Students help with Musical Theatre Guild promotion
As a transplant to Butler County who studies at Slippery Rock University, Paul Koontz is not as familiar with some of the long-standing community organizations that populate the county, like the Musical Theatre Guild of Butler.
After working with the theater group, which has been around since 1962, Koontz is making its long history part of a public-relations campaign he’s planning as part of a project for a class in SRU’s Communication, Media & Sport Management program. Koontz is a senior strategic communication and media major at SRU.
“We have to do a communication audit as part of the class,” Koontz said. “After doing that and talking … we realized that there is so much rich history with MTG.
“A big part of what we’re trying to do is amplify that history, that legacy, of high-quality productions in the community for a long time now.”
Larry Stock, a member of MTG’s board of directors, said he invited students in the program to work with the guild to help them get real-world experience in marketing and communications. Stock is also on the advisory board for SRU’s communication department, so seeing the college work with a community organization is a great partnership in his eyes.
“They’re a very enthusiastic group. There’s seven of them, and I think, they’re going to give us some good ideas,” Stock said. “They’re working with us this semester to expand our marketing to redefine social media work we do.”
Stock said photos and videos from the SRU group’s project will appear on the guild’s website and YouTube page in the coming months.
Doug Strahler, associate professor in the Department of Communication, Media & Sport Management at Slippery Rock University, gave the agency assignments to his students. He said he finds agencies in the community for students to work with that are likely to have a positive impact on students and the agency they are helping.
The guild, Strahler said, was a good candidate for a student partnership because its long history offers something for students to dig into to for their public relations plans.
“How can students strategize for the guild and create social media for them?” Strahler said. “Is it establishing more brand style for the guild? That's kind of what the students are tasked with this semester.”
Koontz said he has been working with the guild for the past few months, learning about the agency and taking promotional photos and videos to help market the group. He said he had to not only make a marketing plan, but help promote the guild’s upcoming show, “Clue: The Musical,” as part of the project.
Working on a marketing plan as a cast and crew are working on an upcoming show makes for great photos and videos, Koontz said.
“Specifically with ‘Clue,’ we came in at a point where it had already been chosen and advertised a little bit,” Koontz said. “We wanted to show off the comradery between all the members; give prospective members an idea of what it was like to be there in rehearsals with the cast.”
Strahler said students in the class are required to have at least six hours of communication with the organization they are working with. However, that number is not usually representative of how much time students actually spend working with their assigned partner agency, because communication work is almost constant.
Koontz said the collaboration has been rewarding, and some photos and videos his partner took may show up on the guild’s social media pages prior to the debut of “Clue: The Musical.” Koontz said he is enjoying breaking out of the college space and working with a real-world organization.
“This whole class is about collaboration between us and the partner,” Koontz said. “Really it’s about taking everything and theory from the class from the past three or four years and applying that.”
“Clue: The Musical” runs about 90 minutes, with no intermission. The production shows at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, at 3 p.m. Sunday, and 7:30 p.m. March 28 and 29. For tickets, visit mtgbutler.org.
