General Musings

In the spirit of my entry praising easy grant applicant processes, my award for the easiest, most organized company to work with this year goes to….Dayton Contemporary Dance Company.

Actually, I may be a bit too premature since they won’t arrive for another couple months. However, I have to say they are the most organized group I have worked with this year. Not only do I have the contracts and riders returned and signed, back in November they sent me a rooming list and a list of all those flying out so I can make interisland airline arrangements for them. They actually forgot they had been so efficient and in an attempt to be organized, sent me another copy this week.

Actually, truth be told, they are almost frighteningly well organized. They have been ready to have a discussion about outreach programs with me since the fall and have been eager to set up a call with their artistic director to make sure the outreach program suits my needs.

This is all rather annoying–I am used to be feeling smug and superior to the performers I have contracted by being more organized than they. I am usually the one asking for information and having people get back to me!

Having the illusion that I am better than everyone else is the only bright spot of my day that makes all the crap I face tolerable! Damn them for stealing that from me!!!

Hee hee, this is kinda fun. Though it does occur to me that we haven’t discussed catering yet broaching that subject with them tomorrow will allow me to salvage a little arrogance.

In any case, the old adage that forewarned is forearmed is so very true when you are presenting performances. Knowing stuff like this so far in advance makes doing a show so much easier — unless you have no intention of providing what the performer asks for and like to take advantage of lack of organization to plead ignorance.

So far, DCDC is a model of organization and professionalism and I would recommend them on that basis alone. However, I will try to remember to do a follow up report on them in April.

The title of today’s entry is something of an addendum to the “grass is always greener…” saying. Today I found myself watering my neighbor’s lawn as I wrote a letter of support for a grant application.

The artist in residence for my theatre is the artistic director of a contemporary dance company We will be developing a new dance work for 2006 based on a Hawaiian myth. Right now he is applying for a Rockefeller Foundation grant to help underwrite the development of the piece. As one of the organizations involved with the work, I was asked to write a letter of support.

I spent about 4 hours on this letter polishing and honing it to sing the praises of the group with which I was going to partner. At around hour 3 I realized, much to my chagrin, that I had spent more time discussing the value of the dance company’s work in terms that were aligned with the foundation’s goals than I did on the last grant I wrote.

I don’t know if it was because I had a little more time to write than I did when my last grant application was due (and I didn’t have the budgetary questions looming ahead of me) or because as an outsider who doesn’t know all organizational flaws the dance company has it was easier to be effusive. Or maybe it just feels less sincere when you are writing about all the ambitious plans you have while there is a voice in your head that wonders whether you actually have the organizational capacity to pull it off.

On the flipside though, even though the money won’t go to me directly, I will benefit if the company receives the grant because I have a greater assurance that the show will be good if they aren’t focussed on fundraising.

And I will say one thing–this guy is good about lining up support early. In his playbill this past weekend, he had a flyer soliciting funds for the development of this piece two seasons hence, perhaps at the expense of his upcoming seasons.

One of the things I really like about Hawaii is the opportunity (when I get it) to see a wide variety of culturally diverse performances. Since I have been hear, I have gone to a Gamelan concert (music from Bali and Java) and presented a show that melded traditional hula and modern dance to celebrate the arrival of a new Hawaiian island Loihi/Kama’ehu (in 30-50,000 years). (And just as an aside, there is hula that Hollywood portrays, the actual hula that Hawaiians dance and low postured, bombastic hula ‘aiha’a that originates from the Big Island. Very awe inspiring and powerful. Only time I have imagined that a hula dancer could kick my ass.)

This weekend I went to see a Randai production (search for that term on Google and every English language book and article was written by the show’s director.) Randai is a really amazing Sumatran theatre form that integrates the martial art of silak with song and dialogue. It also features wearing pants where one can stretch the fabric between the legs taut to create a booming drumming sound when struck. (And article from a production done 3 years ago can be found here.)

It is really fantastic stuff and easily accessible to Western audiences (the songs are sung in English in this production and the stories are pretty much universal) Where Western theatre is generally encompassed in 4 walls, Randai action occurs within a circle of performers (which is also how the martial art silak is taught rather than in the parallel rows you see in Japanese and Chinese martial arts)

Since the Randai form is so much a part of Sumatran life, children pretty much practice the martial arts moves from birth. The student actors at the University of Hawaii have actually been practicing the movement and drumming component 3 hours a day for 6 months in order to gain at least a rudimentary mastery of the techniques. I actually heard and audience member saying he would see the cast outside slapping their pants when he went to his morning class so they definitely were a dedicated group.

It made me a little sad though to think that it would be tough to translate this experience and dedication into an acting job on the Mainland. You look at a person’s resume saying they were part of a Randai ensemble and unless it is in your personal experience, you group their experience in with wacky fringe performance art. Nevermind the students have better control of their bodies now than most musical theatre students pursuing the “triple threat” of sing/dance/act. Without the frame of reference of having seen Randai, most directors wouldn’t know how to evaluate that experience though.

To be honest, faced with such a resume credit, I wouldn’t either. I have been excited to see it since August when I read about it in the brochure. But you don’t get show description on a resume.

Truth is, on the Mainland, Randai is wacky fringe performance art. (Actually some performance art I have seen is so derivative of other performance art, Randai would actually be on the fringe of the fringe.) On Hawaii it is actually pretty much mainstream. The university does it in a 3 year rotation with kabuki (which I really want to see!) and I believe Chinese opera.

When I say it Randai would be on the fringe of fringe, I don’t mean to imply it is “out there.” As I said, it is actually very easy to understand. I simply meant that people looking in the Friday arts listing would probably feel more comfortable going to something listed as performance art rather than taking a chance on something noted as coming from Sumatra.

Performing in the show sorta falls in that category of things that are great for you to have done as a person, but probably not perceived as having much value by others. Actors have a hard enough time making a go of it with regular performance credits to have to face someone looking at 6 months of their life as being without merit.

I certainly don’t think that it was a mistake for the students to do. Physical shows like Stomp, Cirque de Soleil, The Blue Man Group, etc, that aren’t formed around the framework of acting technique will certainly view the experience as valuable. But mainstream stage and television…maybe not so much. You can only sell to the masses (or the slim percentage of the masses that attend live performances) what the masses are prepared to consume. Casting sessions tend to be driven by this.

On the other hand, with something as visually interesting as martial arts on stage, all it takes is a rave revue of a Broadway or major regional theatre show. Suddenly Randai is en vogue and someone is developing a show for Vegas.

Even before I took my current position, I was familiar with the unique situations one might run into while working for a theatre in a university setting. There are the competitive bids you must solicit for everything, the triplicate forms, the purchase order process and four week wait for people to be paid.

Then there is the fact the state doesn’t like to pay for services in advance of receiving them. If you are using Equity actors you often must post a bond and as I noted yesterday, when you present performances, you often have to pay deposits in advance. Many times you end up explaining that this is the usual way of doing business over and over to people.

Today there was a bit of a new twist. A person from the business office comes over and says I have to sign a statement on the purchase order saying that I will personally reimburse the university if it pays the deposit and the artist doesn’t perform. Now given that the deposit is usually at least $5,000 or more, that isn’t something I really want to be responsible for.

I have never had a performer fail to perform. However, I am sitting on an island in the middle of the Pacific. Just regular problems with airplanes can pose a problem much less other acts of God, war, strike and all the other variables found in a force majeure clause. Most force majeure clauses stipulate that an artist will return the deposit less any expenses. Given that purchasing airline tickets to Hawaii will probably eat up the deposit amount by itself, the chance of me retrieving the deposit in such a situation is probably slim to none.

I lodge a complaint to my division chair who is as incredulous as I. He says to check with my counterparts at other campuses to see if they face the same problem. I heard back from one of them before I left for the day and his answer left me even more flabbergasted. He does sign the reimbursement pledge when he pays deposits–however he often crosses that part of a contract out so he only pays when he really has to. Now this is the same guy who crosses out the catering portion of hospitality riders so I am wondering how the heck he manages to get anyone to perform for him at all.

I guess all my talk yesterday about the basic requirements one will have to meet for most presenting situation has quite a few more exceptions to the rule than I thought. I need to talk to some more people though. I really don’t want to sign the thing, but I also don’t want to eliminate a whole pool of potential performers too because the university won’t pay a deposit.

So, as promised, a quick recap of my attendance of the event Dana Gioia, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, spoke at last evening. It was a big affair. The line to get in stretched around the block and limos bearing consuls from about six countries pulled up as we were all filing it.

I was sort of disappointed because I thought he was going to speak about the NEA. However, he said he had spoken about it at two other gatherings already and didn’t feel like doing so again. Apparently I was not important enough to be invited to those meetings!

Actually, he didn’t speak until about an hour into the meeting. There were a lot of speeches whose whole point seemed to be the gratuitous mentioning of names over and over again to applaud and thank. Then there were exhibitions of performing talent to show the diversity of the arts in the state that ranged from the stinky to the sublime. It has been a long time since an NEA chair has been to the state so I understand why people wanted to show off as much as possible.

Mr Gioia was as good as speaker as I had hoped a poet would be. He spoke about the value of the arts, but didn’t harp on it too much and actually spent much of the night reciting his own poetry, most of which was pretty good. The anecdotes and commentary surrounding them really made his presentation.

The one thing I really noted was a poem he said he originally wrote at the request of National Public Radio on the turning of the new year. It was originally 36 lines long. However, after he had recited it, he decided it needed some trimming so he removed two lines, then another two, another two, and more and more by twos (except he skipped 14 lines and went right to 12 according to his story.)

Ultimately, it ended up being 8 lines long and no longer about the new year at all, but rather about what goes on inside oneself.

This was the real gem that I took away from the night. When we learn about creating art, be it written, performed, composed, painted, etc, we are often told never to become so invested and married to something that you are afraid to cut away extraneous bits or make changes. The best sculptors often talk about freeing the shape within the material rather than imposing their vision upon it. The best writers are not afraid to edit. Actors are taught to react to whatever changes in energy and situation might be occurring on stage rather than delivering the performance that got the biggest applause last week.

Of course, it rarely happens that way. Taking the leap of faith to discard or change is easy to talk about, but hard to do. I have a lot of respect for Mr. Gioia for having the confidence in his talent to be able to do that.

So I have been away from blogging for a little bit due in part to the holiday season, but also because the service that was hosting my blog has gone out of business. (Which reminds me, I have to take their link off the blog.) Unfortunately, I didn’t find out they were shutting down until two weeks before they did. So not only was I doing some last minute shopping for gifts, I was looking around for a new hosting service.

This is essentially the reason for the new look. The entries came over intact from my old server, however the template settings didn’t. I am going to reset things to a different template shortly, however, now that I have access to Photoshop and other goodies, I think I will take this opportunity to revamp my logo a little on a lunch break.

I have discovered I have a fair number of regular readers out there. I have been getting emails from people over the break telling me how much they appreciate my insights, etc., and mentioning that other people turned them on to my blog.

