Eight Years on Ludus: How BHHS Theatre Built a Booster-Friendly Box Office
For eight years, BHHS Theatre has relied on Ludus to keep its box office running smoothly—from everyday ticketing and parent booster support to donations, exchanges, and unexpected show-night challenges.
Challenge
After 27 years teaching middle school, Mary Bogrette stepped into the high school theatre director role at Bloomfield Hills High School and inherited a ticketing setup that no longer matched the program's needs.
The previous system had no active contract. Emails went unanswered. Phone calls were not returned. There was no working support relationship. With a 765-seat performing arts center and a growing theatre program, the box office experience needed to match the quality of the work on stage. Bogrette switched to Ludus before her first fall production.
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The Ludus Solution
Bogrette heard about Ludus through a friend she trusted. She made the switch quickly, and Ludus helped from day one.
Much of the box office operation is handled by a dedicated parent booster team. When Bogrette moved to Ludus, the team trained the boosters directly through phone calls and email support. Bogrette provided the seating chart. The boosters handled the rest.
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That first season included an early sign of what the relationship would look like. The boosters wanted to run a silent auction alongside a production. Ludus set up a payment path so winning bidders could pay through the same system.
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Over the years, BHHS expanded its use of Ludus across donations, payments, ticket exchanges, and more. The company has gone through two name changes since 2018, but Ludus has stayed constant through each chapter.
Features That Made The Difference
Ticket Exchange
School theatre audiences run on packed family schedules. When a patron needs to move to a different night, the exchange is fast and requires no back-and-forth. "It is so easy to exchange for another night!"
Donations and Splash Page
Ludus handles ticketed and donation-based events in the same system. That made the Cabaret production possible without building a workaround.
Payments
From regular ticket sales to auction payments to donation processing, everything moves through one system. That keeps the booster operation clean and cuts manual work at the end of every show.
Show-Night Support
When a crisis hits mid-show, the support line picks up. Under sixty seconds to a working plan, on a sold-out night, during a power outage.
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Real-World Impact
The Night Ludus Helped Save a Sold-Out Show
A summer theatre program that Bogrette had recommended Ludus to was hit by a severe storm that knocked out power on the night of a sold-out show. Bogrette called Ludus.
She had a plan in under sixty seconds. She opened her phone's hotspot, emailed every ticket holder, created a new matinee time slot, and assigned each patron their exact original seat in the new show. Out of a full house, only 13 people requested refunds. Several turned their tickets into donations instead.
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The sold-out evening became a sold-out matinee. The show went on.
The Free Show That Matched a Ticketed Night
BHHS Theatre ran Cabaret as a donation-only production. No ticket price. Patrons gave what they chose. The show raised roughly the same revenue as a standard ticketed production. Students attended who would not have come with a price on the door. Ludus handled the donation structure without a separate system or manual work at the end of the night.
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When The Doors Closed
When COVID shut down live performance, BHHS Theatre used AnywhereSeat to keep productions moving. What Bogrette remembers most is not the technology. It is the attention: Ludus helped check recordings, plan safe viewing logistics, and turn unusable tickets into donations when refunds would have taken money out of the program.
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The Vision Ahead
As the program continues offering a mix of productions each season, Bogrette wants a more consistent way to keep patrons connected from show to show. Her next step is building a master patron email list in Ludus.
Why Ludus?
No setup fees or contracts.
Bogrette switched before her first fall production with no startup cost and no contract. Getting started was simple.
Support that trained the parent booster team.
Ludus did not just onboard Bogrette. The team trained the boosters who run the box office on show night, through direct phone calls and email before the first curtain ever went up.
Tools built around school theatre realities.
Ticket exchanges for family schedule changes. Donation-based productions on the same system as ticketed ones. Silent auction payments handled through Ludus. For a school theatre, those are not extras. They are part of the job.
Support before, during, and after show night.
During the pandemic, Ludus checked recordings, planned safe viewing logistics, and helped convert unusable tickets into donations. During a power outage on a sold-out night, the phone was answered in under sixty seconds. That is the support standard that earns eight years.
Final Takeaway
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Running a school theatre program with parent boosters, busy families, and packed show weeks? See how Ludus helps your team manage ticketing, payments, donations, and last-minute changes with confidence.
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