Rep 4 cancelled -- state prohibition on large group gatherings

[sandik]

Here is the gist of the press release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT FOR PUBLICATION: PNB Box Office, 206.441.2424 or PNB.org

 

Pacific Northwest Ballet announces cancellation of performances at McCaw Hall.

 

ONE THOUSAND PIECES

March 13 – 22, 2020

 

Beauty and the Beast

March 15 – 22

 

SEATTLE, WA, 3/11/20 – In light of Washington Governor Jay Inslee’s press conference regarding health and safety efforts around the COVID-19 pandemic, Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Artistic Director Peter Boal and Executive Director Ellen Walker have announced that the organization is cancelling its upcoming performances of ONE THOUSAND PIECES, and Beauty and the Beast. Ticket holders will receive an email today about their cancelled performances. Due to high demands on our staff, we are hoping that ticket holders will review that email before reaching out to the box office.

 

(Following earlier guidelines by Seattle Public Schools regarding outside activities, PNB previously cancelled the March 21 Discover Dance Community Performance, featuring students from Daniel Bagley Elementary, Eastgate Elementary, Graham Hill Elementary, Thurgood Marshall Elementary, REACH Student Dance Group, and PNB company dancers.)

 

“PNB’s audience is of paramount importance to us: having watched these exquisite programs take shape over the past several weeks, cancelling these performances is heartbreaking, but an understandable mandate,” said Mr. Boal and Ms. Walker. “Non-profit organizations like PNB have no contingency budgets in the case of civil emergencies like this one; our resources overwhelmingly go to producing work on stage, and the impact of these cancellations will be devastating. We are hopeful that many of our devoted subscribers and ticket buyers realize what effect this situation has on everyone at PNB – dancers, musicians, artisans, staff, students and faculty – and will consider donating the cost of their tickets as a gift for which we will issue a tax receipt.

 

"Additionally, as a small consolation, our wonderful dancer, musician, stage, and other unions, as well as the choreographers and designers, have agreed to let the dress rehearsals of these programs be streamed online for our ticket buyers. We hope the audiences who were looking forward to attending the performances at McCaw Hall can find some joy and comfort in being able to watch these lovely performances from home. More details will be forwarded to subscribers and ticket-buyers about this special online opportunity in the coming days.

 

“We are more committed than ever to bringing great art back to our stage as soon as possible. We are so thankful for your patronage and understanding, and we look forward to seeing you back at the ballet soon."

 

The PNB School (with locations in Seattle and Bellevue) remains open at this time, however we expect broad announcements about public school district closures shortly, and those decisions will affect the operation of our school. PNB will continue to update its response to COVID-19 on its website at PNB.org/Health.

 

#   #   #

 

Everything is subject to change. For further information, please visit PNB.org.

 

PACIFIC NORTHWEST BALLET

301 Mercer Street

Seattle, WA 98109

206.441.2424

www.PNB.org

[Helene]

Ticket buyers were sent an email to the order email on file.  We were given the option of exchange or donation.  There's a link in the email to a form on their website to make the request.  If you have your subscriber ID and/or order number available, the field is optional, but I'm sure it would be helpful to PNB as they attempt to process thousands of submissions.

[Drew]

Under the (difficult) circumstances, I think the offer of the streaming dress-rehearsal is a very nice gesture...

[seattle_dancer]

The message from Ellen Walker and Peter Boal is really well written.  I hope people will consider donating their tickets.  And major kudos to PNB for working with the unions and artists to be able to stream the dress rehearsals! Those viewings are definitely worth donating a ticket, or two, or three.

Let’s pray the ban will be lifted in time for the Giselle run.

[pherank]

Ugh. I'm glad they're doing the sensible thing and streaming rehearsals. There's money to be made from online streaming too!

[Helene]

I misunderstood and thought they were streaming the dress rehearsal that normally would have taken place last night, but this is from today's Crosscut Arts and Culture email:

Quote

Walker is thankful to be able to offer ticket holders for One Thousand Pieces a video of the dress rehearsal of the show (ticket holders will receive an email with a link on Monday).

