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4. Good places to order from include NEDesign and , QRST's, and CustomInk. NEDesign is usually cheaper, but a little less reliable. QRST's has been known to give discounts if you pay them in cash. If you order from NEDesign, make sure to do so at least a week before you want the shirts. It will probably take a week for them to be made. CustomInk is one of the more convenient options, and has been used fairly consistently between 2018 and 2021.
Postcards
1. This will use up the bulk of the publicity budget
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Facebook advertising is super important. Ask request for access to the facebook Faccebook page if you don't have it already. Next, make an event for the show. The pub designer should make a banner for use on the FB ad (can also be used for emails). You can see older events on the page as a template.
The next thing you want to do is boost the event to reach more people. If there's a friendly alum who works at Facebook, they get ad credit for working there that they might use for you ($250); ask the officers to figure out if there is one and how to contact them. Otherwise, you can input the maximum amount you want to spend on the ad and for how long you want it to run . - make sure the producer/treasurer know you need budget for this.
You want to be sure to specify the location as local to Cambridge/Boston. Tags you can use for the outreach can be "theater", "shakespeare", "comedy" or "tragedy", "MIT", etc. Use your creativity.
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Go to the LSC website to get specs for slide design and give these to the designer. Send an email to LSC asking for an swap, projecting our ad for two weekends in return for a full program page ad. They used to give us inserts, but recently they've switched to just having their ad as part of the program. The slide is a full color digital file.
Infinite Display
We have not done this in a while. We should probably use this tho. Measure pub man, do this. Then delete this line. Love Mary.
Infinite Display control the projectors in the Student CenterInfinite Display control the projectors in the Student Center, Stata, and the Infinite. They don't usually do ad swaps, but it might not be a bad idea to ask them for one anyway. Look at their slide for specs. It should be a full color widescreeen image. Student groups get 3 days of free Infinite Display space per semester. See here for details. It's only $15/day – we should probably start doing this again.
Spam is your friend. People will probably reply to you complaining, but not that many. You'll also get some bouncing emails and "away from office" emails. but it's totally worth it.
BCC is your friend. this will hide the fact that you are misusing MIT mailing listsMake sure to BCC email lists or you will get flak. If you want to avoid typing each mailing list below into an email every time, you can BCC <lend-me-your-ears@mit.edu> instead, which contains the lists that can be frequently spammed.
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<ec-discuss@mit.edu>
<random-hall-talk@mit.edu>
<baker-forum@mit.edu>
<bc-talk@mit.edu>
<mccormick-announce@mit.edu>
<macgregor@mit.edu>
<nh-forum@mit.edu>
<next-forum@mit.edu>
<sponge-talk@mit.edu>
<sh-public@mit.edu>
Note: when including bc-talk@mit.edu, it's traditional to include your underwear color at the bottom in the form of the phrase "(insert color here) for bc-talk". No one's going to check if the color is accurate, and it's often fun to include a show-relevant color or description. People might get annoyed if you don't do this since it's commonly used in email filters.
Other options (optional):
Go through the internet and find various boston-area theatre departments at different schools, also boston-area community theatres, professional theatres, whatever. no need to spam them continually, one publicity email should probably suffice. just try to get it out to people. high school theatre and literature teachers are good targets, too, because sometimes they bring their whole class on a field trip. what i've done in the past is send one email to boston area theatre people, and one specially written email to boston-area teachers, inviting them to bring their classes of students to see our play. if you want to do that, you should do it in the beginning of the semester, because field trips take a while to organize.
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: (include that nifty banner your pub designer made!)
The MIT Shakespeare Ensemble presents
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Our last performance is tonight!
Reserve Tickets at http://webensemble.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.
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MIT Publications
* Photos *
This is probably best done by someone in the Ensemble, who would have the time to take a lot of pictures.
However, if you'd like, contact
Contact both The Tech and Technique (costs money, plus they might not respond) 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.
NETheater411
Program
Mirror" to come review our shows, but we haven't done this in a while.
NETheater411
Program
Traditionally, programs include bios of everyone involved with the show. Start collecting these early. A good deadline is to make sure that quotes are in a week and a half before the show so the designer has time to place them in the program and you have time to print them.
Print them on Wednesday or Thursday before opening night and start folding!
BE SURE TO CREDIT TED IF HE DID FIGHT CHOREO FOR THE SHOWTHE FIGHT CHOREOGRAPHER
Ticket Reservations
Ticket reservations should be up prior to auditionsabout a month before the show starts. Information on how to put up ticket reservations can be found here.
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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). Usually, this will involve emailing the CAC a lot and scheduling a time to meet with the manager on duty to discuss reservations. You should generally expect a bit of administrative lag and should begin contact with them well in advance of your proposed stunt date. Things will start moving a bit rapidly the closer you get to the stunt date so you should prepare to visit the CAC office a lot during the week of the stunt to ensure that they haven't forgotten about you (they'll tend to do that!).
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. Remember to discuss which spaces are available for the type of scene that you want to do and which spaces are closed off for a stunt with the CAC. If you're going to be doing anything regarding loud noises, you're going to have to do an audio test with a CAC manager on duty to make sure you're not bothering anyone in the general vicinity.
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