Thanks to you all for spreading the word –keep telling your friends! As far as I know, I am the only working theatre manager keeping a regular blog (and when I was unemployed, the only unemployed one too!) But if people know of any other performing arts bloggers outside of Artsjournal.com, let me know. I am always interested in reading other people’s stuff.

I started out almost a year ago with the purpose of making this blog a resource for other people in regard to creating a central clearinghouse of links and tips. I really need to collect those I have cited into a running list on the side of the blog (note to self for revamp process) but a good number of people seem to appreciate my discussing the practical details of my job as well as my thoughts and readings on the general philosophy of arts management. (Which is good since I have had less time to read these days.) I will try to do a little more of both in the coming days.

EDIT: OK, apparently, all I needed to do was hit rebuild and the template I had set up engaged so there isn’t a new look. Heh heh, sorry about any confusion.

So today, just a few days before Christmas, I end up interviewing 3 people for the position as my assistant. As you may or may not know from past entries. We had a little problem with the first round of the search and have had to reopen the position. There was some urgency connected with the search as I am told if we don’t fill it, we will lose the position to another department. It got me to wondering how many unqualified people had been hired into a position just so that the position wouldn’t be lost.

I am sure any reader who has had any interaction with state employees anywhere will answer with–pretty much all of them.

One thing that happened during the process caught my attention. At the end of the interview, during the “Do You Have Any Questions For Us” phase, an applicant asked us what areas of the job was she least qualified for. This pretty much took me aback since it not only put me in an awkward position, but also placed me in the role of emphasizing her unsuitable qualities in my mind rather than leaving me with a good impression. That being said, she was probably the strongest candidate and will receive our strong recommendation for hiring.

It did get me to wondering if surveying people right at a performance is premature. Typically you balance the questions asking what they liked and didn’t like so that you aren’t unscoring a particularly bad experience in their minds. Also, surveying immediately ensures a higher response rate than one done later.

I can’t find it, but I could have sworn Terry Teachout had a column that talked about needing time after seeing a performance to digest ones feelings about what had just been seen rather than succumbing to the demands of one’s companions to opine immediately once the lobby is reached.

It could be that people would give better feedback if they had time to mull over exactly why they did and didn’t like a performance.

Ah, but how to reach them?

One way would be to send surveys to attendees after the fact inviting them to respond on paper or online. (The festival I once worked for actually approached a 50% response rate which is absolutely phenominal for surveys) Another option is to email a sample of the audience, (hope you don’t hit a spam blocking shield) and direct them to a link on your web site where your survey resides. If you really have the money for it, there are actually sites online which will host your survey and do all the tabulation of results for you automatically. (Google online survey services)

I imagine that the response rate will fluctuate depending on how strongly people felt one way or the other about a show, but I bet the quality of the responses will be much greater and show more thought invested in them.

On the other hand, according to research, there is a perfect one question survey.

So just a few thoughts since visions of Nutcracker dancers and Mall Santas are prancing through my head too much to have any real significant ideas these days.

If the median age of the population is getting older as the mass of baby boomers enter retirement age, what does this mean for the senior citizen discount at theatres? When the average income for a show starts to drop below the median price because there are more seniors than “adults” in your audience, do you reduce the difference between the regular and discount rate, eliminate the discount altogether since your regularly paid price is the discount price, really revise your budget projections?

My other thought has to do with the other end of the spectrum. Is there an age that is just too young to put kids on stage? We have a pre-school that has rented the theatre since the beginning of time to have their 2-5 year old students in a Christmas pageant. After hearing many of these kids scream with terror about going on stage, I wonder if this is really a health activity for them. Another unsafe element is that until this year, members of the theatre staff had to stand at the front of the stage and run back and forth catching kids who saw their parents and started walking toward the four foot drop at the edge of the stage. (This year, the pre-school finally got a group of people together to catch the kids.)

Although I would lose the rental income, I can’t help but feel that these kids would be better served by being part of smaller events in less formal and intimidating surroundings (where the floor didn’t suddenly fall away). As much as I am for exposing kids to the arts, this seems too much too soon.

I have been thinking lately about the contradictory nature of some artist’s relationships with their own performance. Mainly how you would think aspects they possess would pretty much remove performing as an option in their lives. For instance, there are many performers out there who have had terrible stage fright but go out and perform. Donny Osmond comes to mind as the most extreme example. And everyone knows the story about how James Earl Jones overcame his stutter to become the Voice of everything from Darth Vader. Verizon, CNN and cartoon characters.

I got to thinking this because my own quirk is that I hate being around crowds of people and yet, I try my damnedest to attract them to shows and make them comfortable. I just spent a Thanksgiving where, after calling my family, I didn’t utter a sound for three whole days except to speak to a librarian. It wasn’t the first time I have done it, nor is it the longest I have gone without speaking or human contact.

When I went to the Smithsonian for a summer vacation, I would be there when the doors opened and then would have to leave by 2 pm because the press of the crowd just annoyed me. I wanted to punch out the school kids running unsupervised through the place heedless of the fact I almost stepped on them. (Not the mention the fact they hogged all the interactive exhibits!) I would hop back on the Metro and go back to my camping spot in rural Virginia. Then I would go back in and continue the next day.

When I go shopping I park out near the edges of the lot and walk back in because I don’t want to deal with the lot sharks who circle and circle looking for a spot up close. Worst of all, they stop, blocking traffic out to the road while they wait for someone to back out when they can drive 3 car lengths and have their choice of 5 empty spots.

The thing is, I have worked at and even organized outdoor festivals where tens of thousands of people show up. I have worked hard to insure there is sufficient parking, a variety of food, enough trash barrels and smooth process for admitting the audience. I don’t mind this at all. Perhaps it is a control issue because subconsciously I know that I have the power to throw ’em all out.

Lest one think I didn’t mind because I had hundreds of acres to spread my crowd out over and avoid bumping in to them, I point out that I have turned the same planning to indoor shows seating thousands of people as well.

I can’t say that it is because I enjoy organizing and throwing big parties because despite being a pretty good cook, I have never had anyone outside my family over to my house for any sort of party. I usually end up picking up the trash after any event I do so it isn’t like I enjoy organizing these big events because I have someone else around to do the clean up.

So there you go, I have no idea why an anti-social person like myself would ever invest himself so much into attending to the details of organizing events for the enjoyment of large crowds of people–and then work hard to rectify their complaints.

Anyone else feel they or a friend are in a similiarly strange arrangement? Let me know!

So, if you have been reading my recent blog entries, you will know that I am working my butt off at my new job. I could really use an assistant!

The problem is, no one will apply.

Today ended the second time I have advertised for an assistant. The first time we had one applicant, but we couldn’t hire her because she didn’t meet the minimum qualifications (BA or equivalent, spreadsheet and desktop publishing knowledge.) We reduced the qualifications so that many things were desirable rather than required and now no one has applied.

Part of the problem may be due to the fact that Hawaii’s economy is BOOMING. People feel fairly safe from terrorism here (the interstates actually connect armed forces bases to each other, we just get to use them). Tourism from Pacific Rim countries is high and available hotel rooms are low–mostly because they are being converted to condos for repeat visitors. A lot of service industry jobs are going unfilled because of the low unemployment on the islands.

What this means for me is that I will be handling the hospitality, graphic design and front of house arrangements along with budgeting, marketing, season planning, contracting, personnel issues, facilities management, fundraising, outreach, long range goal planning–essentially everything I railed against in my Executives without Direction Entry—just a wee bit longer.

So my next production is an in-house show, Metamorphoses, by Mary Zimmerman. She adapts Ovid, not Kafka so there are no giant cockroaches on stage. There is, however, a giant pool of water. Water being a great metaphor for change is really appropriate for the production.

The technical worries on the other hand…

The set is essentially a 30′ wide by 25′ long pool of water on two levels. The depth ranges anywhere between 6″-9″ to 24″ in one spot. Water is interesting to work with for a number of reasons, the fact that it is pretty damned heavy, being one of them. The weight bearing capacity of the stage was a real concern.

Of course, another concern is that water will find any opening it can and leak out. The pool liner is one continuous piece which prevents that problem. However, since the change of depth of the pool is fairly extreme and localized to a small area, the aesthetics of a heavily creased liner is a little bit of a concern design wise.

Another discovery we made was that despite our best guesses about how far water would fly during the fight scenes and how much would be displaced when people entered, the water flew farther and ran over the edges and splash guards we had in place. Fortunately, because it was designed to overflow on to the lower level anyway, there wasn’t a big flood. Unfortunately, because the pump hadn’t been installed, the rehearsals had to stop while the water was bucketed up to the top level again.

Needless to say, the show really lends itself to exciting press releases given that there are Greek gods and heroes as well as the Greeks’ very definition of spectacle in the form of the big ole pool of water.

I am just dreading 2-3 years from now when things start warping and rusting…

Some people will say that this retreading of stories is an indicator of how desperate Broadway is to stay alive.

But from my point of view, this is what was always exciting about Greek myths when I first discovered them as a boy. And it also seems better to retread the classics which have the potential of being rediscovered whereas a successful retread of a Disney movie just encourages that company to push for extensions of copyright. (And a really creative adaptation of an out of copyright work like Ovid’s just goes to show how extensive copyright protection may indeed stifle creativity!)

I will let folks know how it all ends up.

Wow! Four entries in a week! It is amazing how much more ambitious I feel when I only work 10 hours a day instead of 11.

Anyhow, I thought I might do a reflective entry on some recent experiences. I think I wrote it somewhere in my blog, but I can’t seem to find it at the moment, that one of my biggest priorities for visiting performers is to make them feel comfortable. They are many miles from home, you may be stop 18 on a 30 stop tour. They are tired and perhaps grumpy. The best thing you can do is have everything they need available when they arrive to set their minds at ease.

This seemed even more true now that I am here on Hawai’i. We just had the Flying Karamazov Brothers perform at the theatre and they were really great. However, they were trying to bring a show they did on the Mainland to Hawaii. This had to have caused some angst because they had a great show with fabulous props and now they were faced with having to scale it down and take it with them to keep the costs practical for their island hosts. On the mainland it is a simple matter of tossing things in car trunks or the back of large trucks or buses. But that ain’t gonna happen with 2500 miles of water between you and Hawai’i.

To their credit, they did a great job of bringing their gear and clothes in the same bags and then shuffling it all around on departure so each piece of luggage would be under the 70 lbs limit of the airlines. (Which underscores our need to have scales it seems). There were a couple simply things they forgot which we replaced and a couple things we had they decided they liked so much, they integrated into their show. (Watch for a little mop–that is ours!)

Despite my less than total knowledge of my resources and abilities of my crew, I think I did a fairly credible job of keeping them happy throughout their visit. Hopefully, I will be able to hire an assistant soon so I don’t have to do the credible job alone. It just taught me that I have to anticipate needs even more than usual because the circumstances of people’s arrival may vary and imagination might have to be employed to replace things not readily available on our island kingdom.

