BEHIND THE SPOTLIGHT

The response to our workshop of The Golden Ticket last weekend has been incredibly positive. Interestingly, both before and after the workshop, there has been a lot of discussion as to whether or not workshops should be open to the public. I strongly believe that inviting the public in to see pieces in development is a crucial part of the process.  

As composers and librettists (not to mention producers and directors) are working on a piece, we all become very close to the work at hand.  Regardless of how objective we strive to be, there is incredible value at being able to look at an opera being developed with a completely fresh perspective, and simply put, that is impossible when you are part of that process.  Most opera companies develop new works behind closed doors.  I understand why they do this.  The last thing anyone wants is for a new opera to be prematurely ‘judged’ or evaluated. Other companies invite select guests to their workshops. Again, I understand the protective rationale; however, I believe that by only inviting ’select’ guests, a company is effectively stacking the deck and not getting a representative sample of the public that is ultimately going to be the audience for the piece.  Feedback from opera ‘experts’ is valuable, but equally valuable is feedback from our intended audience. 

This is not to say that ALT is the only company that opens the workshop process to the public, but we are in the minority. The development process should not be a mystery.  It can take a LONG TIME to develop a new piece.  Let’s acknowledge that, and honor that. Too often, operas are rushed to the stage well before they are ready.  While I’m not going to cite any specific examples, I’m sure we can all think of pieces that could really have benefited from further development and ‘audience testing’ so to speak.  A new movie or television show would NEVER be launched without extensive consumer testing. Plays and musicals are increasingly being put through a more extensive workshop and audience testing process.  For Broadway Musicals, this is what out of town tryouts are all about.  In opera, we don’t have the money for ‘tryouts’, and generally, operas are more complicated musical documents in which it is not easy to pull out one song that doesn’t work and replace it with another.  If we want to properly revise works in progress, we need to give our writers sufficient time to really address the issues at hand.  Hence, ALT feels that the workshop process is absolutely essential if we are to provide opera writers with the best environment in which to develop their work.

At our workshop of The Golden Ticket last weekend, we had an audience of 150 people.  While we had our entire design and production team in attendance from Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, as well as representatives from other opera companies considering co-producing the world premiere, the majority of those in the audience were not directly connected to the piece. We created an online audience survey that was distributed via email to that segment of the audience in which we asked a wide variety of questions.  We start off with basic information about their attendance habits for both opera and musical theater; their age; and their previous knowledge of the book and both film versions of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. We then ask them about how they felt when they heard about an opera based on this famous story, and how - if at all - those feelings changed after hearing the reading. This information is very valuable from a marketing perspective.  Then we dive in deeper.  Were they able to follow the storytelling? Were there parts where they didn’t understand what was going on?  If so, where did this happen? What did they really like? What didn’t they like?  And finally, we simply open the floor to any comments they might have about the piece.

Scary? Not really if you think of a couple of things.  First of all, we are not developing new operas for ourselves - we are developing new operas for AUDIENCES.  Yes, we care what they think.  Are we going to respond to every issue raised in an audience survey? No. But, we are going to look for areas where there is a strong consensus among audience members. Sometimes, those issues are already apparent to all of us working on the project. More useful, of course, is when the majority of the audience has a strong feeling about something in a piece that we had not previously thought to address. Ultimately, the composer and librettist - working with the producer and director - need to stay true to their vision of the piece. But, we really do urge the writers to consider audience perception, and to consider how that perception can be used by them to improve their own vision for the piece.

So that, in short, is why we open our doors to the public!  Without the public, there is no reason to write new operas. Being defensive about what we are creating - or scared of public opinion - is not only going to hurt the work at hand, but ultimately will have a negative impact on the art form. Opera needs audiences.  Let’s take time to listen to them whenever we can. They may not always be ‘right’ to us, but they are always ‘right’ to themselves, and they are the ones who are going to buy the tickets or stay home!

If you weren’t at our workshop this weekend, I’ll be posting short clips to give you a sample of The Golden Ticket. We had two cameras recording the workshop - mostly for archival purposes and so that The Golden Ticket team could listen to the piece repeatedly. But, I do want to share some highlights with you!  Today, a scene from Act I, where Augustus Gloop and Violet Beauregarde are interviewed by Candy Mallow - a TV talk show host - just after they have found their Golden Tickets.   

Timothy Redmond conducts Andrew Drost (Augustus), Kiera Duffy (Violet), and Elise Quagliata (Candy). Brian DeMaris, piano.

More video soon!