TDF Doubles Ticket Subsidy Rate
25 Pulitzer Prize-winning plays and musicals
As of July 1, 2002, the Theatre Development Fund (TDF) began doubling the rate of subsidy of tickets sold to its members. What this means is that the 75,000 students, teachers, performing arts professionals, union members, retirees, clergy, and armed forces personnel that make up the TDF subscriber base will now pay $4 less for each ticket that they buy through the organization.
Through its Theatre Ticket Purchase Program, TDF buys a large number of tickets (up to 6,000) from selected shows for a reasonable price–respectively, $32 and $28 for Broadway musicals and plays, $26 and $24 for Off-Broadway musicals and plays. TDF then sells these tickets for less than what it paid for them, subsidizing the difference between the purchase and sale price for the benefit of subscribers. Prior to July 1, the subsidy covered $4 per ticket; it now covers twice that amount, with tickets sold at $8 off the purchase price. Thus, a TDF patron might be able to see a Broadway musical for a mere $24 or an Off-Broadway play for as little as $16 (plus a $2.50 service charge to help offset TDF’s administrative costs).
The first TDF program to offer a sizable discount to theatergoers, pre-dating the enormously popular tkts booth, TTPP was instituted in 1968 when the organization bought tickets to the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Great White Hope and distributed them to students. Since then, TDF has purchased over 2.5 million tickets, thereby helping to support more than 750 plays and musicals.
The Theatre Development Fund is a non-profit organization whose twofold mission is to provide support for theatrical works and to help and encourage diverse audiences to attend live theater. For more information on TDF and its programs, visit the website www.tdf.org.
