Theatre is one of the oldest human art forms, but somewhere along the way, it developed a stigma as being for “old people.” There’s plenty of sociological and cultural history that can explain this — cost, tradition, increasing accessibility to movies / television, etc — but it’s not the “why” that we’re concerned about. The more important question is, how do we change it? We’ve tried a number of different methods over the last ten years or so to get a younger audience into the theatre with specially priced tickets, but these initiatives were met with varying degrees of success. Even when we present new plays like The Miracle at Naples that might appeal more to us hip young urbanites (kidding, guys, kidding. I’m 27), it’s remained a constant challenge.
Then about three years ago, we formed a committee of staff members under the age of 35 and thought about what we could do that would get people like, well, us into the theatre (most of us were honestly surprised to find that we already offered $25 tickets for anyone under the age of 35*), and in March of 2010, we threw our first official 35 Below Wrap Party for Becky Shaw. This exclusive after party gave 35 Below patrons a chance to meet and hang with the cast & crew of the production, plus access to cheap drinks and a live band, all for the price of an already-stupidly-cheap ticket.
Our next 35 Below event is a special pre-show party THIS Friday, March 8 at 6:30pm. Join us at Five Napkin Burger on Huntington Avenue for some complimentary food and cash bar in a private room, before we head over to the theatre as a group to catch the 8pm performance of A Raisin In The Sun. We'll also be hosting our next #Twittermission event that night, with answers from Raisin Assistant Director Omar Robinson, so make sure you tweet your questions to the @huntington ahead of time!
After that, our next 35 Below Wrap Party is Friday, March 29, after the first preview performance of Ryan Landry’s “M”, and then we have another one coming up on Friday, May 31 for Gina Gionfriddo’s Rapture, Blister, Burn. 35 Below patrons can purchase $25 tickets are any Huntington performance, but the Wrap Party itself is the best deal on the block, so tickets go fast. Both events are sponsored by our friends at Magners USA because c’mon, who doesn’t like a little hard cider with their German film noir puppets and scathing Feminist comedy? (Don’t answer that)
Here's a (slightly older) video giving you a look at one of our 35 Below parties. We hope to see you at our next one!
*Because we believe that theatre should be accessible for everyone, regardless of age, we also offer a limited number of $25 tickets to every performance for absolutely anyone. Simply ask when you call the Box Office, or check the Prices & Seating tab on our website for location information when buying tickets online.
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