The Book Club Play pay-what-you-can performances

We’re trying out a new format for our pay-what-you-can shows.

For The Book Club Play, Catalyst is using in-person rush seating for its PWYC shows. For these performances, our doors will open at half an hour before performance time; all seats will be available on a first-come, first-served basis, and we will gratefully accept any amount at the door. If all available seats are taken, any additional patrons who arrive before ten minutes to curtain time will have an opportunity to reserve discounted seats at a later performance, subject to availability.

Why the new format? Our previous online reservation system for PWYC performances made it hard to gauge how many seats were really available. The Wickhams, for example, had a 33% no-show rate for its two fully pre-reserved PWYC performances, meaning that some patrons who might have wanted to see that otherwise sold-out production were unable to come. We may return to a reservation system in the future, but for now, we’re eager to see whether this experiment lets more people see our PWYC shows, furthering our goal of accessibility.

location: Catalyst Theater Company, 513 7th St., Rapid City, S.Dak.