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HELP! Children's Theatre Program

HELP! Children's Theatre Program

TopCat3
#1HELP! Children's Theatre Program
Posted: 8/9/18 at 5:10pm

Hi! I run a New Jersey Nonprofit children's theatre program in Hainesport, NJ. I am having a lot of trouble getting people to sign up for some of our upcoming programs. We have a week-long workshop called Aspects of Theatre set to take place next week in which the kids will learn from different professionals about stage makeup, costumes, stage combat, music, dance, stagecraft, and will get their headshots taken. The price is only $75 and I gave a few people scholarships, but so far only 5 people have signed up and I need to get a headcount by tomorrow (Friday) since the program is next week. I'm going to be really embarrassed if my program runs with only 5 kids involved. I drastically lowered the price already, because it was supposed to be $200 but no one signed up. I have to pay rent for September and I have $5 in my business account. I don't know what to do! I have fall programs coming up as well, but so far only two people have officially registered. I feel like my nonprofit is failing - we used to run the program at the local library and at one point had a total of 60 kids in the program, but when we moved to our own space a lot of people didn't follow us. Last month and this month I've had five kids (different each month) in our original plays and only have 4 voice students. I desperately need help and I have no money for advertising. There's not enough time to set up a fundraiser (although I will be doing a restaurant fundraiser where people who mention Top Cat get a certain percentage of the profits), but other than that there's not much I can do. Does anyone have any suggestions?HELP! Children's Theatre Program

UncleCharlie
#2HELP! Children's Theatre Program
Posted: 8/9/18 at 5:53pm

Why don't you send out a survey to the parents of the people who didn't follow you and try to find out why. Are there local schools/after school programs you can partner with, advertise at? Local theater companies you can maybe get some free advertising with? If none of that works, you may have to face the reality that despite your best intentions, there's just not a perceived need for this right now.