On the Market

I have a part time job. This part time job is in retail. I tried my hand at some of the marketing techniques yesterday and it became painfully clear to me that I have no real idea how to market what I sell.

Yesterday I also had to respond to a bunch of emails about my play and the fringe. The questions were also about marketing. How can we and the fringe market my play?

This time, I felt a little bit better. It is my play after all, but still. Marketing? I have a lot to learn and...a lot to accept.

What becomes clear in marketing, in advertising, is that it requires us to put people, audiences, in boxes. Our customer does this. Our audience member likes that. It makes sense of course, but I find it frustrating at times. Especially when it comes to the arts.

When it comes to marketing my play, we've had to think about where we fit in categories such as genre, race/ethnicity, and quirky themes. We've emailed our thoughts and come to some conclusions. My conclusion is almost always the same: Um, well, I don't really know, but, maybe this?

Because, at the end of the day, by naming a category, you are opting out of another way. You are assigning your self, your product, your work to a category and assigning your self, product, work all of the assumptions and stereotypes that come along with it. You are also cutting yourself off to entire groups of people.  You are limiting yourself and limiting others. Even if the limiting is okay with you--for instance, I'm okay with not having racist people come to my play. I'm okay with limiting my potential market when it comes to them--you still are doing it.

Sometimes I'm okay with that. Sometimes I'm not.

This may be why I'm not great at marketing myself.

This whole fringe process is amazing to me because as a writer, I've never had to think about where my play fits. As an actor, I thought about where I fit. As a yoga teacher, I think about how I fit. As a writer, I thought about where I fit personally--not my individual work.

What box can my play check off?