...
sidenote: the theatre arts mailing lists change often. keep track of them. currently, they are: ta-performances, ta-auditions, ta-crew, and ta-academic. in case it's not clear, these are, in the following order: show publicity, auditions announcements, techies wanted, and academic stuff within the department. don't misuse them, otherwise the theatre lady will yell at you. these have changed twice during my time at MIT. these might change in the future 
A sample Email blurb:
The MIT Shakespeare Ensemble presents
The Tempest
By William Shakespeare
Directed by J Paul Nicholas
Our last performance is tonight!
Reserve Tickets at http://web.mit.edu/ensemble/www/tickets/
Magic and mischief abound when the Queen of Naples and her court find themselves mysteriously shipwrecked on a deserted island. Join us for a night filled with sorcery, alcohol-inspired homicidal plotting, and young lust.
*Performances*
March 24 at 8:00pm
La Sala De Puerto Rico (MIT Student Center)
84 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge MA
MIT, Harvard, Wellesley Students: $6
MIT Community, Seniors, Other Students: $9
General Admission: $12
The Interner
There are many other places on the internet (both inside and outside of MIT) where you can put up advertisements. We're supposed to only advertise to the MIT community. But some places are definitely fine:
netheater411.com (super straightforward)
MIT Events Calendar
Others places you stumble across. find them, use them, put up ads, reuse the blurb, put up a little graphic image if you have one.
MIT Publications
* Photos *
Contact both The Tech and Technique to have someone take pictures. They need to be warned ahead of time and told that they should come for the final dress rehearsal. It is too distracting to have them take pictures during a show, this should be avoided at all costs.
*Reviews*
Request a reviewer from The Tech by emailing their arts department. bribe them with 1 or 2 comp tickets. it is very possible that no one will come. Even in the best case scenario, a review won't come out until Second Friday at the earliest. Evidently we've also gotten Larry Stark's "Theatre Mirror" to come review our shows, but we haven't done this in a while.
Program
There used to be a program designer position. because of my overenthusiasm during the tempest and taking 5 prod positions, a lot of them got mushed into one. so now, either the publicity manager or publicity designer or a third person makes the program. Make the program in powerpoint. Hunt down old programs to get a sense for the formatting.
Important Things to Include in the Program:
Program Cover
All the ads you’ve arranged for ad swaps: LSC, MITA/V, Copytech, and upcoming theatre @ MIT
Cast & Crew bio’s
Director’s note (Optional)
Dramaturg's note (Optional)
Synopsis (Optional)
List of Scenes (Optional)
About the Shakespeare Ensemble (Optional)
Special thanks / acknowledgments
It's important that the program takes up an full number of printer pages. This can make formatting quite difficult. Play around, and stick in some pictures if you need some filler. These can either be printed through copytech, or discreetly using Athena Printing.
Suggested Deadlines
Because the main graphic used on the posters is reused on pretty much everything else, it's important to get the teasers and posters done as early as possible, to leave time for shipping of postcards and t-shirts (which can take anywhere between 1 and 3 weeks, depending on issues).
Deadlines go vaguely in the following order:
1. Semifinal Teaser
2. Final Teaser, Semifinal Poster
3. Final Poster, Postcards
4. T-shirts
5. Ads
You don't have to make things due on a prod meeting day, you can choose deadlines based on shipping, etc. it's important that you do your homework and figure out what the deadlines are going to be really early so you can tell the producer, so he/she can put it in the designer's contract.
That's easy to do for the spring show, since you can just come up with it over winter break and send it out at the beginning of IAP, giving everyone a good month to work on it before the semester even starts. that's important because the spring rehearsal period is only 4 weeks before put-in, which means that IAP is a really good time for the designer to start working (and prod meetings start about halfway through IAP anyway). The fall rehearsal period is 6 weeks before put-in, which gives you buffer time, especially if you only become publicity manager at the beginning of term as opposed to over the summer.
In either event, you should coordinate with the Publicity Designer and the Producer when forming deadlines.