Broken Nose Theatre Implements Pay-What-You-Can Policy

As they head into their fourth season, Broken Nose Theatre (BNT) is establishing itself as one of the city's first exclusively Pay-What-You-Can (PWYC) storefront theatre companies. Beginning in September, all performances of any BNT MainStage production will fall under their new "We Set the Stage, You Set the Price" initiative, placing the reins in the hands of their audience members.

"We have always focused primarily on shows that spark and encourage conversations among our audience members," says BNT Artistic Director Benjamin Brownson. "And over the years, it came to our attention that our most diverse and most spirited post-show discussions were taking place after each of our productions' PWYC preview performances. The conversation was richer, the audiences were more enthusiastic."

"We also found that our PWYC previews were consistently both our most well-attended performances and, surprisingly, some of our most profitable," adds Elise Spoerlein, Associate Artistic Director. "We came to realize that in the last three years, whenever we gave our audience members the power to choose their own ticket price, our house counts increased dramatically. In addition, the generosity of certain audience members made this model viable and balanced out the patrons who were unable to pay a full ticket price."

"Accessibility has always been listed as one of BNT's core values," says Spenser Davis, the company's Director of Programming, "but I don't think we really considered all of the implications of that word until earlier this year. We had aimed at making our plays accessible to our audiences from a storytelling perspective, but what about an economic one? Our PWYC previews were a step in the right direction. This new model is our way of doubling down."

The company's first fully PWYC production will be their third annual Bechdel Fest, a festival featuring new ten-minute plays by local writers that both pass the Bechdel Test (which requires that two women speak to one another at some point about something other than a man) and feature all-female casts. This year's edition, called "Find Your Voice," sports a playwright lineup that includes Nambi E. Kelley, Bekah Brunstetter, Sarah Rose Graber, Joe Zarrow, Anne Garcia Romero, Corrbette Pasko and Sara Sevigny, Michael Allen Harris, and Spoerlein.

Bechdel Fest 3 is slated to premiere September 20-23 at The Den Theatre. The remainder of the theatre's 2015-16 season lineup is yet to be announced.