As you read my blog and others out there that touch upon arts and technology, you will notice that there are a lot of suggestions about why you shold integrate technology into marketing, community building, transaction processing, etc., operations. The thing is, you might be left asking how? If you don't have a tech savvy person on staff, you may never get an answer.
Unless you are reading Extension 311. I don't suggest you innundate Greg Beuthin with requests to advise you on all your technology needs. Unless, of course, you are willing to pay him for his time. He doesn't offer step by step instructions about integrating technology. (Well, at least not always.) He is the only person I have found at this point who offers some concrete advice about things to consider and pursue when attempting to use technology in non-profit settings.
Yesterday he provided some thoughts on what type of people should be given responsibility for certain tasks when a non-profit tries to establish an online community. He feels that organizations are apt to incorrectly assume that with donated equipment and volunteers the project can run itself inexpensively. People fail to accurately project the resources and oversight necessary for the endeavor. He lists a number of roles necessary for running such a community and notes which should be handled by an in-house person and which might be trusted to a volunteer.
Via his website, I came across Net2Learn offers resources like Blogging For Non-Profits a helpful page that includes, among other things links to articles like Top Blogging Tools for Non-Profits, How Can Blogging Help Your Non-profit and Top Ten Reasons Why Non-profits Should Consider Blogging.
Hmm, I see I am getting back to the topic of Why you should use technology rather than the How.
But before I end, I wanted to toss one last slightly unrelated link out there that I found on Extension 311-- Theatre Without Borders. Granted, it isn't too original a name given all the other Without Borders organizations . I do like the purpose statement on the mainpage quoting Michael Fields from Dell'arte International- "Theatre Without Borders is like a dating service for international collaboration. I think it is becoming an essential connective tissue in the global theatre workplace."
It is only a coincidence that this entry like the one last week is about a theatre podcast. I only recently noticed that the Talk Theatre blog/podcast page had merged with Theatre in Chicago to become Talk Theatre In Chicago and wanted to explore it.
Not living in Chicago, I don't know what other resources exist, but I have to think this site is set to become the premiere source of info on theatre in and around Chicago. There are listings of current shows, what is coming soon, a separate link for kids shows, news about theatre around town and the collected reviews for each show from the papers around town.
And there are the podcasts. What I like about the podcasts are the way they are presented to visitors. There is a brief description of each show and then when you follow the link for a particular show you have the choice of listening to the complete show or going directly to the news, reviews or interviews segment.
One thing that became apparent though was that it may take a little while for people to become accustomed to formatting their programs for the podcasting medium. The first podcast I chose to listen to was an interview with Goodman Theatre Executive Director Roche Schulfer.
Unfortunately, the start of the interview was reminscient of the conferring of an honorary doctorate by a university. The interviewer went on and on for nearly three and a half minutes reciting Schulfer's bio. I actually haven't listened to the interview yet because after a 1:30 or so, my only interest was seeing how much longer the dry recitation was going to continue.
I am happy to report that after sampling a handful of other interviews and reviews, the host reached the point of the program much quicker. My first impression as a theatre person though was that this l-o-n-g intro was not wise on a medium mostly utilized by people with expectations of more immediate gratification and shorter attention spans.
Podcasts in general and the Talk Theatre in Chicago website in particular, provide super opportunities for introducing and educating people with little experience all about theatre. You can visit, find a performance near you, read the reviews for it and listen to a podcast so that you can at least start to become familiar with theatre vocabulary and the way people discuss it.
But first they have to be interested enough not to skip over an interview because it starts out so damned boring!
I can understand why folks would want to give people their due and I concede that I often ramble a bit in my writing from time to time before getting to the juicy interesting stuff. I too have sinned! On the other hand, theatre people should know that exposition should be played out across the length of the play rather than clumping it all at the beginning. (Again, I too have sinned.)
The endeavor looks like a promising resource for the Chicago theatre community which has always had a great reputation to begin with. It would be super if other cities could adapt/expand on what they have done for the culture of their communities.
Just a bit of news for presenters if you have missed it. A few news items Association of Performing Arts Presenters has been involved in.
The first is the testimony that Yo-Yo Ma and APAP President Sandra Gibson have given to the U.S. House of Representatives Government Reform Committee about the deleterious effect visa restrictions have had on the efforts of U.S. presenters to bring international performers to the country.
