Commercial and Residential Locksmiths in White

ATHENS, Ga. (AP) — Mike White said he usually avoids bringing up the NCAA Tournament with his players when discussing goals during the preseason.

White has made an exception for this year’s talks with his Georgia players. The Bulldogs haven’t been invited to the NCAA party since 2015. Following a big jump to .500 last season, his first with Georgia, White decided to make sure his players set their sights on ending the program’s NCAA drought.

White said a lot stands between the Bulldogs and the NCAA Tournament following a 16-16 overall record and 6-12 finish in Southeastern Conference games last season.

“At the same time, we want to go to the NCAA Tournament,” White said. “Georgia wants to go to the NCAA Tournament. These guys want to go to the NCAA Tournament.”

White said he’s “talked about that goal with this team, to be totally transparent with you” more than with any team in a long time.

“Like, ‘Hey, what’s the goal for this program?’” White said. “It’s to break through and get back to a tournament.”

Seniors Justin Hill, Jabri Abdur-Rahim, Matthew-Alexander Moncrieffe and Frank Anselem are the only returners on a roster that includes five transfers and four freshmen.

BONDING IN ITALY

The mostly new roster took a summer trip to Italy in July, providing extra time for practice and bonding.

“I think it was really important,” Hill said. “We only have four guys who stayed, so it’s basically a brand new team. Just learning people’s tendencies, I think it was good to get it going early.”

White said the trip provided the Bulldogs an early start on preparation for the season.

“The extra hours the NCAA gave us we took advantage of, we did a lot of installing this summer,” White said.

BIG MAN ON CAMPUS

White said South Florida transfer center Russel Tchewa (7-0, 265) “is going to impact our program greatly and immediately.”

“He takes up space, right?” White said.

MOVING UP

Georgia made a big improvement from 2021-22, when it finished 6-26 overall and 1-17 in the SEC, setting a record for most losses and worst conference finish in its final season with coach Tom Crean. The 10-win improvement was the program’s biggest since improving from 5-14 in 1946-47 to 18-10 the following season.

YOUNG LEADER

On Monday, White described freshman Silas Demary, Jr., a 6-foot-5 guard from Raleigh, North Carolina, as “a freshman going on 30.”

“He’s just got some maturity. He’s got some leadership skills. He’s very poised as a freshman.”

Demary said the different skills of the freshman class adds to the depth of the team. “I feel like we’re definitely going to be able to make a change here,” he said.

EARLY SCHEDULE CHALLENGE

Georgia opens its regular-season schedule at Oregon on Nov. 6. The Bulldogs will play a tough home opener against Wake Forest on Nov. 10 and also have games against Atlantic Coast Conference teams Miami on Nov. 17 in the Bahamas and at Florida State on Nov. 29 in the SEC-ACC Challenge.

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Georgia finally walked off the court as winners in this week’s game at Vanderbilt, snapping a six-game losing streak with a victory over the Commodores.

The Bulldogs were once 4-2 in SEC play but reached the tougher portion of their schedule and really struggled to find success. However, UGA was still competitive and among the six losses, only once was the margin of defeat greater than 10 with a handful of very close contests just not going their way. But against Vandy, Georgia was able to win by a dozen.

After the win, Bulldog head coach Mike White admitted what a brutal stretch it had been and was just thankful to go home victorious.

Yeah, been a tough few weeks and really gratifying. I mean, feels great to get back in that win column, really proud of our guys and happy for our guys,” he shared after the win, noting that his team has yet to throw in the towel with their effort throughout the year.

“That’s a happy locker room, because our guys, we’ve talked about this all year, our guys work consistently, they consistently bring it. Their approach to practice and work overall daily is really good as good as I’ve ever been around. Had another great practice last night, pretty sharp shoot around this morning. Just had a lot of carryover. We saw a team that played like they practiced, and we need more of that.”

Specifically, it was the mental approach of his team that impressed Mike White in the win over Vanderbilt.

“I thought we played with more maturity, a little bit less emotional, better responses to a couple live ball turnovers. We all sprinted back for the most part, did less pouting. We’ve struggled with that.”

White also explained that this UGA team is simply prone to runs — one way or the other. But the Dawgs got enough of them to go their way this time around, as White says that he thought the entire rotation played well.

