Global Courant
PEI’s oldest theater festival is trying something new this summer.
Theatergoers of the Charlottetown Festival at the Confederation Center of the Arts will not receive physical programs to take home as souvenirs. Instead, customers use a QR code that takes them to an online program.
It’s a change that the Confederation Center’s director of marketing said was too late.
“We have really been looking for ways to reduce waste and introduce green initiatives here downtown for many years, and this was always one we considered,” said Andrew Sprague.
“This year we decided to move forward and move to a fully digital program.”
The center would print as many as 35,000 programs each season to cover all of its productions.
Last year, the organizers started testing digital programs, offering the public both a paper program and a program accessible via the QR code for the months of July and August. In September they only did digital.
For example, visitors to the Charlottetown Festival log in from this season to read their theater programs. (Brian Higgins/CBC)
During that pilot, users downloaded about 15,000 digital programs.
That did not reduce the number of paper programs: all 35,000 programs were still used, indicating a continued interest in paper copies.
But Sprague said it also shows something else.
A very high percentage of those programs end up in the trash somewhere.—Andrew Sprague
“It also indicates that a very high percentage of those programs end up in the trash somewhere, either here downtown in our own bins when people leave downtown, or when they take them home and decide they don’t. ” have a lot of use at home and they end up in the trash.”
Ticket buyers will have the first chance to download the digital program via a link in the Centre’s pre-show email. Upon entering the lobby, customers can also download the program via a QR code.
What’s more, that code is on the backs of half the seats in the theater and is projected onto the screen as people wait for the show to begin. Staff will be available to assist anyone having trouble accessing the link.
Andrew Sprague, marketing and communications director at the Confederation Center of the Arts, says his optimistic audience will welcome the change. (Jackie Sharkey)
The Charlottetown Festival is not the only Canadian theater event moving in this direction.
The Stratford Festival in Southwestern Ontario and Canadian Stage in Toronto both take a hybrid approach and offer a choice of QR code or printed program.
Mirvish Theater in Toronto is sticking to paper programs for now, with an official telling the Toronto Star this spring, “For our audience, that’s what works.”
In Halifax, Neptune Theater is going for the hybrid approach.
The Neptune Theater in Halifax continues to print paper programs for year-end productions and seasonal favorites such as Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. But the staff is asking customers to consider using a digital program. (Stoo Metz)
“We offer a digital copy for all our shows via our website or scanned from a QR code, plus a print version for the bigger shows – for example, our Christmas production and our year-end production,” Pam Nicoll, who is responsible for graphic design and marketing for the theater, told CBC News in an email.
“Even if we have a print copy available, we still encourage customers to consider the digital version and allow them to return the program at the end of the evening for reuse if they wish.”
She added: “Since reopening after the pandemic, we have noticed fewer customers wanting to take home a program as a memento, so when we print we have reduced quantities… We are concerned about the environment and would rather run out than have anything left.”
The environmental factor is certainly a high priority in Charlottetown.
“People sometimes don’t like change very much, but we think this is an important initiative to reduce waste,” Sprague said.
“We think the technological advancements that have been made with QR codes and the sort of value-added things that we can add to a program, like direct links to our programs, direct links to websites for advertisers, various things like that — you can really add value to the program that you can’t get from a paper program.
“So we’re optimistic. We hope the public will accept the change.”
Cost not ‘determining factor’
Sprague said there will be some cost savings involved, but money was not a deciding factor.
“The determining factor was the potential waste reduction by eliminating print programs,” he said.
The center prints as many as 35,000 programs per season. Customers can now scan a QR code to get the same information. (Jackie Sharkey)
The digital format also allows the center to easily make changes to the program, for example with a cast change or a new sponsor.
Sprague acknowledged that the programs were a souvenir for some, but he said there are many other souvenirs people can get at The Charlottetown Festival.
“We think the most important thing is the show itself and people’s ability to enjoy the show,” he said. “And the best possible souvenir they can have from that show is the memory of how much they enjoyed it.”
