-05-20T17:11:53
It feels very appropriate to have Shara Ashley Zeiger as my guest on the Sold Out Run podcast because in this episode we talk about her recent… sold out run. In fact it was an extended run that ...
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SOR 70: How Ken Davenport Tests and Why This Broadway Producer Is Jealous of Regional Theatres from 2015-05-13T15:02:09
A few weeks ago, I got a notice through Twitter that someone mentioned me in a tweet. That’s not at all unusual, that happens fairly regularly. But what was unusual was that I was mentioned by K...
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SOR 69: Why William Rader Got Into the Online Ticket Space and What You Can Get Out Of It from 2015-04-28T16:10:39
You’re probably already familiar with some of the major players in the online ticket space. Vendini. Brown Paper Tickets. My guest today is William Rader, and none of the available ticket servic...
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SOR 68: Thom Britton Talks About Failing To Plan For Success from 2015-04-16T18:03:24
Thom Britton reached out to me recently to talk about a problem that is usually overlooked here at Sold Out Run. Almost everything I create here is about growing your audience larger and larger....
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SOR 67: Arts Journalists Tell You How To Send Them Press Releases from 2015-04-03T20:25:31
A few weeks back I wrote a post on the blog about exactly when I send press releases to media outlets, and what I say when I’m reaching out to them. Almost immediately after I hit publish on tha...
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SOR 66: Krista Layfield Manages a Theatre That Exists Exclusively Inside a Parent Organization from 2015-03-10T15:13:35
I had the pleasure a little over a year ago of appearing in a show at the Lilly Theatre here in Indianapolis, which is a theatre that is contained within The Children’s Museum – a very large, we...
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SOR 65: What Show Sponsors Get and How Much Money That’s Worth from 2015-02-25T20:45:09
This episode I want to talk about a question that was sent in by a listener. (Thanks, Jaco!) He asks about what to offer… he calls them investors, I use the word sponsors a lot… but these people...
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SOR 64: Excerpts From the Big List of Theatre Marketing Tactics from 2015-02-10T15:52:56
If you’re new to Sold Out Run, I make a marketing calendar available to download for free on the website. It’s a spreadsheet that lets you plan out when all the marketing activity for a show nee...
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SOR 63: Kelly Gualdoni Talks About What Theatres Can Learn About Marketing From the Corporate Marketing World from 2014-12-18T12:30:40
Kelly and I come from the same school of thought in marketing: tell a story. And that’s not the only lesson she brings from her corporate marketing experience into the world of promoting theatre...
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SOR 62: How To Promote Subscriptions and Keep Current Subscribers from 2014-10-21T19:51:39
Season subscriptions are great for you, but are they great for your audience? The key to gaining and keeping subscribers is to make sure you provide them with something they feel is well worth t...
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SOR 61: Joni Lambert Customizes My Marketing Calendar Template to Fit Her Show and Gets Press Coverage from 2014-10-02T13:04:38
Joni Lambert is not a marketing expert. She’s an artist who wanted to promote her show. With a little online searching she stumbled upon Sold Out Run, and that led her to completely sell out her...
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SOR 60: Curtis Shepard On His Experience Finding an Audience As a Stranger In Town from 2014-09-03T15:07:44
A mutual friend introduced me to Curtis Shepard, and I’m very glad she did. Fringe festivals area a hectic time, and without that introduction I might not have made it out to see Curtis’s show U...
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SOR 59: Bob Harbin On Casting Your Production Team and Picking Up the Phone To Find an Audience from 2014-08-20T12:33:50
In just a handful of years Bob has earned a reputation for consistently putting on quality productions, and the crowds that his shows draw are a testament to that. I wanted to bring him on and p...
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SOR 58: Katie Angel On Educating Your Audience On Your Art Form Before You Start Differentiating from 2014-08-06T14:20:16
I wanted to bring Katie on the show because a lot of people in the general public have misconceptions about what her productions (burlesque) entail. This presents unique marketing challenges, an...
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SOR 57: What’s the Best Way To Use Flyers? from 2014-07-23T12:00:48
I have a great listener question in this episode. Joni shares that booking agents she’s worked with swear up and down by using flyers to promote shows. She’s running into legal issues and wants ...
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SOR 56: Dave Levett Talks About How Even the Smallest Theatre Can Get Meaningful Data About Its Audience from 2014-07-01T17:48:43
I was spending some time poking around Twitter on the subject of theatre marketing, and I came across Lollipop Marketing. They are an agency out of London with roots in Sydney, and I convinced f...