I did get an unintential opportunity to be part of the show. I waited in the wings to give them leis during the curtain call and got the cue to go out from their company manager. Only they started running off stage away from me. I break into a run saying “Wait, wait…” holding the leis outstretched. By that point, one of the brothers shouted back that they were coming back out, which they did for another curtain call. The audience loved it though as did most of the crew because it was one of those things you just couldn’t have made look as good if you planned it.

An interesting website came to my attention today regarding a practice called Civic Reflection. According to the website, it is “is reading, thinking and talking with each other about our life in community and three fundamental human activities that nourish that life: giving, serving, and leading.”

Looking over the website, I am not quite sure how this practice will help nonprofits and other civic groups more effectively than some other sort of meeting or retreat. The group claims it does. I have a suspicion that its value is in the fact that the practice addresses problems obliquely and doesn’t allow people to set an agenda where blame is handed out and solutions sought.

The website addresses this:

Initially, out of habit, people often think of a problem they want to fix. How can we diversify our boards? How can we get people to give more? These are good questions, but civic reflection is not intended to answer them. It will not tell people “how to” do anything. What civic reflection can do is help participants explore the “what” and “why” -the assumptions, struggles and hopes underneath their questions-deepening their own imaginations and mutual understanding in the process. When people pose “how to” questions (How can we lead the community through change?), listen for the “what” and “why” questions underneath (What leads us to change? Why do we fear change?).

I was initially a bit skeptical about how valuable this process might be to a non-profit given that time constraints don’t normally allow for conversations whose purpose is not to find solutions. In thinking about it, I wondered though if some of the problems non-profits face spring from an Us and Them anxiety– Will they fund us, will they ask me for a donation, will they like our show, will I like/understand this show.

The purpose of this practice seems to be to make everyone Us by removing these barriers and making everyone talk about something else like the human condition in hopes of people developing an empathy and understanding of one another.

The importance of removing these barriers to understanding are found in their FAQ section.

Should there be separate discussions for donors and fundraisers to keep the conversation from getting “awkward”?

No, as long as the ground rules for the conversation are clear. It is imperative to state at the outset that -This is a fundraising-free zone: There will be no solicitations-and no pledge card at the end! With that rule in place, civic reflection can allow a rare and needed conversation to take place across the funding divide. It can help donors and fundraisers to talk with one another about the profound complexities of giving and receiving and to develop greater understanding of their shared work.

Should there be separate discussions for trustees and staff? Executive and other staff?

Again, this is a rare opportunity to build conversation across dividing lines about the purposes of an organization-and to help staff and trustees come to know each other in a fuller way as persons. Therefore, staff should be included if possible. At the same time, it is unwise to allow the executive director of an organization to handpick participants among senior staff. All staff at the same level of responsibility should be invited. (But be neither surprised nor dismayed if not everyone accepts.)

It all sounds great in theory, but I would think it would be difficult for a non-profit to find the time and energy to devote to something like this on a regular basis. People tend to want to walk into and out of a meeting/retreat with answers and a plan of action.

In business like relationships, people’s desire to understand the other guy tends to start and end at the point they do or don’t get what they want. People tend to only want to know things that they think will help them do their jobs and discard/ignore those things that typically won’t help. (The website implies though that knowing these other facts can enhance a business relationship.)

Perhaps we are conditioned into this behavior by TV programs that wrap up problems within the confines of a time period and by technology which allows us to access information and goods round the clock. Opened ended contemplation can seem to be more of an amusing luxury than immediate value.

The website says that the fear that the practice is a waste of time is one of the 3 main impediments to participation. The other two are “They fear that they are not ‘smart’ enough, especially if they did not enjoy literature classes in school. They fear that they will be manipulated emotionally for the purposes of the group.” The implication being, don’t knock it til you sincerely try it.

I would be interested to learn if anyone has tried Civic Reflection in any forum, be it non-profit or other, and what your impressions were. Let me know.

I came across and article from Slate I was reading way back when I started my move–Art Mobs. The author, Clive Thompson explores the power mobs have had recently, especially in relation to the arts.

While many artists draw influences from many sources, the common wisdom is that art created by committee, rather than by a unified single vision (albeit sometimes shared by 2-3 collaborators) is usually crap. Thompson’s article shows that in some cases, that isn’t necessarily so.

Witness Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia written by grace of contributions of the masses, which in three years has exceeded the size of the venerable Encyclopedia Brittanica. (It has nearly triple the number of articles and double the number of words)

Thompson also cites the generally successful mob creation of letters via voting whether a pixel should be white or black. On the other hand, when faced with less concrete concepts like creating a face or a goat, by voting pixels black or white, the mob had a hard time creating anything that resembled..well..anything.

Likewise, the person who intitiated Wikipedia has tried to get mobs to write textbooks. Some projects are doing okay, but most are not because of the lack of a unified vision and voice.

These are really intriguing experiments and results. But the application for the arts manager can be fairly simple in some respects. You can solicit all the feedback about programming a season you want from as many sources as you want, but in the end, one central vision must make the determination regarding what will appear on stage. If you try to please everyone or as many people as possible, you end up with an utter mess.

Andrew Taylor said something similar in his Simple Truth 1 posting and a follow up when he says of a presenter who put out a call for programming ideas that would work in his performance space.

“Given the simple truth that audiences buy expectation rather than performances, and given that consumers can’t really say what they want until they have it, and often not even after that, Law is looking in the wrong place for inspiration.”

Continuing to talk about my time at the Western Arts Alliance Conference last week. There were a few things that the membership seemed to enjoy. Or at least those who spoke up at the annual meeting did.

The first was how things were scheduled. The Resource Room where all the agents and artist reps were wasn’t opened when there were showcases or seminars occuring. When the Resource Room was open, it was only for 3-4 hours at a time.

There were a number of benefits people cited. The first was that the agents only had to stand for 3 hours at a time. Another was that it helped being able to attend the seminars and showcases so they could discuss trends and see what sort of talent was out there. With the break for seminars and showcases, the people who were booking acts felt energized and were ready to talk business again. Also, watching performances provided some inspiration about what they might like to present. The bookers returned with fresh ideas and were prepared to approach people they hadn’t thought about presenting before.

The other thing I really appreciated was that there was a code of ethics published about how, where and when an agent could approach a presenter about the acts they represented. Well, actually, a lot of places have that code, I should say rather I appreciated that most people adhered to it.

I was button holed a couple times, but for the most part, agents left business at the resource room door. I ended up having lunch and dinner with a few agents and it was nice not worrying about being pressured to present their clients while my mouth was full.

In fact, the conference sponsored a dine around where someone volunteered to choose a restaurant and organize the logistics of getting a group of folks to dinner. People signed up on sheets when they arrived so the host could get a head count and then off we went. So that night I actually ended up eating with about 5-6 agents and another 5-6 presenters. The conversation was so general that I didn’t know any of them were agents except for the host and I only knew he was because the sign up sheet identified him as such.

So just some tips for you conference planners and attenders out there to make your experience a little more pleasant.

As mentioned before, I am off to the WAA conference this week. I am pleased to note that there will be a session on income taxes and international artists. Given my crash course in tax treaties lately, I will be attending that with some interest. Maybe I will find out some new things to pass on to my liasion here at the university.

I went into work today despite the holiday because I will be out of town for a week and really don’t want to have my work pile up too much. The vice-chancellor had been taking about starting an arts administration certificate program so I emailed him expressing my interest in contributing to its development.

Given my *cough* strong feelings about how such a program should be structured, there is a fair chance I could eventually disassociate myself from the program I help develop. Exploring the decisions that go in to developing it, whether I agree with them or not, would be really fascinating for me though so I don’t really mind that I could end up muttering curses under my breath one day.

Stay tuned to find out how it all comes out–the tax stuff and the AA certificate program.

I realized I had neglected to remove the line in “About The Blog” that refered to me being unemployed. That has, of course, been changed. I also changed the About the Author section because that too was essentially gauged to advertise my qualifications and help me find a job.

The blog actually worked to help me find a job. Some of the folks on the search committee commented on the blog during the interview and even now that I have started work. Some of them continued to read it even after they hired me so I have to watch what I write.

I had asked a career counselor if she suggested people list their blogs on their resumes (the entry is somewhere back in time, I will have to dig it out). She said since I was looking for an employer who would value my innovative ideas, etc, I should absolutely list it. Sort of the idea that I will attract the employers that deserve me. Well, I have to say, 10 days or so in the process. I am really feeling like I am working for a place that deserves me. (Lucky them!) I think I even wrote at one point that I started getting interviewed by places that deserved me/whose ideals and philosophies were aligned with mine.

We will see how far this impression bears out now as time goes on.

In my last entry, I mentioned how I was trying to resist using quotes from newspaper critics because it made me feel lazy to borrow someone else’s thoughts. I also doubted the power of such quotes to sway people because the phrases they employ seem over used.

I came across an article in the London Telegraph that refers to a list that the editors compile of over used phrases they felt they could do without seeing. The list applies to book reviews, but if you look at them, you will see quite a few that make an appearance in regard to live performances and art shows.

It should come as no surprise to any of my readers that the first week of a new job at an arts organization doesn’t leave much time for actually writing blog entries. To say that I have spent my last three days writing up a calendar listing for local media makes me sound like a lazy bastard. In reality, I have been doing more than meeting new people and been becoming familiar with the details of my job.

In the pursuit of trying to write up calendar listings, I have essentially been developing my budget for the year. The budget had been set up to a certain point, but there have been additions and substitutions. To simply advertise a ticket price in a newspaper calendar, I have had to develop (read: make educated guesses) a fair part of the budget from incomplete information. And of course, since the info is incomplete, I spend most of my time asking a lot of questions that lead to answers which lead me to ask a lot of other questions about things not actually related to my original purpose for asking, but simply flesh out my knowledge of what the heck I am actually doing here.

I don’t have much new wisdom to impart today except to point people in the direction of some really exciting groups that I will be presenting over the coming year. Some are more familiar to me than others, but all seem pretty interesting.

First you have world renowned folks like The Flying Karamazov Brothers (http://www.fkb.com/) and Ladysmith Black Mambazo (http://www.mambazo.com/).

Really high energy international musicians — New Zealand’s Te Vaka (http://www.tevaka.com) who surround the traditional pate (log drums) with acoustic and electric guitar and toss in high energy and dance which makes it tough to sit still. I also think it will be hard to sit still during Les Yeux Noir’s (http://www.lesyeuxnoirs.net/) visit as well since their part gypsy, part klezmer, part swing jazz music is described as infusing the audience with their frenetic energy.

My theatre is known for the dance performances it puts on so we will be hosting the Dayton Contemporary Dance company (http://www.dcdc.org) and Rennie Harris Puremovement (http://www.rhpm.org/). All that time I lived near Philadelphia and I had to travel to Hawai`i to hear about them!

This isn’t everyone we are presenting–I will link to my website once I finish building it–but these are among those which look exciting enough to spread the word about.

Okay faithful readers, I am back at the keyboard after my move to Hawaii. I haven’t offically started my job yet, but thanks to the help and support of the theatre staff, I have been able to use the office to store my shipped stuff and call around for apartments. I am in an apartment and making the usual arrangements to get phone, cable and electric hooked up.

