"In the guidelines you wrote up for the Lab Theatre this summer, did you list sex acts as prohibited?" asked the head of the drama department in a phone call to me this morning.
The form he was referring to was one my staff and I made up after students took advantage of the informal agreement we made with them about the lab theatre's use this summer. After their disappointing behavior, we published an offical policy with the usual prohibitions against smoking and drinking in university buildings.
The reason he was asking about sex acts is something else altogether. The drama director had asked to use the lab space for a production of edgy plays by former students and other noted up and comers in the local community.
We had already issued warnings about language and adult situations in our press about the shows but things went a little farther than expected last night. Apparently while the professor was watching the rehearsal that was going pretty well and showing promise up to the point the actors stripped down, got under a sheet and apparently left both little to the imagination and a sneaking suspicion that they weren't acting.
I don't mention this so much to titilate and air dirty laundry. It is quite a serious subject and one that will be monitored closely. The drama professor was previously requiring students to see the production and now, even with the changes he is insisting on, has made it completely voluntary lest students accuse him of forcing them to watch obscene material.
I thought the incident was quite appropos and timely in reference to the Camille Pagila interview I cited yesterday in which she says:
The art world has actually prided itself on getting a rise out of the people on the far right. Thinking, “We’re avant-garde.” The avante-garde is dead. It has been dead since Andy Warhol appropriated Campbell’s Soup labels and Liz Taylor and Marilyn Monroe into his art. The avante-garde is dead. Thirty years later, 40 years later, people will think they are avante-garde every time some nudnik has a thing about Madonna with elephant dung, “Oh yeah, we are getting a rise out of the Catholic League.”
She goes on to blame this approach as a strong factor in the loss of funding for arts programs across the country. I don't necessarily agree. Serrano and Mapplethorpe were an excuse to rally support, but not the initial reason.
I do think that there are a lot of performers who go to nudity as a way to prove they are hip and avant garde because it is the easiest thing to do to provoke shock in people. It is actually quite similar to how beginning acting students often choose to employ shouting and violent gestures in their scenes because anger is easy and doesn't require vulnerability.
As the drama professor said to me, art is more powerful when it leaves something unsaid and allows the imagination to run wild with its own projected assumptions. The acting space is barely 20x20 with only two-three rows of chairs around. The physical proximity of the audience and the circumstances that lead up to the actors getting into bed together are going to make people uncomfortable enough as it is.
Choosing not to bring the lights down at the end and instead graphically playing it out crosses the line for people and the fidelity of the play. Instead of being memorable for examining the forces that drew these people into bed together, (and believe me, they are controversial in their own right), the scene becomes all about the sex at the end. Instead of leaving thinking about the awful and repellent choices the characters made, people leave thinking about the nudity and whether what happened at the end was real.
Of course, nudity sells tickets. This has been discussed in many articles for the last twenty some odd years debating whether all the nudity that seemed to be creeping into every show on Broadway was a necessary part of the story or whether it was there for sensationalism to draw a crowd. And everyone is an artistic devotee and offended at the suggestion they are pandering just to sell some tickets.
Especially if the ticket sales are doing well.
The Washington National Opera is advertising for a Priority Services Coordinator. This is bad, oh so very bad.
There has been a lot of discussion about the arts being elitist for many years and lately people have been talking in specifics. This week there was a lot of commentary on Camille Pagila's interview in The Morning News. (There is a portion quoted on Spearbearer Down Left that sums up her theme.) In the interview, she essentially says the says arts and literature has to examine what they are presenting and the context within which they are presenting it.
Elsewhere, The Playgoer lifts a quote of the day from a Guardian article on the backlash against classical music in the UK.
So amidst this environment, imagine how I cringed when I saw the Washington National Opera advertising for a Priority Services Coordinator who "is accountable for the ticketing, fulfillment, and tactics targeted toward specific segments including high-level individual and corporate donors, artists, and other VIPs."
I don't have a problem with the job per se. I mean, the opera is located in DC where you have congressman, lobbyists, ambassadors, etc., running around needing cultural experiences. From the size and titles of their development staff, they look to be dealing with a large number of donors too. Having a person dedicated to their needs makes good sense.
What I object to is the title of the position. Even if you are giving people preferential treatment, you aren't dispelling the perception of elistism by announcing to the public that you if you aren't dealing with this person, serving you is not a priority for the opera.
