Humpday With Howard: The Fun and Games of Theatre Management

Theatre Management may sound like all work and no play, but the Nebraska Repertory Theatre management team takes pride in making not only our theatre performances fun for everyone, but also our promotional events! Our Assistant General Manager and House Manager, Bryan Howard, talks about how the Nebraska Rep is connecting with audience members on a fun and personal level, and the history behind one of our favorite promotional games:

Charadtionary at Jazz in June

Hello, everyone! My name is Bryan and I'll be your weekly Wednesday blogger. I am very interested in history and so plan with my posts to connect this season's productions and marketing with some of the history behind it all.

To kick it off, I thought I'd talk a little bit about our Jazz in June booth from last night. As Stephanie mentioned, we gave those who attended the event the chance to win a free ticket to one of our shows this summer. What did they have to do? Transform a blank dry erase board into masterpiece in one minute.

Or, put simply, play some pictionary. With a splash of charades thrown in because, hey, this is a theatre company after all. So, to play this charadtionary game, we had players pick a word from a fishbowl (all of which relate to our 2014 season) and then try and draw (and mime) something in under a minute that would lead their partner(s) to guess it correctly. Here are a few of many examples of works that put Starry Night and the Mona Lisa to shame:

And now for some history! According to a 1988 article in the Los Angeles Times, Pictionary sprung from the mind of Rob Angel, a Seattle waiter who, at parties, would pick words from a dictionary at random, draw them, and have other guests guess the words. In 1985, he stopped waiting, partnered with Gary Paul Everson and founded the company that would become Seattle Games Inc., and began selling Pictionary. In 1986, the game was off to a modest start and sold about 350,000. The next year, however, sales exploded and, with 3 million copies sold, Pictionary became one of the hottest toys of the year, making it the Furby of its day. Since its creation, Pictionary has spawned many imitators, including Milton Bradley's less successful Win, Lose or Draw game, a 1989 and 1997 gameshow of the same names, and, most recently, the OMGPOP's app, Draw Something. Now, we've brought it to the Nebraska Rep!

The Nebraska Rep isn't just having fun at Jazz in June; we're also working on new events to come out and play! Keep an eye out here and on social media to stay posted on where we'll be playing.