“This team’s really competitive and that’s why you’ve seen this team make a lot of runs. You know, we’ve given up some big leads, but we’ve also come back from from sizable deficits, and it’s kind of the mental makeup of this team, and we’re working on continuing to be more even keel responding to adversity in-game a little bit better.

“Probably the first game all season I feel like everyone that we put in the game played well. Our starting five played well and everyone off the bench played well. Everyone had a positive plus-minus.”

As he has all season long, Mike White used the press conference to share praise for his guys rather than rant about what they did wrong. But after a win, obviously, that’s much easier to do.

“I’ve come in here after other wins or losses and said, you know, we’re going to be positive about our guys. I love our guys. Everyone that played wearing a Georgia uniform tonight played well.”

This interview originally appeared in the new BroadwayWorld Monthly Marketing Update, a monthly email designed for theatre marketing professionals. In each update, we'll share data and trends from our audience, wider trends in the marketing industry, helpful tools and resources that you can use to promote your shows and seasons, and, introduce you to some of the best marketers working in the arts today.

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Ali White is the Marketing Director at Actor's Express Theatre in Atlanta, GA. She has a producing and sales background working in industries such as arts and culture, bridal and hospitality. She also has a passion for film and has traveled to festivals around the world and volunteered on multiple committees at the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival.

Ali lives in Atlanta, GA with her husband, son and two shepherd dogs. Education: Bachelor of Arts from the University of Central Florida, Theatre Studies, Masters Certificate in Arts Leadership and Cultural Management form the University of Connecticut

What is your biggest challenge in marketing productions at the moment? How are you facing it?

My organization produces fearless theatre. We tell stories that reflect the diversity of our community highlighting the many talented creatives that reside in Atlanta. We are fortunate to bring in a high percentage of first time visitors per production. One of my main challenges is to continue building on these relationships with patrons and encourage them to return to see another show. My targeted messaging and marketing efforts need to encourage patron interest in a show that on the surface, may not immediately interest them. It is part of our mission to challenge perspectives and start conversations so it is essential that we continue to bring first time patrons and new audiences back, especially the younger generation of theatre-goers.

Another major challenge is competing with the couch and all the entertainment available to us virtually. I want to remind audiences about the unique feeling of live performance and how togetherness feels. With the overwhelming amount of entertainment now we are looking for ways to create more immersive, social experiences to make that night off the couch more worthwhile and combat some of the barriers we experience now in post pandemic times. With social media campaigns, I often take inspiration from my “barriers and myths” list each season. Then I try to tailor content around these barriers to encourage and inspire the community to see a live show.

What advice would you offer to other marketers based on what is working for Actor's Express at the moment?

My advice I would offer to other marketers would be to lean into your super fans and enthusiastic artists. These fans bring in new supporters and new patrons to your organization. These super fans typically are the patrons that move up the ladder to subscribers and donors. In a non-profit organization it is essential to tell impact stories and let the audience in on the process of creating theater. My motto is “our ordinary is their extraordinary. '' As theatermakers we often forget how special and unique our industry is. I also find that underproduced, authentic content on social media platforms outperform other still images and overproduced trailers.

I have also found success in influencer marketing and look forward to diving deeper into his type of marketing tactic in the future. Lastly, I encourage organizations to engage in partnerships with organizations in your community that align with your mission.

How do you approach designing the various assets for your campaign? Is it driven by the marketing department, the show's creative teams, or a hybrid?

Most of our marketing efforts are driven by the marketing team, myself and two assistants. The show’s creative team plays a major role in crafting our messaging. I do an initial marketing meeting with directors and writers (if available) where we discuss vision, audiences, plans for different assets, keywords, themes and more. This helps me craft the campaign and then I consult with our artistic director and graphic designer. I think it is important that my voice is not the only voice heard in our marketing to ensure the messaging is not only coming from my perspective. I then consult with our community engagement manager to discuss and plan partnerships, affinity group involvement, cross promotions and construct a group sales plan.

Why do you utilize BroadwayWorld as part of your marketing mix?

Atlanta has an incredible arts and cultural scene. We tell diverse, transformative stories and we create change. Engaging in campaigns with BroadwayWorld will help us in our community outreach initiative and brand awareness. We live in a large city with an extraordinary amount of arts and culture so we like to engage in campaigns that pair well with press releases and reviews with paid advertising including banner ads, social/sponsored content, eblasts, and featured listings to reach the right audiences. BWW has been essential to our national visibility.