It is just an ill considered choice of titles I think. However, they are in DC, performing in the Kennedy Center and despite the claim of being "Your National Opera," they are probably a little too insulated from the reality of operating an arts organization in the rest of the country to realize how poorly this reflects on the rest of us.
Yes! After griping and whining about the dearth of arts/theatre related blogs, I followed a link to my blog back to Spearbearer Down Left whose writer is not only perceptive enough to see the wisdom in my posts, (the entry alluded to on my blog can be found here), but also has a nice listing of other theatre bloggers in the links section.
From my brief look at Spearbearer, it seems to be a nice mix of commentary and reviews about shows.
From my gleeful initial explorations of the theatre links on Spearbearer, it looks like a good mix of much the same. I look forward to reading around a bit more and having the ability to expand my commentary and exploration of the arts world from what I read.
Look for many new links appearing here soon!
Since Drew McManus is the orchestra guy, I have waited a couple days to see if he would comment. It isn't so much out of respect for him, this arts blogging business is so cutthroat after all, but simply because he is better equipt to comment than I.
But he ain't sayin nothin so here I go.
In the Sunday, August 21 New York Times, (I am not directly linking to the article because in two weeks you will have to pay for it.), Daniel Wakin wrote a story about how different orchestras are dealing with slumping attendance.
He goes through the typical reasons people cite for declining attendance -lack of music education, short attention spans, modern media and Joseph Horowitz's argument that there are too many concerts, among them.
He goes on to list what organizations are doing to attract people.
"The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, a leader in what might be called the fun-factor area, has a Thursday night series that provides free dinners..."College Nite" concerts feature postperformance parties twice a year, in which students nibble appetizers and listen to a local band (not the symphonic kind)...The orchestra's CSO Encore! group, for young professionals, is sponsoring a "Dressed to the Nines" party at the hall for opening night, when a Beethoven symphony - no need to say which - is on the program. At the beginning of last season, the symphony even sold "Paavo's Baack" T-shirts, a surprising accessory to Mr. Jarvi's intelligent music-making and serious demeanor.The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is shaking things up too - shaking, but not stirring - with Symphony With a Twist, a series of four concerts preceded by martini bars and jazz in the lobby. The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra's version is called Bravo.
IN Houston the focus is less on the party in the lobby than the visuals on the stage. The Houston Symphony projects images of the musicians, arms sawing and fingers flying, and the conductor, baton a-waving, on large screens in the hall. (The Omaha Symphony, the San Diego Symphony and the Philadelphia Orchestra have all tried similar experiments, as did the New York Philharmonic.) "We have to recognize that this is a visual generation," Evans Mirageas, an orchestra marketing consultant, said. "They are used to seeing things more than they are used to hearing things."
Many who are hearing classical music are doing so as a secondary effect of seeing things - like movies and video games. Some orchestras are trying to build on that, enticing people into concert halls by playing a symphonic version of the score to "The Lord of the Rings" and the music from the "Final Fantasy" video game, among others."
There are some organizations who are dubious about the benefit of such programs. Many programs place symphonies in a role subservient to the other material or misrepresent what the organization is all about.
It isn't clear if these programs will actually increase attendance to to organizations over all. Cincinatti has seen some success, but results are muddied for other locations.
I was most depressed by the news that a Knight Foundation study found that "education - like more Web material, preconcert lectures and expanded program notes - did not appear to increase ticket sales at all."
The question that came to my mind after reading the article was whether the organizations were making any attempts to cultivate an actual appreciation for their product. It just sounds like they are employing strategies that bring in a quick buck today but aren't focussing on deepening attendees investment in the music.
In addition to all the other factors that may contribute to a decline in attendance is the fact that we live in a transitory society. If the orchestra is all bread and circuses in one city but the city a person moves to doesn't offer flashy programs, then symphonies as a whole may lose an audience member.
It works both ways too. A symphony may not care about the next city down the line because it doesn't benefit them. But if the only attraction for a person is social opportunities for singles in one city and your flashy social opportunities are more geared for families, you can lose that person as a patron as easily as if you had no program at all.
I am thinking that using Drew McManus' proposed docent program (found here, here and here oh, and here) used to complement these programs would be very valuable.
In addition to reading his reasons why, you can also read my reasoning here and here. (The Artsjournal blogs recently under went a reformatting and I just discovered the links in my entries to Drew's blog entries no longer work. I linked to the new locations in the previous paragraph.)