One interesting observation I have made already is that the theatre is organized under the Office of Continuing Education rather than fine or liberal arts. This shows the orientation and focus of the theatre right off. The building is a tool for community outreach first and then a place where performances occur. From talking informally with the director of continuing education (he actually put me up in his apartment for a week while I was searching for a place to live) I have found him to be incredibly supportive of the people in his department and eager to empower them to do interesting things. He absolutely wants financial accountability, but he also wants to provide his charges with a great experience and the freedom to do a little experimentation. A lot of administrators say that, but are really more conservative in practice. I honestly think I may end up being too reserved for his vision.

It will be interesting to see how things develop. I hope not to end up working so hard I can’t write at all. I do expect I won’t be able to write as extensively as I did while unemployed. Some of the research and writing I did involved 3-5 hours of my time. On the other hand, I will be able to offer advice from a more practical stand point now.

Okay, I feel fairly confident in announcing that I am actually employed now! I will be flying out on July 28 to find an apartment and a car in Hawaii where I will be running a theatre for the University of Hawaii at the Leeward Community College campus.

Monday, the old computer will be a guest of UPS and on its way to Hawaii in advance of me. The blog may not be updated for a little while depending on how long it takes me to find a place to live and get internet service.

Finally, I will be able to put my mad theories into practice and sythesize more–all of which I will be reporting to you here. The 2004-2005 season is already pretty much selected, however I will be attending the Western Arts Alliance Conference in Spokane, WA this September to start booking for 2005-06 so look for me there!

Due to a horrendous virus attack I missed making an entry yesterday. (Took me 8 hours to get virus software installed and working due to virus interference.)

Because it is lovely summer time I thought I would make an entry that isn’t so much musings and research on helpful resources as it is about plain amusing thoughts.

Both these links come to me by virtue of Artsjournal.com. The first is a study done in Italy that shows a link between watching TV and playing video games and the earlier onset of puberty. It seems that artifical light and exposure to television and computer monitors lowers the amount of melatonin in your body which has been shown to be a factor in hastening the start of puberty. Regular exposure to sunlight and darkness slows this process.

Now my grandfather always said playing outside in the fresh air would put hair on my chest, but it appears he was just plain wrong!

I was thinking it might be helpful for arts marketers to exploit this study. It would be inconcievable that children would sit quietly in the dark without some form of entertainment, so take them to theatre/ballet/opera/concerts. While the performing arts do use artificial light to illuminate their productions, there is far less of it than sitting in front of a TV or even reading under a lamp. Isn’t it still better that a child be exposed to the arts and extend their youth and innocence just a little bit longer? And with all the sexual imagery on television these day, also preserve their brains’ innocence as well? There is less sexual content in 2 hours of O Calcutta than two hours of television.

On the other hand, late bloomers will probably use the study to rationalize why they should watch more TV.

The second article is an amusing column from the St Paul Pioneer-Press (username: ajreader@artsjournal.com, password: access) The paper’s theatre critic writes a satirical article claiming that NEA chairman Dana Goia has teamed up with the Department of Homeland Security and created a color coded warning system to alert patrons that they might be experience “”heightened and specific” threats to the integrity of a given performance.”

These “threats” consist of sitting next to a person who will make multiple trips to the restrooms, cellophane crinklers, cell phone and pager rings, people who explain and narrate the play to their neighbor, etc.

Protecting the arts patron from the terror of these experiences are marshals armed with tranquilizer and curare darts (the latter reserved for the most heinous offenders) and electromagentic gaget neutralization devices.

It is a fun little article. It is even more fun if you make up your own list of punishments for all the offensive behavior you have experienced while attending a performance. Since even the fines system for offenders in NYC is difficult to practically enforce, if you are going to dream, dream big!

Except for a couple research papers, something I am trying to avoid covering too much here, I haven’t really come across any new and interesting ideas lately. Perhaps it is the summer days making me lazy, but I am actually reading articles as much as I have ever been. However, I don’t know that discussing the success of the Yuengling brewery has a lot to teach the arts at this point. (Though they did weather Prohibition and the Depression so perhaps it offers a lesson in survival during bad economic times.)

On the other hand, it doesn’t take a lot to read my entries these days! I am sure to find something interesting and applicable soon enough so keep on stopping by!

On occasion I have had some crises of faith regarding whether I belonged working in the performing arts. However, I have never had a day when it seemed events were conspiring to tell me to find another line of work as I did yesterday. June 16 being Bloomsday provides a nice rhyme for the title of this entry. However, if you find James Joyce’s writing style to be strange, it might be an apt comparison because the day was rather strange.

I will keep names anonymous and details very general because there are some very nice people working hard to get me a job and I don’t want to seem ungrateful for their efforts.

It all started last week when I was offered a job by a gentleman at Organization A. It was a nice offer at what appears to be a very exciting place to work. However, I had an interview set for June 16 with Organization B which really sounded exciting and captured my imagination to some degree. I was sort of torn between putting Org A off until I could interview at Org B and the idea that it might do a disservice to Org B if I interviewed there knowing I had a job offer elsewhere.

I make every attempt to deal fairly openly and honestly with people. I try not to cynically play people off against each other to exploit a situation only for myself. In the end though, being practical and slightly paranoid, I decided I couldn’t official count on having the other job until I got it in writing.

It was fortunate that I took this stance because the next person up the hierarchy at Org A called me and offered me the job at significantly less salary. Apparently the person who offered me the job went on vacation without noting the salary I had been offered. Much to the superior’s credit, he resolved to personally work on getting me the salary I had been offered.

Meanwhile, I planned my trip to Org B in earnest. I was still intrigued by the opportunity and knew now I was correct in not counting my chickens too early. The trip to Org B was 2.5 hours but I gave myself 3.5 in case of traffic. Worse came to worse, I got there early and wandered around the neighborhood and reviewed my notes for the interview.

About 1.5 into the trip, my car broke down. The really crappy part was that I had taken my car in last week because I heard a sound that implied this would happen. The garage told me I was wrong, the problem was elsewhere and didn’t actually look in the place I felt it originated. However, I was right and a squeak turned into a crunch as my wheel bearing fused to the spindle and I went from 65 to 0 pretty quickly. It took me 4 hours to get it towed and fixed.

By that time Org B didn’t feel it was worth my coming down and said they would try to reschedule. I don’t hold much hope of actually landing the job though. I limped back home, depressed.

Once home I got an email from Org A saying they were sending my appointment before the chief executive for approval. Since I was told the chief executive had to approve the higher salary offer, I found reason for optimism.

Then I got a call in the evening that informed me that the position approval might be delayed slightly as the board had fired the chief executive and it might take the interim replacement a little bit to sort things out.

I have always thought of Fate as a subtle force, but after a day like that, it is difficult not to envision someone really yanking hard on the strings.

My apologies to my readers, my days since my last entry have been rather full with the preparation and execution of the festival. On Thursday at about 4pm, the forecast for Saturday changed from sunny to rain. To avoid the problems of past years, the executive director cancelled the craft portion of the festival and had the craft fair coordinator call all the vendors to tell them not to come. This decision was not popular with many people, including some board members. The real strange thing was, despite the change in the forecast, there was actually a surge in ticket orders on Friday.

The festival coordinator wisely moved some of the tasks to be completed on Friday to Thursday and we spent most of Friday moving sheets of aspenite to staging areas to be used if the grounds got too muddy on Saturday. The executive director also had crushed concrete laid down the length of one of our parking fields. We had done this a couple years ago in another field, but there has been a desire to preserve the green space of that particular field for a few years now. Given that the executive director helped tow 150 cars out last year, I believe he decided the paved lane across the meadow was the lesser evil.

In the end, it did rain, but the mantra of the day was “This isn’t as bad as last year.” It was rather muddy, but because of the preparations and lower volume of rain, only three cars actually had to be towed out. (Other cars got stuck, but they extracted themselves before the tow vehicle could arrive.)

The fact we had less rain didn’t keep the lighting and sound trucks from becoming embedded in the ground. Last year nearly everyone was freed by 10:30 pm, but mysteriously this time I was up until 1:30 am getting the two equipment trucks pulled out. (My contribution actually consisted of shivering in the drizzle while the tow truck crew winched trucks forward, pulled ahead, winched them along a bit more, pulled ahead, etc. However, there had to be a representative of the organization on hand until the grounds were vacated.)

Sunday morning I had to run to Philadelphia to pick up performers at their hotel and transport them to the train station. This probably wouldn’t have been necessary in most cases except they were hauling equipment and instruments which a taxi wouldn’t have been able to accomodate. Then it was back to the festival grounds to start the clean up. As usual, few of the volunteers who signed up to help clean up showed up. We seldom give festival admission to people who only sign up for the day after so we weren’t cheated out of tickets.

The day was long and hard, but fortunately this year I am not a full time employee so I got to go home at the end of the day when my contract was up. The full time coordinator and her assistant will be tackling the remaining portion of the clean up over the course of the week. Most of the heavy work was completed yesterday so they will be faced with tedious chores like putting signs and tables back to where they are usually stored.

I, on the other hand, am returning to my job search and will go back to writing more from a research point of view. As I suspected, if any arts organization tries to have a person blog about their experiences during the process of creating a work, the product might be intermittantly produced due to the demands of the job exhausting the writer.

All in all of course, an enjoyable experience.

So with the 5 day forecast out today, ticket sales for the festival started to pick up. I had already been consulting Accuweather, Weather Underground and Weather Channel websites for the last couple days to see what the festival weather would be like.

Because it rained rather extensively last year, we really need good weather this year to maintain people’s faith in the event. Even if it does rain and the rain insurance helps defray the losses, if the weather is lovely next year and no one buys tickets because they have been disappointed two years in a row, there is nothing to help stave off losses. So far Thursday through Saturday looks beautiful. Sunday looks a little iffy so we are praying the weather system doesn’t speed up any.

Because Appel Farm’s residential arts and music summer camp starts 2 weeks after the festival ends, we will be rushing to clean up the grounds on Sunday. It won’t be too productive if it does rain or have thunderstorms that day. Though the worst thing to have happen is to have a rainy festival day and then a rainy clean up day. It sort of adds insult to injury. You are miserable the day of the event and then miserable cleaning it all up.

I am rather proud of the festival coordinator this year. Not only has she been good about planning the event, she has started dreaming about the festival and waking up in the middle of the night to make notes to remember things. I would be worried if this wasn’t happening to her. It would be a sign she didn’t really “get” the scope of what she was about to create.

In years past I would actually wake up in the middle of the night and call my office voice mail with notes for the next day. Unfortunately, since I didn’t have to actually get up and turn the light on, I would be in a half daze while I dictated notes over the phone and consequently had to replay the messages the next day to figure out what the heck I was mumbling.

Most of today was spent handling rather boring, picayune but necessary details of the festival. I stuffed all sorts of support information into volunteer packets so they would know how to do their jobs better. I moved tents and other equipment to staging areas so that the Saturday morning set up crew will have a straightforward job.

