FindTheater.com is open to any performing arts group that wants to get the word out about their shows.
Initially, FindTheater.com is aimed at the greater Philadelphia (southeastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey,
and northern Delaware) and Delaware Valley region.
However, we are willing and interested in supporting performing arts groups elsewhere. If you represent
a group from outside the Delaware Valley area and would like to be listed here, please send an e-mail to
webmaster@findtheater.com, and we will investigate setting up another
regional website for your area.
What can this website do for me as an individual?
For yourself, FindTheater.com will:
From any page on the website, just click on the "Search for Shows" button on the left-side menu, or the "Find Performances" button on the top. It will take you to a form that asks you to describe what shows are interesting to you by type, distance from your address, and other related questions. If you don't care about a particular category, just leave it alone; anything will match choices you leave unspecified. Then press the "Search" button, and a list or calendar of performances meeting your criteria will be displayed. You can click on the show name in each entry, and it will take you to the page describing that show in detail.
From any page on the website, just click on the "Search for Auditions" button. It will take you to a form that asks you to describe what shows are interesting to you by type, distance from your address, and other related questions. If you don't care about a particular category, just leave it alone; anything will match by choices you leave unspecified. If you are auditioning for an acting role, you can also describe yourself so as to avoid auditions with no suitable roles for you. Then press the "Search" button, and a list or calendar of auditions meeting your criteria will be displayed. You can click on the show name in each entry, and it will take you to the page describing that show in detail.
There are several reasons why your favorite theater doesn't appear on the FindTheater.com website.
A mailing list is a group to which people can subscribe, that theaters send e-mails to. Each theater may create mailing lists for any purpose, and anyone may subscribe to receive mailings on that list. For the preservation of subscriber privacy, the theaters are not informed of who has subscribed to their mailing lists, but merely how many subscribers each list has.
To subscribe to a mailing list, log into your personal account on the website. Then view the page describing the theater you are interested in. Then click the "Subscribe" button for the mailing list of interest.
Alternatively, send e-mail to the e-mail address listname-SUBSCRIBE@findtheater.com, and the e-mail account you send the request from will be subscribed. The website will send you a confirmation message to verify that you really sent the subscription request (rather than some Internet vandal); you must reply to that confirmation e-mail to start receiving list e-mails. This does not require you to have a personal account on this site.
Log into your personal account on the website. Then view the page describing the theater owning the mailing list. Then click the "Unsubscribe" button for the mailing list you are no longer interested in.
Alternatively, send e-mail to the e-mail address listname-UNSUBSCRIBE@findtheater.com, and the e-mail account you send the request from will be removed from the mailing list. The website will send you a confirmation message to verify that you really sent the unsubscription request (rather than some Internet vandal); you must reply to that confirmation e-mail to stop receiving list e-mails. This does not require you to have a personal account on this site.
On the website home page, there is a link reading "Click here to become a subscriber." Click this link. It will take you to a page when you will tell us your e-mail address; this will become your account name. You will then need to specify a password for logging into your account. Then you will be asked to fill out a form identifying yourself. This information will not be shared with others except as specifically described by our Privacy Policy; it is needed so the website can verify your identity. Once you have completed filling out the form, your account will be created, and you will have an improved and customized view of the website.
Your personal account is for your own use, and must not be shared with anyone else. Personal accounts do not cost anything, so there is no reason to share them, and many reasons not to. You are responsible for all actions taken on the site by your personal account.
You do not need a personal account to search the website, although being logged into your account will allow us to optimize your session for your preferences. However, you must be logged in to make any changes to listings on the website.
Unfortunately, there are unscrupulous individuals who enjoy defacing other people's websites and defaming other organizations. Because of these people, this website has implemented security mechanisms so that only authorized individuals are permitted to add and change listings on the site. Part of this security is the requirement that anyone making changes on the site must have a known and verified identity in the real offline world, such that they can be held responsible for their actions under our Terms of Usage. We verify users' identities by a wide variety of means, including, but not limited to, public telephone directories, direct personal contact, and any other means we deem appropriate. To accomplish this, we request contact information for personal accounts. Until the website administrator has verified that the person creating a new personal account is actually the person they claim to be and they intended to create an account here, that personal account is restricted from any actions that could alter this website. Also, if a user changes the contact information that was used to verify their identity, they may also lose their verified status until they are re-verified.
