It is time to reinvest in Theatre North West, according to the calendar.
The region's premier live theatre organizations, one of the great Canadian successes of the stage, is now bidding goodbye to its 20th anniversary and hello to a full reboot of the organization.
A new board was sworn in this month, to take up governance for the largely new staff led by producing artistic director Jack Grinhaus just entering his first full season at the helm of the organization.
The new executive includes president Hans Suhr, vice-president Betty Bekkering, treasurer Bernadette Goudreau and secretary Jim Cluff, plus others on the general board. Grinhaus called them all "very energetic and enthused about what we're doing and where we are going" with the next steps in the theatre company's anniversary vision.
This week was the start of the exclusive ticket selection process for full-season subscribers. If you have season tickets, you get first crack at selecting the seats you'd like to sit in for the four mainstage shows next season. The general public gets to pick seats once this four-week window is complete.
Those with season tickets get discounts and first look at many new theatre initiatives this coming year, as TNW is set to produce more plays in one season than in any other year before.
"This is the first year Jack has programmed the whole series himself," said Carli Staub, TNW's director of marketing and development. "Last year he was in the building but he was working from choices made by previous people. We all saw what he did with that, it was amazing, so think about what the experience will be when it is all his creation, and with a board and staff that are enthusiastic and ready to make it all happen."
What's coming are shows for children, an interactive show about Prince George itself, a locally-set play by local writer Betsy Trumpener, old favourites given a fresh look (Christmas Carol done with a steampunk motif), and plays that push the entertainment and mental challenge buttons that audiences salivate over.
Before you get to where the stage is set and the actors are in position, you have to get your ticket. That will be done more efficiently than ever before. It doesn't sound sexy, but the revamped ticketing system is going to save patrons a lot of headaches they once suffered and it will save TNW a lot of money. For example, last season, human error caused more than 300 cases of ticketing troubles and double-bookings.
"The new digital box office system is now operational," said Grinhaus. "The days of second-class citizenry for single-ticket buyers are over. Season subscribers get first choice of seating, but after that, when you buy random tickets, you won't have to wait in limbo until the moment you walk into the gallery to know where you'll be sitting that night. You won't have to wait until everyone else is seated, you won't have to worry about double-booking, it will all be simple and efficient, real-time and at the moment you make your purchase. Also, we can now establish parameters about tickets we weren't able to do before, so when you buy your ticket for a certain night, it won't be the theatre company's practice anymore of allowing unscheduled switching. That just causes seat sale losses for the night that was supposed to be used, and possibly another for the night it got switched to. Those kind of losses were really adding up and directly impacting what we were able to pass on to an audience. It was happening a lot, so that was a simple one we could fix."
Staub said it was common for 40 to 45 people per show to be affected by ticket glitches of some kind or other, which also taxes the goodwill of the people most hoping to enjoy the TNW professional theatre experience.
"Our mandate, going back to the founding of Theatre North West, is accessibility for the community to professional theatre and we were having a problem with the literal meaning of that - getting people inside the doors and sitting in a chair," she said.
"So now we begin the process of figuring out what the next 20 years are going to be like," said Grinhaus.
To get a front row seat, or at least your preferred spot in the theatre, season passes are available now online at the Theatre North West website or at Books And Company in person.
The first play this new season, entitled Art, opens on Sept. 17.
