My Audience Connection class attended the Springfield Symphony concert on Oct 18, a Big Band themed Pops concert. They were not there to review the concert, but to review the audience! The audience response was tremendous, as was the review in the paper. The students however did an internal eavesdrop poll with interesting results. Our discussion is in three parts below as well as some audio from the concert. I highly recommend every performing arts group do this kind of review!: (podcast 15 and 16 will be up Monday)
Rants&Raves
The Scourge
I’m here in beautiful Berkeley, Ca. I’ve been having a good time hanging out with the various riff-raff, assorted hippies, left-wing nuts, college students (remember those days?), the record stores (remember those days?), the head shops (remem…… ok, never mind), and of course the Berkeley Symphony. But one thing has raised its ugly head and I must denounce it. The Scourge has returned……
The Brady Effect!……
I saw Wayne Brady’s (of Who’s Line is it Anyway fame) show in Vegas this past May. He is one of the most talented people on the planet! What was most impactful to me was the pre-show, a video of Wayne explaining the audience rules for the show. It was hilarious, involving tranquilizer darts and karate moves, very creative and completely disarming. I challenged my class to look for examples online of organization’s audience etiquette policies…discussion below:
Apathetique – The class challenges me!
On Wednesday we discussed the strikes at Shreveport and Wisconsin. My students read the articles and my post and it seems that there is a divide amongst them. There is nothing like lively debate especially amongst future arts administrators who might have to deal with big issues in difficult time such as these! The clips are below….
Mirror Mirror in the Hall……
Please…call me Beloved Maestro. I think both words are something earned not something claimed. It’s an amazing arrogance to suggest to your audience that they feel this way, I mean what if they don’t or don’t quite….
A response to Bill! – Part 2
We wrap up the discussion on Bill’s post 100 degrees and climbing (If you are having trouble playing the clip you can link to it here. The sound will get better in future clips!):
A response to Bill! – part 1
As promised we discussed Bill’s post 100 degrees and climbing in my Audience Connection class last Wednesday, and here is part 1 of the discussion:
Authenticity
So watching the giant infomercials i.e the DNC and RNC conventions, I’m looking for any signs of authenticity, something real and inspiring, not so much who to vote for but who to hope for. With the RNC I sat squirming and surprisingly I found myself being bothered by something even more than the rhetoric….