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We\u2019re not looking. Go ahead\u2014pay what you can.<\/p>\n
The arts are a necessity, albeit on a different level of Maslow\u2019s hierarchy<\/a> than food, water<\/a>, shelter<\/a>, and air. They provide creative outlets for self-expression, build community, improve mental health, and contribute to the region\u2019s unique culture. They create jobs for artists and bring in around a billion dollars<\/a> to the Houston economy. Still, it\u2019s a challenge for arts organizations to balance affordable ticket prices with the need to keep their teams fed.<\/p>\n Houston Theater Week<\/a>, which runs from August 24th through the 30th this year, offers buy-one-get-one-free tickets to stalwarts of the local scene, including Houston Ballet, 4th Wall Theatre Company, Alley Theatre, Stages, and Houston Grand Opera. Other arts nonprofits have adopted a pay-what-you-can pricing structure, either for a few shows per season or as the year-round default for ticket purchases.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a simple concept. Rather than a set fee, those hoping to attend a show pay whatever their budget allows. This ensures that everybody who wants to experience local theater can. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of people who think it\u2019s something out of their reach,\u201d says Jennifer Decker, founder and artistic director of Mildred\u2019s Umbrella Theater Company. \u201cThey\u2019ve seen how expensive tickets are to the bigger venues and musicals especially, and a lot of people just won\u2019t go because they can\u2019t afford it.\u201d<\/p>\n Founded in 2001, Mildred\u2019s Umbrella performs what she describes as \u201cavant-garde and original stuff,\u201d but it wasn\u2019t until around 2013 that the company began to focus more heavily on works by women playwrights. That\u2019s when it also started its pay-what-you-can ticketing, a result of witnessing \u201ca dip in ticket sales\u201d following its mission change and the fact that students and actors, many of whom couldn\u2019t afford the $25-$30 price point, comprised a large percentage of the audience.<\/p>\n Filling the crowd was a higher priority for Decker and her team than turning a profit, but they still needed money to maintain operations. So, they started offering a suggested price, allowing audiences to pay what they could afford. Alternatively, anyone who wanted to pay a little extra to support the theater had that option. \u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s a strategy that\u2019s worked for Catastrophic Theatre<\/a> as well. Co-founder Jason Nodler estimates that the average theater ticket in the city costs $55\u2014outside most Houstonians\u2019 budgets. Taking a cue from Chicago\u2019s Theater Oobleck, the team sees pay-what-you-can as a way for Houstonians to explore their personal creative tastes without worrying about catching an overdraft along the way.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe bring in a lot of non-traditional theater audiences, and so they may be coming to theater for the first time,\u201d Nodler says. \u201cOr, they may have seen a lot of theater and said, \u2018You know what? That\u2019s not really my thing.\u2019\u2026We\u2019re trying to show them maybe there are other kinds [of shows] that might appeal to [them].\u201d<\/p>\n Mildred’s Umbrella Theater Company, which performed “Come and Go,” offers pay-what-you-can shows.<\/p>\n Even though Catastrophic offers $0 tickets (\u201cIf you have nothing, please come,\u201d Nodler says), they\u2019ve noticed that people who can afford more than the suggested price often will pay more. Some tickets sell for $1.50. Others, $200. All sums are appreciated as \u201cradical kindness,\u201d Nodler says.<\/p>\n Theaters are not the only organizations that have adapted this ethos. In addition to choose-your-price ticketing (or, \u201cpay-what-you-wish\u201d), ROCO\u2014Houston\u2019s Chamber Orchestra\u2014posts its shows online<\/a> for free, giving anyone, anywhere access to world-class, often new and original, classical music.<\/p>\n For founder and director Alecia Lawyer<\/a>, accessible admission to ROCO\u2019s shows is her way to \u201csolve the problem of loneliness.\u201d More people can attend a performance and connect over a shared interest. Considering ROCO has performed at over 80 venues across the city, it also introduces audiences to new spots to explore together. \u201cThird spaces have disappeared<\/a>. And there\u2019s this crisis of loneliness, not just in young people, but in the elderly, and it is mind-blowingly sad and heartbreaking,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Lawyer prefers the phrasing \u201cpay what you wish,\u201d so it doesn\u2019t \u201csound like you\u2019re putting the onus and judgment on the person that is trying to get the ticket.\u201d Similarly, \u201cpay what you want\u201d feels to her like the onus is on the performing arts group, that the organization is essentially asking attendees what they think its labor is worth. \u201cI know a lot of the things that I talk about are semantics, words. But they really are part of our culture,\u201d she says. \u201cI started ROCO as a human-first organization\u2026You really are inviting people into the experience in a way that\u2019s not transactional.\u201d<\/p>\n Catastrophic has also refined how it presents its pay structure over time; the team doesn\u2019t want to accidentally make anyone feel guilted into giving more than they can afford, Nodler says. Paying \u201cdelicate, careful\u201d attention to messaging recently helped raise the average ticket price by $7. \u201cPeople still sometimes get the feeling that they shouldn\u2019t come because they can\u2019t pay more, and that\u2019s the opposite of the intention of the program,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Even if arts organizations can\u2019t implement open-price ticketing for every performance, some still make it available for select shows. Garden Theatre, which operates out of Midtown Arts & Theater Center Houston (MATCH) alongside Catastrophic, typically offers set ticket prices to remain solvent, while striving to keep things as affordable and accessible<\/a> as possible. This means no tickets over $30, flash sales, and offering complimentary shows to other nonprofit workers. Theater industry professionals are always given 50 percent off. This flexibility has yielded amazing results, says Logan Vaden, Garden Theatre\u2019s founding artistic director.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter the first couple [of] shows where we offered the pay-what-you-can nights, I would go back, and I would look at each performance and see what income we made on each performance,\u201d Vaden says. \u201cWithout fail, almost every time, the pay-what-you-can performances are the highest income-earning shows.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just fun to explain to people who and what you are, and you invite them on the quest of your imagination,\u201d says ROCO founder and director Alecia Lawyer.<\/p>\n Regardless of whether an organization has adopted full- or part-time pay-what-you-can\/wish ticketing, the benefits remain the same. Attending a show, regardless of budget, always helps. Along with private donations and generous Houstonians who can afford to pay hundreds of dollars per ticket, arts nonprofits depend on grants to keep them afloat. Decker points out that many grant<\/a> applications ask for attendance numbers; the more attendees\u2014no matter what they pay\u2014the more likely an organization is to receive funding.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/hou_pay_carnival1_f_gtxnow.jpg\"\/)
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