Tomorrow is the big shopping day. While we have someone to cater the volunteer and performer meals, there are quite a number of items that performers request that it would cost too much to have the caterer provide. Tomorrow we will be running to a food warehouse and grocery store to pick up cases of water, soda, beer, milk, breakfast foods, cookies, etc, etc, etc.

We actually had the road manager of one of our performers call today because she was concerned about how closely we were paying attention to the hospitality rider she provided. This is a valid concern because often festivals skimp on such details and treat the performers rather poorly. While we don’t go overboard to ingratiate ourselves to performers, we do pay attention to detail. We have actually had bands announce from the stage that they just had the best meal they had ever eaten at a festival.

We make sure we take care of performers because we are a small festival and there isn’t the prestige associated with playing here as there might be at other festivals where artists will put up with the poor treatment just for the exposure. Taking care of the performers helps us attract bigger and better artists in subsequent years because word gets around that we offer a good experience and people are more apt to say yes.

In any case, we had the woman who heads up the hospitality area call the road manager to discuss any concerns she might have. When our coordinator said she had received the hospitality rider two weeks ago and had been supplied with the shopping list I am going to use tomorrow and that the list specifically noted which items were for the artist’s personal use, the road manager was apparently really relieved.

To some degree it is puzzling to me that performers have such negative experiences in their travels. The type of treatment we offer is not difficult to implement. If it wasn’t for the praise we receive, I would generally assume we are sort of bumbling along at about average. I guess it is a matter of being in the habit of being attentive that makes it so easy to offer good service.

Festivals being fairly expensive to run, especially with the vagarities of weather, Appel Farm has had sponsors for a number of years. At one time it was a bank, but now it is Comcast Cable with Target Stores sponsoring the Children’s Village.

There are some who don’t like the fact we accept money from the evil cable behemoth. I have to say in dealing with them that this is a case where the parts are actually greater than the sum. The festival doesn’t get its money directly from the corporate offices but rather through the local offices. The corporate offices allocate a certain amount of money to the local regional offices to distribute as they see fit. The amount the festival recieves is closer to the amount a theatre or ballet might receive from a production sponsor than the amount stadiums receive for naming rights.

The local folks are really wonderful to work with. They very cooperative and not at all demanding for attention or special treatment. The biggest problem one might say we have with them is that after sponsoring us for 4 years, ironically there is no cable service to Appel Farm. The cable stops a mile down the road which has meant that the intern house and summer camp staff has had to rely on rabbit ears to get any reception.

In return for their money, Comcast gets to put some banners up, places a big bus on the grounds where they distribute literature, has a couple people running around in Nickeloden and Cartoon Network cartoon character costumes and use one of our buildings for a reception. They also get a block of tickets for the event which they use to invite government officials and other they want to woo to the festival. These folks also get to go to the reception they hold.

They order whatever tents, tables, chairs and linens they need from the same tent vendor we use so we take responsibility for pointing out where these things need to be placed when the delivery truck rolls up and that is the extent of our involvement with the technical details of their reception. (Though there are about 4-5 meetings in the winter to review the previous festival and to hammer these details out well in advance of the event.)

Once the festival is running, they are really pretty low key. We only have 2 people assigned to help Comcast the entire day. One makes sure they have all the tables and extension cords they need, the other helps them process the VIPs they invite to the reception. In some regard the reception is almost an added bonus for the Farm because the executive and development directors have the opportunity to do a little lobbying of state lawmakers about the arts funding situation.

Last year they even did a documentary on the festival and recorded mini-concert/Q&As with 6 musicians for their programming line up. This year they are coming back to get a few more shots for the documentary because the rain last year didn’t make for the best representation of the festival.

All in all the relationship has been fairly productive for all parties. There hasn’t been any pressure brought to bear in order to influence artist selection. Other than some star struck autograph seeking, no one has thrown their weight around to get special access to performers or uttered an arrogant “Do you know who I AM!” Some of this is due to the atmosphere of the festival and the fact that the people who are fans of our line up aren’t usually the type that use bullying to get what they seek. The rest is just because at least this particular segment of the corporation is staffed by nice people.

Talking about how the community supports Appel Farm got me to thinking about how Appel Farm’s Festival lends support to the community. I don’t necessarily mean in terms of gas and food purchased locally though that is certainly an aspect of the support. One aspects of the mission to support artists is manifested in the free admission craft artists are given to the craft fair.

What this means is that the festival doesn’t take a cut of the money they make, nor do they charge the crafters an admission or registration fee. The artists take home whatever money they make. The craft show is juried however to ensure diversity in the offerings. The offerings have to be original works. Work created from kits or people acting as vendors for other people’s work is not allowed. As one might imagine, even with these restrictions, there are always more people applying than there is room to accomodate. (Only slots for 60 vendors.)

The wares cover a wide range of disciplines. There is a sheep to shawl demonstration (shear the sheep, card the wool, weave the wool), ceramics, metal jewelry, hand made musical instruments from around the world, weavings, paintings and blown glass to name a few.

Appel Farm also has a partnership with the Perkins Center for the Arts (perkinscenter.org). They built a wood fired kiln on Appel Farm’s grounds and they use it to create ceramics in their classes and Appel Farm’s campers get to fire their creations in it over the summer. As part of a grant program, artists are chosen to participate in the creation of works in the kiln (which is actually only one of three wood kilns on the Mid-Atlantic seaboard). There will be an open exhibit in the Appel Farm art studio so their kiln work may be displayed. If they want to sell anything, they must have a separate display outside so that the other artists don’t feel they received preferential treatment.

It may not be making a huge or immediate change in the lives and fortunes of these artists, but the free exposure and the support they receive from the festival certainly facilitates the process a little.

One of the things that is great about the Appel Farm Festival is the support it receives from the various local governmental agencies. The county road department mows the sides of the road for the festival and allows us the use of the snow fencing (granted, they store it on our land.)

The sheriff’s and state police are always very generous with their personnel. They enjoy the event because it is non-alcohol and the genre of music isn’t conducive to rioting.

The next township over lets us borrow tower lights so people can see where they are going when they return to their cars at night. Our township allows us to borrow recycling bins so we don’t have to buy or store them. (Though we certainly do clean them.)

The only negative has been that the police in the boro next door usually end up ticketing attendees as they pass through town. Granted, they always strictly enforce the 25 mph limit, but when you have 12,000 people attending, there is likely to be a high number of people to ticket. This has really just been the police making this decision. The mayor has asked them to give a little leeway in the past and it hasn’t worked. Recently, the trade off has been that the county places a digital sign showing a driver’s speed next to the big red sign that says speeding is strictly enforced. There haven’t been complaints of the boro being a speed trap in the last few years now.

All this support is the type of thing that is supposed to happen between an arts organization and it’s community. Granted, it helps in some respects that the center is located in a rural environment where you can establish some nice relationships. On the other hand, the surrounding community has always been a bit more conservative than the employees, campers and visitors to the center. Over the last 40 years, there has been some whispering about what people assume is going on 2 miles down the road.

Very few people in the local community volunteer or attend events at the arts center. That is changing slowly now because we have started offering afterschool classes for kids and adults in recent years. The honest truth is that people 10-50 miles away know more about what goes on at the arts center than those that live within 5 miles.

This is not to imply that the people nearby are uncultured, bigotted hicks. It is just that their interests haven’t aligned with what the arts center has offered until recently. Some of that might be due to the fact that more people who work in Philladelphia are slowly creeping into the area. And some of the current group of 20 somethings were the beneficiaries of the center’s school outreach programs in their youth.

There is also a deep running loyalty and helpful ethic to the local population. One year I was stopped on the side of the road putting up signs for the festival and no less than 6 people stopped to ask if I was having car trouble in the 20 minutes I was there. Last year, with all the rain we had, right around the end of the festival, a couple farmers and their sons came riding up on their tractors and asked the executive director if we needed help pulling festival attendees out of the mud (Boy did we ever!)

Some people may not totally understand what the arts are all about and may not be comfortable with what the local gossip says it is all about, however, they do know what a person in need looks like. To some extent it may be a relief knowing how to react and participate so they do wholeheartedly.

So for those of you who have never been involved in producing an outdoor music festival on 176 acres, harken unto my words. The Appel Farm Arts and Music Festival (www.appelfarm.org/festival/index.html) that I am working on over the next two weeks is all these things and more.

Last weekend, volunteers began erecting 375 stakes at 12 foot intervals across the main part of the grounds and attached snowfencing to it. This coming weekend they will be finishing the job. They will also be lending a hand trimming brush, painting the stages, folding towels, building temporary privacy walls, preparing the hospitality rooms, erecting signs, etc. If the volunteers auger well–drilling holes for the posts–we should be finished with all this around 3:00 as has happened in the past.

More people will come in during the day next week to help prepare the grounds with things that had to wait, answer the phones and fill volunteer packets.

Today, however, was spent planning how to best employ the volunteers. I will be going out tomorrow to begin flagging areas that need to have hole drilled, some of which will be done in cooperation with the box office because they have a system devised which makes the traffic flow more efficiently.

A couple years ago, I had to revamp the entire entryway layout in recognition of the post 9/11 environment we were operating in. We were already checking coolers, etc for alcohol because we are a non-alcohol venue. However, doing a more thorough check meant training screeners better as to how they could go about checking belongings. It also meant the process would take longer.

Many people arrive hours before the event so they can be among the first to rush to the stages and set up blankets close up. I essentially designed a large, secure waiting area where people could stand after they had been screened so they weren’t delayed when the mad rush for seating began. Unfortunately, this required moving the box office elsewhere and revising the pedestrian traffic a bit. The eventual result was a much more efficient system than we had before I think.

Another portion of the day was spent creating evaluation sheets for area supervisors. The festival itself requires about 500 volunteers and they handle almost every aspect of the day from security to stage crew to hospitality to garbage pick up. Veterans serve as supervisors of other volunteers and evaluate their performance so we can make decisions next year about who can be promoted or perhaps moved to a sensitive area and who we want to avoid having volunteer next year.

This system has really worked well over the years. When you are working with volunteers, it can be a little problematic when it comes to sensitive areas like security, stage crew and hospitality. People expect professionalism. This is especially true of the performers who certainly don’t want the crew sloppily handling their equipment or the hospitality people asking for their autograph.

One of the ways we have ensured quality is that we don’t openly solicit volunteers for stage crew and hospitality. Getting assigned to the area is by invitation only, either by the area coordinator or the Appel Farm staff.

One big problem that some festivals have that Appel Farm has avoided is the formation of cliques within certain areas. Some places, you have to know someone to get in any area other than parking or trash pick up. The job areas are often run like personal fiefs. Not only do you face expulsion if you anger the hierarchy in the group, but if you are in another area that depends on their help, you might find their assistance evaporates or is slow in coming as punishment for your offense. No matter that is makes the entire organization look shabbily run.

Since all assignments are ultimately processed by the permanent staff who tend to recommend people of their own for these plum positions, there is usually a mix between people who know each other really well from other festivals and people who know each other really well from working on other concerts at Appel Farm.