Similarly, new organizational accounts will not be displayed to users other than the creating user until they have been verified to be an actual performing arts group and the individual creating the listing is authorized to do so by the organization's officers.
If you are not the original creator of the organization's account, you will have to log into your personal account, and view the theater listing of the organization, and click the "Request access to post on this theater" checkbox. This will add the organizations to your "My Theaters" list, and add your name to the list of people the organization administrators can grant access to.
In the interest of user privacy, the identity of users with accounts on the site is not known to anyone on the site, other than the website administrator, and theaters for whom you have requested access. The latter users are given just enough information so they can tell whether you are someone to whom they would want to grant access rights.
The "Edit My Profile" page has a link for uploading pictures to attach to your personal talent profile. Click that link, and you will be shown a page listing all the pictures you currently have uploaded. At the botton is a text field and a pair of buttons for uploading more pictures to the website. In the text field just above the button, type the name of a file on your computer containing the image you wish to display (use the "Browse" button to search for a file). Then click the "Upload Photo" button to transmit the file to the website, where it will be displayed on your talent profile.
You may have up to 30 images stored. The first image will also be converted into a "thumbnail" for display on talent search reports. Images must be of GIF, JPEG or PNG format, no larger than 300000 bytes, and dimensions of no more than 500 pixels wide and 500 pixels high.
The site can reset your password to a new value, and e-mail that new password to your e-mail account.
To confirm that it is really you, you will need to provide the exact spelling of your e-mail address associated with the account. E-mail addresses are case-sensitive, so make sure to spell it correctly. If the entered e-mail address matches an account on this website, an e-mail will shortly arrive there with your new password.
Yes. FindTheater.com also provides a monthly hardcopy report of upcoming performances, auditions, and other events of interest to the theater community. These newsletters are distributed to subscribing theater organizations to hand out as they wish. If you would like to receive your own personalized copy directly from us, you can sign up for it on the website from the "Edit My Profile" page. Just click the link named "Sign up for printed newsletter subscription", and it will display a form where you can enter your mailing address and customize what information is sent to you.
There is also a sign-up form printed on every issue of the newsletter. Just clip it out, fill it in, and mail it to:
FindTheater.com P.O. Box 569 Southeastern, PA 19399
You get the first issue of the newsletter sent to you free of charge. If you like it, it only costs $10.99/year to continue to receive it. Just send a check or money order to the above address with the filled-out sign-up form to continue your subscription. We'll print a notice on the mailing label of your newsletter when your subscription is about to expire, so you can renew without missing any issues. You can also change your subscription preferences at any time, either by sending an updated sign-up form in the mail, or by updating your subsciption information on the website. You do need a personal account on the website to update your subscription information electronically.
First, you (or an officer of the performing arts organization authorized to create publicity listings) must have a verified personal account on this website. On the home page, click the "List Theaters" button. It will take you to a list of all organizations that already have organization accounts on this site. At the top is a link for creating a new organizational account. Click there, and a page will be displayed, asking for information about your group or company. Fill in the blanks and submit the form. Your personal account will then be the only account which will be able to update and add listings for your organization until you grant access to other users' personal accounts.
Other users of the website will not be able to see your organization's listing until it, like personal accounts, is verified by the website administrators. Once your organization is verified, it will begin a free trial period on the site, where you have full access to all the services we provide to organizations until your trial time runs out. At that time, you can renew your organization's membership as a full subscriber to the site.
Your theater, each show or other event, and the individual dates for an event can each be specified to be at a different venue. While editing the listing for your theater or one of its shows, one of the editable sections is the venue. By default, the venue is at the address of you theater. However, if your theater performs at other locations, you can specify those other venues either as your default venue, or as a per-show venue. Similarly, when you specify a date and time for a performance, audtion, or other event, you can specify the venue for that specific date and time, or use the venue already specified for the event or your theater. Just click the "Change Venue" button to select an alternate venue.
