The end of year ballet and school concert season is upon us, and with it has come overwhelming box office sales.
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Where patrons would normally book most of their tickets online, we have seen a deluge of both phone and in-person bookings through the box office due to our COVID-safe seating plans.
Presently, the online limit for purchases is two tickets per show, and if you require three or more the booking must be made through us so that we can ensure social distancing between bookings.
In the case of one dance school, no bookings were available online meaning we were the sole selling point.
Patrons booking for family groups have flooded our phones and foyer.
- Helen Knight, Manning Entertainment Centre
Consequently, patrons booking for family groups have flooded our phones and foyer, and our sales team have been absolutely flat out. We thank them for some fine customer service under pressure. The restrictions of COVID-safe seating are providing some very labour intensive days for the champions of the box office and phone sales.
Our livestreaming technology is now installed and we have a three camera configuration with multitrack audio recording for broadcasting. Show presenters now have the option of offering live stream ticketing to their patrons, so that friends and family across the country and the globe can share in live events.
It will enable grandma In Perth to see her MidCoast based grandchildren's school concerts, or Aunty Rose in Argentina to see her Taree niece's very first ballet concert performance.
This technology affords good value added revenue potential to our venue hirers, and we are proud to say that we're ahead of the curve amongst NSW regional theatres as one of the early adopters of live-streaming capabilities during the COVID restrictions. This technology will be a great asset even beyond the pandemic's timeline, and we plan to offer this service into the future.
The final OnScreen National Theatre Live film for 2020 was the French classic "Cyrano de Bergerac" starring James McAvoy on Tuesday November 17. The famous story of the sensitive poet with an obnoxiously large nose (and even bigger heart) remains ever popular despite being penned in 1897, and this National Theatre production is given a bold contemporary setting.