The vibe of the festival has really always been more about cooperation with each other and enjoying the day than jockeying for better positions. Last year I almost broke down crying with appreciation. It had been raining heavily for 6 hours and people were still showing up for their volunteer shift because they knew it was important for them to be there. I was extremely touched by their dedication to the organization and their promise to be there unconditionally.

As I noted in my last entry, I am back at the site of my last job for the next two weeks helping the woman who currently has the position prepare for the arts and music festival. I have to say it has been a lot of fun. While the living conditions are a bit more primitive than the one I left (I have to cook my meals in the kitche n of another building in which other people actually live), not actually being responsible for the planning and execution of the event is rather novel and enjoyable.

The transition from leader to follower has been less of a problem than I expected. I was afraid I might inadvertently start saying annoying things like “When I did it, my system was…” or “What you should do is…” Granted, I hadn’t done anything like that when I was answering her questions by email the last few months. Email gives you time to edit your method of expression where live conversation does not.

My other fear was that I might have been hired back because the administration felt the woman who followed me in the position wasn’t quite up to par. People have quietly been hired to help out on a temporary basis before. I didn’t want to be placed in a position where I was expected to quietly clean up mistakes and oversights.

Fortunately, she seems to be on top of everything quite well and I really feel no urge to discuss why my process was better. I didn’t really expect I would, but when someone else is doing a job you felt a deep ownership and investment in, there is always a chance you will recoil in horror at how the other person is ruining what you worked so hard to build.

This is not to say I haven’t wondered what the method to the madness was in a couple of instances and felt some concerns were being addressed a little late in the game. It is my first day so I don’t see the whole picture and I really don’t think things are going in the wrong direction.

My first time doing the job I wasn’t as efficient as the subsequent festivals. I see my place as giving advice to help her avoid problems, but not pressing my opinion upon her so that she can make her own decisions. I don’t plan on being here next year so the more problems she can solve herself, the better. If we end up staying awake until 3 am the night before the festival, I will be there carrying out her directions and not muttering I told you so.

Of course some of this confidence may also be due to the fact that the person who was my assistant on the first festival returned from overseas to help out this year and the person who assisted me last year will be coming in a couple days early to help out this year. They were both crackerjack assistants so my presence and advice is hardly needed this year. And I know they will stay up until 3am with us helping get things done.

On the other hand, their return also means all the festival coordinators who were present when it rained on a festival will be in one place. This year will either verify the curse or be sunny and redeem us.

In future entries I will try to focus more on the process of putting a festival together than talking about what a terrific guy I am not to lord my superior knowledge and experience over the person who inherited my mantle. While I am personally pleased with myself because it might have been a different story 10-15 years ago, it isn’t particularlly illuminating or interesting to the reader and even I get tired of talking about myself!

Starting Sunday, I am supposed to go and help set up the Appel Farm Arts and Music Festival for two weeks. Since I won’t have the time or access to all the research materials I do from my home base, I thought I would change format for those two weeks and model my blog after Sam Bergman’s Road Trip blog on Artsjournal.com.

It will be fun reflecting and reminiscing. It will also provide an opportunity for me to explore the viability of using blogs as an exercise to explore the processes and choices that are made, discarded and perhaps revisited as I suggested way back when I started blogging.

Hope you will join me. It should be fun.

I was listening to Fresh Air on NPR yesterday where Bill Moyers was being interviewed. There were a couple comments he made that struck a cord with me. Moyers was a primer mover in the formation of what eventually became the Public Broadcasting System. In discussing public television, he said “the most important thing that we can do is to continue to treat Americans as citizens, not just consumers. If you look out and all you see is an audience of consumers, you want to sell them something. If you look out and see an audience of citizens, you want to share something with them.”

This seems important to remember in these times when cultural organizations are trying to discover ways to serve their audiences better. As much as we adopt the methods and techniques of the for profit in order to address the changing expectations of the population, it will become important to remember that there are a few characteristics that separate the non-profit world from the for, and that is the intent with which we approach audiences.

Moyers also discussed the rise of blogging and likens it to the early days of the US as a nation when the low cost of printing presses provided “ink stained wretches” like Tom Paine with the ability to disseminate their views of the world. He notes the material they printed was very partisan and lacked the objectivity that journalists at least claim to aspire to today. Blogging today, he says, is the closest society has approached to the democratic expression of the nation’s youth.

Speaking of blogging and democratic expression, (since I speak of it so often)I was pleased to see the Artful Manager mention a theatre in Seattle which has provided audiences with the opportunity to blog about the shows they have seen. The first comment apparently came within 40 minutes of the show’s end. Since then there have been some additional entries.

The only disappointing element of the project is that comments are apparently approved of by a gatekeeper on staff. The comments are written by a number of people, but they are listed as being posted by a single person. In fact, in order to comment, you have to email your thoughts to a person whereas with my blog, you can comment on what I have to say immediately.

True, I can eventually delete what you have to say, but I have to find the comment first. This being my 52nd or so entry, that will become more difficult as time goes on. There is also the chance someone will read a critical comment before I remove it and catch me when I delete it. As I have stated before, if an organization is going to invite candor, they have to remove any appearance that they censor it out.

I read a short article in the May 6, 2004 issue of Time about a website that embraced a goal that was similar to the one I have for this blog. Unfortunately, the article is not online to link to.

The article was about an American and New Zealander who have created an e-Parliament website (www.e-parl.net). Their goal is to serve as “a town hall for legislators from around the globe.” They created the e-Parliament to allow lawmakers the ability to common challenges. “[There is] no way for M.P.s to learn among themselves, no Google for politics.” says co-founder William Ury.

They hope to provide members with the ability to address issues more swiftly and effectively by allowing members to search for global colleagues who have already begun developing policy on issues like early childhood education and counterterrorism. According to the article, they are in currently trying to figure out how tools like email, chat software and intranets can be best employed.

This is a project I would like to grow out of my blogging here–collecting feedback and ideas to create a resource for cultural organizations to consult. Nobody is contributing right yet, but I have only been around for a few months. In time, perhaps….

**Unlike most of my other entries which have some thoughts on the implications of situations and suggestions, today’s entry is essentially a discussion of why I remain passionate and involved in the arts.**

An interesting thing happened while I was writing my entry yesterday. I got an email from the place I last worked asking if I was interested in coming back to help with the festival for two weeks.

A little background first-I worked at this place for 3 years handling the operational end of concerts and the large outdoor music festival. A year ago Feb, they found out I had been searching for other work, not for the sake of getting out, but to better my lot in life. After the festival was over in June, I was told that they were afraid I would find a job in the middle of the season and that even with the 30 days notice I was required to give, there wouldn’t be enough time to find a replacement and so..adios.

Rather annoying to say the least. But they did give me 6 weeks notice, didn’t hesitate to pay me for my 4 weeks of unused vacation and didn’t impede my unemployment claims. I left on fairly good terms with a general letter of recommendation and they have been attentive about writing specific letters of recommendation for some positions.

On the other hand, unemployment has run out and their optimistic belief I would be snatched up for another job hasn’t emerged. (And I have applied outside the entertainment industry if I thought my skills were applicable.) Honestly, I feel that I should be angrier than I am. I had saved well, so money isn’t an immediate problem and my sister is allowing me to live with her so that is another problem solved. I just can’t be angry at them for the sake of being angry I suppose. I just wonder if that means I have an evolved outlook on life or if I am delusional and insulating myself from my anger.

Outside of examining the whole psychology of the matter, I have started to think upon the way people become enamored of the arts. Despite knowing the negatives full well, people gladly devote their lives to the arts. Even though they know that they will probably end up waiting tables or temping more than performing and will search couch cushions for food money while friends buy houses, they are full of hope and optimistic about their future.

Now even as someone in the arts, I have pretty much viewed these folks as living in denial and self-delusional. It is to escape that fate that I have eagerly embraced my interest in the administrative side of things. I may not make much, but it is steady so I know where rent and food is coming from and I usually get some basic health benefits.

Yes, my current situation belies all that, but it shall not always be so!

But the thing is, as I am sitting here seriously considering going back to a place that fired me, I have come to a renewed understanding of myself and these folks who flock to NYC and LA with the hopes of making it big. In our own twisted ways that defy logic, we can’t help the fact that we love this stuff.

At some point in the life of every person in the industry, someone speaks the phrase “If there is a part of you that can see yourself doing something else…do it.” I still remember the guy who said it to me. At the time, like most people, I was so young and enthusiastic, I couldn’t imagine myself doing anything else.

Now that I am older, more jaded, disillusioned and cynical, I have to say it is still pretty dang hard to imagine doing anything else. Even worse, I take notes and collect information from everywhere I work and interview at with the ultimate goal of eventually returning to teaching people how to do what I have done. Of course, I am teaching them the right way to do things so they are well prepared! I also utter the phrase warning them to turn elsewhere if they can imagine another path with the sincere hope some of them will.

I don’t want any of them to fail, but am certain most of them will experience some very hard times. I just see it as my duty to try to turn from the path those whose love of the arts can’t stand against a doom and gloom lecture in a classroom. Their love of what they do has to be strong enough to ease the pain of the bad times. It is because of my love for what I do that I am tending toward returning to the festival.

I have a real sense of ownership in that festival. I put a lot of effort into it and the successes of each of them were due to me (the problems were due to the weather). As far as I am concerned, the festival belongs to me and the people who preceded me in the job and to those who follow. Even now that I no longer work there, I feel it belongs to me more than it will ever belong to the rest of the staff regardless of how long they work there.

Yes, it is ego, but it is also true. It is physically and mentally draining, but when you are finally able to lift your head again…ah the satisfaction and sense of accomplishment! It buoys you the rest of the year and helps you to forget what you hate about the process by the time the event comes around again.

Because she is entering the fraternity of festival coordinators, I have actually been corresponding with the woman who replaced me and have given her tips to avoid the problems I faced. I had intended to volunteer for the festival day to provide guidance as the woman who preceded me did for me. The fact they want to pay me to do it and will put me up makes the decision seem all the easier. I will be going in knowing my fate, doing what I enjoy, see old friends on the staff and volunteer corps but won’t have to work or worry as much as I have done for past festivals.

Like a love a mother feels for a recalcitrant child, arts people defy all sense and logic for the opportunity to reconnect with that part of what they do that excites them. In the visual arts, there are pieces that people find incomprehensible and that others pretend to understand. Then there are those who smile quietly and say “ah, yes.”

…To the Arts

Thanks to a link from Adaptistration last week, I had more visitors on the first two days of April than I had all of March. In order to retain the interest of all those who visited last week, I figured I had better start using salacious titles for my entries.

Seriously though, I am glad to see so many people interested in some of the things I have to say. I must say I was surprised to see someone from India has been regularly reading the blog since last month. Welcome to you all.

With all the writing and article citing I have been doing regarding the importance of education and exposure in determining willingness/interest in arts attendance and participation, I thought I would do a little research of my own. I decided to speak with my family about how our upbringing has shaped our view of the arts. The process was decidely unscientific, but I present the results in order to generate some thought on the matter.

