AMERICAN THEATRE WING & SHOW-SCORE.COM PARTNER ON “SWING SEATS” – MAKING SPARE TICKETS AVAILABLE TO STUDENTS AND EARLY-CAREER THEATER MAKERS
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AMERICAN THEATRE WING & SHOW-SCORE.COM
PARTNER ON “SWING SEATS”
INNOVATIVE COLLABORATION
MAKING TICKETS AVAILABLE TO
STUDENTS AND EARLY-CAREER THEATER MAKERS
New York, NY (May 11, 2017) –The American Theatre Wing and Show-Score.com today announced “Swing Seats”, a new service that aims increase the amount of tickets for theater students, interns, and artists by pairing them with New York City theatergoers who have spare theater tickets.
How it works:
- Anyone with an extra theater ticket can go to show-score.com/swingseats and fill out a simple form with the name of the show, the performance date, and the number of spare tickets they have. The ticket donor’s personal information is not disclosed.
- Notice of the available ticket is immediately communicated by email to theater students, interns, and artists who are identified and screened by the American Theatre Wing. Tickets are assigned to the recipient on a first-come first-served basis, who then pays a $10 service fee to ensure participation. The fee is split between the American Theatre Wing and Show-Score.com. The recipient’s personal information is also not disclosed.
- Show-Score.com then facilitates the ticket hand-off, either in person or via email, depending on the situation.
The service is called “Swing” Seats in homage to the important work of the “swing” position in a cast, who can seamlessly fill in when others are not available.
“Swing Seats is an exciting extension of our mission to support theater artists and students,” said Heather Hitchens, President and CEO of the American Theatre Wing. “We already identify and nurture the next generation of theater makers, and now have a way to help them experience theater, connect them directly with theater fans who would like to meet them, and raise money to support our programs.”
Every theatergoer has experienced the hassle of finding someone at the last minute to take spare tickets that they may have. Emailing and texting friends is the first choice, but it often doesn’t work. Using a secondary market ticketing site is a hassle, and may be illegal, as is scalping the ticket in front of the theater. Donating the ticket back to the box office usually doesn’t solve the issue, since the ticket can’t be sold in time. As a result, thousands of tickets aren’t used every year.
“Our more than 135,000 members have told us that they would love to give their extra seats to a deserving audience member,” said Tom Melcher, Founder and CEO of Show-Score.com. “We have the technology to do this, but didn’t have a good way to identify who was deserving. We were therefore delighted to partner with the American Theatre Wing, which already supports thousands of theater artists, interns and students. “Swing Seats” will help our members, give theater students and artists access to shows, and raise money in support of the American Theatre Wing’s essential programs.”
Audience members looking to give away their tickets can visit http://www.show-score.com/swingseats.
Students and early-career theater makers who wish to express interest in participating may contact the American Theatre Wing at mailbox@americantheatrewing.org
ABOUT THE AMERICAN THEATRE WING
The American Theatre Wing (Heather Hitchens, President and CEO) is dedicated to advancing artistic excellence and nurturing theatre’s next generation: on the stage, behind the scenes, and in the audience. For nearly a century, the Wing has pursued this mission with programs that span the nation to invest in the growth and evolution of American Theatre. Traditionally, the Wing has encouraged members of the theatre community to share their off- stage time and talent directly with the theatre audience at large–whether it was singing for the troops in the Stage Door Canteen of the 1940s, or sharing their stories on a podcast today. As the founders of The Tony Awards®, the American Theatre Wing has developed the foremost national platform for the recognition of theatrical achievement on Broadway. Yet the Wing’s reach extends beyond Broadway and beyond New York. The American Theatre Wing is now in a long-term partnership with The Village Voice to co-present The Obie Awards, off-Broadway’s Highest Honor. The Wing also develops the next generation of theatre professionals through the SpringboardNYC and Theatre Intern Network programs, incubates innovative theatre across the country through the National Theatre Company Grants, fosters the song of American theatre through the Jonathan Larson Grants, honors the best in New York theatrical design with the Henry Hewes Design Award, illuminates the creative process through the “Working in the Theatre” program and media archive. Finally, the Wing supports theatre education opportunities for underserved young people and under-resourced public schools around the United States with the newly launched Andrew Lloyd Webber Initiative. Visitors to AmericanTheatreWing.org can gain inspiration and insight into the artistic process through the Wing’s extensive media collection, and learn more about its programming for students, aspiring and working professionals, and audiences.
Follow the Wing on Facebook.com/TheAmericanTheatreWing and Twitter.com/TheWing.
ABOUT SHOW-SCORE
For people who enjoy live theater, Show-Score.com simplifies the theater landscape to help you discover shows you’ll love, from people you trust, at the right price for you. Inspired by how Rotten Tomatoes covers movies, Show-Score.com uses simple numeric rankings and useful categories to organize a powerful mix of theater reviews from our vibrant user community, all of the professional reviews for a given show, and direct links to ticket deals.
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