Theaters Seek Young Audiences
It’s no secret that some of Chicago’s oldest and most well established theater companies are having trouble attracting audiences in their 20s and 30s. Now a few of those organizations, including Court Theatre on the University of Chicago campus, are beginning seriously to address the problem. Notes Court marketing director Jodi Royce: “Our audience demographic was creeping upward rather than downward, and we felt we needed to do something about that.” So Royce, other Court staffers, and representatives from the university’s public relations office sat down to brainstorm about how to lure a younger crowd to the theater’s first attraction in the 1993-’94 season: Pierre Marivaux’s The Triumph of Love.
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Royce knew that Marivaux’s seldom-produced 18th-century work wouldn’t be familiar to most of the young theatergoers she wanted to reach, but she assumed the play’s themes were timeless and universal in their appeal: “This is a story about a very sexy princess doing everything she can to get a prince’s attention.” With that plot synopsis in mind, Royce and her cohorts devised an ad strategy centered on a newspaper personals format, using a minimal amount of copy to proclaim: “Seductive Princess. SF seeks SM. I won’t stop till I get my prince. Safe Romance. 20 Bucks.” Though the graphic image used with the copy–half of a face mask–is not nearly so bold or catchy as the words, the display ad Court came up with nonetheless stands apart from much local theater advertising, which tries to cram too many images, critics’ quotes, and production credits into very small spaces on a newspaper page.
Kroch’s Christmas Wish: Survival
With the Christmas selling season about to begin, the attention of many in the book business seems to be focused on the struggle at Kroch’s & Brentano’s to regain a competitive edge. Rumors persist that Kroch’s eventually may be forced to file for bankruptcy protection, perhaps as early as January if it does not get enough of the Christmas business. Despite the company’s considerable efforts to cut costs and refocus, including the closing of 11 of 20 stores so far, sources at major book publishers who deal with the chain say Kroch’s continues to feel the impact of superstores such as Crown, Barnes & Noble, and Border’s. These new entries have introduced an appealing style of book retailing that Kroch’s was slow to adopt. “The superstores are part community center and part theater,” explains one source. Another suggests that Kroch’s no longer is a top-of-mind destination for books that may not be available at smaller independent bookstores. “I used to hear customers say they would check at Kroch’s for a book they couldn’t find here, but hardly anyone says that anymore,” notes one prominent North Shore independent. “I think it may be a case of doing too little too late to turn things around at Kroch’s.” Indeed, on a recent Sunday afternoon, traffic in Kroch’s rather dowdy Wabash flagship store was next to nil, while considerably more customers browsed the nearby Crown Books superstore. Though reps for major publishers say book inventory is lower at Kroch’s than it was in the chain’s glory days, Kroch’s president William Rickman says the company is in the process of removing a lot of nonbook inventory to make room for more books. Rickman also dismisses any talk of a possible bankruptcy filing: “Last spring our circumstances were pretty dire, but I think we have cleared up most of our problems with the restructuring and the downsizing of our company.”
