The Curtain Call Checklist: Smart Ways to Wrap Your School-Year Production

At the end of your theatrical season, you may be feeling the post-show blues or an adrenaline hangover after all that excitement wanes. And hey – that’s normal! But it’s incredibly important for you, your students, your additional staffers, and your supporters to end your season on a high note. 

A well-organized, positive, and smart season ender helps to keep overall morale high and sets you up for an even more successful next season. On The Stage offers several smart ways to wrap up your school-year production with our Curtain Call Checklist. 

Your Curtain Call Checklist

Reflect & Review

When your show closes, your first thought may be to rest, celebrate accordingly, or start planning for your next production. While all these instincts are great, there’s a step between them that will greatly impact the success of future shows: the theatre post-mortem. While you may have only heard that term on medical shows, a post-mortem in the world of theatre encompasses a deep-dive analysis into the production to create a growth mindset for the future, mixing celebration with evaluation. In short, you’re running through your production, seeing what worked, seeing what didn’t, and deciding how to move forward and improve. There really is no wrong way to go about a post-mortem as long as you’re collaborating with your team and finding innovative ways to improve your work, but a few umbrella categories to start with include: 

Self-Evaluation

It’s time for everyone to look inward! Try the following questions to get the conversation started. 

• How do your on-stage actors feel they performed? 
• How do your crew members feel about their work behind the scenes? 
• Does your marketing team feel they properly advertised your show? 
• Where can you, as a team, find room for improvement in all aspects of the performance?
• What were the elements that truly shone? 

Leadership

Get ready for some constructive criticism – and remember to handle it with grace. Prompt your team with the following: 

• How well did your cast and crew feel that leadership handled conveying expectations and leading the rehearsals, tech week, and performance nights? 
• What changes would they like to see in your leadership style?
• What did they enjoy about your leadership style? 
• Did secondary leaders – like choreographers and vocal coaches – give the cast what they needed to succeed? 
• Did your cast and crew feel emotionally supported throughout the process?

Logistics

• Re: Scheduling, did your team feel they had adequate time to reach your expectations for the production?
• On the opposite side of the coin, did your team feel that rehearsals were staggered in a way that did not monopolize all their free time? 
• How seamless was your ticketing process, both online and at the door?
• If you held fundraisers, did they go according to plan?

When you arm yourself with the right knowledge via your post-mortem, you’re setting yourself up for continuous growth and improvement. 

Organize Your Space

After your post-mortem is completed and your entire team feels seen, heard, appreciated, and ready to take on your next production with confidence, it’s time to move on to what some dread and others love: organizing your space for the summer holidays. While it may seem like a tedious endeavor now, it will help you exponentially in starting your next school year on the right foot. I mean, imagine walking into a beautifully organized, clean, and functional space in a couple of months. A dream come true, right? 

Additionally, make sure you hop on this task before your cast and crew move onto greener pastures or skedaddle out the door when you’re not looking. The more people you have in your corner, the faster the process will go – and it’s everyone’s responsibility to create and maintain your theatre space for longevity’s sake. A few things you’ll need to organize include:

• Your props – From magic wands to books, cups, letters, or fake weapons, it’s imperative that you store these props away in their specific bins for the summer season. The last thing you want to do is come in one day and trip over a plastic sword in the middle of your classroom. 
• Your set pieces – Larger set dressing, like furniture, curtains, shelves, beds, ramps and decorative elements should also be properly stored, with furniture covers or other protective hardware to ensure no damage comes to them in storage. You may need to rent a storage space for larger items, so be ready to plan the logistics of transport and payment. 
• Your wardrobe – Skirts, hats, dresses, slacks, shoes: All of these goodies need to be stored in garment bags and hung up in an organized fashion before you leave for the holidays to ensure they’re able to be used next season. 
• Any archived footage – If you have footage of rehearsals, tech week, or performances, make sure they’re stored in a safe place on your hard drive or on physical discs. 
• Scripts and notes – Perhaps you love to physically write your post-mortem notes, hang onto scripts, or preserve your show programs. Make sure they are organized and stored away neatly so you can stroll down memory lane whenever you want to. 