Today was a good day on many levels.
I got to sleep in a little because I was going to a meeting of my booking consortium in town so driving in to the office only to have to turn around and drive back an hour later didn't make sense.
The consortium meeting was essentially called to provide an opportunity for those who aren't attending the Western Arts Alliance Conference next month to discuss what types of groups they would like those of us who are attending to watch for.
Many of the attendees at the meeting brought along season brochures for their upcoming season and passed them around proudly. (Including me!) Since many of us are hosting the same performers, it was interesting to see each organization's interpretation of the same artist.
Ironically, as Mr. Budget, I was looking at the interpretation first. I brought a couple copies of the other brochures back to my graphic designer and her first observation was about the amount of money the other places must have to afford such extravagant brochures.
I honestly thought her simpler design was much more powerful than the more expensive pieces. You get it in the mail, you open the first fold and BAM! the image there is so captivating you want to pay attention to the rest of the information.
The funny thing is, I gave her the same budget as last year. Then I purposely wrote less in my letter to patrons and in the descriptions so that there was more room for images and white space.
She comes back with a design on a much smaller space than last year and I ended up having to cut more text!
On the other hand, it cost about $1,500 less than last year so I edited quite happily.
One of the women at the meeting thanked me for suggesting they put a sampling of the music artists would be playing on their website. (Actually, inspired by Andrew Taylor's post, I had suggested using iTunes to supplement a season brochure, but I will take the gratitude anyway. Unfortunately, her site is a little rough and it is tough to find the links.)
Next good thing was that I really wanted to suggest bringing a performer from last season back next season. I am still getting comments about how good he was, my radio ad rep keeps muttering about his disappointment over missing the performance and it is the artist's 40 anniversary season.
But I fear it might be too soon to bring him back.
Fortunately, I don't have to say a thing. One of my other partners mentions the same thing, I offer some supportive comments and while it isn't a done deal, it wasn't a hard sell at all to get the ball rolling.
Then when I get back to the office, I get an email from an agent saying he believes the group he represents would be happy to attend a reception thrown for them by adoring fans. This is great because not only will the fans be happy, but it will help me promote the show. (Though honestly, it is already selling so well we could be sold out before they even start their national tour.)
The last good thing was sort of a mixed blessing. We had scheduled the meeting for 4 hours but only took 1.5 hours to finish our business. Unfortunately, thinking I wouldn't be back for 3 hours more, my staff moved cabinets and desks into my office so they could clean where they had sat. It was a little hard getting to my desk to say the least.
All in all though, a good day.
Okay this entry is more for your general information and illumination than necessarily news you can use, mull over and apply. Just fair warning for those seeking gems of wisdom. There may be some here, but they will be unintentional.
So 60ish years ago, where I am sitting was just recovering from being battered by a Japanese air attack. Nowadays, the Japanese are still launching airborne attacks and staging landings. This time they are bringing lots and lots of money to pump into the local economy. It is high vacation season in Japan and they are coming to visit.
Of course, there are plenty of Japanese in residence already. So many in fact, they have to celebrate a summer holiday that falls in July all summer long.
The O-ban is observed as part of Buddhist practice around the middle of July. Usually the celebratory aspect is observed at the same time. However, there are so many temples in Hawaii, they take turns holding celebrations every weekend from June through the start of September.
Some how I have managed to attend a festival four out of the last five years. I got started in an unlikely place--rural South Jersey. This is an unlikely place because there isn't much of anything at all so the existence of a Buddhist temple in the middle of nowhere is rather unexpected. Once you understand the story of how the owner of a large tract of farmland requested the relocation Japanese internees during WW II to his frozen/dried food operation, you can see how the temple ended up down this backcountry road.
The food at these festivals is usually great, but hardly makes it a destination event. The dancing is pretty sedate--people walk slowly around in a circle performing simple steps and hand movements. It is actually a good community building activity because anyone from the audience can and does join in.
I go for the taiko drums though. It is really great to watch a good taiko ensemble practicing their craft. There is so much energy and the sensation of the drums vibrating your entire body is pretty cool. (samples from the group http://www.kodo.or.jp/frame.html here)
No matter where I have attended a Bon Festival though, there is wide community involvement. People of all races, cultures and religions attend, participate in the dancing and even perform. (Though I have to admit, there is an evident poise and discipline expressed by long time taiko practitoners that novices don't have no matter how serious they try to look.)