What has been your favorite show that you’ve had the pleasure of putting together a campaign for?

I am typically a musical fanatic but this past season we put on a production of Prayer for the French Republic by Joshua Harmon.This was a dramatic play that was captivating, moving and poignant. My favorite shows are the ones that stick with me for a long time, whether that be the overall message or a few specific lines. This show took me by surprise and I continue to think about the messaging to this day.

This show also exceeded our sales goal and encouraged patrons from all backgrounds to visit our theatre, which was a bit surprising as this was a three hour drama. Many community partners were involved during the production which led to incredible word of mouth, pre and post show events and new audiences. Now the production is heading to Broadway!

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Former White House lawyer Ty Cobb on Friday said while former President Trump’s expected surrender in Georgia next week likely won’t rattle him, “he won’t enjoy it.”

Asked how the reputation of the jail in Fulton County, Ga., may affect Trump psychologically, Cobb suggested the impact would be miniscule.

“I do think it will have some, you know, some impact on him … He won’t enjoy it,” he told CNN anchor Erin Burnett. “But, you know, to the extent that it, it’ll rattle him … I don’t see that happening.”

His comments come as multiple outlets reported that law enforcement officials in Georgia anticipate Trump will surrender by the end of next week. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis earlier this week set a deadline of noon Friday, Aug. 25, for Trump — and 18 of his allies — to voluntarily surrender after an indictment charged the defendants for their alleged attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the state.

Following the news of the Georgia indictment — Trump’s fourth this year — the former president said he planned to hold a press conference next week to present new evidence of election fraud in the state. He claimed the report would completely exonerate him and his co-defendants.

On Thursday, Trump walked back his plan, saying his lawyers wanted to compile the claims in the state into “formal legal filings” instead.

Cobb said the move was “inconsistent” with how he’s handled his previous trials.

“It’s inconsistent with the way he’s maneuvered through these cases over the last couple of months. You know, he has constantly ignored, I think, good advice in terms of how to comport himself,” he said. “You know, it could be a turning point.”

“I think it may have come as a surprise to his attorneys, that he announced that, and I’m sure that they reacted immediately, as I did, you know, concerned that he could only complicate circumstances if he proceeded that way,” Cobb added.

The former president is also facing a federal indictment over his alleged efforts to interfere in the 2020 election. Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith proposed a Jan. 26, 2024, trial date — but Trump’s lawyers Thursday asked for it to be pushed back to April 2026.

“That’s nowhere … within the neighborhood of the universe of possible dates,” Cobb said in response. “I don’t think that was a lawyer-decided date, I think that probably was a Trump-dictated date.”

“I think this case, the election interference case, in particular, can easily be tried before the summer of 2024. And I think it will be,” he added.

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A former Trump White House lawyer said Tuesday there was “no chance” that Fulton County (Ga.) District Attorney Fani Willis’s case brought against former President Trump and his allies will go to trial within two years.

Willis unveiled a 98-page indictment late Monday charging Trump and 18 others for their alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 Georgia election results. She also announced that she wants to bring a trial forward within the next six months.

Ty Cobb, who served in the White House for about 10 months beginning in July 2017, said that they should not expect a trial sooner than two years, noting that Willis’s trial will not likely go before Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith’s two cases against the former president.

“There’s no chance in my view that Fani Willis goes within two years,” Cobb said, adding that with 19 defendants and different charges, “everybody will have motions galore.”

He argued that the case will “take a long time to be prepared,” noting that there will be motions for severance and to dismiss the case. He said that if the case takes place after the 2024 election, it could also set up a potential Supreme Court battle.

“And if it takes her, you know, two years — I mean, heaven forbid that Trump wins the presidency — then then there will be a fight to the Supreme Court over whether she can proceed against the sitting president during his term,” he said. “That’s an issue that’s never been resolved.”

“The federal prosecutors are not allowed to indict or prosecute the president during his term,” Cobb added. “But as to state court prosecutors, that issue has never been resolved and could delay things quite some time.”

Trump and the 18 others must voluntarily surrender in Georgia before Aug. 25, according to Willis.

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