Comps and plus-ones without the chaos

A comp is a free ticket that someone, somewhere, pays for. Usually it is worth it. Comps put people in seats who talk, write, give and come back. But comps without a policy turn the box office into a negotiating table and the house report into fiction.

Write the comp policy down

A comp policy fits on one page. If it runs longer, nobody will read it, and the person most likely to promise a ticket is the person least likely to have read it. Cover these points:

• Who can authorize comps. Named roles, not “management.”
• How many. A cap per authorizer, per performance.
• Which performances. Which nights are open to comps and which are blacked out. Opening night usually runs through the guest list, not the comp policy.
• The deadline. For example, requests close 48 hours before curtain.
• What a request must include. Recipient name, plus-one name, reason, authorizer.
• Delivery. Digital tickets, will call or both.
• Unclaimed comps. When they release and where they go.

Circulate it to everyone who might promise someone a ticket, which is everyone, including the cast.

Who can authorize

Keep the list of authorizers short and specific. A typical split: the producer or managing director for anything, the general manager for operational needs, the press rep for press, the development director for donor cultivation, the marketing director for partnerships and promotions, and the company manager for company allocations. The box office issues comps but does not authorize them. The house manager may relocate or seat a guest in an emergency, and logs it.

Comps, house seats and sold seats

Three things get confused at almost every theater, so define them in the policy:

• A comp is a ticket issued at no charge, with a reason.
• A house seat is a prime seat held back for someone with the right to buy it, then purchased at full price. It is not free, and treating it as a comp will cause a very awkward call from the general manager.
• A discount is a sold seat at a lower price: rush, student, partner code. Track it as a sale, not a comp.

Set up a distinct no-charge ticket type for each comp reason in your ticketing system. Never issue a comp as a general admission ticket at zero dollars, because then nobody can tell from the report which seats were sold, which were given and why. Every performance report should show sold and comped seats as separate lines.

Papering the house

Papering means filling seats with free tickets so the house looks and feels full. It is a legitimate tool. A fuller house plays better, the actors feel it, and a critic sitting in a half-empty room is watching a different show.

When to paper:

• Soft weeknight previews
• Performances before press attends
• A new show that needs word of mouth early
• Any night the stage manager would otherwise be looking at a sea of empty rows

How to paper discreetly:

1. Use a curated list. Community partners, service organizations, student groups, staff at nearby arts organizations, your own volunteers. Keep names and a contact for each group.
2. Never advertise free tickets publicly. It teaches your paying audience to wait for the deal.
3. Seat paper after sold seats. Never move a paying customer to make room. Fill the gaps that show from the stage and from the press seats.
4. Cap it per performance, and tell the box office and house manager how many papered seats to expect.
5. Log every papered seat in the comp ledger with its own reason code.

Some agreements calculate royalties or other payments from gross receipts or attendance, and some limit free or discounted tickets. Check your agreements before you paper.

Field note: Free tickets are easier to forget than paid ones. Issue a few more than you need, and keep a short list of people who will come on an hour’s notice.

Plus-one rules by tier

Plus-ones are where good policies go to die. Set them by tier, publish the deadline, and require a name. Here is an example policy for an opening; your numbers will differ.

For how the tiers themselves are built and seated, see guest list tiers that keep the peace.

The late plus-one

“My partner can come after all” arrives the afternoon of, every time. The rule: after the deadline, plus-ones come from a named hold or the waitlist, with a name given at the moment of the request. No “guest of” tickets at the door. An unnamed ticket is a ticket anyone can claim.

When a guest arrives at the door with an unlisted plus-one, the house manager calls the one person who can say yes. If there is a seat in the hold, seat them and log it. If there isn’t, the authorizer delivers the no, kindly, and offers the party or another performance. This is somebody’s guest; treat them that way.

Will call vs. digital tickets

Each has a job.

• Digital tickets move fastest at the door and spare you a stack of envelopes. They can also be forwarded or resold. Issue comps in the guest’s name and mark them non-transferable where your system allows.
• Will call is slower and needs ID, but it gives you control and a personal hand-off. Alphabetize by surname, include a “listed under” note, and split the window by surname range on busy nights.

A hybrid works well: digital for most comps, will call envelopes for press and VIPs where a personal greeting matters. For sizing the door around either, see door check-in that doesn’t jam the lobby.

The comp ledger

The ledger is a single running record of every comp. Each line should carry:

• Performance date and time
• Seat numbers
• Recipient name and plus-one name
• Reason code
• Authorized by
• Face value
• Delivery method
• Claimed or unclaimed

Finance will thank you for several reasons. Comps have a face value that matters for reporting, and someone will eventually ask what the opening cost in seats. If comps are part of a donor or sponsor benefit, they may affect how a gift is acknowledged, so ask your finance team how they want those recorded. Departments can see their own comp spend. And when someone asks who authorized thirty seats for a Tuesday preview, the answer takes ten seconds.

Reconcile the ledger against the box office report weekly. Differences found on a Monday are clerical. Differences found at settlement are a meeting.

Union and contract entitlements

Performer, stage manager, director, designer and crew agreements sometimes include ticket entitlements, particularly around opening, and some address house seats. Terms vary by agreement, contract tier and market, so read the actual agreements rather than relying on how it was done last season. Build those entitlements into the policy first, before any discretionary comps, and let the general manager confirm the numbers.

The free seats are the most expensive ones to lose track of.