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SOR 55: How Detailed Should Your Marketing Calendar Be from 2014-06-10T14:43:49
I talk a lot at Sold Out Run about the importance of having a marketing calendar for your theatre productions. (At least if you care about people seeing them.) But what goes on it? You can downl...
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SOR 54: Should You Use Discount Services Like Groupon and Goldstar To Move Tickets from 2014-05-20T12:00:32
Some very successful discount aggregating services have popped up over the last few years, and they offer an interesting outlet to reach a new audience for your shows. As you might imagine there...
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SOR 53: Why Taking the Time To Brainstorm Your Marketing With Outsiders Is Worth It from 2014-05-13T19:59:55
I have a production coming up in about 5 months that I’m promoting, and this past weekend was the brainstorming session to start dreaming up ways to market it. I got a lot of fresh ideas and ene...
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SOR 52: Dominic D’Andrea On the Insights Gained While Bringing a Festival To a Town (or Twenty) Where You Don’t Know Anyone from 2014-04-29T15:27:10
If you haven’t heard of the One-Minute Play Festival before, please allow this episode to serve as a humble introduction. My guest is producing artistic director and founder, Dominic D’Andrea, w...
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SOR 51: Chad Woodward and Claire Wilcher From ComedySportz Talk About Promoting a Show That Never Closes and Fighting To Be Seen As Theatre from 2014-04-22T11:00:34
One of the challenges in marketing a theatre production is that we’re usually on a limited run. As soon as you start to learn which message and tactics are really connecting with the right audie...
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SOR 50: Raquel Richardson Brings Her Professional Marketing Expertise to the World of Theatre and Talks About Connecting With Individuals from 2014-04-15T11:50:17
It was an absolute delight to once again share the mic with my long-time podcasting compatriot. Way back in 2012 Raquel Richardson and I were the regular hosts of the now retired Marketing Brain...
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SOR 49: Beth Williams of AUP Talks About What She Took Away From the Open Book Project and Which Tactics She Used to Successfully Promote Her Latest Show from 2014-04-07T15:40:22
At the end of last year I did a series of blog posts where I chronicled the process of promoting a show at a small professional theatre as it was happening. I called it the Open Book Project, an...
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SOR 48: The Myth of Market Saturation from 2014-03-31T21:40:22
Based on the responses I’ve been getting from readers here at Sold Out Run, there are a lot of people who are looking around their community and concluding that there are more theatres than thei...
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SOR 47: Promoting Your Show on Facebook–Events vs. Pages from 2014-03-17T17:48
Previously I’ve shared on Sold Out Run how powerful Facebook events are. Although there are still a lot of things that creating an event can offer, it isn’t quite as powerful as it used to be. S...
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SOR 46: Georgeanna Smith of NoExit Performance on Capturing the Interest of the Local Press and Building Relationships Within the Arts Community from 2014-03-10T17:32:23
NoExit Performance is an Indianapolis-base theatre company that has been mentioned by several previous guests of the podcast. The company has experienced some remarkable growth in recent years, ...
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SOR 45: Don’t Lose Ticket Sales To Promotion Fatigue from 2014-03-03T20:51:24
Ever see a movie trailer so many times that you actually got sick of it? The first few times it seemed interesting, but after too many viewings you wouldn’t have gone to that movie if they paid ...
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SOR 44: Catherine Cardwell On Group Sales and the Differences Between Marketing an Established Theatre Versus a Young Theatre from 2014-02-24T18:24:06
In this episode I welcome Catherine Cardwell. I’m excited to bring her on because of the variety of perspectives she has in promoting theatre. By day she handles group sales and season tickets f...
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SOR 043: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Free Tickets from 2014-02-17T21:18:13
Giving away free tickets can be a polarizing topic. Most (although not all) theatres would prefer to be selling all of their tickets, but when does it make sense to give away a complimentary tic...
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SOR 042: Anatomy of a Press Release from 2014-02-10T18:30:35
A good press release is going to make life as easy as possible for the journalists you are inviting to cover your production. There are some standard practices for the type of information that n...
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SOR 041: Kayla Hulen from 2014-02-03T18:21:57
In this episode I pick the brain of Kayla Hulen, the social media general behind the sold out run of Footlite Musical’s Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Not content with the already sizable time commi...
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SOR 040: Promoting a Well-Known Show from 2014-01-27T18:14:53
Producing a well-established show can make your job as a marketer easier, but it’s not guaranteed. You’re automatically alienating a contingent who believes they’ve already seen everything anyon...
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SOR 039: How Much Should Marketing Affect Show Selection? from 2014-01-13T16:25:12
Being able to promote a show (or choosing one that’s so popular it doesn’t require much sophisticated marketing) isn’t the only consideration when selecting a show. There are artistic and logist...
