It's a new year, new classes, new season of shows.
A new school year brings a brand new incoming freshmen class. Each year they seem to grow larger and larger, bringing fresh faces and fresh personalty. But how do you recruit these reserved but eager potential thespians? Here are a couple of things that have worked for my troupe:
Starting Early!
The key to recruitment is getting the word out ASAP. At my school we hold an activity fair in February when the school registers for their classes. Then in March there is an activity fair for just the incoming freshmen class in the fall. At both of these events the drama club has a table that 4-5 officers work at. We set up a poster that is decorated with bright colors, and pictures from past events such as shows, community service, state festival etc. At the table the officers hand out brochures to people that are interested and give them a 20 second speed round on what our department is like! Then we have them sign a sheet with their name, homeroom teacher, address, and email. Here is a picture of what the booth typically looks like
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We found it helps to start planning the year early. In the summer the officer board meets about three times to get a theme, and t-shirt design nailed out and ready to go. Then we focus on planning the first meeting, so by the time school rolls around we are ironing out the nitty gritty details!
Keeping Connected!
After we get the information from both nights we send out a postcard to their address with a simple "We see you are interested in Drama... We want you!.... Come see us at orientation in the fall!" We also provide a url to our Facebook page for them to check out. In the fall just before school starts we have the same booth and system set up at orientation, this time it's for anyone who is interested in joining drama club. Once we get that information and the secretary records it we send out another post card mentioning our first drama club meeting and how they should attend.
One thing that has really helped us out with attendance is the use of Facebook. We created a Facebook page two years ago and it really helped out with our communication. It is so convenient to quickly write a reminder about drama club that week, or to mention how we are all going to the pumpkin patch, plus it helps us market our productions! I highly recommend getting a Facebook page for your troupe/club.
Having Fun!
It's the big day, the first meeting! Excitement is in the air and waiting until the end of the school bell is torture! The biggest piece of advice I can give to having a successful first meeting is to have fun. When you have fun, energy, and confidence everyone else can not help but soak it all up.
We were fortunate to have 107 people attend our first meeting! Typically our drama club meets bi-weekly on Wednesdays after school, we like to have a focus area each week. These areas are and not limited too acting, improv, IE prep, tech. With each meeting there is an agenda that every officer has, our director does a great job of letting the officers have an input and what is said and who says it and then lays it all out for us on a single sheet of paper :)
May the odds be ever in your favor when preparing for your very own full house.
Alex Minton
Nebraska Thespian State Board Member
Troupe #5483