Visual Arts & Social Media…

Last Friday was date night for the Hensons. We had a blast enjoying the unique musical, Stomp at the Majestic Theatre. The chimes ring and we take our seats before the lights start to dim. I pull out my phone to snap a picture and share with my friends on Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare. Take a look…

Not very scandalous. Other than having horrible lighting, I didn’t think twice about it being a bad idea. We weren’t taking a picture of the stage or actors, but we were taking pictures of ourselves. An usher reminded us, harshly, that no photography is allowed inside the beautiful historic venue.

It made me wonder, why hasn’t this artistic and liberal visual arts industry jumped on board with this new media? Here’s what I found…

Security Reasons: According to this article on AskPlayBill.com, it really depends on each show. But what are the security issues? Revealing high-profile actors’ locations? Preventing terrorism? Unfortunately, I can’t seem to find any further explanation of this reason.

Copyrighted Curtains: Seriously. Not making this up. The chance that someone might recreate the curtain of the show, yes the red velvet curtain or a specially made curtain, is just way too great of a risk to take in exchange for free public buzz about the theatre or the show. This falls under intellectual property law, which is really at the heart of why you and I cannot take pictures in a theatre.

By banning photography, the creative team feels a little more protected from potential intellectual theft. But, as you see above, pictures are still taken. So it doesn’t work. It just deters word-of-mouth advertising.

Many theaters are adopting social media marketing initiatives. The Majestic Theatre has over 7,600 fans on their Facebook page and over 1,000 followers on Twitter. I reached out to organizers to get more in-depth information on how they are integrating social media into their marketing strategy, but have not heard back.

It will be interesting to see how this creative visual arts industry defines itself in the social sphere in the next couple of years, and what impact our ever-growing digital social awareness will have on the theatre in return.