V- Publicity:
• The public relations head is in charge of designating tasks for everybody on the publicity team.
• Right after auditions, public relations head will decide who will be assigned each task within the publicity team. These tasks are preparing the flyers and tickets, preparing the program, painting the banner, preparing the mailings, and calling student organizations, and running the ‘Amigos de Teatrotaller’ program.
• The next step in the process is to provide copies of the script for the publicity team, make sure that they read the play , and explain them the directorial concept for the play.
• Once they have done this, the publicity team must decide on a concept, style, color, etc. to make the publicity materials such as flyers, programs, tickets, as consistent as possible. This is very important because we want the materials to have recurring images in such a way that the audience will immediately be able to recognize our publicity materials. All publicity materials MUST have the Teatrotaller logo. It is through the logo that our audiences identify us and distinguish our flyer from others.
• Once individual tasks have been set, the rest of the tasks may be carried individually or in groups, depending on the instructions set by the producer. Since some of the tasks are simple and do not consume a lot of time, some of them may be carried out by the same person. Publicity is divided among:

A-)Preparation of ‘Amigos de Teatrotaller’.
B-) Communication by e-mail
C-) Preparation of the flyer and tickets.
D-) Discount to student organizations.
E-) Preparation of mailings.
F-) Preparation of the program.
G-) Preparation of the banner.
H-) Update webpage, with assistance of historian.

A. Amigos de Teatrotaller:
• The public relations head shall make one of the members of the publicity team responsible for the Amigos de Teatrotaller program. This person needs to be in constant communication with the treasurer, since this program is the responsibility of both. While the publicity person prepares and sends out the forms, the treasurer confirms the enrollment in the program and sends out the tickets and the publicity materials.
• Amigos de Teatrotaller is a program designed to shorten the gap between the student population and the faculty/ staff at Cornell University and to provide sources of support for the troupe.
• The names of the people enrolled in Amigos de Teatrotaller appear on the program as supporters of the group.
• In the past, the number of people enrolled in the program has been of about 15. I believe that this number could be bigger if more incentives are provided for those who enroll in the program.
Ideas to improve the program:
• Ask “amigos” to donate money to the program on a sliding basis (see CUSLAR’s membership forms for a model), and provide each donor with two “free” tickets to the performance.
• Provide special seats for those enrolled in the program. The first couple of seats in the audience may be reserved for the members of the program.
• Prepare a special reception with the members of Teatrotaller and the members of the program. Make the people enrolled in Amigos de Teatrotaller feel that they are a part of the group as much as possible. Luis Rafael Sánchez’s visit to campus, for instance, was a great opportunity to attract more people. His visit included a reception with the playwright, the members of Teatrotaller and the members of Amigos de Teatrotaller.

How the program works:
• Prepare the Amigos de Teatrotaller booklet to send out to potential members. The sample to this booklet is enclosed in this section and the public relations head will have copies of the forms on disks.
This booklet should include the following parts:
A- About Teatrotaller: Brief description of the group explaining its mission and titles of the plays previously presented.
B- History of Teatrotaller: History of the group’s trajectory, etc.
C- Amigos de Teatrotaller: Description of the program and the expectations for those who sign up for it.
D- Description of the play to be presented, including the title, author, date, time, location, cost per ticket, etc.
E- Benefits for those who enroll in the program (Brunch, special seats, rehearsals, etc.).
F- Self-addressed postcard (with the treasurer’s address). If the treasurer lives off-campus, then include an on-campus address where the postcard may be sent to. A good idea is to include the address of our mailbox in Goldwin Smith Hall. This postcard must require interested people to sign in their name, address, and e-mail address.
• This form should be sent to all of the people in the VIP list included in this section. It may also be send out to any other person whom you consider might be helpful to the group.
• Make sure that the postcard is included inside the Amigos de Teatrotaller flyer.
• Before sending out the forms via campus mail, sort the forms by building. Otherwise, they will be returned.
• Through Carlos Castillo-Chavez’s office or through the Latin American Studies Program office, it might also be possible to arrange to have some of the Amigos de Teatrotaller forms faxed or hand delivered to some of the people on the list.
• The people interested in enrolling in the program will contact the treasurer, who will then send them tickets, etc. The treasurer must provide the publicity team with a list of the people enrolled. This list will then be included in the performance program.
• After you know for sure who is enrolled in the program, prepare an e-mail list to facilitate communication with them.

