Letter to the editor: Trickle down theater: a letter to the Telfair Peet

Dear Telfair Peet \0x1DTheater,
In attempting to see the first production of this theater season, I found the entire process to be a profoundly frustrating experience. It was harder to get a ticket to this show than a popular Broadway play.
\0x1DThere was no reservation option available to students, neither online nor at the ticket window. And what’s more, there were no ticket scalpers hawking tickets outside, 10 minutes before the show, or an after-market where the highest bidder could lay claim to one of these truly elusive tickets in advance.
I made three attempts to see the show and each time, due to the combination of a lack of available tickets and an ill-conceived ticketing reservation process, I was unable, along with a good number of other frustrated students, to see the performance on any of those nights.
Might I offer a few points of perspective from where I stand as well as a suggestion or two on how to possibly make the experience of seeing a performance at your hall more accessible to students?
To be clear, I am happy to see that there is a lively interest in the theater arts and that each and every night of the “Nickel and Dimed” run was sold out–that is a good thing no matter how you slice it.
But I find it disappointing that the theater first chooses to value the prospect of selling each and every seat before then considering the impact of how that might “crowd-out” the student body from seeing their peers perform on stage.
I understand that funding is always at the top of the list of priorities. I understand that to continue to put on performances and improve the quality of future productions, money needs to come from somewhere, but I think it is worth reminding the theater that it is a university theater.
It should seek to serve both the paying public as well as its students, even if the economic bottom line is subject to a haircut.
It is also worth noting that students, in effect, through tuition, additional registration fees and the like, subsidize the cost of operating facilities like the Telfair Peet \0x1DTheater, particularly us “out-of-staters.” The fact that the structure of your ticket reservation process is such that as students who would like to see a performance, free of charge, we are left to hope and pray that all the seats are not sold out so that we may have a chance to possibly get a trickle down ticket (I’m pretty sure Barbara Ehrenreich would object).
Asking students to show up two hours before that night’s production to simply put their name on a list and wait around in hopes that there are enough no-shows by the start of the performance so that their number can be called is not only an inefficient strategy from a production standpoint, but it makes the students feel like second-class theater goers.
\0x1DThis is poor community relations management and they should know better.
I propose that the theater set aside a certain number of seats for students for each performance—available through an online reservation process—ensuring that a student who is interested in seeing a play at the Telfair Peet \0x1DTheater will eventually have a chance to do so. A major issue with the way this most recent performance schedule was handled was that there was no consideration for students who kept trying, night after night, to see the play.
\0x1DThere was no carry over for those students who had put their names on the “stand-by” list but were not fortunate enough to have their name called at the last minute for that night’s show. If you happened to be number 14 on the list and there were only 13 no shows, your name would not then be placed at the top of the list for the following night’s show, you would have to roll the dice all over again the next night.
If the Telfair Peet Theater is interested in serving the student population to the greatest of its abilities and is serious about its commitment to enriching our understanding and appreciation of theater, instead of trying to capture every potential nickel and dime, they should consider the value of setting aside a designated number of seats for students for each performance so that we too may enjoy a night out at the theater without feeling like chumps.
Jonathan McKinney
Post-Baccalaureate
Industrial Design