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September 2, 2021 Arts & Business

Long Wharf, like other theaters, ditches subscriptions, turns to membership model

PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED
By Frank Rizzo

Welcome to the club.

Long Wharf Theatre has joined the growing number of arts-and-culture nonprofits turning to “membership” business models that would make them more adaptable to changing COVID conditions and more accessible to a wider audience.

The New Haven theater, entering its 56th season, has ditched the subscription model and will now ask its fans for $10-a-month memberships, which will support the theater’s community-centric mission and allow members to purchase tickets whenever they wish for a discounted price of $35 along with other perks.

Nonmembers will still be able to buy single tickets for any show or event, but now at a single price of $55, instead of the theater’s previously tiered pricing structure for various days of the week and seating locations.

Long Wharf will also give people the ability to become members at any time of the year, instead of a limited subscription buy-in period at the start of every season, thus creating a year-round opportunity for cash flow.

For many people, says managing director Kit Ingui, the high-priced, subscription model was seen as a financial barrier for theatergoing.

“[The membership model] is how we’re now going to build our audience,” she says. “Most of us don’t have $400 for subscriptions every year. But memberships for just $10 a month allow people to see any show for a much more accessible price point and supports our community mission because there’s much more to Long Wharf than just the shows you see on our stage.”

Changing habits

Since the regional theater movement began in the 1960s, the subscription model was the primary economic template for not-for-profit play houses, giving performance venues a large pool of money at the start of every season. But in recent decades, peoples’ entertainment habits changed, with many preferring the flexibility to buy tickets a la carte instead of committing to performances months in advance. That pool of cash-in-advance money for many theaters has been shrinking.

In 2020 there were 2,958 Long Wharf subscribers. Ten years ago there were more than 5,100. Twenty years ago there were more than 10,700. In the 1980s, there were even thousands more.

Ingui also points to another change that gradually devalued the subscription model.

“The intention was to give the subscriber the best ticket price,” she said. “But what ended up happening is that the decline in subscription revenue [at the beginning of a season] forced theaters to discount single tickets during the year. In the end we were not necessarily giving subscribers the best price.”

Ingui says the COVID crisis and subsequent shutdown and shakeup of theaters has allowed for a reevaluation of Long Wharf’s business model in light of new ways venues are creating content, from outdoor performances at various locations to streaming content online or in-person with restrictions. Those options don’t lend themselves to the subscription model of having a predetermined seat on a certain date for a series of shows months in advance.

“This was the moment for us to try something new and to invite our longtime subscribers to come along this new ride with us,” she says.

The membership model also dovetails with Long Wharf’s mission as seen by its artistic director, Jacob G. Padron. Rather than presenting traditional classics and shows poised for Broadway and that appeal to Connecticut’s Gold Coast clientele, the theater is now focused on presenting advocacy theater aimed at a diverse New Haven community.

“Not to be dramatic, but we want to change the world through theater,” says Ingui, “so we’re wearing that on our sleeve now and we want others to join us by being members.”

With an entry point of $10 a month, Ingui is hoping to expand the number of members from the New Haven community.

“We want folks to feel they belong at Long Wharf, as opposed to just, ‘I saw a show at Long Wharf’ ” she said.

Ingui says she hopes that the combination of memberships — which will be marketed year-round — and individual ticket sales will equal their earned income of past years, with the aim to further grow that more stable membership base.

TheaterWorks and Goodspeed

Long Wharf is not alone in looking at different business models. Earlier this year TheaterWorks Hartford added a membership template, too, but one that offers access to content presented in any form: online, outdoors or (hopefully) back inside its newly-renovated, 188-seat basement theater in downtown Hartford on Pearl Street.

TheaterWorks, which has had one of the largest subscription bases in the state (with more than 5,000 subscribers), is now offering $95 memberships for people who want to take in the new season’s four shows (down from five), but only online. Subscriptions for the shows online and/or in-person, as well as other perks, such as invitations to see workshop productions, are $190.

“We see opportunity now in attracting a different audience so we have to figure out if we lean into that,” says producing executive director Rob Ruggiero. “ ‘What exactly is membership’ is the question. Is it like Netflix or Hulu? Does it attract a younger audience that wants options? I don’t know. We want to remain agile. But I definitely see more theaters doing this. I would say we are at the beginning of a potential change in the industry.”

TheaterWorks and Long Wharf Theatre have been approached by other play houses around the country about their business-model shifts. So has Goodspeed Musicals in East Haddam, which has seen subscriptions fall 7% over the past decade for its three shows at the Opera House.

Goodspeed has a hybrid model of memberships and subscriptions. David Byrd, the new managing director of Goodspeed Musicals, also points to the loyalty factor in memberships.

“During COVID it’s been the members that have stood by us because we haven't had any offerings really for subscribers,” he says. “During COVID our members stayed with us the entire time and many gave more because they have a very specific relationship with us. The membership is more of a relational experience, not a ‘one and done.’ A subscription is more transactional.”

“I applaud Long Wharf,” says Byrd. “For them it’s about accessibility. It’s a different model than what we have but not entirely dissimilar. We all have to reassess what business looks like going forward at this time as the industry has been ravaged by the pandemic. It’s time to look inward and figure out whether it’s time to do something a little bit different going forward. I’m waiting with bated breath and excited to see how it works for Long Wharf.”

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