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.