What are the best ways to get press coverage for your theatrical production?

Think creatively about who your target media could be. Of course, find media related to the industry (theatre) and your location. Further, leverage the unique perspectives and backgrounds of your cast and creative team. If you engage diverse talent, you can be further rewarded with additional media coverage opportunities. For example, a production that features a majority of an LGBTQIA+ audience could make use of local queer press. Think about the publications from the universities from which your cast and crew graduate from, or even their hometown local media (even if your production is located elsewhere).

Building relationships takes time. Rather than immediately requesting coverage in a blanket generic email. Perhaps send personalised invitations to an upcoming production. If the journalists attends and has a good experience, they will remember your name and the work you do, and be more inclined to cover your show as they have greater context - play the long game.

Your pitch email has to provide the 'lowest barrier for entry' for the journalist. Don't make them 'work' for information. Can they easily skim your email and access all key details? If they want to dive deeper, can they easily? Have you provided them with imagery or quotes that are ready-for-publishing? Ensure any external links to file sharing services have been tested by you in other browsers to avoid awkward dead links.

Media people are not unlike the rest of us. We’re all a sucker for a human interest story. Make sure you know your cast very well because I guarantee you somewhere buried within that production be an actor lighting Director Director or just a grip, I don’t know you want me to call you there’s someone with a story worth telling to the press. The result will be some interesting promotion that goes beyond what a great and rewarding experience your production is, but promotes it nevertheless.

Start before the show is ready. Create and share information about the production process; actor interviews; behind the scenes compilations; directors’ statements, etc and share these throughout the process. This can help garner interest before you’re even ready for previews, and if that interest is built up and already established, reviewers are more likely to be interested in viewing and responding to or promoting your work.