 

[pherank]

On 3/13/2020 at 12:27 PM, Helene said:

I misunderstood and thought they were streaming the dress rehearsal that normally would have taken place last night, but this is from today's Crosscut Arts and Culture email:

"Walker is thankful to be able to offer ticket holders for One Thousand Pieces a video of the dress rehearsal of the show (ticket holders will receive an email with a link on Monday)."

I think SFB is doing the same thing: only Midsummer Night's Dream ticket holders will get to see the video of the opening night performance. I think that's a real missed opportunity though. I hope PNB and SFB eventually figure out how to offer these videos to the public and generate some income.

Edited March 16, 2020 by pherank

[California]

5 minutes ago, pherank said:

I think SFB is doing the same thing: only Midsummer Night's Dream ticket holders will get to see the video of the opening night performance. I think that's areal missed opportunity though. I hope PNB and SFB eventually figure out how to offer these videos to the public and generate some income.

I have to wonder if the rights these companies get from the copyright owners of the ballets include limits on distribution on video and especially distribution for revenue. Perhaps they'll include that in future contract negotiations.

 

Edited March 13, 2020 by California

[Helene]

I hope so, too.  I was thinking listening to a streamed Seattle Symphony concert yesterday that I would pay for a fully online subscription with or without an audience.  Even with basic video camera work, I would subscribe or pay-per-view for ballet, too, but I would still go to every program live, like I do now.

[pherank]

1 minute ago, California said:

I have to wonder if the rights these companies get from the copyright owners of the ballets include limits on further distribution and especially distribution for revenue. Perhaps they'll include that in future contract negotiations.

 

The contracts do generally cover such things. It's just time to move on and start thinking in terms of digital distribution as a primary way of getting product to the masses and making it a major revenue stream for these companies.

[Helene]

Met Opera has a big vault of Live in HD's, which they make available in their subscription service, and they are airing one each night from March 16-March 22:

https://www.metopera.org/about/press-releases/met-to-launch-nightly-met-opera-streams-a-free-series-of-encore-live-in-hd-presentations-streamed-on-the-company-website-during-the-coronavirus-closure/

I don't know if they had to jump through contractual hoops, or this was already built into the last Orchestra and Chorus contracts; HD's started over a decade ago.  Of course, these are top-quality videos, with great camera work and editing, not archival videos, like many ballet companies have taken.

[sandik]

On 3/13/2020 at 1:43 PM, pherank said:

I think SFB is doing the same thing: only Midsummer Night's Dream ticket holders will get to see the video of the opening night performance. I think that's areal missed opportunity though. I hope PNB and SFB eventually figure out how to offer these videos to the public and generate some income.

I don't know how much income they'll be able to generate from this, at least at the beginning, but it's an excellent way to reach a larger audience.  Being a lemonade from lemons kind of person, I'm hoping that this will give arts organizations a nudge to think more creatively about the technology.

[sf_herminator]

On 3/13/2020 at 1:43 PM, pherank said:

I think SFB is doing the same thing: only Midsummer Night's Dream ticket holders will get to see the video of the opening night performance. I think that's areal missed opportunity though. I hope PNB and SFB eventually figure out how to offer these videos to the public and generate some income.

It appears to be a performance with the Saturday night cast, which was to include Sasha De Sola as Titania.  It's not specified in the SFB IG post, but Sasha De Sola & Benjamin Freemantle posted on their IG accounts.  Other dancers posted on IG stories, but alas unable to link to the posts.  I have not yet received any email how this can be accessed for ticket holders but will provide info when available.  I'll also check the SFB board for more info (haven't been on BA for a few days....)

 

 

Edited March 16, 2020 by sf_herminator

[Helene]

PNB sent out the link today to the One Thousand Pieces program dress rehearsal for ticket holders,  good for online viewing until Sunday, March 22 at 2pm PDT, unless people abuse it, and then they reserve the right to shut it down.  Knowing that there would be a lot of hits right away, they've asked people to consider trying to stream later, so please use only as directed .