I have never really had a conversation about the arts with my family. My sisters and mother have seen me perform and discussed those events with me. My mother has often mentioned the many things she used to do to give us fond memories of our childhood and some of those instances involved the arts. I often discuss my siblings’ and mother’s jobs with them, but I think because so much of what I do is behind the scenes, my jobs may be a bit hard for them to understand. The process proved to be an interesting experience and I have to admit to being surprised by some of the things I learned about my family.

Because this is likely to be long, I will give the general results of my survey today and then talk about the implications and surprises that occurred in the course of my discussions tomorrow.

A little background–I am the eldest of 4 children. Because a gentleman never reveals the age of a woman, I will simply say that I am in my mid-30s and my sisters are in their early 30s. My adopted brother is in his late 20s. A year and nine months separate the elder of the two sisters and I and five years separate me from the younger. My mother and sister #1 are both social workers in schools and have master’s degrees. Sister #2 works for one of the biggest ad agencies in NYC and has a bachelors. I didn’t include my brother in this because his educational disabilities and social development have created some obstacles to his arts education and exposure.

I essentially asked some basic questions-Last attended events, gallery, museum; impetus to attend; current participation in arts; importance of attendance in life; impediments to attendance; would background info available in advance online make them more likely to attend.

Mother

I spoke to my mother about her exposure to the arts as a child. She didn’t go to any events until she reached adulthood, but my grandfather would constantly watch and listen to opera and musicals. She also babysat for our family doctor and had access to his record library of classical music and opera.

In bringing us up, she felt the arts were an important thing to expose us to. In addition to playing recording of musicals (no wonder I could sing everything from Camelot 20 years later), she took us to see modern dance (my sister shouted “Mommy they are naked” when members of the Eric Hawkins dance troupe appeared on stage in body suits), children’s theatre, circuses, historic sites, Chinese acrobats and museums. We didn’t have a lot of money so my parents would save Christmas and birthday money an aunt sent to underwrite these trips. My mother played guitar at church services and played oldies songs at retirement homes and street fairs so our house was often filled with the music of practice sessions.

Today she takes singing lessons and sings with a choral group. She doesn’t attend too many full scale professional productions because of the distance, time and money involved. The last production of this type she attended was an Andrea Bocelli concert because I gave her tickets as a gift. However, she does attend school productions and will go to summer concerts at the bandshell in the park and various town and ethnic festivals in the area.

She said having information about the thought process that went into the development of a production would definitely enhance the experience and might cause her to attend something more often. She actually cited examples of how much better she understood something when she knew the director and felt she could approach them to talk about aspects of the show.

Sister #1
Has recently seen the Blue Man Group, Stomp!, Riverdance and a number of jazz shows and festivals with a (now) ex-boyfriend. The impetus to attend was mixed. Some times it was personal interest, other times it was because people invited her. Some of the jazz shows she went to because there were opportunities for her foster children to interact. She also attends ethnic festivals and summer concert in the park type events because she can bring her dog. As far as arts participation, she has been active in a belly dancing troupe for a number of years and intermittently performs at festivals and on cruise ships.

It is important to her that she is able to attend arts events. She says she was a little concerned when she moved from the NY City area to Tampa that there wouldn’t be enough opportunities to these types of things. She said she goes to the Florida Holocaust Museum and various art museums even though the experience might not be the most comfortable and she may not understand the pieces she is looking at.

She often watches how other people there interact with the displays and will attend with people who have more knowledge and interest than she does so that she emerges a little more educated. The biggest impediment to her attendance is cost. She often looks for coupons or discounted performances and dates.

She feels that having information available about a performance in advance enhances her experience and provides a reason to attend. She stated reading about how the Florida Holocaust Museum was created and about the process of collecting the items, interviews and photographs made her interested in seeing the place. She said that learning about the process gave her insight into the passion of the curators and stresses the importance of keeping such opportunities alive. I gave her a greater appreciation of the organization and the effort that was invested in creating the exhibition.

Sister #2

The last things she saw were all in NYC- Christmas Carol, Beauty and the Beast, Rent, Chicago and De La Guarda The impetus for seeing each of them was mixed-friends and in laws invited her to Christmas Carol and Rent, her husband got tickets for Beauty and the Beast and the others she attended with clients.

She doesn’t feel it is particularly important that she attend shows. She did express an interest in seeing The Lion King and Aida, though she wasn’t sure why in regard to the latter. (Perhaps the Disney/Elton John/Tim Rice connection of the two shows.) She also said she was uncomfortable with any show that broke the 4th wall like De La Guarda or Tony and Tina’s Wedding. She isn’t personally involved in any arts activities, though she was in the chorus for a few high school musicals.

The biggest impediment to her attendance is cost and time. (While she works in NYC, she lives in Central Jersey near Princeton. She formerly lived in Hoboken, NJ) She feels the only place to see shows is in the city. She doubts anyone who sees a show outside of the city (be it a tour, a production at a professional house or community theatre) has really seen the true show. She doesn’t often have the time or energy to attend after work. Returning to NYC on the weekends seems too much of a chore.

She might look up background information for a production in advance online, but hasn’t attempted to do so at this time.

That is about all the information I have collected in my interviews. Tomorrow I will discuss what I see as possible contributors to each person’s views and practices and the information about my own family that surprised me.

Between the length of yesterday’s post and some technical difficulties that necessitated a few rewrites, I didn’t spend much time on the all important task of finding a job. Today will be dedicated to doing more research and mailing resumes.

However, since I am doing so much work telling people about my background so they will give me a job, I figured it wouldn’t be too tough to add some “who am I” information to the site. For those who are interested, a very brief precis of my professional life appears to the right. (For those who know French, I know the entry title isn’t technically correct. I just like the way it rolls of my tongue.)

For those who are wondering how I got into arts administration having started in acting and tech, I offer you this brief and mildly amusing story…

In high school I was BMOC in the school plays and planned to do the same in college. Once I got into college, I was devastated when I wasn’t cast in the first few shows for which I auditioned. I swore then that I would never been involved with theatre again which was an awkward thing given that I had my work study assignment in the theatre department.

One day I got a call asking if I wanted to help hang lights. I said I didn’t know how, they said they would train me and I ended up becoming a resident tech god. Despite the expertise I developed, I knew I couldn’t make a long term go as a technician much less a designer. (I have a hard enough time matching my socks to what I am wearing much less trying to do it for a full production.)

At the time I was writing press releases and running the box office for the theatre department and enjoyed it. I was also helping the department chair, Mark Heckler, coordinate some details of two Association of Theatre In Higher Education conferences since he was VP of Conferences at the Time. (He has since moved on to become Vice Chancellor at Colorado Univ.) I enjoyed the whole organizational process and so with Mark’s support, applied to the Theatre Management program at FSU.

The rest, of course, is history. I think I have a fairly good mind and disposition for arts management so the whole not getting cast episode turned out okay in the end. My hat off to Mark Heckler for putting up with a mixed up young man and guiding me to this path.

So I am back from helping my sister move to Florida. The trip brought back some good and bad memories from the nine years I had lived there. There were a number of topics I mulled over discussing here during the long drive, but I want to do background research on some of them before posting. I am eager to get another post on the blog so here we go…

Legacy of a Concerned Man

As I was driving through Florida, I came across the Lawton Chiles Trail. Chiles, a former governor of Florida, died in 1998, less than a month before he was to turn the office over to Jeb Bush. The trail, however, refers to his efforts during his 1970 Senate campaign. It took him more than 90 days to walk 1,003 miles through his home state. During that time, he filled 8 notebooks “with information on our state’s problems and the feelings of the people.” The feat earned him the senate seat and the moniker “Walkin’ Lawton.” (Full Story)

With a presidential campaign in full swing, it is a story like this that reminds me that there are options for running a powerful positive campaign.

It also brings to mind the fact that there are inexpensive (though extremely labor intensive) options for arts organizations to educate the public about themselves and to be educated by the public about their preferences and interests.

Speaking of Wide Range Exposure…

My trip down Interstate 95 exposed me to one of the most famous (and perhaps annoying) examples of advertising by repetition in the country–the South of the Border billboards. Just in case anyone is wondering, there are 48 billboards between NJ and SC. They may be annoying in their ubiquity, but they do create a buzz.

Demon Horses Unleashed!!!

In recent entries of blogs on Artsjournal.com, two different writers discuss an entry by Greg Sandow regarding how boring press releases were killing classical music. The comments on The Artful Manager and Adaptistration give some suggested solutions.

Andrew Taylor’s comments in Artful Manager had some resonance with my time in Florida this past week:

“Even the alternative — full-color, smiling head shots of the artists to come — doesn’t speak to what audiences are buying: a dynamic, compelling, vital, social performance experience (or a night out, a date, or a family celebration anchored by a live performance).”

While I was in Florida, I saw TV ads for the Budweiser American Invitational, an equestrian show jumping event. Perhaps because it is sponsored by Budweiser or because it is taking place in Raymond James Stadium and they needed to fill a lot of seats, the voice over was in the style of “Sunday!, Sunday!, Sunday! Heavy Stock Street Modifieds compete….” In this case though, the announcer talked about “there being no second chances” and the visuals were heavy on horses jumping, tripping and crumpling into a heap or balking before an obstacle and sending the rider flying head over heels across the obstacle.

Now I have attended and watched some of these events and the catastrophes presented rarely occur at all much less in the same event. I know people go to NASCAR races because there is a danger of someone crashing at high speeds. I wonder at the validity of trying to attract crowds of people to this sort of event by teasing them with the promise of death-defying acts. I am sure some people who never heard of the sport will become intently interested in it. The way it was advertised just strikes me as a bit of a misrepresentation.

Certainly, there is a danger inherent to launching yourself and a large animal over obstacles and it is exciting to watch. However, it is exciting in the way Olympic gymnastics is exciting-you know when a landing isn’t stuck or a hoof strikes a pole, points are going to be deducted. It is a bit more sedate than a day at the races.

I don’t imagine that the same tactic would work for arts marketing. What would one do: present an actor suddenly looking lost as they forget a line; show a violinist scratch out a sour note and throw her bow in disgust, barely missing the conductor; show a ballerina slip the grasp of her partner and skitter across the floor?

With few exceptions, the answer is as Andrew Taylor suggests–portray the event dynamically with an honest promise of the true vitality one will experience. The only thing I would add is to make it look real. It is often a tough thing not to make promotional photo look staged. If you try to photograph something in action, you often miss the moment (especially with the time delay of digital cameras). The same is true if you ask people to freeze in a moment, you either say freeze too late or the performers lose their vital spark as they concentrate on maintaining their balance in a mid-stride freeze holding their faces in rictus.

This is one of the reasons a good photographer gets paid so much. They can capture genuine moments or make the staged ones appear thus.

This is the first new post of this blog in my new location. All past posts have been moved from my old location to this one which I believe will be more serviceable.

The usual statements about beginning your indulgence until I get myself straightened out and designed in a lovely manner apply here.

