I tell you, there is nothing better for your digestion on Thanksgiving Day, nothing better at waking you up from a carb induced doze, than someone praising your last show and insisting people go see one of your upcoming performances. That’s what happened this past Thursday. I was having dinner at the house of a friend who has no connection to the performing arts at all. One of her guests, clearly intelligent and possessed of good taste, praised the most recent performance and then went on to talk about how excited he was that a particular artist was scheduled in the next couple months and that everyone should go see her.

While this gentleman was talking about how exciting the most recent show was, I had a reaction very similar to one that Inside the Arts neighbor Holly Mulcahy describes in a Partial Observer post today. In her second point, she talks about the importance of not allowing our hyper-awareness and intimacy with a performance get in our way of accepting a compliment.

As we are wont to do, my staff and I talked over the strengths and weaknesses of the performance casting a pretty critical eye on the production. While I was happy that the dinner guest hadn’t noticed any of these things, I was a little disappointed that he was focusing on the spectacle and not really talking about the actor performances or at least things about each character that resonated with him. I tried to steer the conversation in that direction a couple times but what I really wanted to do is throttle him while screaming “Stop talking about the spectacle!!!”

Now I have to admit, achieving the spectacle took a lot of hard work and those who executed it deserve a lot of praise. I have absolutely no problem with people noticing and complimenting the beauty of the set and lighting design since those folks rarely get enough recognition. The performed spectacle occurred just a few times in the production so it didn’t overwhelm or really define the show. But that is what impressed him most. That is what he remembered best. That is what he talked about.

But as Andrew Taylor notes in a talk posted on his blog today (around minute 20), the producers of an experience don’t get the final say in how the experience is processed. Something happened that was meaningful for him. And he had it in my venue which is a small victory for both of us since my preference is for people to be here than elsewhere. Despite all the flaws we may have seen with the show, I knew that overall we offered a quality product to our audiences and there was ultimately no shame to be associated with the show.

I really didn’t have any problem accepting the compliment. I am sure the delicious pumpkin bread helped make it taste all the sweeter. My comment about choking him was a bit of hyperbole, especially since I probably would have knocked over the gravy. I don’t think there is anything wrong with wanting your audiences to speak a little more confidently after every visit and it is part of our job to help them get there.