Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for the not-for-profit American theatre, developed this exciting and innovative national audience development initiative to attract new audiences and raise public awareness about live theatre. As TCG continues to roll out the Free Night program across an expanding national stage, the program provides a unique opportunity for theatres nationwide to collaborate on a project that provides access for new audiences to experience the joy of theatre for the first time.

Free Night of Theater 2008

In 2008, Free Night continues its success of introducing the program into regions of the country currently not represented in the program. We are pleased to announce the inclusion of Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas and New York City (more cities to be announced) in the Free Night 2008 program. TCG will continue to partner with APASO organizations and arts councils to produce Free Night in 2008, with the goal to present the program in over 100 cities across the country, expand individual theatre participation to 750 theatres, which will in turn offer up to 75,000 free tickets nationally.

Free Night of Theater 2007

The Free Night of Theater 2007 program was introduced selectively into regions of the country that had not previously participated in the program, concentrating our expansion efforts in the Midwest and southeastern states.
TCG continued its relationship with Association of Performing Arts Service Organizations (APASO) organizations to produce Free Night in local communities and introduced arts councils as management partners in 2007. Free Night 2007 was presented in over 70 cities, offering more than 30,000 tickets to 600 performances that were presented by 398 theatres from coast to coast.

Free Night of Theater 2006

Building on the success of the 2005 pilot program, Free Night expanded to include the pilot partners plus thirteen additional communities: the cities of Atlanta, Boston, Cleveland, Lexington, Los Angeles, Sacramento, Seattle and Washington, DC; and the states of Connecticut, Oregon, New Jersey, North Carolina and Wisconsin. Launched nationally on October 19, the 2006 campaign offered 35,627 free tickets to 522 performances presented by 387 participating theatre companies from coast to coast.

In order to provide assistance to our partners that did not have the funds or staff to manage ticketing internally, TCG created www.freenightoftheater.net our national interactive website, which allowed visitors to learn about events in their areas and reserve tickets online. The national site experienced an unprecedented run on tickets, receiving 450,000 hits on the first day, with 2,800 tickets reserved in the first 5 minutes. Philadelphia, Washington DC and Connecticut distributed their entire initial ticket allotments within 15 minutes. A total of 10,000 tickets were reserved through the national website with almost every region and performance "sold out."