B. E-Mail lists:
• Publicity by e-mail is a very easy and cost-free way to advertise the shows. For every Teatrotaller event (auditions, performances, etc.) write an e-mail message and send it to all of the e-mail lists related to the Latino/ Latin American affairs.
• Some of these lists are Latino-L, the list of the Mexican Students Association, the list of the Puerto Rican Students Association, the list of the International Students and Scholars Office, the list of the Venezuelan Students Association, the list of the Colombian Students Association, etc. Mary Jo Dudley, Associate Director of the Latin American Studies Program, and Marti Dense, Latino Studies Program, may provide more useful information for these matters.

• Make sure to send all of the information to the e-mail list of the ‘Amigos de Teatrotaller’ program. This list will be prepared either by the treasurer or by the publicity person in charge of ‘Amigos de Teatrotaller’.
• Prepare a special e-mail list for those in the VIP list and the list of contacts in other universities in the area. They may provide good sources of support and be helpful in the spread of publicity materials.

C. Flyers and Tickets:
Flyers:
• The visual concept for the flyers and the tickets must be in accordance with all of the other publicity elements. For the most part, the person in charge of designing the flyer prepares it and the same image is copied for the tickets, program, banner, etc.
• Thus, it is very important that the visual design for the graphics be neat, clear, professional, and above all, an image that sells out to the public.
• It is absolutely important that each flyer includes the Teatrotaller logo, since most people recognize our flyers by it. Besides the Teatrotaller logo, EVERY flyer must include:
-Title of the production
- Author
- Location
- Date
- Time
- If there will be a reception, etc.
- Sponsors
- Admission fee
- Who to call for more information (usually the treasurer)
- In some occasions, it might be useful to include information about transportation services (i.e. If the play is off-campus or if it is during the winter, since people probably won’t want to walk).
• The flyer must be ready at least two weeks before the performance date. The exact dates are specified in the production calendar here enclosed.
• Once the flyer is ready, it needs to be photocopied. Depending on the budget, we usually make about 250 11”x 17” flyers and 200 postcard size flyers (in Kinko’s). The letter size flyers are usually done by the person in charge of the mailings and these may be done in the office of Carlos Castillo-Chávez.
• The cast and team of Teatrotaller post the flyers themselves. It is important not to put up all of the flyers at the same time, since flyers are rapidly taken down, defaced or destroyed from the bulletin boards. We usually put them up in three different rounds. The different rounds for putting the flyers up are marked in the production calendar.

Tickets:
• Along with the flyers, the tickets also have to be ready two weeks prior to the performance. The tickets are printed in cardstock and they usually measure about 2” x 2”.
• Usually the tickets have a similar design to that of the flyers and they must have the following information:
-Teatrotaller logo
- Title
- Location
- Date
- Time
• As soon as the tickets are ready, these must be given to the producer or the treasurer, who will then number the tickets and give them out to different people.
• Keeping track of ticket sales is the responsibility of the treasurer.

 

D. Student organizations and other contacts:
• As a student organization, Teatrotaller tries to reach out as much as possible to the student body.
• One of the ways to reach out to the student body is to provide discount tickets to other student organizations. Through this program, student organizations that buy ten or more tickets get a 50% discount.
• As part of this project, Teatrotaller also contacts groups from other universities in the areas and offers them at a special promotion price if they purchase ten or more tickets. Enclosed is a contact list of professors and staff members in other universities.
• Efforts also need to be made to contact local high school teachers early in the semester to let them know about the play, and include their students in performances.
• The producer is in charge of designating a member of the publicity team for this.How the program works:
•The first step is to make a list of the student organizations on campus along with the names and numbers of the contact persons for them.
• This list should include both Latino and Latin American organizations. The names and numbers of the Latin American organizations may be found in the International Students and Scholars Office (ISSO) in Caldwell Hall. The names and numbers of the Latino organizations may be found in the Latino Studies Program (LSP), in Rockefeller Hall.
• Make sure to get the names and numbers of more than one person in the organization. Also try to get their e-mail addresses, since it might be easier to contact them by this means.
• The publicity person in charge of this task must then call the contact person from each organization and tell them about Teatrotaller, our mission on campus, our up-coming event, and the special offer for student organizations.
• Reaching student organizations by telephone might be hard. Thus, establishing an e-mail list might make communication easier.
• Once you know which organizations are interested in joining the program, contact the treasurer for Teatrotaller and let her/him know. The treasurer will then arrange how the tickets will be sent to each of them.
• An excellent means to involve local High Schools would be to invite the teachers and students to a special rehearsal and explain the process of putting on a show and the ideas behind the production concept.

