Backstage at APT

When tickets went on sale online last night at midnight, we got off to a bit of a rocky start. We wanted to explain, and hopefully give you some tips for easier ordering.

I have to start by saying that, if we didn't know it already, last night absolutely proved that APT has the greatest audience in the world. No contest.

When the online ordering opened at 12:01 a.m., we got off to a rocky start. That is, we were pretty much non-functional for almost two hours. Our IT team (mostly one really brave guy) was trying desparately to fix the problem and did get most of the problem solved by about 2:00 a.m. What shocked me was the number of people who not only kept at it but were in great spirits about it. One patron emailed this morning after the ordeal with the subject line: "Mine at last, Mine at last, thank God Almighty, they're Mine at Last!" referring to his tickets.

So, thank you. To those who stayed up late and those who didn't. Your shared passion for APT is humbling, to say the least.

But on to the explanation.

During the off-season, we had to take a mandatory upgrade to our ticketing software in order to comply with new federal security regulations (PCI compliance).  At the same time, we did a much-needed upgrade on the content side of our site and improved the interface between the content side and the ticketing software. We've been testing now for several weeks, working the bugs out, etc., but obviously something went wrong when everything got turned on.

Those issues have been resolved and online ordering is up and running. But here are a few things you should know and tips to hopefully make your ordering experience easier:

1) The Password Issue: Due to increased security, many of you will be asked to reset your password. Keep in mind that it should have at least 7 characters, a combination of letters and numbers and not be the same as your old password.

Also, the reset procedure is more complicated (unfortunately not something we can control). The system will walk you through, but the steps are here as well:
a. The system will ask you to reset your password

b. A message will come up that says that the system will reset your password and to check your email soon.
c. A page will appear that says to click to go to the reset page. Follow that link.
d. An email will immediately be sent to you with a reset key. Copy and paste the reset key into the corresponding box on the reset page (it's long, so you'll want to copy and paste rather than try to type it in).
e. Enter your new password and confirm it (also on the reset page).
f. Click ok.
g. Go back to log-in page and proceed with your new password.

One more tip: If you've fogotten your password or think it might not pass security standards, you can go in and change it before you start ordering tickets. Go to "Log In" from the header navigation, click "forgot password" and follow steps b-g above.

2) Slow processing: We're hearing from some people (especially those placing especially big orders) that putting seats in the basket is slow. We're continuing to try to address this, but most seats do go through to the basket. Sometimes it can take as long as 90 seconds. The ticketing software folks tell us that this is also because of increased security -- the system going back and forth to find all available discounts, etc.

3) Personal help: Keep in mind that our box office is open 10-5 Mon-Friday if you need further assistance. You can also send an email to boxoffice@americanplayers.org and someone will get back to you as soon as they can (during business hours, though).

Thanks for your continued patience. Hoping we can continue to make progress on these issues in the next couple days.