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SOR 038: Jessica Redden from 2014-01-06T21:31:40
Jessica Redden is an account executive in the events and entertainment division of Bohlsen Group. Jessica is the type of person you would be working with if you had a significant PR budget for y...
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SOR 037: Thomas Cardwell from 2013-12-30T17:19:59
In addition to a charming British accent, Tom brings his experience with theatre both in the UK and the states to the podcast. In particular I wanted to bring Tom on as a guest because EclecticP...
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SOR 036: Goals That Set You Up To Fail from 2013-12-19T13:00:59
At this time of year, it’s useful to reflect on how things have gone over the last 12 months and what you’d like to change moving forward. Usually this takes the form of setting goals for the co...
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SOR 035: Following Best Practices Could Kill You from 2013-12-05T20:22:28
I sincerely hope that I’ve said at least one thing on Sold Out Run that you don’t agree with. I’ve shared a lot of strategic and tactical ideas on theatre promotion, and I hope you embrace no mo...
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SOR 034: How To Get the Theatre Marketing Help You Need When You Need It from 2013-11-22T15:42:02
Thanks in large part to the Internet there’s more information about theatre marketing out there then you could ever hope to incorporate into you own promotions. So how do you navigate that ocean...
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SOR 033: How To Wrap Up Your Theatre Marketing Campaign from 2013-11-14T12:35:22
Over the course of a theatre marketing campaign you develop a lot of material and hopefully a few insights about promoting a show. Don’t let all of that hard work just fade away. If you are inte...
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SOR 032: Filling Up Your Audience’s Bucket from 2013-11-07T13:00:26
Think of your audience’s desire to see your show as an empty bucket. Each time they see your poster, here an ad on the radio, or see a rehearsal photo on Facebook a few more drops go into that b...
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SOR 031: How To Prioritize Your Marketing Activities from 2013-10-31T12:00:43
Marketing would be easy if you had unlimited time and unlimited money. You could implement every marketing tactic for each of your productions and know that you had literally done everything you...
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SOR 030: Repurposing Content from 2013-10-24T14:55:01
Very popular with traditional businesses – especially online – repurposing content is the practice of taking really great promotions that you’ve created and modifying them to be used again in sl...
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SOR 029: What Presales Mean To Your Marketing from 2013-10-17T15:03:32
Presales are great for cash flow, but they can also make your life a lot easier as a marketer. Strong presales can be both a powerful marketing tactic and a critical source of information about ...
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SOR 028: What to Measure Besides Ticket Sales from 2013-10-10T16:35:43
Many theatre companies use ticket sales as their primary (and something only) metric of success. It’s critical as a financial and operational number, but it doesn’t give a very nuanced picture o...
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SOR 027: Marketing Your Promotions from 2013-10-03T18:57:37
You need promotions that are interesting and creative enough that even people who are not interested in buying a ticket to your show will talk about your promotions. That can take the form of co...
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SOR 026: Alli Houseworth from 2013-09-26T15:32:33
I’m very lucky to have Alli Houseworth as a guest on this episode of the podcast. She’s worked on promoting productions both from within a theatre company and as an outside specialist through he...
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SOR 025: Finding the Niche Audience For Your Show from 2013-09-19T17:34:35
It’s easy to say that you should seek out those individuals who will feel like your show was written to speak to them personally. The people who resonate with this production in particular on a ...
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SOR 024: Marketing Auditions from 2013-09-12T11:00:44
Promoting our performances is obviously critical to success in theatre, but it’s also important to know how to marketing your auditions. Auditions can be crucial to getting good talent, but ther...
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SOR 023: Shoshana Fanizza from 2013-09-05T11:30:40
There are many reasons I’m pleased to welcome Shoshana Fanizza to the podcast. One is that she started her own company, Audience Development Specialists, that she has been running since 2008. An...
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SOR 022: Bill Wilkison from 2013-08-29T16:36:31
Bill Wilkison is nothing if not an artistic renaissance man. He is an actor, director, writer, and genuinely kind and generous human being. One of the reasons I was so eager to get Bill on the p...
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SOR 021: Marketing Observations At Fringe from 2013-08-22T17:20:59
A Fringe festival is an interesting microcosm of the theatre world. Everything happens on a compressed timeline in a restricted geographic area, and you can gain some interesting insights by obs...
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SOR 020: Lou Harry from 2013-08-15T17:10:52
It is a delight to have Lou Harry in this episode of the podcast. He made me laugh out loud repeatedly while we were recording, but beyond just being entertaining he also has some unique insight...