 

E. Preparation of Mailings:
• At least one week prior to the performance date, pick up the master mailing list for the Latino students who live on campus and the master list for the student organizations. These master lists will then be photocopied on to the labels that can be purchased in the Campus Store. This list may be found in the Latino Studies Program in Rockefeller Hall.
• Get labels at the Campus Store and photocopy them. The copier in Carlos Castillo-Chávez’s office is available for these purposes. His office is located in the fourth floor of Warren Hall and the copier may be used any time after 5:00 pm. For more information contact Patricia Rojas at 255-8103.
• Once the labels are ready, make at least 800 letter size copies of the flyer and prepare them to be sent out by campus mail.
BEFORE SENDING THEM OUT, MAKE SURE THAT THE FLYERS ARE SORTED OUT BY BUILDING OR OTHERWISE THEY WILL BE RETURNED.
• This takes care of the Latino students who live on campus. In order to ensure that the Latin American students also get information about the performance, take a white copy of the flyer to the Latin American Studies Program in 190 Uris Hall. They will take care of photocopying the flyer and sending it out to the members of their mailing list.
• The remaining flyers should be taken personally to the Romance Studies main office (Goldwin Smith) and the Spanish Language main office (323 Morrill Hall) and deposited in the mailboxes of the graduate students and professors.
• The publicity person in charge of preparing the mailing is also in charge of writing a letter explaining the group’s mission, it trajectory on campus and the show that will be presented. This letter should accompany the flyers that will be dropped in the mailboxes.

• Letter size flyers also need to be sent out to the people on the VIP list enclosed in this section of the packet. However, some of the addresses provided might be off-campus and might require a stamp before sending them out.

 

F. Program:
• Preparing the program is usually the responsibility of one of the members of the publicity team. The producer will indicate who is in charge of completing this task.
• The director shall give the producer or the person in charge of the program a complete list of the names/ positions, etc. as they should appear in the program. The director must give this list to the producer at least ten days before the due dates for the program to allow ample time for its preparation. The deadlines are indicated in the production calendar enclosed in this section.
• Once the program is ready, it has to be submitted to the director for his/her approval and to ensure that all of the information is accurate and correctly spelled.
• A sample program is enclosed in this section. Each program must include the following parts:


A-Cover/ Graphic design with the Teatrotaller logo, name of the production, author, date, and theater where the event will take place. The design for the cover may be specially created for the program or may be the same design as the flyer .
B- Cast list, providing names of both the characters and the actors playing the parts.
C- List of the production team. This includes the director, stage manager, assistant director, sets, props, costumes, makeup, lights, sounds, publicity, historian, fund raising, mentors, and video.
D- List of people enrolled in the Amigos de Teatrotaller program. The treasurer is responsible for letting the publicity team know the names of the people enrolled in the program. Along with this, a brief explanation of the program should be provided. Make sure that the name, number and e-mail address of the treasurer is enclosed in case someone who reads the program gets interested in joining it.
E- Acknowledgment section where those who have been instrumental in the production are thanked and recognized.
F- Sponsors should be mentioned somewhere in the program. These may be verified through the group’s treasurer.
The number of programs printed usually depend on the play and the theater where it is taking place. In the Statler Auditorium, we usually print about 350 copies.
G. Banner:
• The location of the banner should be reserved as early as possible (better if at the beginning of the semester), in order to have a bigger chance of obtaining the desired dates. The producer will take care of reserving the space at the beginning of the semester. The reservations should be made at 520 Willard Straight Hall.
• The banner should be a maximum of 52” length, and 66” wide, and it must be stapled to a wooden frame (the special stapler can be obtained at 407-B WSH). The banner should be hung and unhung before 8:00 AM or after 6:00 PM; it must have the name of the organization written down and this should be at least 2 inches big. Teatrotaller also has a special stapler in stock that may be used for these purposes.

• The banner must include information about the play such as:
Teatrotaller Logo
Title
Author
Location
Date
Time
Sponsors
• The design on the banner is the prerogative of the person who paints the banner. However, in some way, it should follow the concept that the publicity team has selected for the rest of the materials.