Sydney Theatre Company
A refined, high-performance digital platform that simplifies complexity while elevating the theatre-going experience.
Rich Text Editor
Sydney Theatre Company (STC) is one of Australia’s leading theatre companies, with a rich and evolving program spanning mainstage productions, education, and audience engagement initiatives.
As STC’s digital ecosystem grew, so too did the complexity of its underlying technology. A heavily customised stack — built on Sitecore and a bespoke Tessitura integration — had become increasingly difficult to manage, costly to maintain, and limiting in its ability to evolve.
STC required a complete re-platforming of their website to simplify their technology approach, while still supporting the depth and nuance of their ticketing, content, and business requirements.
The challenge was not just to rebuild the site, but to rethink how content, ticketing, and user experience could work together more seamlessly.
Images
Our Solution
We delivered a full transformation of STC’s digital platform, balancing simplification with capability.
Re-platformed from Sitecore to Umbraco
Providing a more intuitive, flexible CMS that empowers internal teams and reduces operational overhead.
Transitioned from a custom Tessitura API to TNEW
Reducing complexity while retaining core functionality and improving long-term maintainability.
Extended TNEW with targeted customisations
Supporting critical business requirements such as ticket exchanges and nuanced booking rules.
Brought performance data into the CMS
Syncing availability and performance data to enable real-time transparency across the site.
Improved the path to purchase
Introducing on-site date selection and clearer booking flows before handing over to TNEW.
Delivered tailored journeys for key audiences
Including dedicated flows for education bookings and venue enquiries.
Images
Outcomes
The result is a streamlined, future-ready platform that supports both STC’s audience and internal teams.
A simplified technology stack with reduced maintenance and operational complexity
A clearer, more intuitive journey from discovery through to purchase
Greater flexibility for STC’s team to manage content and evolve the site over time
Improved transparency around performance availability and booking options
A platform designed to scale with STC’s future ambitions
Rich Text Editor
A considered approach to Tessitura
Rather than treating TNEW as a limitation, we approached it as a foundation. By carefully defining where to rely on TNEW and where to extend it, we were able to create a balanced implementation that delivers both efficiency and flexibility.
This included:
Owning key parts of the user journey within the website
Extending functionality only where it delivered real value
Preserving complex business logic without over-engineering the solution
The result is a more sustainable, maintainable platform that still meets STC’s sophisticated requirements.
Application
Discovery
- Digital Strategy
- Stakeholder Workshops
- Current-state Review
- Requirements Definition
- Technical Discovery
- Integration Strategy
- Analytics Review
Design
- Information Architecture
- User Journey Mapping
- UX Prototyping
- Usability Testing
- Visual Design
- Accessible Design
Development
- Front-end Development
- Back-end Development
- Umbraco CMS Implementation
- Tessitura CRM Integration
- TNEW Implementation
- Accessibility Implementation
- Quality Assurance & Testing
Next Case Study
Melbourne Recital Centre
