A few weeks back, commenter Chaz asked if I could elaborate on why I considered Steppenwolf, the House and New Leaf three of the best examples in town as far as leveraging social media and engaging audiences online.

Let's start with the big dog, Steppenwolf. Of the three, they have the smallest cross-platform presence—if they have a Twitter account or a Facebook fan page, for instance, I'm not aware of it. What they do have is a handsomely designed, cohesive web brand all contained within steppenwolf.org. Steppenwolf's website is easy to navigate and provides viewers with a rich selection of content; from the page for the current production of Art, you can reach bios for all of the cast members and most of the directing/design staff, view photos from rehearsal and production, get video and podcast discussions of various aspects of the play, and read blurbs from selected reviews.

Furthermore, Steppenwolf makes better use of its blog than almost any other company out there. The company publishes postings from ensemble members in rehearsal, visiting artists, youth council reps and productions running in the Garage, in a way that invites audiences into the process. And when those posts generate comments, everyone up to artistic director Martha Lavey responds. The company's email list is also well-used, with smartly-timed blasts, whether they're for a mainstage show or a one-night Traffic engagement.

The House gets points for being early adopters. Back in February 2005, I called them out at Gapers Block for starting a blog. A few months later, they had a Flickr account and a podcast. Even earlier than that, they enticed viewers to their website with Chris Burnham's comic-book rendering of the Valentine trilogy (I still miss the iteration of the website that had all the company members in a revolving circle of Flash caricatures). These days, one of the company's staff positions is titled "Community Manager;" Katherine Raz mans the House's Twitter stream and its Facebook hub. (BTW, Raz is one of the panelists at this discussion March 12.)

New Leaf is the smallest of the three, yet it manages to do most of the same work the larger companies do online. It has a handsome, well-designed website, which links prominently to an engaging blog, a Twitter account that's active when the company is, a vibrant Facebook thing, and a podcast (careful, that's an iTunes link).

Is there anybody else I've missed who's using the net well?

Comments

[Francis]

Kris, Steppenwolf has a Facebook fan page as well as a YouTube channel. The Steppenwolf Auxiliary Council, which is the theater's young professionals donor group, also has its own Facebook page.

[Ed]

Um...not us, right now. (hides in the corner). But we're working on it. I'll be at the thing on the 12th.

I think The New Colony is doing a pretty good job with their website, blog and use of Facebook. One new thing they're trying out that I'm curious about is their program for "Frat" is only available to be downloaded on their website (i.e., not printed for the audience at their venue). And their web trailer for "Frat" was pretty well done I think.

Personally I would ding the House for their blog in its current form- it used to be much more interesting, but at present there's way too little new content generated. One used to be able to visit there and read pages upon pages of discussion by company members and their friends about the shows themselves (I remember lurking one really awesome discussion about the role of female characters in theatre in general and in "Curse of the Crying Heart" in particular...). It's gotten better than it was for a while there (there was this vast swath of emptiness earlier in 2008 and parts of 2007 when they'd post to their blog maybe once a month), but I still miss the old level of ensemble participation in their blog and discussion on it. Also, whatever happened to their podcasts? For the first incarnation of Dave Davinci there were something like seven interviews with cast and crew about it. Admittedly they do a lot more than many companies do, but spiffy new site design notwithstanding it's not as good as it was.

I also like the Steppenwolf blog. It's nice to know that when I comment there it's taken seriously. As an aside, I kind of feel the same way about comments as I do about audience talkbacks- good if taken seriously, and you feel like you're being listened to by someone who matters. Annoying if you're having some admin or production assistant foisted off on you, and you know that any comment you have, no matter how important or meaningful, won't come within miles of any decision maker. (I'm lookin' at you, talkbacks during previews of "Mauritius.") Being at a performance of "Art" where Martha Lavey was conducting the talkback herself was a very pleasant surprise.

[Heidi]

Well, I'm completely biased, but I think Barrel of Monkeys' blog, podcast and twitter are pretty fabulous. Our facebook page is pretty lame though.

[Mark Jeffries]

Has the House's blog become more insular as the blogosphere's been picking away at them?

As for podcasts, Point of Contention's podcast is a lot of fun to listen to and well-produced--considering that co-host Annie Passanini used to do BIC's schlocky podcasts when she worked for them, there's very much a "this is how *I* want to do a podcast" vibe to them.

And I wish Anne Nicholson Weber would break off of theatreinchicago.com, so she wouldn't have to split time with that so-called critic and that pompous guy who reads press releases into the mike. Her interviews are generally always interesting.

[cliff]

i won't go so far as to say
they're using the net well
in allowing this to happen, but...

i have a few posts up about magnolia
on the goodman blog.

[Andy]

Just saw this train of thinkings and wanted to say thanks for the blog mention. Victory Gardens has started following suit with their blogs. They have a young-audience geared blog for their Fresh Squeezed program and they also have a blog where you get to follow one of the current show's actors from start to finish through the journey. Right now they are working on Class Dismissed and there are some great moments that have been captured. In particular, it really gives you an insight into the mind of Dennis Zacek through the experience of one of his actors. Granted - I work for the theater, but in the biz office, so I too have enjoyed reading the blog and staying in touch with the artistic side.

[Usman Ally]

Remy Bumppo is doing pretty well. Their sold out show American Ethnic was advertised, marketed primarily on the internet through a facebook page, group, podcasts on their website, their blog (remybumppo.blogspot.com) online videos on facebook, youtube, myspace and also were active on twitter.

go check it out!

[Benno Nelson]

Check out a discussion on theater company blogs, inspired by this post, over at The New Colony: http://www.thenewcolony.org/wordpress/?p=608