It may be too late in many place, but if you haven't attended one of these festivals, do a quick Google search of your locale and see if you still have time to check the festival out.
One of the metaphors that has always made me nervous as an arts professional is releated to the need to correctly define what your company does. If you say you make horse drawn carriages rather than that you are in the transportation industry, you will probably go out of business when the automobile rolls around.
In a world where the arts just sort of seem to be lucky to prove their relevance from moment to moment, I think it is understandable if I might wonder if I am working in a horse and buggy industry. The dying industry is usually blind and living in denial about its fate after all so it is hard to tell.
I heard a gentleman speak today at the college's convocation (I forgot to bring the flyer home so I could credit him. Come back tomorrow for the name.) He was discussing the use of technology in the classroom. I started filing much of what he said away in my brain against the day that I get back in to teaching again.
But he also presented some metaphors which were comforting. One of the things he pointed out was that in the 1800s, ice harvesting in New England was big business sending ice all over the world. However, due to the costs, people in the southern part of the US developed a way to manufacture ice. However, the demand for ice actually increased so much, the New England harvesters actually increased production. In time, of course, refrigeration overtook ice production and yet there is still a need for ice production today (though granted, not through harvesting.)
Okay, so now I just have to worry about not being in an ice harvesting business. Given that the entertainment industry is comprised of movies, cable television, DVDs, etc., it is possible that live arts experiences are the ice harvesting of today. Plenty of demand for many, but not all entertainment forms.
The speaker also referenced the fact that at one time radio was king and then television came along and many of the radio shows were now on television. Instead of withering away, radio changed and started offering something different.
So, okay, this is no big revelation. Changing with changing times is the talk of the industry these days no matter where you go. Blogs talk about it (it was actually one of my first entries), convention speakers talk about it, everyone is saying we should do it.
Question is, how will that happen? Lots of speakers and bloggers have lengthy suggestions about that. However, thinking about things like radio and ice harvesting helps to make a confusing, overwhelming problem seem a little simpler and easy to start tackling. It also gives a point of reference so we can assess in a general way how radio stations successfully made the transition and what sort of thinking lead to the closing of thoses that failed to do so.
Edit: Gentleman in question was Paul Bowers, Asst. Prof. Mass Communications, Director of Teaching and Learning with Technology, Buena Vista University.
I always like to discover organizations that find a way to offer opportunities for people to realize artistic and "practical" pursuits.
In Providence, RI is The Steel Yard which "offers arts and technical training programs designed to increase opportunities for cultural and artistic expression, career-oriented training, and small business incubation." So you can go there to pursue welding certification, learn how to weld for around the house chores or explore a new art form. (They also offer ceramics, blacksmithing and foundry casting.)
They also offer lectures, studio space, youth training partnerships and a locker in residence program where you can get access to their shop without being associated with any classes.
Sounds pretty cool. This is the one time I regret not being a visual artist cause they have an executive director position open. Sounds like an intriguing opportunity.
Another similar program is at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center. They have an arts and industry program where artists take up residency at the Kohler Company which manufactures plumbing supplies.
This may sound strange, but if you think about it, the company's products require them to work in ceramics, iron and brass foundries and work with enamel. They put their equipment and materials at your disposal 24 hours a day. Only 4 people are usually in residence at any one time so accessibility to the facilities is more limited than at the Steel Yard. But everything is free to those chosen for the program, including housing, round trip transportation, materials and technical assistance. Plus you get a weekly honorarium.
The most amusing part is that many of these pieces make it back to the washrooms at the arts center. According to the arts center website, there tends to be an invasion of the opposite gender's washroom to view these works.
Explore the washrooms yourself. It is pretty cool stuff.
A week or so ago I wondered if a radio ad rep was sabotaging his career at his corporate owned station by spending so much time working with me. I actually emailed him to that effect expressing my appreciation as well as my concern that he not lose his job. He wrote back telling me not to worry.
Today he came to meet with me for a 3rd time in 3 weeks. He has spent close to 6 hours just talking with me now. I feel a little better about his job security for two reasons- 1- He talked money today so he was no longer enshrouded by the aura of unconcerned benevolence and 2- He brought in a sheet from a Post-It self stick easel pad filled with ideas from a brainstorm session.
