Hello everybody! We are Four Stories Tall!

[FourStoriesTall]

Hey everybody! We are Four Stories Tall! We are a new teen troupe based out of the hideout theater. Our coach is Jeremy Sweetlamb, a.k.a the most awesome coach ever. We would love it if you guys could give us some advice about how to get shows at other places besides the Hideout. We've done a fare amount of shows at the Hideout, and we just started branching out by doing a show at Coldtowne. Are there any other venues besides those two that we should be looking in to? Also, do you guys have any marketing advice. We have a Facebook page, but our their any other websites we could checkout?

Sincerely,
Jack

[Ryan Austin]

Hello! I saw your Coldtowne show and you guys were fantastic! Seriously. Really great, brave work. I can't wait to see the next one!

I'll leave the marketing and show advice to the more experienced folks, but staying up to date on these forums should be pretty useful for spotting things you can submit your troupe to.

[Chuy!]

Do any show. Anywhere. For now. Don't be above the venue. Talk to the theatre teacher at one of your schools and ask for a showcase that would be a drama club fundraiser. Charge students to come see it and sell sodas and snacks... That's how I started. Of course my mother was the theatre teacher.

[Chuy!]

Also, you are in good hands with Jeremy. He's great at this stuff...

[Jessica]

These guys are awesome! They've been taking my teen classes for quite awhile and they've just exploded on the stage. If you get the chance to see them DO IT!

[happywaffle]

Hey everybody! We are Four Stories Tall! We are a new teen troupe based out of the hideout theater. Our coach is Jeremy Sweetlamb, a.k.a the most awesome coach ever. We would love it if you guys could give us some advice about how to get shows at other places besides the Hideout. We've done a fare amount of shows at the Hideout, and we just started branching out by doing a show at Coldtowne. Are there any other venues besides those two that we should be looking in to? Also, do you guys have any marketing advice. We have a Facebook page, but our their any other websites we could checkout?

Sincerely,
Jack

Welcome! To directly answer your question, you should look into acquiring stage time at the Institution (primarily Clusterfunk). Also contact Gnap! and see if there might be any openings for stage time (they're about to have a break between mainstage shows). You could also submit yourselves as a team to the Derby at SVT.

Do a free show on the UT campus. Do a show on the capitol lawn and invite your friends. Play play play, market market market.

[Ryan Hill]

I love these guys! They are hilarious.

I get to work with them once a week TAing Jessica's teen class.

Jack, keep checking the forums for when submissions are open for each of the theaters (Hideout, Gnap!/SVT, Coldtowne, Institution).

You might also want to submit to local festivals. Out of Bounds submissions are over in about a week I think. (Check with Jeremy on that one.)

Mr. Bread

[FourStoriesTall]

Thank you so much for your awesome advice guys! We will look into shows at Gnap and the Institution theaters, as well as other venues. Jessica and Ryan, you guys are awesome teachers! You have helped us so much in improving our improv skills over the past year. We wouldn't be where we are today without you guys.

Thanks again,
Jack

[valetoile]

So exciting! I can't wait to see you all perform. Jeremy himself is an awesome resource for where to perform in town- his first improv troupe, the Well Hung Jury, started when he was in high school and made a lasting impact on the Austin improv scene through boundary pushing choices of performance spaces. You're lucky to have a lot of established theatres willing to host you as well as as many potential performance spaces as your imaginations and the law will allow.

[Rev. Jordan T. Maxwell]

Our coach is Jeremy Sweetlamb, a.k.a the most awesome coach ever.

lies. damn lies! if only by way of understatement.

welcome to the asylum! play where ever you can without getting arrested (and if you want even better stories a few that you can. ).

[FourStoriesTall]

Thanks guys!

[sara farr]

For marketing...

Create a blog like WordPress.com. Wordpress is free and easy to use. I have all my students make them and it doesn't take too long. Add a "Page" for: SHOWS, ABOUT, MEDIA. Those pages will then appear next to "Home" at the top of your blog, like menus. If you want to be fancy, and you have a ton of info to share, you can make submenus by creating a new page that points to an original page as its "parent".

WordPress has a variety of styles, but try to keep the look of your blog clean & simple. Like a stark gallery wall, you want your website to be blank so that the info about YOUR TROUPE is easy to locate and read. I recommend the "Twenty Twelve" style. This style has a header graphic you can trade out with one of your own images/photos that helps sell your group. Make sure the image you use matches the resolution of the header space or else it will stretch it to fit. In Twenty Twelve, the header graphic is 940px × 198px.

SHOWS: List your upcoming shows on this page. You can edit this page to update it each month to reflect changes, or the addition of new shows. If you perform regularly some place, make sure your public knows it by putting that info at the top of the page.

ABOUT: Include a blurb about the troupe -- your troupe's goals or mission statement, fun-facts about your troupe mates. You can look at other troupes to get a sense of what type of info they put up there.

MEDIA (Photos): Get some pictures made that capture the personality of the troupe. A picture says a thousand words. There's lots of photographers in the AIC. Perhaps someone in your group has a camera with a remote, or a time delay. You can also use those old 1960s photo booths. Have a friend take some "action shot" pictures during your show. Get those images up on your blog/site. If you use a site like Flikr, you can embed the slideshow code directly into your blog/site.

MEDIA (Videos): Tape your shows and post the best parts up to Vimeo or YouTube. Then link to them, or embed them in your blog/site. A picture says a thousand words, and a video is a bunch of pictures with music and sound... so it's better.

POSTS: You can also make daily POSTS on your blog. They will show up under the "HOME" menu. Daily blogging let's people know what you are thinking about -- improv perhaps?? Give everyone in your troupe the login information so they can all help create daily posts. Having new info appear daily on your site encourages your public to follow you, which is good bc they'll get updates of your next show.

BCs: VistaPrint.com makes FREE business cards, as long as you allow the company to put their website on the back. For a few bucks, you can have a clean back. For a few dollars more, you can put a graphic on the back. Order your cards to include the blog/site address ON THE FRONT. Have all your troupe-mates take a stack to hand out to potential audience members you may meet in your daily life. The cards will help people remember you, and it'll direct them to your blog/site where they will see when your next show is.

Trick -- Ask the audience members at your shows if they have one of these cards. If they do, have them write their email on the back. You can then collect & draw a card at random, then give the winner a "prize" -- perhaps a free ticket to your next show?? The cherry on top is that you now have a bunch of emails you can add to your email-list.

Hope this helps.

[FourStoriesTall]

Thank you so much! I'll start making the website right away! I think this is really going to help us!

[scott.hearne]

Howdy y'all!

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