By Kim Schwartz
It has been said that kids today don’t have any culture. Now, the National Arts Centre is out to change that.
In September, the NAC launched the Live Rush program. The program offers high school, college and university students tickets to any NAC performance for $8.50.
“This gives students the opportunity to do something other than go to the movies,” says Nina La Chapelle, the NAC marketing officer for artistic programming. “We want students to have the opportunity to just walk into the NAC.”
With Live Rush, students must first register online and can only purchase tickets at 4 p.m. before an evening show or two hours before a matinee. Live Rush is different from the existing student program, which offers students a 50 per cent ticket discount on tickets purchased at any time.
This makes Live Rush more “spur of the moment,” according to La Chapelle.
Once at the NAC, students are encouraged to take advantage of the new Live Rush Foyer, which La Chapelle calls “funky and fun.”
There are “comfy” chairs and an iMac computer for registration, along with props from old shows.
“We want it all to come together as a package,” says La Chapelle.
So far, students are taking that opportunity. Already, over 1,200 students have registered in Live Rush. There has been an “amazing response,” says La Chapelle. And the recent production of Romeo and Juliet saw 350 Live Rush seats sold.
Students aren’t the only ones responding positively to the program. “Anything that encourages students to go to the NAC is a wonderful idea,” says Trudy Bradley, head of arts at Lisgar Collegiate Institute.
Live Rush relies on sponsorship from businesses such as OC Transpo, The New RO, KOOL FM and the Societe de Transport de L’Outaouais.
OC Transpo Spokesperson Oxana Sawka says a partnership between the transit company and the NAC made a lot of sense, since students make up one-third of all riders.
Live Rush pamphlets and registration cards are being distributed during school visits, on buses and at the 400 vendors who sell bus passes.
“Students are our riders and we want them to continue to be,” says Sawka. “The NAC has great deals and we want to benefit from it.”
The New RO was also eager to affiliate itself with the NAC. The station feels it’s important to be associated with “sophisticated long-standing organizations in the community, like the NAC,” says Marlene Lone, The New RO’s director of creative services.
“It’s not just a commercial buy, it’s a reciprocal relationship,” she says.
In exchange for distributing NAC promotional materials, The New RO gets to cover and report on NAC events. The station even hopes to have NAC performances in their building. “We like to associate ourselves with community things we can get involved in. We are totally dedicated to the local market,” says Lone.
The NAC wants to add to the Live Rush Program eventually, but is keeping details under wraps.
“Things are done in stages and we want each done properly,” says La Chapelle.
For now, the goal is to get more students signed up, while sponsors continue to visit schools until mid-November.
Bradley supports that goal.
“Get the students to go to concerts now and we have the concert-goers of the future,” she says.