In a preemptive strike to keep audiences from trading an evening of theater for TV and a frozen pizza during troubled economic times, Center Theatre Group is announcing a new "Entertainment Stimulus Package" that will make available 100,000 tickets at $20, available for all performances at all three of its theaters --the Ahmanson, Mark Taper Forum and Kirk Douglas -- for the entire 2008-09 season.
CTG artistic director Michael Ritchie and Jim Royce, director of marketing and communications, say the idea is to keep the economy from squeezing the middle class -- that is, habitual buyers of midprice tickets.
Although the economic climate has little effect on those who can afford the top-priced seats, during times of recession, regular theatergoers who buy in the middle don't just stay home, "but they look for bargains," Royce says. "What we've done structurally is expand to accommodate the squeeze of the middle, the big middle."