But Who Can Really Pass Up the Visual of Pointy Elf Shoes, Right?
I quit the PA. It was wonderful. It's still wonderful. More on that later, though.
Right now, I'm hoping to get a little feedback on an email I've written to these people about the coincidences between their PCS and our PSC. I intend to send it to their Box Office Manager, who's email is one of many listed in their staff directory. Please, if you've got a minute, give it a read. Thanks!
Hi There,
My name is Renee, and I'm a member of the box office staff at Portland Stage Company (aka: Portland Stage, aka: PSC) in Portland, Maine. Our theater is much smaller, and slightly older than yours and... well, on the opposite side of the country. If you've never heard of us, you can find out more here: http://www.portlandstage.org/ I've seen your site many times now, and it's lovely. But that's not why I'm writing you today. You see, we just had our first "Wait a minute, Portland, MAINE!?" refund of the season.
I'll start at the beginning. Two seasons ago, when you first staged "A Christmas Carol" a Google search for "Portland" and "Christmas Carol" came up with pages and pages of links to our site and the production we've been doing every Christmas for years now. So, quite a few online ticket-buyers became understandably confused and purchased tickets to a production on a whole different coast. It all turned out well for us in the end: we had a few hectic days of long-distance phone calls, confused conversations, and many many refunds, but it gave us some funny stories to tell. I hope they all found their way to you in the end.
Then, last year as our season began, I returned to your site to see if you'd be doing the show again. To my amusement, if not my surprise, you were. We weren't too worried this time. We had found a few more places to cram the word "Maine" in big red letters on our ticketing page, and being a larger theater I thought you must have been climbing the ranks on Google. I was partly right. There were far fewer mistakes, but there were still some - including one from California. And in April I took a call from one geographically-challenged man who had seen praise for our production "Trying" and wanted tickets. I was halfway through selling him a couple seats before we had to stop and have a discussion about how he would never be able to make that night's 8pm curtain.
Last year we also added a new Christmas tradition as well, and by now you should see where this is going. We did a sold out run of "The Santaland Diaries" in our studio space. Which brings me to this week. A couple days ago I made a call to a woman in, I believe it was Heppner, OR to refund her seven tickets to "The Santaland Diaries." I told her she wanted "Portland Center Stage" - PCS, not PSC if you will - and once I'd gotten her the money back I went to your site again.
If, after this long and rambling email you're amused and in the mood to do some comparing and contrasting, I'd call your attention to the fonts used in both logos, as well as the dark/light/dark coloring that seems to work so well for both of us. You might also look at the online visuals both sites use for "The Santaland Diaries."
And here's my question: does it ever work both ways? Have you ever had problems with involuntary, cross-country patrons? Has anyone there ever wandered around Google, or mis-typed those three essential letters and found themselves saying "Hey, their using our font!" just as we have? Or is this the first you've heard of this bizzaro-world situation and your cousins from the east?
If you've read this far, I want to thank you for your time. I hope to hear back from you, but if I don't then I wish Portland Center Stage all the best for the 2009-2010 season, and I hope you all have as much fun with Ebenezer and Crumpet as we have.
Your Eastern Cousin,
~ Renee Myhaver
Portland, Maine
Right now, I'm hoping to get a little feedback on an email I've written to these people about the coincidences between their PCS and our PSC. I intend to send it to their Box Office Manager, who's email is one of many listed in their staff directory. Please, if you've got a minute, give it a read. Thanks!
Hi There,
My name is Renee, and I'm a member of the box office staff at Portland Stage Company (aka: Portland Stage, aka: PSC) in Portland, Maine. Our theater is much smaller, and slightly older than yours and... well, on the opposite side of the country. If you've never heard of us, you can find out more here: http://www.portlandstage.org/ I've seen your site many times now, and it's lovely. But that's not why I'm writing you today. You see, we just had our first "Wait a minute, Portland, MAINE!?" refund of the season.
I'll start at the beginning. Two seasons ago, when you first staged "A Christmas Carol" a Google search for "Portland" and "Christmas Carol" came up with pages and pages of links to our site and the production we've been doing every Christmas for years now. So, quite a few online ticket-buyers became understandably confused and purchased tickets to a production on a whole different coast. It all turned out well for us in the end: we had a few hectic days of long-distance phone calls, confused conversations, and many many refunds, but it gave us some funny stories to tell. I hope they all found their way to you in the end.
Then, last year as our season began, I returned to your site to see if you'd be doing the show again. To my amusement, if not my surprise, you were. We weren't too worried this time. We had found a few more places to cram the word "Maine" in big red letters on our ticketing page, and being a larger theater I thought you must have been climbing the ranks on Google. I was partly right. There were far fewer mistakes, but there were still some - including one from California. And in April I took a call from one geographically-challenged man who had seen praise for our production "Trying" and wanted tickets. I was halfway through selling him a couple seats before we had to stop and have a discussion about how he would never be able to make that night's 8pm curtain.
Last year we also added a new Christmas tradition as well, and by now you should see where this is going. We did a sold out run of "The Santaland Diaries" in our studio space. Which brings me to this week. A couple days ago I made a call to a woman in, I believe it was Heppner, OR to refund her seven tickets to "The Santaland Diaries." I told her she wanted "Portland Center Stage" - PCS, not PSC if you will - and once I'd gotten her the money back I went to your site again.
If, after this long and rambling email you're amused and in the mood to do some comparing and contrasting, I'd call your attention to the fonts used in both logos, as well as the dark/light/dark coloring that seems to work so well for both of us. You might also look at the online visuals both sites use for "The Santaland Diaries."
And here's my question: does it ever work both ways? Have you ever had problems with involuntary, cross-country patrons? Has anyone there ever wandered around Google, or mis-typed those three essential letters and found themselves saying "Hey, their using our font!" just as we have? Or is this the first you've heard of this bizzaro-world situation and your cousins from the east?
If you've read this far, I want to thank you for your time. I hope to hear back from you, but if I don't then I wish Portland Center Stage all the best for the 2009-2010 season, and I hope you all have as much fun with Ebenezer and Crumpet as we have.
Your Eastern Cousin,
~ Renee Myhaver
Portland, Maine