The APAP site has copies of both speakers' testimony as well as a Powerpoint presentation Gibson made and 14 pages of media coverage of their testimony.
There is some good news/bad news about visa processing on the APAP site as well. The good news is that as of April 1 all O and P visas for performers will be processed at the Vermont Citizenship and Immigration office. This is good news because Vermont has the reputation of being the quickest processing office--or did before all the applications got dumped on them.
It is important that you send your applications directly there because sending them to any of the other three offices means they will have to be forwarded on to Vermont which will only delay your processing. The Vermont station address is on the APAP site.
The bad news is that Vermont has been instructed to send part of their load to the California office which has the reputation of being the slowest office. Because you must send your application to Vermont, if you live in Los Angeles, there is a good chance your paperwork will be coming back for a visit quite soon.
It only add insult to injury if you lived in L.A. and mailed it to the California office only to have them mail it to Vermont who then turn around and send it back to California for processing.
The entire visa situation is a real big deal for APAP. (And for full disclosure, I had to cancel a show myself because of visa complications. So I am making a big deal about it, too.) They are actively soliciting feedback about any problems people have with visa processing asking people to email Jim Doumas, Government Affairs Director at jdoumas@artspresenters.org
As much as I enjoy James Lipton Inside the Actor's Studio, his respectful posture and meticulous research just isn't as fun as the host of Cool As Hell podcast's energy and fearless interview style.
Last month Michael interviewed playwriting icon Paula Vogel and got her talking about the state of the arts in the U.S. Her ideas about getting kids doing art at the same age they are learning to kick a soccer ball and getting the arts back in schools might not be new.
She does say some interesting things about the messages artists are getting these days. Among them are her feelings that "Darwin and captialism are very bad models for art" (3:15) and art begets art.
I was also intrigued by her idea that even though she was a klutz, she had to learn to play sports and as a result, all athletes today, artists of the flesh she calls them, speak for her inner athlete. She hopes for the day that every creative artist speaks for the inner artist housed in everyone.
The thing I like about Michael is that he is respectful but he starts his interview right off saying he disagrees with some of her views. After he lets her explain, he then challenges her idealism and asks for practical ways for her vision to manifest in a country that isn't likely to throw off the captialist model she says is unhealthy for the arts.
I don't know that she really provides any new answers since she talks about going back to the 60s arts environment, calls for more money to fund the arts and art in schools. She does present some quotable moments like "art is a dog that you feed that bites you" (7:05) when arguing that art should challenge society but the agenda of arts funders is to make art palatable and devoid of challenge.
On the other hand, I give her credit for doing the interview. Podcasting being so new, I imagine it would be difficult to gauge how substantive a discussion she would be expected to have.
As a counterpoint to my entry yesterday, I offer this article from the Gotham Gazette.It was suggested to the editor Artsjournal.com by a reader. While the article is about being an artist in NYC, it obviously has lessons for any place in the country.
What really caught my eye was #7
7. Be Perfect A composer who teaches on the faculty of the Juilliard School observed in a television documentary marking its centennial celebration that an average graduate of law school or medical school can still have a decent career. But it is not possible, he said, for a successful artist to be only average.
Here I am saying you shouldn't be afraid to be flawed and I come across this article which I have to agree with that says only the perfect and sublime can ever expect to make enough to eat.
Going back to the Power of Flaws entry I cited yesterday, I wonder if it is the fault of the people who promote visual and performing arts (movies included). As Andrew Taylor says-
...read through most arts marketing materials or grant applications and what will you find? Perfection, triumph, success, and positive spin. Their performances are always exceptional. Their audiences are always ecstatic. Their reviews are always resounding (or mysteriously missing from the packet). Their communities are always connected and enthralled. In short, they are superhuman, disconnected, and insincere.
Is it any wonder then that people expect perfection from artists?
It is a viscious circle. You have to say you are wonderful because people expect you to be wonderful because you have been telling them how uniquely wonderful everything you do is.
The last two days I have been reading some of the most inspiring works of genius I have ever seen outside of my own website. You should really take a look.
Monday I read this and was astounded.
And just when I thought it couldn't get any better, today brought even more delight.
I hear the writer is single. With a mind like that, I can't imagine how that could be.
Regular readers of this blog will understand what I mean immediately.
I apologize to everyone else.
