What's the buzz around Chicago's theater scene? Brandon Hollembeak, founder and CEO of BuzzOnStage reveals what is happening in the various spotlights around the city's neighborhoods.
Since 2012, the online start-up has been a one-stop consumer news site and box-office platform. Working with theaters in Chicago to help grow and connect with their audience, BuzzOnStage makes it simpler for consumers to find out the news directly from their neighborhood theaters, purchase tickets and attend local performances.
"There's a lot going on and I just feel like people aren't hearing about it or don't have one place to go," said Hollembeak. "One of the things we do is pull in all the Facebook, tweets and the blog posts all into that newsfeed, so essentially you don't have to go find 50 different websites or Facebook pages or anything."
Currently, 400 theaters are in BuzzOnStage's database. The target market is small-stage theater, which Hollembeak described as having an average of 30-50 seats and a low ticket price.
"It's an audience development platform where they can focus on putting on great shows and making sure that we know about them and then we take over with the consumer side where we're constantly trying to get more neighborhood residents as theater goers to use BuzzOnStage," said Hollembeak. "Theater companies like that are outrageously inspiring to me where it exposes a piece of society that we may overlook on an everyday basis, but we should absolutely be responsible for and take action on."
Hollembeak's interest in the theater goes back to his high school days when he was the shortest student as a freshman and was approached to perform in "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers." Accepting the role and loving it, he went on to do a few more high school musicals and plays. At junior college with a theater scholarship, Hollembeak left the theater realm and took a previously offered music scholarship instead.
"Going to the movie theater and seeing it on the screen, seeing all the amazing effects and 3D and all that kind of stuff, you can still be disconnected from a film. When you go to one of these small-stage theaters, you're talking about 30-50 feet in a room that's not large that's a production quality, the talent of the actors, the writing of the show, where it is itself—having that experience that's in your face, there's not really a way to avoid it. You're involved with it. You're pulled into it."
Hollembeak's first experience with Chicago's theater scene was "Les Miserables" at the Ford Oriental Theatre, then "Wicked," and a few other Broadway touring company shows. His love story with his husband of five years even started at the theater. In time, he was connected back to the theater scene, having more knowledge in business and technology.
"I thought having the Chicago Theatre District in the Loop was pretty amazing and my first date with my husband was seeing a show at the Goodman Theatre," said Hollembeak of his initial reaction of theater in Chicago after moving from southern Kansas in 2005. "I'm always curious and a problem-solver, so the more I learned from him [his husband] about the whole Chicago theater scene, how many theaters there were and how little I, or anyone I talked to, knew and how little help they were being provided, the more my passion grew for helping theaters survive and thrive here."
His additional involvement in the theater industry includes his four years on the board of Redtwist Theatre in Edgewater along with his friendships with several managing and artistic directors in Chicago. Also involved in the LGBT community, Hollembeak helped start the LGBT group at Apartments.com ( Classified Ventures ) and since moving to Chicago almost 10 years ago, has been financially supporting marriage equality and various LGBT organizations such as Equality Illinois, the Human Rights Campaign and LGBT theaters and companies like About Face Theatre and the Center on Halsted, among others.
"Making sure more people experience live theater and having that connection with the topic and the writing—that's what inspires me about theater in general," said Hollembeak. "So, riding this vehicle, where theaters can thrive and we can partner with them to make sure their audience is growing and that they're able to have the resources to produce shows that will make that connection with people, that's what BuzzOnStage does."
When beginning the network, Hollembeak teamed with Christopher Pries, who serves as BuzzOnStage's vice president and CFO. The appeal, Pries said, was the patron management piece.
"I saw this as being a real gap in the market," said Pries, also a member of the LGBT community. "It was really obvious to me that this was a great thing to get involved with to help bridge the gap between theaters and the neighborhoods they're operating in. The idea that there's a single place to go that aggregates all this information and isolates it based on the neighborhood I live in or the neighborhood I'm going to be having dinner in, it was a no-brainer."
Getting pulled in the bigger neighborhood direction, the BuzzOnStage team has been working with the neighborhood chamber offices and aldermen to launch a neighborhood theater Flex Pass. The Flex Pass serves up one ticket to each of the participating theaters and the bonus of a discount at any of participating neighborhood restaurants. Edgewater was the first to have the pass in 2013. More Flex Passes are in development in other neighborhoods and are expected to commence in Fall 2014. New developments also include the company's June acquisition of TheatrePros, which set out to build an online community, connecting Chicago theaters and industry professionals since 2010. Using TheatrePros, theaters could setup profiles, post jobs and auditions, while industry professionals could build their profiles and respond to call-outs and connect. The activity also continued offline with events for industry professionals and theater patrons.
"It was obvious we were heading in the same direction, so joining forces was just natural," said Hollembeak. "I'm very excited to now have Andrea [Pikscher, co-founder of TheatrePros] and her talent as part of the Buzz team, and provide our theater partners with a comprehensive solution for audience development, social/email marketing, and industry and patron events to help educate and increase participation for all theaters and companies in Chicago."
To get more information or to register, visit: www.buzzonstage.com .