I thought I would wax philosophical today and take the day off from looking at practical solutions. I was thinking recently of an article I had read so many years ago that stated that of all the performing arts, theatre was the only one a person decided to devote themselves to when they were 18 years old. Dance and classical musical instruments, it pointed out, you had to start on when you were young. Waiting until you are 12 is pretty much too late if you expected to be any good. Children had the luxury of waiting until they were graduating high school to make the decision to pursue drama.

There is a degree of hyperbole that I have attributed, but that was the gist I came away with from the article. Whether it meant toor not, it made me feel like a dilettante for waiting until I received accolades in high school to decide to be a theatre minor in college. (Though I literally was a dilettante since the word is dervived from Italian meaning one who loves the arts) True, there was my earlier starring role in my 8th grade play as Martin the Cobbler, but I felt guilty for thinking I could become a success when all those dancers and violinists had been working since they were four to have a chance at success.

On the other hand, I should have felt guilty for thinking I could become an actor when there were so many people with actual talent who were working hard for a chance at success. At the time I read the article in question, I had a limited comprehension of what it meant to act. Sure, I understood the whole idea of making myself vulnerable, not censoring my impulses and acting rather than indicating, etc. Though I thought I was doing all those things, I see now that I wasn’t.

It wasn’t until I got a bit older and the hormones stopped raging through my brain and I could actually ponder things uninterrupted that I realized an actor couldn’t really start his/her work until they got older. Musicians have to master and integrate themselves with their instrument, dancers must master their bodies. Actors must master and comprehend life.

Certainly, dancers and musicians must do the same to add depth to their performance. For actors though, it is their performance, they have to present a believable version of being a human they are not. For that, you have to actually understand people you are not and empathesize with their existence. This isn’t an easy thing to do when you are young and think the world revolves around you. Some people can’t even get past the self-centric view when they get older.

Now that I am older, I think I could be a better actor than I was even though my acting classes are some distance behind me. I understand people and the human condition so much more. I have always been an avid reader and have read the same book 4-5 times. In some cases I did it because I often saw things anew, but often because the book fired my imagination and provided an escape. In the past 5 years or so though I have gone back and read books I read many times as a teenager and suddenly gained HUGE insights into the subtle things the characters were going through because of my real life experiences.

The question this sort of leads to then is in relation the formal education an actor should have. Given that they have to experience a wide slice of life, is it really valuable to have them concentrate on theatre as an undergraduate major? I have to admit, the head of my undergraduate theatre program believed it was not and only offered a minor in the program. At the time, I didn’t agree with him, (though the first time I wasn’t cast in a show I was ready to swear off theatre altogether), but now I see the wisdom in it.

The idea of whether potential MFA acting students should have a wide liberal arts base majoring in history, English, sociology, etc vs. having received theatre training as an undergrad has been debated often. There is certainly no guarantee that a person who has concentrated on the sociology or literature of cultures and had some theatre training would have better insight than a person who concentrated on theatre and took sociology and English as a lesser focus.

It comes down to whether a broad base of knowledge or prior technical training in acting better serves two people with equal talent when they enter an acting training program.

The same could be applied to managers. Is it better to have studied theatre as an undergrad or English? Certainly, there would be a benefit to have been a business student with a theatre background if you wanted to enter a career in theatre business. They may have to take some additional non-management theatre courses to round themselves out a bit more, but they already understand the elements which affect all businesses, arts related or not. (Though there is also some debate about whether managers are being trained to know enough about their particular discipline.)

The question is then, does a person who got a BA in something besides theatre belong in a serious management training program? I say serious program because I have seen arts administration programs where the faculty essentially admitted they mainly served primary and secondary school art teachers looking to boost their pay by getting a MA in Administration. Certainly the people getting the degrees were being trained to be administrators, but because the majority didn’t intend to become managers themselves, there was less of a concern on the part of the professors and students alike to guarantee that the graduates had the skills not to plunge an organization into bankruptcy.

So have English majors received the training that can be built upon by an arts administration program? Is a theatre minor enough training on the art side so that the student can concentrate on attaining business skills?

One comment I have heard of late is that undergraduate writing skills are atrocious and that this is the first area a management program has to concentrate on improving. Marketing, public relations and development offices owe their success to expressing themselves well.

Unfortunately, being an English major doesn’t guarantee this skill these days, though you might expect otherwise. I must confess that as an English major, I might have possessed substandard skills myself had I not been pursuing teaching certification in addition to a theatre minor. (Though I am sure stream of consciousness blogging might belie my claim that my skills are not substandard.)

The answer to all this is probably, as one might imagine, that you can’t generalize and have to assess each student as they present themselves. I was an English major with theatre and education minors. It wouldn’t have served my graduate program or me very well had they adopted strict guidelines as to the undergraduate degree type I received as a condition of admission.

Before I went into grad school, I had a fair bit of marketing, front of house, acting and technical background from undergrad training and had worked on an American College Theatre Festival and two Association of Theatre in Higher Education conferences. I had also done lighting and carpentry in summer stock and been on the house crew for a presenting house.

I probably had a fair understanding of the issues facing theatres before I entered my training program. Certainly, I got exposed to some pretty extreme on the job training on these issues before I had earned my degree. (The theatre I interned at was a week or less away from closing its doors the entire time I was there.)

So there you have it. My musings on artist training and a little bit more about my background!

I have been finalizing my preparations for my visit to Wayne State and my flight on Sunday. Besides packing clothes and the like, I have also been making photocopies, practicing the delivery of my class presentations and trying to anticipate the type of questions all the people I meet with will ask.

As before, the process has brought a number of new ideas to mind to consider and explore. Unfortunately, I can’t prepare for my trip effectively and related them all here as well. I probably won’t be able to update the blog again until Wednesday. However, it would be very interesting to be able to continue this experiment and actually make entries reflecting on my experience while I am still in Detroit. I will have to see if I can get web access somewhere.

I have spent the day preparing for my interview at Wayne State next week. The process reminded me of a For Better or For Worse comic strip where the daughter, Elizabeth, is filling out an application form and realized how much she has accomplished in her life. I spent most of yesterday and all of today reviewing old papers and things I had done during my last university teaching experience. In the process, I discovered the reactions to the Chris Lavin article on covering the arts like sports that I was seeking a couple days ago.

I found I had forgotten many of the things I had accomplished and was honestly surprised I had actually thought up the things I did. I also realized that if I had forgotten so much, how much more had my former employers, now references forgotten of the dazzling things I had done? It goes without saying that they never appreciated my full genius as I had, but how much of the things they had appreciated have they forgotten as well?

Of course, I have had instances when people have said my references said I was given glowing recommendations so perhaps my references did remember…or they were fond enough of me to make up extravagant lies.

Most of the work I did today was in preparation for a class on theatre management I will be teaching. My only worry is that it is 2 hours first thing in the morning on the first day I am there. I will probably leave me brain dead for the rest of the interview.

It was very interesting preparing for the class. I had quite a bit of material ready to present from my prior teaching experience. But I have done a lot of reading and rethinking of my ideas since then so it was rather exciting to be able to integrate ideas I just formulated earlier this week into a presentation I will deliver next week. It will be interesting to see how my theories stand the scrutiny of the faculty and students.

I am very happy today having received a call to interview for at the Wayne State University Dept of Theatre. The position is the Director of Theatre Management, Marketing and Public Relations. Obviously I am pleased at the prospect since this is a direction in which my passions lay.

I won’t be able to blog as completely as I have since I will be gathering materials and information for presentations during my interview. I had taught Theatre Management at the University of Central Florida as a visiting professor so I have a fair bit of old information to sort through as well as some of the new ideas that I have been distilling from recent reading and blogging.

On the other hand, the whole process will get me thinking even more than I am and should yield some interesting blog subjects. I will probably use this opportunity experiment and write a little bit everyday about my process as I suggested yesterday that production staff and actors do while preparing for a show. Over all, the interview experience is a chance to talk to people about something that really excites me so it promises to be a lot of fun overall.

Unfortunately, the process of preparation will also means that I will have to suspend my search for a different blogging service provider. I am not quite pleased with the design and updating options I have available here and am considering moving somewhere else. But, that will have to wait until next week.

One last thing–when I wrote yesterday about the potential for embarassing things to appear on any blog an arts organization sponsored, I didn’t realize how timely the comment was. When I wrote my comments to the Artful Manager blog I tried to have a degree of professionalism, but did engage in some side commentary to add some humor. When the text of my email appeared on the Arts Journal letters section, I was surprised and also honored that it was regarded to be interesting enough to be placed there. I hadn’t intended it for consumption by a wider audience and had I known it would appear there, would have been more polished in my writing.

Then I read my letter again and had an “eek!” moment. I had forgotten one of my little comic comments referred to me picking up veneral disease pamphlets in the doctor’s office for the illustrations. I had to groan thinking about how many people in the arts community, including prospective employers were reading that.

Still, blogs are becoming a tool for the success of businesses these days according to a recent Business 2.0 article. The rules and etiquette of their use still need to be established.

The title of the blog is no mystery to most arts people. The periennial effort of most arts organizations is to get butts in the seats–people attending your event.

As mentioned in the “what’s this all about section,” I am an out of work theatre management person seeking to keep his skills relevant, etc. (Though I certainly plan to continue with this project once I become gainfully employed again.) I do a lot of reading already and visit http://www.artsjournal.com/ regularly to keep up on the state of the arts all over the country and world. I avidly read many of the blogs there, including Terry Teachout’s About Last Night and Andrew Taylor’s The Artful Manager.

It is actually Mr. Taylor’s writings that inspired me, in part, to start this blog. I really enjoy a great deal of what I read in his blog and give it a lot of thought. A good deal of what he mentions is theoretical about how things should be done and how concepts that weren’t necessarily created in regard to the arts have implications for the arts.

It all fires my imagination and I try to figure out how I might apply these things in any of the arts organizations I have worked at or may work at in time. Honestly, my first impulse is to email Mr. Taylor and run my thoughts by him. However, he has an Arts Adminstration Program to run and I am sure it wouldn’t be long before he started taking out restraining orders.

So thanks to my internet provider, I remain in Mr. Taylor’s good graces and have an outlet for my thoughts. My real aim is to get some well considered feedback from other folks out there. Some things I will mention in the course of the blog, others I will place in another section as a practical resource of ideas that worked (or didn’t work, but might work for someone else).

My thought is that most arts managers are often too busy thinking about keeping the organization and budget afloat that they don’t have a lot of time to individually do strategic thinking about the future of the organization. When they do recognize that there is a need for change, they often don’t have the luxury of time to think about new approaches and instead fall back on slight variations of what they have done before.

By providing a place where the contributions of many arts managers may be listed and easily accessed, I hope to simulate a sort of communal strategic thinking that will enable people to make a wider variety of choices. If you have a day open to generate new solutions, this may be a place to come find options you may never have devised in a day so that you can spend that day assessing your choices. The danger is that it will become a place to find a quick fix to a problem in order to free up that hypothetical day to deal with other things instead of utilizing it as resource of options due long contemplation and consideration.

As of this writing, that section is empty and these fears and hopes premature. I hope to add some content shortly. If anyone has some ideas, stories to share, or feedback on what you see here, I would like to hear from you at buttsintheseats@mindspring.com