news and events

Encore Awards

This is the seventh year of the Passport to Off-Broadway Campaign, a major effort that promotes the Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway theatre community by offering discounts of up to 50% for hundreds of shows. What began in 1991 as a one-month radio campaign with discounts to 80 Off-Broadway shows has exploded into a ten-week salute reaching millions of people through radio, print ads and television with discounts to 200 shows. This four-fold increase in audience reach can be attributed to NY1 which has contributed $250, 000 in free advertising and programming.

The unique partnership between A.R.T./New York and NY 1 News is based on a sense of shared trust and commitment, which is especially apparent during the Passport Campaign. With almost 200 events happening in ten weeks, NY 1 looks to A.R.T./New York for guidance about theatre companies and productions of which they otherwise would not be aware. The station is always trying to broaden and expand its coverage of the arts beyond Manhattan and the traditional theatre venues, and trusts A.R.T./New York to bring it interesting stories from the outer boroughs and undiscovered gems in Manhattan worthy of attention.

For A.R.T./New York and its member theatres, this coverage is invaluable. Theatre companies that cannot afford to buy even small ads in local newspapers find themselves in the extraordinary position of reaching millions of viewers over the course of a week.

NY1 has helped to move viewers’ perception of theatre beyond Broadway and has strengthened the theatre community which is one of the city’s greatest assets.