Performance opportunities at Trinity House are severely limited.
We are a small non-profit charitable organization run entirely by volunteers; therefore, most of our concert bookings are weekend dates. Unfortunately, there’s only so many weekends in a year. Further restricting these opportunities, we book limited shows during the summer months or during our main stage theatrical runs each year.
Due to these limitations, many artists we would like to book we do not have opportunities to do so. And the artists that we are booking are usually booked 8 to 12 months out. We do not state this to discourage you from submitting a booking request (well, maybe we do) but we feel we need to be honest about this at the very beginning of the process. While the probability of being booked is very small, that doesn’t mean we don’t like your music.
With those unpleasantries out of the way, first allow us to give you some background on Trinity House to see if we are a good fit for each other.
Our mission statement reads, “Trinity House Theatre exists to enrich and enliven the communities of Southeastern Michigan through brave, truthful and necessary works of art.”
The theatre was founded in 1981 by Paul Patton and members of Trinity Baptist Church in Livonia. It was incorporated separately as a non-profit arts organization in 1988. Since its inception, Trinity House has produced over 90 plays and musicals (21 of them world premieres) and has hosted or sponsored arts seminars, acting classes, film screenings, staged readings of new works, and concerts.
Trinity House is run by a board of directors comprised of professing Christians committed to a biblical world-view that integrates faith and art. Membership, auditions, and performances are open to all who are interested, regardless of their faith or religious beliefs.
We have two to three theatrical productions per year. In between these stage productions we host concerts, film series, etc. We also are host to a variety of music, theater, church groups, and artistic organizations in our community who rent space for various meetings and productions.
We refer to our concerts as “Live in Our Living Room” due to the intimate seating arrangement of our venue. We are most interested in booking creative and thought provoking artists performing original material. While many of the artists we book are influenced by a Christian worldview, not all of them are and we are not looking for “religious” artists such as those heard on typical religious radio. Please review our Previous Shows & Upcoming Events to see the type of acts we book.
Our typical financial arrangement is a split of the box office. Trinity House is an acoustic music listening room and not a bar or restaurant. While this means our patrons come to our concerts to actually listen to the music, it also means we have to cover the expense of our operations through ticket sales. Performers are paid a percentage of the ticket sales. Our seating capacity ranges from 40 to 87 seats and ticket prices range between $10 to $18. If opening acts are paid, the amount is usually 10% to 25% of the ticket sales. Headline acts receive 30% to 65% of ticket sales. Since performers are playing for exposure, a percentage of the door, and merchandise sales, the success of your concert rests on your promotional efforts.
We also provide a small table for merchandise sales, and for out of town musicians, one night lodging at Quality Inn of Livonia.
The pay ain’t much, but the artists who perform here say they really “love our space.”
While we are interested in (and may even thoroughly enjoy) viewing your website & EPK, please do not expect to be booked by simply sending us a link to your site or EPK.
Please email the booking address on our contact page with answers to the following questions. This will help us determine if, how, and when we would be able to book you in concert. If you have a website and EPK, please include that info as well as any other info you feel is relevant. When you email please include something descriptive in the subject line. Non descriptive subjects like “bookings”, “concert”, “question”, “info”, “Hi there”, or just your name have a tendency to blend in with the avalanche of spam we receive and may be accidentally deleted without being read. At a bare minimum include the artist or band name & the words “booking request”.
1. What size venues have you played for your most recent headline concerts, how many were in attendance, and what was the admission price?
2. Have you ever performed in the metro Detroit area?
If so:
When?
Where?
How many attended?
What was the ticket price?
3. How many people are on your e-mail fan base?
4. What do you usually do to promote your shows and what will you do to specifically promote your show at Trinity House? (Click our list of media people to contact if you are unfamiliar with the Detroit area.)
If you can provide us the info requested we will contact you back on how to proceed with your booking request and how to send us a press pack (our concert coordinator prefers actual press kits over electronic ones).
If you are just starting our and have not developed a fan base or enough material to be a opening or headline act, you may be interested in the Open Mics in the metro area. If you know of open mics which are not on our list, please send us the info.
Promotional Tips
If a show is booked, you will need to promote it for it to be successful. Here are some suggestions (which we stole from The Evening Muse of Charlotte, NC.)
1. Please send your press kit and all of your promotional information to the contacts listed at: Media Contacts. Try to identify who may be the most relevant, but one never knows who else might come through on this list.
2. It’s also a good idea to follow-up with a phone call to chat with some of the media folks. They are truly nice people, though undoubtedly busy. Please respect the value of their time.
3. E-mail your fan base. If possible, take time to write an e-mail specifically promoting your show with us and asking your fans to let anyone they know in our region about the show. Fans in New York may have friends in Detroit who they’ll send out to the show.
4. Whenever possible, bands and artists need to distribute handbills and post flyers around town two weeks prior to the show.
(The Evening Muse has some additional promotional suggestions that may be of interest to you at: http://queencitymusic.com/theeveningmuse/10Steps.htm)
