Historically speaking, the number of downtown offerings tends to fall off along with temperatures during the winter season.

For area theaters, attendance also indicates a downward trend during the colder months, when a number of local residents head south; however, while a majority of venues report taking a different approach to its winter programming versus the rest of the year, not all fall into this category.

In speaking with those who play a role in the booking and staging of acts in the months of January and February, there appears to be no concrete figures among these venues when it comes to a specific attendance goal. With that being said, though, the winter season does typically play a role, in varying degrees, as to what the community can expect from its performing arts venues at the turn of the year.

For the Lucille Ball Little Theatre, finding the right productions for the season is always a primary consideration made by those who select the programming. Helen Merrill, a board member and one of three artistic directors for the theater, said the venue is always looking for ways to boost attendance during a time when many of its season ticket holders have vacated the region.

“A lot of our season ticket holders head south for the winter, so after the first of the year we have a tendency to not have them here and our attendance drops during those couple of shows,” Merrill said. “We’ve made a real effort in reading shows and discussing what we can do to stimulate our audience and provide people who stay in Jamestown with something that they would really like. The idea is to keep the winter blues away by making people laugh.”

Len Barry, marketing and communications director for the Reg Lenna Center for the Arts, said the winter season has a large impact on the venue’s programming.

“The weather kind of plays tricks on the mind, and that’s something that we always try to be aware of,” Barry said. “We have attendance goals for each show, and each one is different. In the past, we would schedule shows toward the end of February, but we have adjusted that format and kind of pushed our live programming back into March, when more people are wanting to get out of the house again. And so that first show of the season tends to be lighter in content, usually a comedy to help uplift peoples’ spirits, and we program comforting movie screenings throughout January and February.”

At the Struthers Library Theatre in Warren, Pa., programming is kept more localized to account for the unpredictably of the weather and subsequent ticket sales as a result, according to artistic director Charles Gray.

“Struthers Library Theatre does not schedule Celebrity Series shows during January or February,” Gray said. “Historically, it has been difficult to book and to guarantee shows due to the wild card of weather during these winter months. During these months, we do offer a local variety-style show featuring the talents of SLT Academy theatre arts students and local performing arts groups.”

In its relatively recent transformation into a performing arts venue, the Spire Theater has seen a good amount of successful over the past few years; particularly among Jamestown’s younger arts community. According to Angelo Giuffre, who co-owns the 317 E. Third St. venue with his wife, Ylsa, the Spire has thus far received fairly consistent community support throughout the calendar year – offering a different take on the winter season.

“As long as the weather isn’t excruciatingly bad, we tend to do a little bit better around January and February than we do in the summertime,” Giuffre said. “In the summer, people tend to not want to be cooped up; they like to spend time at the lake and places like that, so a lot maybe don’t want to come and sit in a theater.

“As far as attendance goals, our goal is to just get anyone to come. We’ve never actually had a quota that we wanted to reach, we just always wanted to do something that attracted people,” he added. And as far as the time of year dictating our content, everything we do is pretty much light-hearted except for some of the thrillers that we usually have closer to Halloween; so I guess we don’t really pay too much attention to that kind of thing.”

And so, like the winter weather, area residents may never fully know what to expect until the season is upon them.