United Ukrainian Ballet at Kennedy Center, February 1-5, 2023

[Mashinka]

49 minutes ago, volcanohunter said:

But I refer back to old programs surprisingly frequently, and I'll be damned if I can find the digital programs of shows I saw a year ago.

My pet hate at the moment is the lack of cast sheets at ROH.  They are handed out free in Paris and you pay 50 cents at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin with a similar fee in Zurich,  Even ENB has free cast sheets.  There is so much wrong at the ROH, the fact the practice goes on elsewhere doesn't make it right.

[maps]

On 2/4/2023 at 8:51 AM, maps said:

Our first impression, which lasted throughout the performance, was the magic woven by  casting Iriyna Zhalovska and Denys Nedak.  Giselle is sold out for Sun matinee and approaching sell out for all weekend shows.   The WaPo is not ceasing ballet coverage so  assume it was decided not to do a story on this program.  New York City Ballet premiere by Thai American dancemaker is milestone - The Washington Post 

 

 

 

Same casting magic with Shevshenko and Tiutiunnyk. This lovely video was posted yesterday morning and I assume filmed Wed eve.  Instagram pic is the ale cask:

https://www.facebook.com/KennedyCenter/videos/3516241138658229/

Ratmansky Giselle- no point where a viewer would logically question who is primary in the emotional queue for the leads based on casting or choreography.   Marvelous shows and we hope the KC programs this company for the 2023-24 season.  

As a venue, the KC did not do dynamic pricing on this run despite at or approaching sell-out.  It changed scheduling on programmed runs with 7 shows- T-Sun, 5 eve and 2 matinees W-Sun with a matinee added on Friday.  The KC went digital on the large posters outside with a slow rotation.  Cast lists could be on digital screens in the lobby. There were printed programs for Sunset Boulevard which played concurrently in the smaller Eisenhower Theatre.  

Late seating is problematical.  The KC sells full house unlike the Koch. Hold back no impact seats for late arrivals?  If needed based on sales, release the seats and use standing room and lobby feeds.  Opera House is the only KC venue with standing room. 

 

Edited February 7, 2023 by maps

[lmspear]

21 minutes ago, maps said:

There were printed programs for Sunset Boulevard which played concurrently in the smaller Eisenhower Theatre.  

The Actors Equity contract requires printed programs at this time, no matter which theater is hosting the performance.

23 minutes ago, maps said:

Opera House is the only KC venue with standing room. 

The Eisenhower has about 10 standing room spaces behind the orchestra.  The are only offered when the seats have all been sold. Just like in the Opera House.

[YouOverThere]

2 hours ago, lmspear said:

The Eisenhower has about 10 standing room spaces behind the orchestra.  The are only offered when the seats have all been sold. Just like in the Opera House.

My impression is that the KC no longer sells standing room tickets, a change in policy that began when the current president (of the KC, not of the USA) took over.

[lmspear]

Standing room is only offered for sale if every seat in the house is sold.  I've never seen it used during a dance performance of any sort in the Eisenhower, but I have seen it used for musicals and comedians.  The Concert Hall and the smaller spaces have no standing room.

 

[Helene]

Almost every printed program in the US that I've gotten for ballet or opera has been advertising-based and free.  Sometimes the cast lists are printed and attached into the central section of the programs (around the staples) and sometimes there are separate stand-alone sheets.  Sometimes there are dedicated lists by performance, and sometimes all of the casts are listed, with the dates showing who is dancing/singing which performance, which is also true for most touring companies*, where the presenter arranges for the programs, usually by everything for the month.  The only time I've seen only Principals listed, but the rest of the cast displayed in the venue -- in this case, written on a stand-alone easel -- was for Houston Ballet's The Nutcracker, sometime in the 00's or teens.  I remember trying to scribble down the names in time during intermission, and then having trouble reading some of my handwriting.

*Edited to add:  But it's really frustrating when they have a list of dancers in the program or on a lobby white board, ie, Odette {Ballerina 1), (Ballerina 2), {Ballerina 3), etc., but no list of who is dancing which performance, argh.

Starting from the '70's, I attended performances Europe where you had to pay a nominal (coin) fee for the printed cast sheet, while in other places, notably L'opera Bastille in Paris, the cast sheet was printed on a small-ish slip and was free.  You could buy the booklet for a larger fee.  I don't have the few I bought anymore to see whether those booklets were subsidized by advertising.  

There are companies that do archive their casts and/or programs online, and they can be printed out/saved, even with a screenshot, but all three I know about are opera companies: Seattle Opera and San Francisco Opera have searchable archives on their sites and digital versions of the cast list pages by opera+run, and Met Opera has the substantial Met Opera Database that, unfortunately, hasn't been updated since the cyber attack. 

NYCB doesn't have as many performances as Met Opera to track (or for as many years), and the opera and ballet numbers are similar enough in Seattle and San Francisco.

[volcanohunter]

2 hours ago, Helene said:

I don't have the few I bought anymore to see whether those booklets were subsidized by advertising.  

Booklets at the Royal Opera House, Paris Opera, La Scala and others include advertising, some more than others, invariably of the upscale variety, usually on the front pages of the booklet and sometimes the back cover. Some, like the Bolshoi included ads only from the theater's sponsors, so it looked more like an acknowledgement than anything else. (I'm guessing these are a lot less multinational than they used to be.)

I love the cast sheets at La Scala because they look just like the theater's characteristic beigey-yellow posters, printed on cardstock, with an ad on the back, of course.

[canbelto]

My review of two casts for bachtrack: https://bachtrack.com/22/296/view/24253

[volcanohunter]

 Continuing on the subject of playbills, an article on whether to print or not to print, including the disconnect between accessing a digital program and being asked to turn phones off, and how the heck to autograph them.

https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/stage/2023/04/23/whats-in-a-page-to-print-theatre-programs-or-deliver-them-digitally-that-is-the-question.html

[Mashinka]

The practice started during lockdown and the Rome Opera weren't handing out cast sheets either in 2021, but their is no excuse now.

[volcanohunter]

On 2/6/2023 at 1:33 PM, Helene said:

There are companies that do archive their casts and/or programs online, and they can be printed out/saved, even with a screenshot, but all three I know about are opera companies

Out of curiosity, I looked at a program from about a year ago from the National Ballet of Canada. The printed version had a general list of which dancers were cast in which roles, but specific casting for each performance was accessible by a QR code. That link is now dead.