From the brain storm session I can assume that his company as a stronger customer-service focus than I thought. Ultimately, I think it worked for him. He suggested that I invest twice as much with them this year as last which means I will have to do less print advertising. I was going to anyway, but now it is a necessity since it will eat a big chunk of my markeing budget.
I felt uneasy about this but because of the relationship I have developed with him, I didn't mind telling him that. However, because I was comfortable telling him that I was uneasy, I felt even more confident that this would be money wisely invested. As the objective part of my brain analyzed this reaction from the subjective part, I realized I was learning a lesson in just how powerful good customer service can be.
Later I got an email from one of my partners saying a group we are presenting in March wanted to know if their CDs could be printed in Hawaii rather than paying the cost to ship them. I called my guy at the radio station, (he is also a local musician so he knows a bit about the publishing side too), and within a fifteen minutes had an answer for me plus an to pass on to the group from a distributor to be their Pacific Rim distributor.
Yeah, I know it is called networking and good customer service, it is probably run of the mill everywhere in the business world. But having worked for non-profits that don't have a lot of cash to toss around, I have rarely been on the receiving end so I will cherish it while I am getting it.
Alright! With Andrew Taylor's Artful Manager blog in reruns this week, I get to talk about a technological gizmo I noticed. (I just hate it when I find an article and he already blogged on it. I mean, then I have to find something else interesting to write about that day! The pressure!! Guess that is the price of living 4-5 hours behind him.)
Anyhow, while reading over at Salon.com, I came across a story about a company that provides people with the ability to discuss and organize projects on the web.
The software is called Basecamp created by a company called 37 Signals. The software is web based and hosted so it doesn't matter what platform or versions of software you have (other than up to date browser software). You can use Basecamp to organize everything from weddings to building skyscrapers.
The software provides a secure central site for people to plan and discuss projects. Everyone can be aware of due dates, to do lists and contact lists. They can share and get feedback on the progress they have made and start fitting things together.
So what does this have to do with the arts? Well if you are starting discussions on an opera, ballet or play, your directors and designers may be working in places hundreds of miles from each other and in turn may be thousands of miles from the theatre the production will take place at. With this service, designs and concepts can be shared at great distances enabling progress even though one person may be going to bed when the sun is rising in the window of another.
Designers may actually be able to take on more commissions because they don't necessarily have to travel to oversee some stages of development when digital photos will suffice. And when they do have to travel, they can be providing input on the next couple far-flung projects with which they are involved.
Travel and housing expenses will be lower for all involved because designers need not move about so much and be present at the theatre for so long a time as they have in the past.
The cost of this service is very reasonable, spanning from $12 to $99 a month. Given that the $99 rate is for 100 projects, I imagine a theatre would find that they could coordinate their entire season of 12-15 shows for a very reasonable rate. The first 30 days are free which takes a little bit of the risk away. Actually, you can set up one project for not cost at all so an organization could conceivably use it to complete an entire production as a test.
Actually, as I look back at the Basecamp website, I notice there is a link to suggested uses. They actually list theatre applications. Among their suggestions are using it for auditions storing headshots, resumes and audio files. I hadn't thought of that! A director could actually provide guidelines for casting to someone at a theatre, have them weed out those who didn't meet the criteria and then upload video recordings of the promising auditions for him/her to review from hundreds of miles away.
Granted, a poor quality recording could cheat many a good actor of a chance at fame if not chosen far a call back. Certainly, a camera would blunt subtle skill and charisma that is clearly apparent in person. The casting director would have to be really insistent that they really thought an actor should be called back if the show director wants to pass him/her by. But again, if the auditions are Wednesday and the call backs are on Saturday, that is time and money saved.
I would really be interested to see if arts organizations start using this sort of service. I am sure there are applications of its use no one has conceived of yet.
Last Friday I had a stomach wrenching experience. I walked into the lobby of my theatre and saw what appeared to be a long scrape along the entire bottom of the 104 foot long Jean Charlot fresco mural adorning the wall.
The college maintenance crew had been painting the wall below the mural. In our work order to them, we specifically said not to paint the ledge below the mural for fear of damaging it. I initially thought the guy had used a wire brush or a sander on the mural.
However, when the tech director came out to inspect the mural, he pointed to the roll of 2 inch wide masking tape sitting nearby. The width of the tape matched the width of the damage. It appears the guy put masking tape directly on to the mural and unfortunately it wasn't the low adhesive tape 3M puts out for the purpose of edging while painting. It was the regular sticky stuff.
