Best friends, stickers, and the color orange: Shadowing house and marketing

Because of the way my schedule fell, I ended up shadowing the house and marketing crews over several weeks, which gave me the chance to watch their work translate into real products. Walking into my first meeting, I had a strong belief that the two crews were similar. I planned to combine them into a single article and shadow both at once. However, what I found was a considerably wide range of responsibilities and jobs taken on by each crew.

It is easy for anyone to make the mistake of assuming. Both crews are comprised of a single friend group—one that is clearly close inside and outside of theater. They had a wonderful time, even while working, simply laughing at one another’s jokes and referencing shared memories. It took only five minutes before I felt welcomed in as well, poking fun alongside them and contributing my own opinion.

Despite this, though, when it came time to work, the leads made sure their crews remained separate and focused. I spent my first meeting, which was nearly two weeks ago, primarily on the marketing end of the show. At that time, the One Man, Two Guvnors poster was already complete, though still a secret. The poster is a hallmark of every Fossil Ridge High School show. Every student grows used to seeing it in their classrooms and throughout Instagram, but contrary to the popular understanding that marketing spends the bulk of their time on it, I instead found the crew deep in fundraising efforts when I arrived.

Because most of this show’s marketing crew is the same as that from Rent, including lead Eli Taylor, they were already aware of what needed to be changed this time around. They determined from previous experience that one fundraiser was not enough to fund every aspect of the show. Therefore, they decided as a group to repeat last show’s Urban Bricks Pizza fundraiser and also add one at Fuzzy’s Taco Shop.

The crew planned their immediate next steps in detail. They set a date to make the necessary calls to the two restaurants, and Taylor advised her crew about the best way to make contact with the businesses. She described the importance of following up with an email if they do not respond to your call within a reasonable amount of time. I was impressed by the depth of their conversation, which covered little things, such as whether to use school or personal emails for this purpose, and big ones, such as the real-world skills of professionality and legitimacy. The crew particularly honed in on the importance of striking a balance between “seeming like a student” and “establishing that this is not a scam.”

The conversation turned to merchandise, which is not a marketing responsibility. However, we brainstormed some ideas, such as “getting merch designed by students.” I gave input on the fact that most audience members would not feel comfortable purchasing a shirt or sweatshirt for a show that they were not a part of. I explained, for example, that I would not buy a Rent sweatshirt because I did not work nearly as hard by coming to see the show as those who put it together did. The consensus was that merch seemed like something one has to earn, but that everyone wants stickers, culminating in Makenna Tamlin’s, “If we make the stickers aesthetic, people will buy them.”

In terms of further advertising the show, the crew discussed revitalizing social media programs from last year. Hamilton, the remarkably popular musical that has been on Broadway since 2015, famously did social media takeovers, in which the actors did vlog-style videos behind-the-scenes. This would let the Fossil community not only behind the curtain, but allow them to experience the show the way an actor does. The crew also had the idea of creating individual character posters, which would highlight each actor’s role and allow Fossil to envision their friends, peers, and students onstage.

Finally, the crew agreed that they would definitely bring back one major element of Rent’s advertising. Students likely remember the massive, prom-theme-reveal style poster in the commons before show week last fall, and marketing planned to again ask National Art Honor Society to create one. One Man uses orange as a dominant color, and the crew agreed that that will help to draw attention well.

Meanwhile, as marketing was delving into both funding and advertising for before the show, house was making decisions about how everything would come together on show night. The crew was working on a lobby design while I shadowed marketing, and by the time I came back to shadow house, it had been submitted for director approval.

Maya Schwent, house lead, explained to me that the lobby design in past years was fairly generic. However, for Rent, the crew went with a more themed approach to add interest to what people see when they walk into Fossil for the show. For that musical, they used a big poster and Christmas lights to tie the lobby into the show’s set. They hope to mimic that idea with this show, as well as start setting up tables, chairs, and decorations further ahead of time than last semester.

During my shadow, though, I got a glimpse at some of house’s less glamorous responsibilities. The Fossil Ridge Theater Boosters is a group of parents who help support Fossil’s theater program through fundraising and grant-writing. House collaborates with the organization on show nights to sell tickets and merchandise, and the main focus of the meeting I attended was coordinating that collaboration. This included discussions about who would do which jobs on show nights, how house would contact the booster club, and the ultimate agreement that, “It’s a student-led show.” The house crew decided that, though they greatly appreciate the help of the boosters, they wanted to take on the bulk of the responsibility themselves.

House also assists marketing in their fundraising efforts, and their final responsibility is ushering on the night of the show. Members of the crew and other volunteer ushers will sell tickets, scan them, and show people to their seats. This year, the seats in the Performing Arts Center are being relabeled with new plaques, which the house crew will need to screw on one by one. Ultimately, the crew will spend the next weeks preparing the PAC and its lobby for the magic that will take place inside it.

The two upcoming fundraisers for One Man will occur within the next month, and the Fossil community is encouraged to attend. The description of this series will be modified to include that information as it becomes available.