Edit: Drew McManus points out this comment on MyAuditions.com. Apparently, as good as I am, he is brilliant. Damn Him!
I do a lot of talking about what arts organizations should do and what policies they should adopt. People probably correctly assume the truth of the matter but I want to make it clear that if you were to walk into my theatre after reading my entries, you won't see half of what I suggest being implemented.
Some of my ideas aren't appropriate in this situation and others we lack the resources to effect. A few are gradually being developed. This year I managed to grow the volunteer corps large enough that I didn't have to worry if enough would show up for the performances. Our first volunteer thank you event is this weekend. Next year I start my plan to arm them with info about the performances and instill the confidence to employ the material to answer patron questions.
I am not trying to fool myself or anyone else that I am completely walking the walk that I talk. I was clearly reminded of that this past Friday. As I noted earlier, the weekend before last essentially ended the presenting phase of our season. We spent last week changing the website and box office voicemail to reflect our current state. In the process, I had forgotten to mention the student production in the lab theatre on the ticket line voicemail.
A gentleman called my office to complain that if we had performances in the lab, we should have information about it and not have a message saying the season is over. While I know better, there was something about his tone that put me on the defensive and before I knew it, I was saying "But that show isn't part of the season."
While this is technically true, I obviously should have listed the performance and would have had I remembered to. The guy on the other end gave a grunt and was silent. I thought he hung up and as I started to hang up myself, I said damn if he isn't right and I am a stubborn idiot.
Fortunately this was an inner dialogue because I suddenly heard a voice from the receiver. I raised it to my ear and beg his pardon and the gentleman says he will see us the next night and then actually does hang up.
I know it sounds like a 12 step program to say it is okay to make mistakes and try to do better one day at time, but you know it is true. Better to recognize it, develop a thicker skin and give the right answer the next time.
To give credit where credit is due, I thought that the inspiration for this mea culpa entry came from within as I drove home Friday night. I believe, rather, that it was planted subconsciously in my mind. As I made my daily visit to read The Artful Manager, I noticed last week's entry on The Power of Flaws staring right at me. I didn't remember reading it, but apparently something sunk in.
I guess I try to do a little practicing of some of the smart thing other people preach, too.
I had one of those random acts of kindness experiences today that don't happen often enough to keep people from becoming cynical and depressed, but obviously should.
I was having lunch with representatives of the rental car company I use to provide transportation for my performers. (Like I said yesterday, I ain't letting any moss grow on my planning for next year.) I had some complaints about the service we had received last year and these folks wanted to make sure they had a handle on them since the corporate accounts rep was moving on to another job.
The young woman who was serving us was right on top of everything and really charismatic. I commented to my companions that today was the fastest I had ever been served in that restaurant. We told the server that we were impressed with her and she confessed that she actually thought she wasn't doing as well as she should because she had been working 10 days straight and was on call for tomorrow. She had the classic story. Pre-med taking a semester off to save enough money for next year when she wouldn't have time to work.
When we finished our meal, one of the rental car folks walked up to the kitchen door, waited for the young woman to emerge, gave her the tip directly and offered her a job.
I guess the act of kindness wasn't so random since the young woman certainly earned the recognition. I thought it was a great thing to do as a compliment to the woman for her hard work. Also, if you see someone providing the type of service you have just spent an hour assuring a client they will receive, it is a smart move to try to grab the person.
As the years have gone by since I started in the performing arts I have come to realize that the level of professionalism and conscientiousness I once assumed everyone was devoting to their jobs isn't as common as I thought. Part of the discussion I had with my assistant theatre manager yesterday skirted the edge of groveling with gratitude for the job she has been doing. Ten/fifteen years ago, I would have taken her attentiveness for granted as something all people in her position would naturally do.
Now I know better. So too, I imagine, do you my loyal readers. It will be with some regret that I remove her name from our website tomorrow morning. She deserves the recognition of working here. But if laboring in obscurity is the price she has to pay so I can keep you all from stealing her away from me, I am willing to have her pay it.
Saturday was the end of our season for all intents and purposes. We have a couple inhouse events and scads of rentals, but the days of meeting people at the airport and seeing them safely to the hotel are over for awhile.
I planned on diving in to final grant reports and catching up on paperwork pushed aside when the office manager broke her hip. Amidst doing all that though I ended up in conversations planning for next year.
