I had a wonderful experience today in the Art world. Unfortunately it was not in the Classical Music business. Rather it was the Theater that provided me with some insights, and I’m left wondering (again) why we are stuck doing things in classical music that make absolute no sense to our public. Again……..Wednesday found us at the world famous Guthrie Theater in downtown Minneapolis. Among regional theaters the Guthrie has an international reputation which is justly deserved. The best of the best show up, year after year, and headline some of the best theater you will see anywhere. They also bring in touring productions – we’ve seen the Royal Shakespeare Company do their thing there. Tremendous fun.
Now, when I say “we” I mean my wife, myself, and our children. On a Wednesday afternoon. We were on a “Play Date” as they call it. The parents attend a matinee production of…… whatever…… and the children get entertained learning all sorts of things about acting, play writing, and whatever play their parents are seeing. I had heard that this was a fun program and so I signed us up to try it out.
The play Jen and I were scheduled to see was Shadowlands which is about the life of C.S. Lewis. We took the kids out of school around noon and schlepped downtown. The experience couldn’t have been easier: we show up, there are if anything too many very happy-faced ushers there to make sure we got to the right place. The kids are segregated by age group upstairs in the education rooms. There were volunteers and staff everywhere to make sure the kids were well-adjusted. Jen and I went downstairs to enjoy the play.
Shadowlands is terrific, by the way. If you get a chance to see a good production of it don’t miss it. 2 1/2 hours later we were upstairs picking up our kids and very curious as to their reaction was going to be. We needn’t have been worried. Before we were out the door of the education rooms they were asking if we could do another Play Date. That would be two big thumbs up.
What made this experience different? Why is this possible in the Theater world and not the Music world? There’s one obvious point that comes to mind – theaters are rep houses. Shadowlands opened on 7 November and closes on 21 December. They’ve got Mondays off but there are some doubles on the weekends. If you’ve worked in the theater business you know that at some point the run becomes routine. You don’t have to spend a lot of energy creating a new show every week. You have one cast, one play, same sets, etc., all in a smallish venue. In music, though, we have different music every week (sometimes twice a week) with the same cast, and so we have to create a new show every weekend. And, yikes, we play in houses that average 2,000 folks, though many of our colleagues play in some real barns of 2,800 or more. What’s the lesson? Perhaps we should play more repeats in smaller venues.
What else can we learn? Here was a performance in the middle of the afternoon on a Wednesday. The theatre wasn’t packed but it was pretty full. I found out later that it was the first time they had offered Play Dates mid-week. They usually happen on Saturday and the capacity for kids sells out months in advance. On 8 Saturdays during the year parents can get some culture while knowing that their kids will be both educated and entertained with their own cultural experience. What’s the lesson? Every orchestra in this hemisphere would kill to fill up with young professionals aged 28-45. It’s like the TV 18-35 male demographic. But here’s the newsflash – we all have CHILDREN!!! To arrange for a babysitter is just a colossal pain in the ass. It is so much easier to know that your kids can come with you, be on site, and really enjoy themselves. It’s a perfect family outing in the middle of the afternoon. It’s early enough in the day so that you’re not already exhausted, you don’t have to worry about dealing with the babysitter, it’s a packaged outing. THERE IS NO DOWNSIDE!!! Wouldn’t it make sense to do something like that in our business?
There are probably other upsides I’m not thinking about, but there is something else that was immediately obvious – everyone working at the Guthrie that day really enjoyed what they were doing. From the ushers to the ticket takers to the cast to the education folks – they were all enthusiastic and having a ball. They believe in Theater and that rubs off on those of us who were attending. What’s the lesson? My favorite comments from audience members in music run along the lines of: “I wish the people on stage looked like they were enjoying themselves.” People, look, I’m sorry if I’m going to offend anyone here, but we play music for a living. Do you realize how lucky we are? I know this business can be a huge pain in the ass but really – would you rather be working 9-5 and sitting behind a computer 40 hours a day? Day after day? Week after week? Month after month? Year after…………. C’mon, be honest……….
I know of an orchestra that offered a free, musically oriented “creche” for concert-goers’ children at its midweek morning concerts for a couple of seasons. It was much-admired, considered very forward thinkings (it was late 90s, early oughts) and fairly popular with the audience. But I believe it was discontinued because it was felt that its primary users were members of the orchestra.
Bill
River Oaks which is on my recommends list does exactly that kind of a program with one twist. The have the children in the hall to listen to the first work and after they are recognized from the stage, the go off to do their program…awesome!
Ron
That’s a fabulous idea Ron. We’re looking into doing something like that @ the ESO and perhaps that would be part of it.
I have often wondered why classical music is so different from the theatre world. I started in theatre, and now find myself as a composer wonder why cities want creative new plays at their local Rep, but old stuffy music at the symphony down the street (or across the hall in some cities)….
That, or I’ll switch teams and write a play about a dashingly handsome new music composer…
That’s a really interesting idea for audience development. Here in the UK there’s actually quite a lot of community arts provision for children, but linking it in to getting their parents in to attend the show too is inspired. It’s certainly a commented-on factor of British musical life that you see much more active engagement in children and older people than young adults to the middle aged.
Was there any problem about taking the children out of school for the afternoon – British schools can be really quite sniffy about that (there’s a tendency to put the curriculum ahead of actual learning, if you see what I mean!).