In the Arts: Giving Away Free Tickets Helps a Theater’s Bottom Line, Plus Some Hopeful News for Music Groups

A San Francisco theater study has found that giving tickets away is a successful way to attract new theatergoers who will eventually pay, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

Meanwhile, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s newly negotiated contract restores some of the cuts in pay and work hours that the orchestra’s musicians accepted in 2001, reports the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The new contract also increases the number of weeks of work to 43 from 42.

Other troubled performing-arts groups got some badly needed good news this week. The New York City Opera and it musicians have signed a new two-year contract agreement, reports MusicalAmerica.com.

And Oregon Ballet Theatre, which may disband by the end of June if it doesn’t raise $750,000, is hopeful that a gala performance tonight will save the dance company. Famous dancers from many of the country’s most illustrious ballet companies have agreed to perform at the gala for free, reports The Oregonian. About 33 percent of the tickets had been sold by last week.