A RAISIN IN THE SUN #Twittermission Roundup

This past Friday night we hosted our second #Twittermission event, encouraging the audience to tweet us questions about the production to be answered by an artist involved the show. We were lucky enough to be joined by Omar Robinson, currently serving as the assistant to Raisin director Liesl Tommy as well as a living triumvirate of man, myth, and legend. Omar has a long history with the Huntington -- he's assistant directed on several other productions such as Now Or Later and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, plus he's offered his acting talents to many of our staged readings. He was also a tremendous help last year in preparing our new website for launch. So basically, Omar's awesome, end of story.

We were also joined in #Twittermission by the Arden Theatre in Philadelphia, who are also producing A Raisin In The Sun  (and by further coincidence were also hosting a similar young patron's event that night). The Arden approached us after hearing about #Twittermission at a recent theatre conference with the idea of hosting the event in collaboration with one another. If the point of #Twittermission is to carry on the conversation beyond the particular performance on any given night, what better way to continue and cultivate a larger discussion than to do so in conjunction with another theatre in another city? Yes, that was a lot of "c" words, but it really helps to bring the art beyond the local spectrum and remind us that we're all part of a larger community. Though some of the questions that came in were specific to one of our productions, a lot of the questions pertained more to the play in general, and it was interesting to see how these productions responded to the same questions.

Here's are the tweets as they took place on Friday night (we'll share the Arden's answers when applicable as well):

Kmcoran ‏@kmcoran

How did you envision bringing such strong female relationships to the stage? #twittermission

The Huntington ‏@huntington

A: "The strong women are necessary to create the drama. Walter Lee struggles to fulfill the dream. He IS thinking of everyone."@omarahsa

Arden Theatre Co ‏@ArdenTheatreCo

@kmcoran good Q for the actresses! The director wanted strong actresses that could bring these characters to the stage#Twittermission

Kristen ‏@AnnieBNYC

@ArdenTheatreCo where does the title A Raisin in the Sun come from? #twittermission

The Huntington ‏@huntington

A: "A poem by Langston Hughes called 'A Dream Deferred'. Too long to tweet here sadly!" - @omarahsa

Arden Theatre Co ‏@ArdenTheatreCo

@AnnieBNYC the title comes from Langston Hughes' poem " Harlem" what happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up, like#ARaisinInTheSun ?

Kmcoran ‏@kmcoran

#twittermission is #araisuininthesun set in a particular city or is it supposed to be a random Midwest/northeast city?

The Huntington ‏@huntington

A: "RAISIN is set in south side Chicago." @omarahsa

Arden Theatre Co ‏@ArdenTheatreCo

@kmcoran it's specifically south side of Chicago #Twittermission

The Huntington ‏@huntington

Q: Team George or Team Asagai? #araisuininthesun #twittermission

The Huntington ‏@huntington

A: "George has the money, but I'm a dreamer, so I have to go with Team Asagai." @omarahsa #twittermission

Temple Gill ‏@templegill

Hi Omar! I love the set and am curious how the actors adapted to the turntable. #twittermission #araisininthesun

The Huntington ‏@huntington

A: "Quite easily! And without getting seasick." @omarahsa#twittermission #araisininthesun

The Huntington ‏@huntington

Q: "The music doesn't seem very period. What's up with that?"#araisininthesun #twittermission

The Huntington ‏@huntington

A: "Since we're telling a story that has to do with both now and then, it helps to merge the two time periods." @omarahsa #twittermission

Arden Theatre Co ‏@ArdenTheatreCo

@huntington curious to hear about your musical choices! We have original comps & period music. Dinah Washington, for ex#Twittermission

The Huntington ‏@huntington

@ArdenTheatreCo We'll get you a better / more "official" answer, but Liesl (director) likes to use hip-hop to connect to the modern day.

 Unfortunately, there's no intermission for Ryan Landry's "M", which makes it kind of hard to do another #Twittermission event that night, but we'll let you know the date for Rapture, Blister, Burn as soon as we lock it down. Thanks again to the Arden and all of our question-askers for their participation in making this experiment a success. Hopefully, it will continue to grow, but in the meantime, let us know if you have any suggestions or requests for ways in which we can integrate social media into our performances without being intrusive to the performers.

This Friday -- Join the Party with #35Below!

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.

Let’s recap: $25 gets you (1) tickets to a play, plus (2) an after party with (a) a live band and (b) cheap drinks. All personal bias aside, this is probably the single best deal you can find for a night out in Boston.

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.

INVISIBLE MAN #Twittermission Round-Up

Our inaugural #Twittermission took place on the evening of January 30. The Twitterverse was buzzing with excitement when we announced the event, and there were many people following closesly as I communicated over video chat with Invisible Man projection designer Alex Koch and costume designer Kathleen Geldard and relayed their answers to audience questions live over our twitter feed, which was then displayed on the video monitors in the lobby during intermission. While much of the in-house audience seemed busy/distracted with concessions and bathroom runs, the video monitors still drew several curious eyes who watched with interest. With a little more leadtime to promote the event for A Raisin In The Sun, we're hoping to get our audiences - both those at the theatre, and those at home -even more involved in the #Twittermission conversation.

The conversation remains on our Twitter feed, of course, but for the sake of posterity, here are the tweets as they took place last night. (for those unfamiliar with twitter shorthand, @diveunderwater is Alex Koch)

Introducing #Twittermission

As Twitter has continued to grow in popularity, there's been a lot of talk in the theatre world about how to integrate it (and other social media platforms / smartphone apps) into performances. Many of you have probably already heard or read about "tweet seats," and the ensuing conversation / backlash around that. But as our Artistic Director Peter said, "from the moment the curtain goes up to the moment it comes down, the art on stage is all the engagement the audience needs. That onstage moment you miss to read or send a tweet could be the one that sends chills up your spine, stirs you with empathy, or sends your imagination wild."

So instead, we've found another way to get involved — but of course, we're going to need your help (hence the "social" part of "social media). Enter: #Twittermission. What's that? I'm glad you asked (he says rhetorically). At select performances, we'll be opening up our Twitter account to an artist, designer, stage manager, or other face behind-the-scenes who will field questions from the audience and answer them in real-time during intermission. The conversation will be displayed on the video monitors in the lobby of each of our theatres, allowing our audience to follow along. And if you don't have a ticket for the performance that night, you can still follow along with us live on Twitter. Think of it as another way to keep the conversation going after the curtain's gone down (and for those of you unfamiliar with Twitter -- our tweets will all be public, so you can still follow along without signing up or having an account of your own). If you're not able to follow along live, the conversation will remain archived on our Twitter feed, so you can go back and read through it any time you'd like!

We'll be hosting our inaugural #Twittermission this Wednesday, January 30, at the 7:30pm performance of Invisible Man. Video / Projection Designer Alex Koch will be on hand to answer your questions, whether they're about the production in general, the integration of video/media into live performance, Pedro Martinez's new position on the Red Sox (hey, he's a Cambridge native), or anything else. Feel free to ask your questions ahead of time as well — we'll compile all your questions and answer them throughout each intermission, making sure to tag your twitter handle in the response (unless you ask us not). Just make sure that you direct your tweets to the @Huntington and include the hashtag #Twittermission.

Sincerely crossing my fingers in the hope that this works,

Thom Dunn

Web and New Media Manager