Celebrate Cast and Crew

Perhaps the most fun part of your Curtain Call Checklist is celebrating a job well done with your team. Your post-mortem is done, meaning you know what you need to do to improve … but even better, you know exactly what you crushed! That means it’s time to celebrate those wins in whatever way works best for you and your team. Just like a post-mortem, there’s really no wrong way to raise the roof, but we offer a few suggestions. 

• Hosting a pizza party or other gathering – A party? To celebrate? Groundbreaking. But in all seriousness, it’s a great way to continue that positive momentum and allow everyone to cut loose and socialize without worrying about rehearsals, sound cues, or performance metrics. 
• Enjoying a performance screening – Keep the love coming with a screening of your show with all your cast and crew. Feel free to welcome positive commentary and shout-outs, and consider hosting it outdoors with a large projector or even renting out a theatre if you have the funds. 
• Hosting an awards ceremony – From most improved to best dancer, you can have fun with an awards ceremony following your showcase. Encourage your cast and crew to dress up and act like it’s Oscar night! (Depending on the age of your actors and crew, consider giving everyone an individualized award to avoid hurt feelings!) 
• Offering show-specific gifts and memorabilia – From customizable merchandise to memory booklets or signed posters, you can celebrate with your cast and crew and make them feel appreciated with small wrap gifts. 

Thank Your Supporters

Alongside making your cast and crew feel appreciated, make sure you’re thanking all your many supporters, as well. These can range from single ticket buyers to streaming audience members, volunteers, and donors. 

• Send out an email – Thank your supporters via email, and use audience segmentation to tailor your copy to specific demographics, whether you’re reaching out to longtime patrons or first-time ticket buyers. 
• Post on social media – Sometimes, a simple but heartfelt thank you on social media pages can make all the difference. 
• Give ‘em a call – If there are specific donors or ticket holders you want to thank personally, don’t be afraid to give them a ring. 
• Send out surveys – Show that you appreciate your supporters’ opinions and feedback by sending out surveys directly after a performance to get important feedback and learn about your audience’s preferences.

Boost Your Momentum

Before you turn off your phone and enter Do Not Disturb mode for the summer, make sure you capitalize on this year’s success and turn it into next year’s subscriptions uptick. Yes – you should still be deploying marketing tactics after your show has closed, but they don’t need to be complicated. A few ideas include:

• Advertising your summer programming – Are you hosting a camp or summer stock production? Now is the time to advertise those offerings, while attention is still on you and your theatre’s offerings. Strike while the iron’s hot, and all that. 
• Brainstorming workshops – Consider hosting workshops over the summer as well, with topics ranging from improv tips and tricks to lighting and sound instruction. 
• Offering early-bird discounts for season ticket subscriptions – Following a show, people have a fresh and (hopefully) very positive idea of just how great your theatre program’s offerings are. Why not incentivize buying tickets for next season now by offering early-bird discounts on subscriptions? You capitalize on your momentum and earn some early capital to help you for next year’s shows. Win-win! 
• Encouraging social media engagement – Encourage user-generated content and social media engagement by posting polls, asking for show feedback, and incentivizing social media follows/tags with small prizes. Pro tip: Use a customizable hashtag to get all your UGC in one place.

Utilize Digital Tools

Lastly – and trust us, we know you’re ready to hang up your hat and relax by the pool – it’s time to utilize your digital tools to review your logistics and hard data to better prepare yourself and your team for next season. A few things you’ll need to run your eyes over and analyze include:

• Your budget – Did you go over budget? Did you go under budget? How well was your budget utilized? Where can you trim the fat, if necessary? 
• Box office performance – How many tickets were sold this year to shows and other events? How well did your ticketing software hold up during purchasing times? Did your sales team hit their targets? If not, how much was the deficit? How can that improve? 
• Overall participation – How many people came through your theatre this year, whether for shows, programming, workshops, open houses, or other events? Did you hit your participation goals? If not, how can you improve for next year?

How On The Stage Can Help

If you’re reading over our Curtain Call Checklist and feel you might need a little help, On The Stage is here to assist – both on and off the stage, during and beyond performances, every step of the way. If you’re ready to lock down your end-of-year process and elevate your theatre’s offerings for years to come, book a personalized demo today.