Podcast Episode 90 – Broadway Box Office Treasurer, Chris Stasiuk
You know where I learned the most about how to sell tickets to Broadway shows?
It wasn’t during the first ten years of my work in the business as a Company Manager. It was when I produced my very first show, and I was the guy who answered the group sales line and talked to the customers directly.
We can all sit in ad rooms and talk about what we think drives our customers to make a purchase (or to NOT make a purchase), and how much we think is a good enough discount, or where they really want to sit, but until we talk to them face to face, it’s all just good guess work.
That’s why I wanted to talk to someone on our front lines . . . a pro whose job it is to talk to our ticket buyers.
And that’s one of our treasured Box Office Treasurers, and oh what a great one we got for you.
Jujamcyn Theaters (who also offered up one of their ushers for this podcast) suggested I speak to Chris Stasiuk, the head Treasurer at the St. James Theatre, who has quite the interesting path to working on Broadway.
Listen to Chris and I talk all things ticketing including:
- How she learned to sell by hawking hot dogs.
- The difference between selling tickets to sports games and selling tickets to theater, and which is harder (her answer will surprise you).
- A cliche about Box Office Treasurers that she’d love to dispel, and how she is doing that herself.
- The most common question she gets from potential ticket buyers at “the window.”
- The biggest complaint about buying tickets she hears from our customers.
And lots more.
Talking to Chris reminded me that while it’s easy for all of us to focus on the “bold faced names” in our business who create our shows, we depend just as much on the men and women who make those shows happen on a daily basis.
And we’re lucky that we’ve got people like Chris doing just that.
Enjoy!
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Podcasting
Ken created one of the first Broadway podcasts, recording over 250 episodes over 7 years. It features interviews with A-listers in the theater about how they “made it”, including 2 Pulitzer Prize Winners, 7 Academy Award Winners and 76 Tony Award winners. Notable guests include Pasek & Paul, Kenny Leon, Lynn Ahrens and more.