The last two days have been, despite my earlier intentions, a series of discussions about the next season. I have been in contact with the new development person stating my desire to form a unified plan for fundraising over the year to be reflected in speeches and publications.
I suggested that next month's meeting of my booking consortium include proposals of performers for the next two years in preparation for the state foundation's biennium grant proposal process.
I got into a long conversation with the assistant theatre manager enjoining her to think how we can improve customer service, volunteerism, our publications and website. We have made some good progress in customer service, but given people's expectations, we have some areas of improvement.
I also discussed how I envisioned how the integration of information sources we have been slowly effecting in our database will hopefully serve to increase our attendance next season (and therefore, is what we needed to work on the next few months.)
As I have gone through the last two days, all the memories of all the small corrective actions I took over the past year came back to me. They were accompanied by recollections of all the mental notes I made to formulate policies to turn the small actions and comments into documented instructions for practices.
One thing I gotta solve and maybe some of the readers can help with some advice. One of the recurring events that I think I need to address is that people often call, hear we charge $2 handling fee on advance sales (vs the fees of many names Ticketmaster levies) and say they rather come the night of the performance.
Part of the problem is our performances don't approach capacity in advance so there is no perceived downside for our audience. If they show up early enough for a general admission show, they can get tickets and good seats.
The fee itself is mainly to cover the credit card charge and to help pay for the clerk who seems to be sitting around doing less and less as time goes on. We can either raise the price across the board so everyone pays for the person covering the advance sales for the dwindling group of folks who want to talk to someone when they order tickets vs. buy them online or we can just cut the ticket office hours to the week before the performance which is when most people who are calling in advance or walking up are contacting us.
The question we need to answer is if it is returning ticket buyer who is purchasing in advance and will we alienate them if we cut our hours back to reflect the period when demand exists. We actually forward the phones to our office and staff them fairly consistently throughout the year until two weeks, and now perhaps one week, prior to a show when the increase in calls becomes too much of an interruption.
To add a complication, if we are only employing a ticket office clerk a week prior to a performance, it becomes more difficult to find someone willing to work so infrequently. I suspect we are simply caught in an awkward transition of technology period where there are just enough people who haven't adopted a new technology to make discounting the old system unwise from a relationship standpoint, but so few it makes continuing unwise from a financial standpoint.
I am contributing to Drew McManus' 2006 Take A Friend To The Orchestra Month . I took some friends yesterday and have been pondering throughout the day. Instead of making an entry today, I will be working on my contribution.
In the meantime, take a gander at today's contribution by Alex Shapiro which seems to have elicited some good responses.
Just as a follow up to my Does Bono Like Ballet entry. I did indeed take the plunge and use that approach in my ads (see below) and press releases.
I actually antagonized over that approach in my print ads because someone suggested that it might alienate U2 fans. You can be the judge, of course. I figured since it essentially complimented the fans for their good taste and didn't automatically assume liking U2 and ballet were mutually exclusive, it wouldn't raise too many hackles.
Still, I showed the ad around to people and asked their opinion. Most people though it was cool. The most extreme reaction was "What the F@%^?" from a guy who misread the ad, followed by a chuckle and a comment that it was a cool idea.
The guy who suggested the approach might alienate fans said I should run it by the people at the alternative weekly paper since they would be most plugged in. I didn't actually run it by them, but did send the ad and press release well in advance and waited for a reaction.
Imagine my glee when I saw that they ran with the angle I cooked up in today's edition. The writer sort of took off with the general ideas I introduced in my press release. Hopefully it will attract the paper's readership to the show because right now sales are pretty much contained to the ballet audience.
My ad, however, didn't appear in the paper. The publisher apologized and said it was in the first proof but accidentally got bumped on the second for a free ad. I was somewhat happy at not having to pay for the publicity until I remembered my friend's suggestion that the staff of the paper would be a good judge of whether the approach was a good one or not. Suddenly I began to wonder if it was an accident after all...
Hmm, my attempt to set this as an image did not work too well. You can now view the ad here
One of the entertaining activities the artistic director at a job I once held and I used to engage in was reading the solicitation faxes that came in. Some times the entertainment came from imagining the reactions our audience members would have if they ever saw some of these groups on stage. Other times the entertainment came when we saw that someone was trying to pass a group off as an iconic band.
