class="">Mystage.ro. A new beginning for Romanian theatre- in the virtual world

Ocotber 29^th 2015

The 6^th day of the National Theatre Festival (NTF) has begun at 11.30, at the Media Hall of the “I.L. Caragiale” National Theatre Bucharest, with a debate titled “UNITER /Our Theatre”.  “Promoting in the Media and Increasing Private Financing for Theatres” was the topic of the debate.

an article by Andrei Crăciun

Practically, the discussion was about detailing the initiative of UNITER to launch the online portal / mystage.ro (https://www.mystage.ro/) / a portal integrated with important Romanian media channels. This portal aims at becoming a central promotion, information, distribution and financing platform for Romanian theatre projects.

The discussion was moderated by Aura Corbeanu, NTF executive director, assisted by two of the collaborators who have implemented the mystage.ro concept, especially from the technical point of view. Powerpoint slides were presented.

In brief: during the NTF, a pilot version of the site has been activate with, so far, excellent results. After the end of the festival, mystage.ro aims at becoming the most important Romanian theatre portal.

Aura Corbeanu explains: according to the commissioned market research, there are at least 4 million people going to the theatre every year. The executive director of the NTF started at the question: how can Romanian theatre approach new audiences, given that there are no promotion budgets, how can one find sponsors that permanently stand to the sides of theatre. Young audiences are to be found on the internet. And so the answer came by itself: an online portal dedicated exclusively to theatre, containing complete information about the theatrical phenomenon, a place where it is possible to purchase tickets, to see performance trailers and, at the same time, to a crowd funding platform for projects that require public financial support. A theatre database is also to be linked to the portal.

Click on the image to go to the PHOTO GALLERY of the event !

Mystage.ro has worked very well so far, increasing the online visibility of the festival with over 300.000 visitors.

Almost 6.000 tickets were purchased online (only 30% of the festival tickets were distributed to the traditional box offices of the theatres and more than half of the presentations were sold out).

The next steps that mystage.ro will take are: consolidating existing partnerships (with an important bank and one of the main players in the telecommunication business), theatre promotion activities with 0 costs from the state budget (the platform was constructed- technically- pro bono by a team of theatre passionate IT specialists who invested over a year of working).

Questions were asked, like for example: who will select  the performances that will be uploaded on the crowd funding sector? The answer stated that nobody will be excluded. The free market mechanisms will calibrate supply and demand, but any project will be given the chance to compete (there will be minimum formatting requests for the applications).

Ion Caramitru, the general manager of the National Theatre Bucharest already launched a challenge: he would like to stage “My Fair Lady” at the National, but can’t afford the costs (an orchestra, a ballet and choir are required). A solution would be to upload the project on mystage.ro, as the platform functions as an intermediary between sponsors (be they companies or private persons) and the artistic ideas that need support. The selection of the projects hosted on mystage.ro will be made free of charge.

Thus, remain connected to mystage.ro- it promises to be not only an encyclopedia of Romanian theatre, but also an excellent tool of keeping informed!

But since I am a written press journalist, I have to say I noticed that during the discussion no one ever mentioned the fact that promoting in the media would also imply payment for those doing this kind of work.

Photo credit: Adi Marineci