The Stage

Theatre Ninjas to return for this year’s Edinburgh Fringe

Published Monday 13 June 2011 at 15:05 by Thom Dibdin

Theatre Ninjas, the iPhone app and website which enabled theatre companies to give away select numbers of tickets at last year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe, is to get a revamp for this August’s event.

Having offered 10,000 tickets from 240 different productions last August, with companies able to put tickets up for offer until 30 minutes before curtain-up, Theatre Ninjas intends to increase functionality and take-up of the app.

Producer and co-founder of Theatre Ninjas, Caitlin Albery Beavan, told The Stage: “The website will be a lot easier to use for other smart-phone users, as the app will only be for iPhone this year. We will have a separation between comedy and theatre and we are in the process of seeing whether there might be other potential offers, such as for local restaurants or cafes.”

Beavan added that it will be easier for companies offering tickets to upload their details. They will now only have to do it once for the whole run. Producers with more than one show will also be able to keep a log of which they want to promote on any particular day.

Additional functionality of the app for the end user will include GPS - giving audiences the ability to browse shows to find the closest to them, as well as click-through links to company websites and twitter reviews from other audience members.

Theatre Ninjas is hoping to increase the number of downloads for the app from 3,500 last year. While audiences were enthusiastic, with an 80% take-up of seats offered, not all venues bought into Theatre Ninjas.

“It does look scary for the venues,” Beavan admitted to The Stage. “It does look like we are saying their shows haven’t sold out, so we are undervaluing their shows and therefore their venues. What they were missing is that it is just a great marketing tool. If you play the game right you can bring in the audience.

“One show which was selling out last year still put two tickets on it every day, because it creates that excitement for the audience. It is a last-minute special offer, you are not giving away free tickets days in advance, you are just trying to make sure the work is seen by the maximum number of people possible.”

Theatre Ninjas was founded by a group of young arts practitioners with a £1,000 grant from leading arts charity IdeasTap.