Theater company scripts say ‘trim’ and ‘team up’

“People who I know who work in nonprofit arts . . . are some of the best entrepreneurs I’ve ever met, because we’ve been pulling it off for some time with no resources,’’ says Kate Warner, artistic director at New Repertory Theatre in Watertown.

Merrimack Repertory Theatre in Lowell moved to cut budgets this year, despite four straight seasons in the black. Richard Gray, the technical director, agreed to a plan to close the scene shop, eliminate his job and two seasonal jobs, and outsource their sets. Outsourcing them, that is, to his company, Bent Productions, a casual side job for the last several years that is now full-time work for him and his wife, another backstage veteran. They’ll build the MRT’s sets this season and hope to add other troupes and projects next year.

“We tried not to think of it as cutting back. That’s a destructive act. We tried to think of it as a creative act,’’ says Tom Parrish, MRT’s executive director.

At the Charlestown Working Theater, a dip in both audiences and contributions last season led the small company to a concerted effort to engage its upscale neighbors, “people that have moved into Charlestown but maybe don’t have children in our educational programming and don’t go to see theater or maybe go to the Huntington or someplace like that,’’ says Jennifer Johnson, a co-director.

The CWT partnered with the Artists Group of Charlestown, which has a studio and gallery just down the street from the theater, to offer a gallery show and reception followed by a play and a post-play reception at the theater, all for one ticket price. Whether because it seemed like a bargain or simply more of an event, “it really worked,’’ Johnson says, with three sold-out shows of “The Odyssey’’ on opening weekend. They’ll repeat and perhaps expand the collaboration with their next production.

“Maybe people don’t want to spend money on tickets and on going out to eat. This was a way for them to have a larger evening,’’ Johnson says.

“I don’t know if you can say it’s a ‘bright spot’ in this economy, but a lot of restaurants are willing to work with us now,’’ echoes Temple Gill, Huntington Theatre Company director of marketing. Restaurants are offering discounts to ticket holders and other promotions. “I don’t know if it helps sales, but it helps what I call ‘subscriber happiness,’’’ says Gill. “Anything we can do to make our patrons have that complete experience, we want to do.’’

“Making it easy’’ was also why the Huntington changed its flex pass program last season, Gill says, so that the passes no longer expired at the end of a season. Sales more than doubled.

“It’s sort of like having a Starbucks card. Our hope is, when you use up your tickets, you just put more tickets on your card and keep going,’’ Gill says. “We think there’s a real opportunity, especially here, to attract . . . younger subscribers who don’t even like the word subscription very much.’’

The up-and-coming Orfeo Group is going ahead with its first winter production in February, and “we’ve been doing some creative thinking about ticket prices,’’ says Risher Reddick, a founding member. “We noticed our final week tends to be our biggest, so we’re creating an incentive for people to come earlier.’’ Tickets to the opening week of Orfeo’s “Island of Slaves’’ at the BCA Plaza Theatre will be . . . free. Second-week tickets will be $18, third week, $25, and fourth, $30.

Of course many companies have adopted social media to spread the word. Last summer the Salem Theatre Company had only 100 fans on Facebook, and still 15 of them showed up to get last-minute Facebook discount tickets to a production of “No Exit.’’ Now the troupe has more than 450 Facebook fans and is looking forward to more online specials in the new season.

The American Repertory Theater has more than 1,300 followers for its @americanrep Twitter account. “It’s exciting and fun to see all the side conversations people have,’’ says Kerry Israel, ART audience development manager.

The New Rep has been doing many of these things, too, Warner says, from partnering with restaurants and trimming overhead to looking at new ways of scheduling or pricing shows. “We’ve been operating this way for years,’’ Warner says. “In a lot of ways we’re MacGyvers. We’ve always been pulling it off with a piece of string, a piece of gum, and a jackknife.’’