As a result, when he removed the tape it took the paint and chunks of plaster off the wall.
I put in calls to his supervisors to halt further operations and notified the folks up the chain from me. The worst part was notifying the state office of public art which commissioned the work and has been responsible for restorations over the last 30 years.
Actually, I assume things will get more uncomfortable when they come out to survey the damage.
There were some questions that came to mind as a result of this incident. Was this guy a careless idiot or was he ignorant of the import of his actions?
My first impulse was careless idiot. Even if the mural had been painted on a cinderblock wall with plain old interior paint, chances are the tape he used was still going to remove the paint. The damage wouldn't have been as bad, but he would still be defacing the work.
Also, when you start to remove the tape and chunks of the wall are sticking to it, why don't you stop and reconsider what you are doing?
I honestly don't have an answer for the second question, but the first I can give the guy the benefit of the doubt a little. When you are working in an institutional setting, there is more of a focus on the quantity of work you can complete in a day rather than the quality and precision of your work. If you aren't familiar with the the fragile properties of fresco, you don't know not to use the same tape you use everywhere else. Everywhere else, you remove the tape and a few flecks of paint come off, but the job looks decent enough and the scuff marks are no longer visible so it is a good job.
I also can't help thinking this may be a result of the lack of arts in our schools. When faced with a work of art this size with detailed coloring and stylized figures, it is tough to equate it with a cinder block wall of institutional white. One should recognize that there are qualities about it that suggest approaching it with more care than usual.
I have a hard time believing that even a person who has not had formal arts classes hasn't been enculturated enough to pick up on these cues, but perhaps I am mistaking my subjective world view as an objective reality.
Would more exposure to the arts in school prevented this from happening? I don't really know the guy who was painting well enough to know. He may not have had classes in school, but there are strong cultural elements here on the islands that he could have been exposed to growing up that could give him a more intutive sense of beauty than a school could ever hope to.
He just might have just been mindlessly doing what he does every day of the week in building after building not considering that this instance was quite different.
I know this is getting into the whole "what is art" debate, but anyone have any thoughts?
Well, as promised long ago, I have finally started to update my links section to list helpful arts related blogs and web resources. I have only gotten as far last March in my search for valuable links I have mentioned so there are more resource links, if not blog links, to come.
We have been cleaning out the technical director's office these past two weeks because the clutter was threatening to consume students. We managed to free up about 400 cubic feet of space in the back of the office thus far. Since the piles of...valued possessions (*cough*) started migrating across the scene shop, the secretary started boxing books up to free up some maneuvering space.
It wasn't until 2 days later I found out that the TD had told a student he would lend her his stage management book if he could find it at home. His book, of course, was not at home but in his office and I had been holding said book reminiscing about my stint as a stage manager years ago.
As I started searching through the boxes to find it, it occurred to me that it might be worth mentioning the book as a resource on the old blog here.
The book I was searching for was an old copy of Lawrence Stern's Stage Management. It is the bible of stage management and was actually the first text on the subject.
Since it was first written, two other texts have come in to wide use, Thomas Kelly's The Backstage Guide to Stage Management, and Daniel A. Ionazzi's The Stage Management Handbook.
Now I haven't read or used the Ionazzi or Kelly book, but about as many people swear by Kelly as they do for Stern. I know size doesn't matter. But I have to ask--why the heck is the Stern book $60.00+ and the Kelly book with only 50 fewer pages is ~$20.00? I suspect it is because of the resources and forms in the Stern appendices, but still, geez.
All that aside, for those of you who don't know, the stage manager is the linchpin of any performance. The director, designers, technicians, actors, etc create the product and the stage manager serves as quality control.
After rehearsals are through, the director and designers leave. The stage manager, having taken copious notes on everything that occurred during rehearsals, is in charge. The SM makes sure everything and everybody is where they are supposed to be, doing what they are supposed to be doing at the exact time it is supposed to happen night after night. If things get sloppy, they must take steps to tighten things up.
If the performance is happening in a union house, they make sure things are being run according to union rules. (Though there is often another member of the cast who monitors the sitation from a different perspective.)
Essentially stage management is one of the toughest, most thankless jobs in the performing arts. If anyone is going to be the target of pent up frustrations, it is often the stage manager. I have done the job so I know.
