Industry guide
QR codes for theatres
A programme QR code gives every visitor cast bios, and the same code serves a large-print programme — an accessibility win print cannot match. Add interval pre-ordering, which has hard maths: a 20-minute interval and one bar. Keep scanning in the foyer, not the auditorium.
The digital programme
Printed programmes cost money to produce and are bought by a fraction of the house; the rest watch the cast wondering where they have seen the lead before. A code on the ticket, the cast board and the free cast sheet, linking a digital programme — bios, production notes, creative team — serves every seat for the cost of one page template.
The quiet win is accessibility: the same code serves a large-print programme, a screen-reader-friendly version and translations, because the visitor's own phone applies their text size. That is a genuine accessible-design advantage no printed programme matches. Keep selling the printed one — it is a souvenir, and some patrons will always prefer it.
Interval pre-ordering has a clock
The maths is unforgiving: a 20-minute interval, one bar, and several hundred people who all decided on a drink at the same moment. A pre-order code on the cast sheet and foyer signage — order before curtain, collect from the shelf at interval — moves the queue to before the show. The menu-style page must be one screen, card saved, three taps; anyone still filling a form at curtain abandons the order.
The subscription moment
The best moment to sell next season is the walk out of a show the audience loved. Codes on the exit doors and in the programme linking the season announcement — with a calendar code for priority-booking day — catch goodwill that has evaporated by the next morning's email.
Etiquette: the foyer, not the stalls
A theatre asks phones to disappear at curtain. Respect your own request: codes belong on tickets, cast sheets, foyer boards and bars — places used before, at interval and after. Nothing in the auditorium should invite a lit screen during a performance, and pre-show announcements should not send an audience scanning in the dark; that is scanning in the worst light in the building anyway.
FAQ
What should a theatre programme QR code link to?
A digital programme for the current production: cast and creative bios, notes, running time and interval details. The same link should offer a large-print version — the visitor's phone handles text size, which is the accessibility advantage over print.
How does interval pre-ordering by QR code work?
Patrons scan in the foyer before curtain, order and pay on one short page, and collect from a named shelf at interval. It works because ordering moves outside the 20-minute window; the page must be fast enough to finish before the bells.
Where should QR codes not go in a theatre?
Anywhere that invites a phone during the performance. Keep codes to tickets, cast sheets, foyer signage and the bar. The auditorium is the one room where the venue has asked screens to stay dark — codes there work against the house rules.
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Related
- QR codes for cinemas — One code per film poster linking trailer and showtimes, loyalty at concessions — and why backlit poster cases behave like screens, not paper.
- QR codes for concerts and festivals — The honest truth about static QR tickets, plus on-site codes that work — merch pre-orders in queues, artist follows, wayfinding — and the sunlight problem.
- QR codes for museums and galleries — Which QR codes museums and galleries actually need, where to put them, what size, and what goes wrong.
- QR codes for events and conferences — Which QR codes events and conferences actually need, where to put them, what size, and what goes wrong.