About Us
Your Source For Live Entertainment
We have teamed up with the finest theatre and performing arts venues in your metropolitan area to offer our members a variety of special packages designed to enhance their live stage experience. You will also have access to the catalogue of frequently-updated information and offers, including ticket and restaurant packages, articles, reviews, and news. If you are an active theatre professional, our Performing Arts membership is designed for you to showcase your talents on a dedicated personal profile, and provide you the opportunity to exchange notices of auditions and other performing opportunities regionally and nationwide. Click the 'Industry' link for more information. Sign Up and join the growing number of members who have dedicated themselves to building the world's most purposeful community for the lovers of the theatre arts. Click the "Sign-up today" link to find full descriptions of the available membership options, and choose the one that best describes you! Founders: Peter Oyloe (Chief Creative Officer) and Tom Williams (Advertising Manager)A theatre critic for 8 years, Tom Williams prefers not to read program bios before a performance, in an effort to keep his reviews as unbiased as possible. So instead he spends the moments leading up to a performance looking around, observing every theater's unique milieu. Then the ushers take their seats, the house lights dim, and Tom asks himself the same question: “Where IS everyone?” Granted, there are always going to be empty seats, but alarmingly more and more often, they've been outnumbering the patrons.
Tom deduced that this must be at least in part due to inadequate publicity. The handful of large companies and venues seem to do alright, but Chicago is filled with a myriad of small and mid-sized theatre companies with only modest advertising budgets, who rely on word-of-mouth to publicize their plays and then
Another major cause for the decline in theatre attendance must be the ever-rising costs of tickets. (Amusement Tax?) And this is without factoring in the cost of merely getting to said theatre events. Gas, parking and CTA prices are all soaring. Finally, add to that the cost of dinner, and you're most likely looking at the entirety of your disposable income for that week. It's no wonder that many people opt instead for an evening of TV while, in another part of town, the unparalleled magic of live theatre falls like dust upon their empty seats.
This, of course, will not do. There must be a way to get people back in those seats.
Williams teamed up with actor/musician friend Peter Oyloe, a seasoned performer and committed advocate of the arts, to resuscitate the Chicago theatre community. Together they devised a way to make theater outings more affordable to patrons, and to help add more value to their experiences – all the while assisting theatre companies in getting their names out and their voices heard. Oyloe and Williams agree that one thing more magical than a live theatre experience is the potential for that experience to be shared with others.
Thus was born My Theatre Club. We are a membership club for people who love live entertainment and who want to meet others who are like-spirited. In addition to the social value embedded in My Theatre Club, we also offer members discounts on tickets to live performance events, priority seating, discounts on parking, private members-only performances with talk-backs by directors and performers, restaurant discounts, and members-only opening night receptions and gatherings. For our Performing Arts members (performers, directors, stage managers, and other industry folks), we also provide access to audition and work notices, industry news updates, and professional networking opportunities. Our scope is nationwide across the USA and in English speaking countries such as Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.
Put simply, we love theatre. And you love theatre. So let's get together and Go See A Play This Week! |
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