Some times the person can be a power seeking jerk and deserves the ire directed her way. Other times, the person seems so unperturbable it is a little weird. I fell somewhere in between.
I never did find that book tonight. I will have to go back tomorrow and root around some more. I want this woman to do well as stage manager because she has dreams of getting outta here and working on the Mainland. She has really set herself apart from other students with her willingness to commit to doing thing well. We will all be proud to have her claim she learned her craft here.
Two articles shared the same webpage over a Artsjournal.com today. The first is one talking about Pittsburgh Ballet's decision to perform to recorded music to save money. The decision was made to preserve the ballet's budget. They aren't the first ballet company to go this route and according to the article, they probably won't be the last.
The move has Drew McManus worried that this is not only a harbinger of the rise of recorded accompaniment, but that mission statements will be used to justify gutting artistic value for economic reasons.
Which leads me to the second article I mentioned earlier. It seems our brethern in Australia are also facing the necessity of making A Better Case for the Arts, as discussed on Artsjournal.com earlier this year in response to a recent Rand report. (I have discussed this before.)
An excerpt from a speech Prof. David Throsby made in the last couple days was printed in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Throsby's speech sounds much the same as the discussion on Artsjournal.com and the points the Rand report makes:
More and more do arts organisations feel they have to demonstrate their financial rather than their artistic prowess as a means of obtaining funds to support their existence. Arts festivals big and small commission economic impact studies to trumpet their success in creating employment, raising local incomes and encouraging tourism; understanding their cultural impacts often seems to take second place.
Actually, he cites the Rand report right after he cites a similar report made by a British policy group, Demos, titled Capturing Cultural Value.
...John Holden, takes up these arguments, writing that "the value of culture cannot be expressed only with statistics. Audience numbers give us a poor picture of how culture enriches us." He goes on to argue for a reshaping of the way in which public funding of culture is undertaken. He suggests the need for a language capable of reflecting, recognising and capturing the full range of values expressed through culture, drawing on ideas from anthropology, environmentalism and the debate about "public value" in the field of public sector management.
I wouldn't be surprised if similar articles started to appear in Germany, France, Spain, et.al. (Or perhaps it is the English speakers' epidemic.) Looks like everyone is facing the same dilemmia about how to resolve artistic sensibilities with capitalist ones at about the same time.
I have to say that sometimes I find great customer service in places I don't expect. About half way through the season last year I started doing radio spots with local stations owned by Cox Broadcasting. The lead ad rep is a really great guy and took the time to sit down and discuss what I was looking for with the ad buy I was doing. I was really impressed by the attention he gave me considering I really wasn't spending much at all.
Last week he sat down with me to discuss what I was envisioning about the next season. We talked about what I felt the competition for the theatre was, what our audience was, how we differed from other theatres on the island. This took about 2-3 hours.
He came back today and had some suggestions for me about increasing our exposure that had nothing to do with buying time on his station. Some of it he could help me with, some we would have to do on our own. He had more questions for me because after our last meeting, he realized he hadn't gotten a full enough picture to make a suggestion. We spent another 2 hours talking today--and he left with a promise to have a plan for our meeting next week.
Now I have to tell you, the ratio of time he is spending talking to me trying to get a good sense of our business so he can build a lasting relationship with my organization to the amount of money I will spend can't be profitable.
At this point I am wondering if this guy is gonna lose his job. His company is very corporate. I sent over a CD for a group we were presenting last year that had been nominated for the local equivalent of the Grammys. The program managers for two stations decided it didn't fit the mix that their market research said people wanted to listen to so they wouldn't play it.
However since they are also the stations closest to the genre of the performers we were hosting, I took air time. We sold the show out based a large part on the ads. Someone listening must have wanted to hear the group.
So based on this, I am thinking the company might be scrutinizing the time management of their sales people to insure they efficiently selling air time. On the other hand, this guy is a lead sales guy. Whenever I am talking about buying time on multiple stations, he brings the reps for the other stations out to meet me and does most of the talking. People pretty much defer to him.
Unless he is pulling a Jerry Maguire and has decided to treat customers like people instead of commodities thereby sabotaging his career, I am thinking whatever he is doing is working for his bosses.
So the lesson I walk away with today- Even if the behemoth corporation's only interest in people seems to be based on what demographic they fall in to, there can be cogs in the great machine whose concern extends beyond that point.