Arts OC Presents Free Night of Theater - More than 3,000 free theater tickets to be provided for Arts & Humanities Month

SEPTEMBER 25, 2009, SANTA ANA, CALIFORNIA – Orange County’s arts community will make available thousands of free tickets to cultural events during October’s “Arts and Humanities” Month as part of Arts Orange County’s “Free Nights of Theater, Music, Dance and Art.” The program is being run in coordination with the Theatre Communications Group, a national theatre association that will be conducting its Fifth Annual “Free Night of Theater,” a program designed to cultivate new arts audiences and to encourage current audiences to sample something new being offered in their community.

“This is a great opportunity for those who are not frequent arts patrons to discover some of what their community has to offer and for those who rarely stray from the well-beaten path to explore a performance or exhibition at a venue they’ve never visited,” said Rick Stein, Executive Director of Arts OC.

Reservations are limited to a maximum of two tickets per person for the duration of the program. Tickets must be reserved online at the Free Night of Theater website and not through each venue’s individual box office. Once tickets have been reserved through the website, patrons will be able to print out a voucher which can be turned in at the organization on the day of the event.

Offerings can be previewed starting September 19th. Reservations for Orange County events will be released starting September 29 at 1:00 p.m. Tickets can only be reserved at www.freenightoftheater.net. Patrons should not contact the arts organizations directly.

The public can preview all the offerings by visiting www.SparkOC.com and clicking on the “Free Night of Theater” logo. More than 27 Orange County arts organizations will be participating this year including: Bowers Museum, Cal State Fullerton Theater, The Chance Theater, Chapman University, Coast City Ballet, Festival Ballet Theatre, Hunger Artists, The Irvine Barclay Theatre, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Dance Festival, Laguna Playhouse, Maverick Theater, Muckenthaler Cultural Center, Muzeo, Newport Theatre Arts Center, Orange County Museum of Art, Orange County Performing Arts Center, Pacific Chorale, Pacific Symphony, Philharmonic Society of Orange County, Santa Ana College, Saddleback College, South Coast Repertory, Theatre Out, UCIrvine Claire Trevor Arts Center

About Free Night of Theater: Free Night of Theater is a successful national audience development program designed to attract new patrons to live theatre and giving existing patrons access to venues they might not be familiar with. It was conceived by the national theatre service organization, Theatre Communications Group (TCG). This October, theatre-goers from coast to coast will be given the opportunity to attend performances presented by over 700 theatres, in more than 120 cities, completely free of charge. A complete list of participating cities and theatres is available at www.freenightoftheater.net.

“Free Night of Theater began in three cities four years ago and has now grown into a giant collaboration between service organizations, theatres and their communities. One of the most important things we do for this program is give each city and its Free Night managing partners the flexibility to make the program work in a way that may be unique to their market. It is at the grassroots level that theatres need to engage and, as a national organization, we are proud to be able to give that opportunity to our participants,” said Teresa Eyring, Executive Director of TCG.

The 2008 program research -- gathered by Shugoll Research of Bethesda, MD -- reports that 92% of the participants rated the program as “excellent to very good” and responded that they were “extremely satisfied” with the program overall. Of those patrons who attended a theatre they had never been to before, 34% returned to that theater and purchased a ticket (with 40% of those attendees buying a full price ticket), and 91% say they are very likely to participate in Free Night again in 2009. For the full Shugoll Research report, please contact Phillip Matthews at pmatthews@tcg.org.

About Arts Orange County (Arts OC): Arts Orange County is the leader in building appreciation, participation and support for the arts and arts education throughout Orange County. The organization was established in 1995 as a nonprofit countywide arts council. It is the state-local partner with the California Arts Council and is the official local arts agency of the County of Orange. Arts Orange County serves as a resource and advocate for the arts community, as a catalyst for leadership on arts issues, and as a sponsor of programs and services which enhance public awareness of arts activities and promotes the development of the arts and arts education in Orange County. Its principal programs include the annual Orange County Arts Awards; the annual Imagination Celebration; Arts Can, an arts community-wide food drive; Creative Edge, a program that builds school district support for arts education; and SparkOC.com, the most comprehensive and most visited arts and cultural events website in Orange County.

Theatre Communications Group’s (TCG) mission is to strengthen, nurture and promote the professional, not-for-profit American theatre. TCG initiatives include a variety of artistic, management, international and advocacy programs. Its many publications offer a national resource for reference, opinion and debate on theatre and the performing arts today. TCG serves nearly 500 member theatres nationwide. More information about TCG is available at www.tcg.org.

###