Note that the address you specify for a venue should not be a post office box; it must be a real address that people can travel to for seeing your shows. This address will be linked to the website's automatic customized maps and used to include your theater when users perform distance-limited searches. So make sure the address (particularly the zipcode) is correct.
Each event can have a list of roles associated with it. These roles can be already filled (for example, the director of a production) or open (a description of the role and the kind of person needed to fill it). When looking at the listing for a show, if you are authorized to modify the show notice, you will have the menu option to "Add and Edit Roles". Click this, and a page will appear, listing all the roles currently defined and showing forms for creating new roles.
Filled roles can have a position title (i.e., Director) and/or a role name (i.e., "Pippin" or "Lead Player"), the name of the person filling the role, and an optional description or bio.
Open roles must specify the following:
Articles posted to a discussion group cannot be modified once posted. However, a followup article can
be posted, or the original article can be removed by the original author.
One of our performances is sold out. How can I tell our customers quickly?
If you are granted the right to edit a show or just the sold-out status of show dates on your theater, you will see a checkbox
after each date, labelled "check if sold-out". You can change the state of each checkbox, and it will be reflected in
user's searches immediately.
How do I give permission to someone else to post a listing for my theater here?
If you have the authority to grant access to other users, you will see, when viewing the theater, shows, or mailing lists, a left-side menu choice labelled "Authorize Users". Clicking this button will take you to a form listing all users currently having access to the theater, show, or mailing list, as well as those users who have requested access to the theater. There will be a row of checkboxes for each user, which may be checked to grant a specific user a specific access right.
The available access rights are:
| Access right name | type of listing | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Edit theater info | theater | Can change the information about the performing arts group itself |
| Create show | theater | can create a new show, class, or other event listing for this theater |
| Edit show | show | can update, correct, and/or delete an existing event listing |
| Change show date status | show | can change the sold-out status on a show performance date |
| Send to theater mailing list | mailing list | can originate e-mail messages to the mailing list |
| Administer mailing lists | mailing list | can change the description and status of a mailing list, or delete the list |
| Receive Admin e-mail for theater | theater | will receive notifications from the website administrators regarding the theater |
| Receive billing notices for theater | theater | will receive notifications from the website administrators regarding financial issues for the theater (such as account renewals) |
| Grant access to theater | theater, show, mailing list | can grant or revoke access rights to other users |
Note that, if you have an access right associated with shows or mailing lists granted to you on a theater level, that means that you have the access right on every show or mailing list (respectively) that theater has.
If you have the "Administer mailing list" access rights on your theater, the theater viewing page will display a button labelled "Create New Mailing List". Click this button to go to a form where you can enter the name of the mailing list and a description of its purpose. The "Administer List" button exists for already-existing mailing lists so you can update the information about them.
If you have the "Send to mailing list" access right on a mailing list or the whole organization, the e-mail account
you specified in your contact information will be able to send e-mails to the mailing list by sending to the single e-mail
address,
This website does enforce a size limit of 1 megabyte per e-mail message sent. Larger messages are too unwieldy for our website and your list subscribers to deal with reasonably, and will be rejected.
When editing a theater or show listing, "Upload Photos" will appear on the left-side menu. Click the link to view a page listing all the pictures associated with the theater or show. At the bottom of the page is a text field and two buttons for uploading more picture files. In the text field just above the button, type the name of a file on your computer containing the image you wish to display (use the "Browse" button to search for a file). Then click the "Upload Photo" button to transmit the file to the website, where it may be displayed on listings.
A theater may have up to 30 images stored for the organization in general, and up to 30 additional images for each show listing. The first image will be displayed on the theater or show listing page. Images must be of GIF, JPEG or PNG format, no larger than 300000 bytes, and dimensions of no more than 500 pixels wide and 500 pixels high.
