Rosanne Norris
Marketing Director, Anderson Center for the Performing Arts, Binghamton, NY
CAST member since 2007
What does your organization do?
Located on the Binghamton University campus, the Anderson Center consists of three performance spaces: the Osterhout Concert Theater, the Chamber Hall and the Watters Theater. Each year, the Center sponsors a series of world-class musical, theatrical and dance performances. Student groups and off-campus organizations also use the theaters for performances, conferences and other events. For organizations that rent any of these spaces, we offer services such as house management, technical support, box office and promotion.
What’s your role in the organization?
I market the Anderson Center’s series of performances, a job that includes interacting with the media. My main goal is to get people in the seats.
Tell us about the special challenges you face in your job.
The biggest challenge is drawing the student audience to our performances. We offer them half-price tickets and we try to relate what we do to the curriculum, but it’s a hard sell. To get the word out, I use campus media, and I’m starting to learn to use Facebook and MySpace. I’m hoping for a student intern to guide me on that. Another challenge stems from the economy. Like theaters across the country, we have an audience that tends to buy tickets at the last minute. So you’re holding your breath until the end to see if things pick up.
What training and prior experience led you to this point in your career?
I earned a BA in English from Binghamton University in 1988. I held a variety of jobs and stayed at home with my kids before joining the Anderson Center as assistant manager of the box office in 1997. Starting in 2003, as marketing coordinator, I split my time between my box office duties and a new set of marketing responsibilities. I became full time marketing director in 2007.
Why do you belong to CAST?
It gives me a chance to make contacts and get to know people. It seems to be a really solid group.
How have you benefited from your membership in CAST?
There’s a lot of benefit to learning what other people are doing and helping one another other through the rough times.
Final Words?
This is the Anderson Center’s 25th anniversary season. To help mark that milestone, we’re putting together a publication that will reflect on where we’ve been and how we’ve grown. And we’re putting together a really nice series of performances.
To learn more about the Anderson Center for the Performing Arts,
call 607-777-6802 or visit http://anderson.binghamton.edu.
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