As they say about spam emailing and telemarketing, these agents wouldn't advertise if it didn't work. After hearing a story on NPR today, I figured a caveat emptor entry might be a good idea. If you don't follow the music world closely, you can end up thinking you are buying a performance by legends at bargain prices only to learn that you are getting what you paid for (if not less).
The NPR story was about "truth in music" laws popping up in some states saying people can't use the name of iconic music groups unless there is an original member in the group. The story mentions The Platters prominently because in addition to some of the original members using the name, the impressario who developed them owns the rights to the name and sold it all over the place to people without any relation to the group at all.
Some groups it is fairly easy to know you aren't getting the original group. The Glenn Miller Orchestra is one example. It doesn't take much effort to realize the originals ain't performing. There is a group performing under the same name in the UK and Germany, but again, it is tough to confuse which group you are about to see.
Other groups it is a little more difficult. For instance, WAR still tours. There were 8 original band members and about 35 other members throughout the years. Currently, keyboardist Lonnie Jordan is the only original member of the band still touring under the WAR name. Under the existing state laws, he is welcome to do so.
The question is, what constitutes an original member? Pete Best was the original drummer for The Beatles for two years, but outside of a Trivial Pursuit game, few would name him as such. Had the band been any less famous, he might have a case for touring with a band called The Beatles under the state laws. (Of course, this also assumes they retained ownership of their songs.)
The biggest impediment to anyone touring under a band name is someone with claim to the name complaining that they are misrepresenting themselves. Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger, both very identifiable as members of The Doors have been forbidden to tour under The Doors name or even as The Doors of the 21st Century as a result of a suit by the third remaining member, John Densmore.
Ultimately, if you are thinking about presenting a famous act. It might behoove you to check the names of the people who performed on the best albums against the current list to determine just how famous the band remains.
I have come to the conclusion that tartar control toothpaste does not operate as advertised. There is no other explanation for the inordinate amount of time the dental hygenist spent on my teeth today after all the dedicated brushing and flossing I do.
Reclining as I was gave me some time to ponder however.
One of the things I was pondering was The Artful Manager calling attention to a book excerpt by Guy Kawasaki. I especially liked Kawasaki's concept of replacing mission statements with mantras. He is right on the money, I think, with all the reasons he gives for this.
I went to Kawasaki's website intending to read the chapter Andrew Taylor was citing from. Instead, I got a little sidetracked and ended up reading a high school commencement speech Kawasaki gave a decade ago. It too has some interesting points, but the one I pondered whilst my teeth and gums were tortured was the anecdote about the ice harvesters. (#8 on his list of things for grads to do)
I actually cited this story about ice harvesters putting put out of business by ice makers who were put out of business by refrigerators back in August. While the guy who told the story to me came to less dire conclusions, he also delivered a message close to the one Kawasaki does.
You would think that the ice harvesters would see the advantages of ice making and adopt this technology. However, all they could think about was the known: better saws, better storage, better transportation.Then you would think that the ice makers would see the advantages of
refrigerators and adopt this technology. The truth is that the ice
harvesters couldn’t embrace the unknown and jump their curve to the next curve.Challenge the known and embrace the unknown, or you’ll be like the ice
harvester and ice makers.
I tell you, this is one of the core concerns of my career. If this blog is a stool, the pursuit of how to successfully take what my readers and I are doing to the next stage is a leg. I am convinced I won't really know the right steps to take until I look back on my life and identify what they were. Heck, the correct tactic might end up being something I write but don't do that ends up inspiring someone else who pioneers the next phase.
Heck, this guy might represent that new place. He does a video blog on his commute to work and interviews people on his drive. According to a Boston Globe article he is absolutely dedicated to remaining within the constraints of his commute. He picks up interviewees on his normal route and the interview only lasts the duration of his drive.
It might be emulating and drawing inspiration from this sort of project which will form the building blocks of the next direction of things. Creators of art are always talking about communicating Truth with their work. These interviews during a drive in greater Boston get closer to reality TV than the edited to make it interesting versions we have on television today.
Will people grow disillusioned by the manipulated version of reality and flock to the theatre in droves? Probably not. Will the disillusioned defect in a large enough number to revitalize a reconfigured arts? Maybe.
Kawasaki says there is value in making an educated, well planned attempt.
Oh, by the way. I don't have any cavities.