<img src="http://www.findtheater.com/getphoto?theatreId=TTT&photoId=PPP&showId=SSS">This specifies that the image should be downloaded from our website when your users read their e-mail. TTT should be replaced with the ID number of your theater (seen in the URL displayed in your browser's toolbar when you view your theater's webpage on this site). Similarly, SSS should be replaced with the show number seen when you view the show's page on this website in your browser, and PPP should be replaced with the photo number (1 through 30) for the theater or show. If the phot you want to display is posted for the theater itself and not for a specific show, the &showId=NNN part can be left out.
Easy. If you are a verified user, you will see the choice "Search for Talent" on the left-side menu after you log into our website. Click this, and you will be shown a search form where you can specify the type of talent you need (technical, staff, musician, or performer). Then click the "Search" button on the form, and you will be presented with a list of all the talented subscribers on this website who have chosen to share their talents with the community and have the skills you are looking for.
Note that you will not be able to search for actors under the age of 18 with this website. Due to the need to protect children and the stringent laws enforcing such protection, the Terms of Usage of this website prohibit any individual under the age of 18 from having a personal account (with or without a talent profile) on this website. This does not prevent you from posting audition notices with children's roles (how could you have a production of "Annie" without an Annie?), but it does prevent those children from being directly solicited without their parents' consent and knowledge via this website.
When a theater organization subscribes to this site, you get three months free service to try us out. No committment, no money involved. When your trial membership is up, renewing your subscription is only $159 per year. This continues your access to all our features. No tricky deals, no automatic renewals without your consent or surprise charges on your credit card. We'll send your authorized business agents a reminder note before your subscription expires so you can maintain continuous coverage on the website. We accept checks and money orders made out to "FindTheater.com". Please send payments to:
FindTheater.com P.O. Box 569 Southeastern, PA 19399
Note that your theater's shows will also not appear if your theater's account is expired
or suspended.
The publicity person at [fill-in-the-blank] Theater says they have granted me the right to update my show's listing, but I can't do it. Why not?
If you are not the original creator of your theater's listing on this website, you must be specifically authorized to make changes to that theater's notices. This complexity is required because there are too many people on the Internet who feel it's a barrel of laughs to deliberately deface someone's website, misrepresent somebody, or slander or libel them publicly. Because of this, we have implemented security features to allow very explicit and specific control over who is allowed to update a theater's notices.
Two pre-requisites must be met before you can be granted modification access to a theater:
Note that, just because you want access rights, the theater is under no obligation to grant them to you. Unfortunately, the FindTheater.com Webmaster can't help you with this. Each theater sets its own policy on who is allowed to update their listings, and FindTheater.com is not involved in those policy decisions. We merely provide the means by which theaters can implement whatever policy they choose.
The right to electronically reproduce and distribute music is very strictly controlled by copyright holders, and generally not licensed in the royalty contract for performances of a copyrighted show (even when advertising that same licensed production). Because FindTheater.com is unable to learn the terms of your performance licensing contract with the copyright holders, nor are we able to determine if such a recording requires separate licensing from the performing artists as well as the composers or their agents, we cannot permit anyone to play potentially copyright-encumbered recordings on this website, per the terms of our copyright policy.
Besides, it's extremely annoying (and possibly occupationally dangerous) to the people you want viewing your listings here to suddenly have their computer start blaring out music. So we prefer to run a quiet website.
Absolutely not. This is why FindTheater.com provides personal accounts. Each personal account is to be used only by the person to whom it is issued. Accounts are non-transferable. And there is no need to share accounts when personal accounts are free, and a great reason not to let any one else use your personal account: you are responsible and liable for any actions done with your personal account, per our Terms of Usage, regardless of whether you intended anyone else to use your account. Your account identity is used to track any actions on the website which may affect someone's listings on the website, or damage the operation of this or other websites. So, keep your account secure and never share your password with anyone else.
Now, if that friend is willing to do the task for you, that's fine. But they are taking legal responsibility for taking those actions, not you. So, if someone asks you to do something for them on this website, make sure you're willing to accept the results of that action.