By

A useful path to that coherence we talked about yesterday is by trying this exercise.

Start with your mission.  At my day job the mission is "To discover the power of classic theatre".

That's Step 1. 

Step 2 is adding the word by.

So now we have "To discover the power of classic theatre by (fill in the blank)"

Now start filling in the blank.  Again, an example:

To disover the power of classic theatre by:  producing high quality productions of classic texts

Ok, that's a start . . . but a lot of people do that, so we need more.

By:  having indepth post show discussion that help our audience become more familiar/comfortable with the work.

By:  bringing classic theatre to the schools through our education program

That's better.  Or at least it is a start.

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So what does that exercise get us.  Two things:

1.  What your work is all about (your purpose)

2.  How you achieve your purpose (the by)

You can explain that to people, they can understand it.  That's coherence.

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If you remember nothing else you get on this blog, remember this:

It is difficult for people to support that which they do not understand.

You can fault people for this, or you can accept it.

If you want people to support your art, in an abundant, cluttered, world they are probably going to need a bit more from you then just "good art."

They need coherence.  They need to understand.

Providing that coherence is part of your job.

 

 

Comments

[Director]

Totally unrelated (but you mentioned it), I've never really liked post-show discussions, unless it was talking about more industry-related things than that specific show. If I just saw your production of Othello, and I didn't get it, why would I stick around for a "post-show discussion"? The time to educate an audience on what a show is about is before the performance, not after.

To me, a post-show discussion should be more like a behind-the-scenes featurette on a DVD. Interviews with the artists who created it, topics related to the show (say, a post-show discussion on RENT may include Jonathan Larson's life, AIDS, gay marriage, etc).

Anyway, just wanted to throw that out. I've never been interested in a "let's talk about the show you just saw because we want you to get it" discussion.

[Adam]

From my admittedly narrow experience, the audiences at my day job enjoy the post show discussions because it allows them to ask questions about both plot points and artistic choices in the work.

Plus, after a particularly challenging work, sometimes they like the opportunity to "decompress" a bit and the post show discussions help that along.

[Scott Walters]

Let me suggest a third step: How will we know if we've achieved it? (i.e., assessment). And I think the answer should have something to do with people outside the organization.