however, one thing that seemed to be out of my control was which chapter quartets would appear on the show. My philosophy for this show was "if customers are paying to see a good show, then we shouldn't give them crap." many of our chapter quartets are not good enough in my own opinion to be in this show. So when it was discovered that not all chapter quartets were included, I got a good chunk of chorus members absolutely furious at me. Here are a few comments made to to me, among MANY, from those who were quite angry at me...
"we should include all our quartets! it's the barbershop way!"
"It's quite rude to not include quartets that have been great ambassadors to this chapter."
"You have absolutely no right to say whether or not a quartet can be included in a show or not. That is NOT your decision to make!"
After this huge fuss was made, a committee was formed behind my back to decide what we need to do about the decision I made to only invite certain chapter quartets to be on the show. I told them my philosophy and the entire committee thought this was a wrong way to go about deciding what quartets should be on the show. So, the decision was made without my approval, to invite all chapter quartets to be on the show but limit them to only one song.
I was very disappointed and angry with this. I felt I was being under minded to death. not only that but many complaints were made about the script and demands for a rewrite were made known. I had presented the show idea to the chorus months in advance, and told them exactly what was going to happen and what the theme was to be, and I heard no complaints. and when I finished the script 3 weeks before the show and e-mailed it to the chorus discussion group, I had about half the chorus angry and concerned with the script. And with 3 weeks o go, I had to do a 50% revamping of the script in order to please the chorus. What made it worse was how many ride comments I got about the script.
So needless to say, with the quartet situation and the rapid rewriting of the script I had to do, it was clear to me the the control I had on the show was limited. But what made me very happy were the comments that the audience members left on their comment cards after leaving the show. Here just just a few samples, pay close attention to the bold faced comments....
Parking unsatisfactory-Run a shuttle
Handicap accessibility is lacking
Do show somewhere else
Move to accessible place (The first 8 comments came from the drawing cards)
Show too long
Chapter quartets were not good. please raise standards for future shows.
Lose the puppets
Have music playing before the show
Great Show
First half show quartets need more rehearsing or perhaps need to qualify to sing
Puppets were a disaster
Customers on same side of auditorium as puppets could not see a good portion of stage
Guest quartet should have spent more time singing, less time talking
Show great, but way too long
Some quartets not good enough to sing on show-set standards higher
Ticket prices are expensive for a family-should be $10-$12, kids should be much less
Kids liked the puppets
Jimmy did a great job-Lots of good comments about the puppets
Show was way too long
A quartet or two is not up to par-have higher standards to sing on show. Have criteria and stick to it
Arrange to have some youth group sing with us or for us on every show. Give free tickets to parents and friends of youth. (so long as we are not selling out the house)
Give couple of free tickets to big advertisers
Please qualify quartets to sing on the show. Most of the chapter quartets were not good enough to be on the stage.
Kids loved the glasses-nose-mustache
Be better organized at Saturday Rehearsal-Too much wasted time
Pleased to see narration between songs rather than just "concert" style performance
Good box lunch-Good food at afterglow
Please have quartets qualify to sing onr show, it was very evident that some are not good enough to be singing on a PAID show!
Four people in loge, which blocks view of balcony guests sitting behind them
Auditorium not good for handicapped people. They need to get there earlier before main crowd so they don't have to step over people to get to their seats. Ticket sellers need to indicate to Greg that the customer has a physical problem
Paradigm, Jurassic Larks and Storm front were the only good quartets on the show. please raise the standards for chapter quartets!
Chapter quartets need to qualify to be on show. If they dont meet qualifications, don't put them on the show.
Need to have professional ushers or at least have 6 more volunteers than we had
Second half of show much superior to first half
Would prefer concert style rather than so much talking in between, especially when the talk is not funny.
Have scripting between songs for chorus members, but it should be available 6-8 Weeks ahead of time
Doesn't the chorus have better chapter quartets to sing on your show?
Nice to have afterglow at Hoyt Sherman
Consider matinee, as it could certainly be marketed to retirement centers.
Move tables to end of hallway, as small lobby is very congested
if you espect people to keep coming back to your shows, you need to have good chapter quartets singing.
Tag singing in lobby was very enjoyable, as some guests joined in
Storm Front should sing more and talk less
Need more help with risers, both at show and at rehearsals. Same guys do it all the time
Great to have afterglow at Hoyt Sherman
We Need higher standards for chapter quartets that appear on our show (comment left by chorus member)
Show was way too long
Put drawing card info as part of regular program and have customer tear it out. Then we won't have stuffers failing out of program
Storm Front should have sung more and talked less. Their last number at afterglow was awesome.
Better dialog and jokes for puppets
Afterglow being held at Hoyt Sherman was perfect
These comments were read aloud to the chorus during our chapter meeting the week after the show. Many people on the board were in agreement with the comments that we need to have higher standards for quartets to appear on the show. The board is currently talking about making sure that quartet qualifications for every chapter quartet that wishes to appear on future shows be made in order to make our shows worth seeing! And I personally hope it shed some light on the chorus that when you put on a show, you don't do it to make yourselves happy, you don't it to please the audience...since they are the ones paying to see the show in the first place!
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