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SOR 019: Calls to Action–Beyond the“Buy Tickets Now” from 2013-08-08T17:52
Recently I got a comment on a previous post from a gentleman by the name of Matt McKee that caught my attention. In the comment he mentioned the line, “What do you want the audience to do after ...
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SOR 018: Stages of the Entertainment Marketing Mindset from 2013-08-01T15:58:47
When you are producing a show, it can feel like there’s an enormous about of work to do. There’s just so much to try to get your arms around. Marketing might be the last thing you want to worry ...
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SOR 017: How To Deal With Overwhelm In Theatre Marketing from 2013-07-25T16:11:02
There comes a time in the life cycle of promoting a show when time is at a premium. It seems like there are more marketing tasks than you could ever hope to accomplish. So much is happening at a...
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SOR 016: How To Delegate Theatre Marketing Tasks from 2013-07-18T11:00:38
The only thing worse than trying to handle all of the promotion for a show yourself, is to delegate it to other people – only to see the ball get dropped. Selecting talented people is only part ...
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SOR 015: Hope Baugh from 2013-07-11T11:23:33
I’m very pleased to welcome Hope Baugh to the podcast. It’s not just because she’s delightful to talk to. (She is.) Hope provides a perspective that we as promoters of live theatre desperately n...
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SOR 014: Scott Cramton from 2013-07-04T11:00:17
Scott Cramton runs the Murder Mystery Co., providing both public and private interactive improv performances across the U.S. Over the last dozen years he’s had the opportunity to experiment with...
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SOR 013: Casey Ross from 2013-06-27T13:14:56
This week I welcome writer, actor, director, and producer Casey Ross. We talk primarily in the episode about her role as a writer and how wearing that hat affects her thoughts on marketing. Cas...
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SOR 012: You Don’t Know What Will Resonate from 2013-06-20T15:34:05
Much like you can get a few laugh lines when you weren’t expecting during a performance, you may very well find that you’ll get reactions to different marketing tactics that are better or worse ...
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SOR 011: Zach Rosing from 2013-06-13T11:00:22
Zach Rosing brings his multimedia experience to the podcast. We talk about what it takes to make a good promotional video. Production value – the sound quality and lighting – do have a big impac...
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SOR 010: How To Recognize When To Change Your Marketing Tactics from 2013-06-05T12:48:43
We all fall into that rut. We find a few good marketing tactics like posters and emailing cast announcements then decide that we’re going to stick with them forever. They probably even work – bu...
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SOR 009: Doug Powers from 2013-05-29T10:55:08
I’ve been anticipating this episode because I’ve been promising that it’s coming to readers and listeners who are looking for help promoting a show that deals with unpleasant subject matter. Sho...
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SOR 008: Marketing at a Fringe Festival (Part 2 of 2) from 2013-05-22T16:52:15
As the title implies, this is the second episode of a two-part podcast where I walk-through the approach I took when promoting a show at the 2012 IndyFringe Festival. The show was very successfu...
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SOR 007: Marketing at a Fringe Festival (Part 1 of 2) from 2013-05-15T15:18:49
Being part of any theatre festival is a fantastic opportunity to get exposure to new audiences. The people attending these festivals are clearly interested in discovering new performing arts opt...
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SOR 006: Matt Lehrman from 2013-05-08T11:55:14
Matt Lehrman has been thinking about arts marketing at a very high level for quite a few years. I first came across him a few weeks ago when he was presenting his Audiences Everywhere™ workshop ...
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SOR 005: Brian Atkinson from 2013-05-01T11:00:45
A few years ago I met Brian Atkinson at a meeting for a production company where we both served on the advisory board. The expertise he brought to the table was in the area of design. He’s been ...
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SOR 004: Theatre For Fun and Profit from 2013-04-24T11:00:05
I’m going solo in this episode of the podcast, talking about money. It’s always bothered me that so many theatres and acting companies (often those that put fantastic work up on the stage) do su...
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SOR 003: Lori Raffel from 2013-04-17T11:00:59
A Nice Family Gathering is a show I did back in early 2011, and it was momentous for a few reasons. It was the first time I acted on stage in Indianapolis, the first time I had a leading role in...
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SOR 002: Ken Klingenmeier from 2013-04-10T12:23:56
Actor, director, and theatre blogger, Ken Klingenmeier was kind enough to talk with me about some of his observations about theatre marketing. I met Ken a few years ago, and he is one of the peo...
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SOR 001: The First Episode from 2013-03-27T11:00:39
I couldn’t be more excited to be releasing the first episode of the Sold Out Run podcast. This is a project that has been months (really years) in the making. I’m still jumping through hoops to ...
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