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The role of the publicity manager is to take the publicity designers designs and translate them into actual physical objects. This can require printing on Athena or Copy Tech, ordering postcards, or acquiring t-shirts. This may also involve publicity stunts. This document will first examine the forms of publicity that should be used every semester, as well as some general notes about standards for publicity management.
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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.
Facebook Event
Make one (BEFORE prod week). Invite all your friends. Post publicity stunt footage if you like. Send out reminders (yes you can do that).
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.
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To make life easier, all this should be stored in one spot in the office during prod week. That way we don't have to get CAC to let us into West Lounge every morning
Publicity Stunts
What better way to advertise theater than theater? As an added touch of publicity, there is also the possibility of doing certain publicity stunts out there to increase awareness. This endeavor is ideal when the publicity team is not just two people (1 publicity manager and 1 publicity designer) but rather when there are plural managers so that one's focus can be overseeing the execution of these stunts. A couple of quick notes about these stunts:
* Scenes seem to work better than monologues, though some monologues work really well.
* Fights are awesome to watch and get people's attention. Most people won't stay for a scene or listen to the dialogue
* Lobby 7 is great* Lobby 7 is great, if we can get it again, especially during the day and in between show weekends
* Noon seems to work better than 5pm
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The appropriate authorities should be contacted for permission in performing in the areas selected, especially if you're planning on doing something that could be misinterpreted as dangerous (like stabbing Caesar on the steps of 77 Mass Ave in broad daylight).
Organization of
This will vary depending on the show. First pick out the spaces and reserve them. If it's anything abnormal (sound systems, fighting, FAKE weapons, etc...) contact Chris Nayler for an ok and possibly the police. Just avoid knives, they make life difficult. Do all the reservations several months before the show opens and all the okay's about a month before the show opens. Note: the Info Center is in charge of Lobby 7. They may hate us and may not lend us their space again. Lobby 7 steps seem to be public domain though (but I'm not sure about this). Maybe that space will work better.
Timing: One should be the week of opening night (Tuesday or Wednesday) and one should be the week between show weekends (also a Tuesday or Wednesday). Rehearsing the scenes in the space is a really good idea. Time maybe could be set aside during normal rehearsal. Make sure people are free before planning the scenes! Double check availability a couple days before the scene goes. Don't rely on only one scene or monologue for a stunt because people may not be on time/come. Having a wide variety also makes the time commitment a little less on the actors. Be flexible and make sure the stunt lasts longer than 5-10 minutes. (20-30 minutes is pretty good, if it's monologues then an hour might work too). Props are probably not a good idea, just because they may be easily lost.
Scenes should be done in full costume and people should hand out postcards while the scene is running. Scenes may need to be adapted to fit the space. Generally focus less on dialogue and more on the characterizations and attention grabbing bits (kissing, fighting, shouting, etc work well). The audience will probably not last longer than 5 seconds so expect that. Try to involve the passerbys in the scene. Go up to them and talk to them directly. Follow them, harass them (within reason), etc. Also, someone should be there 30 minutes before, during, about 15 minutes after the stunt to oversee everything and make sure costumes and props are there. This person does not need to be the same for each stunt.
Get these publicized using teaser posters! Also maybe email publicity? It depends on how you want people to view them: spontaneously, or as a part of the show. Also: get a video of this and post it to the event page! Especially for something big like a stabbing! Even if it crappy phone quality it will generate a lot of interest.