SimBallet2: SimGala!

[Leigh Witchel]

Congratulations!

The director of one of the most worthy charities in your town, Save The Widgets, is a balletomane and she approaches you to do a fundraising gala. In doing so, she mentions, "We've got to make money on this, so it needs to be something that will sell tickets. But for my sake and yours, can we do something where afterwards I can hold my head high and you can sleep at night guilt-free?"

So you've got your assignment. Balance artistic quality with the need to sell tickets and provide a celebratory atmosphere. It is a gala and we're saving the widgets, after all.

What's on your program? What ballets, what dancers would you invite?

[Mme. Hermine]

money is NO object?

[Alexandra]

Nope. We can charge through the nose -- this is a gala for Rich Widget Lovers

But, dear Mme. Hermine, you've fallen into The Trap. Now that you've asked a question, you are obligated, under Rule 555(v) to answer the question and post your Gala.

[dirac]

Well, a lot would depend on the town, wouldn't you say?

If money's no object, "Vienna Waltzes."

[Leigh Witchel]

Money is no object . . .IF and only IF you can turn a profit. Spend a million if you wish, but you had better take in two million in ticket sales, then.

[Alexandra]

dirac, only "Vienna Waltzes" That's pretty short for a whole evening. What else would you have? And who'd be in it?

[Mme. Hermine]

could i have a festival instead of a gala?

[Giannina]

Ah, yes; August is just a week away.

Giannina

[Old Fashioned]

Include Stravinsky Violin Concerto and Tzigane to Vienna Waltzes. Since I am not able to see NYCB dancers of today on a regular basis, I wouldn't know which dancers should be cast in them. From what I have seen, I enjoy watching Wendy Whelan, Maria Kowroski, Peter Boal, Helene Alexopoulos (can you have retired dancers?!), Albert Evans and Jock Soto. And maybe some dancers from my part of town- Lauren Anderson and Carlos Acosta (well, he's not here now, anyway) or Dominic Walsh. They could do an excerpt from Stevenson's Cinderella.

[Mme. Hermine]

okay, so i'm going to have a widget festival. there has to be some sort of tie in with what's on stage. (aside from people dressed as widgets handing out programs, which i don't see).

i want 3 weeks for this festival. i want the last week to be for the presentation of new choreography, the second week for 20th century choreography and the first for 19th century choreography. in the new choreography part, i want at some point before that, to poll audience members at the theatre about what choreographer they would like a new work from, choose, say, eight of them. six would create shorter ballets and two would be asked to create an evening length ballet, one with a story and one without, with complete discretion on their part as to music, costumes, etc. that's two programs of short ballets and two evening-length. two performances each of the short programs and two each of the evening-lengths. as i'm going to completely leave it up to the audience i won't even specify what countrie(s) they should come from, it'll be sort of an all-star game of ballet.

then the 20th century. since we've given the audience complete discretion over the new choreography, what i'll do is make up a panel of dancers from each of the ten largest companies in the united states and ask them to vote on 20th century choreography. we'll put up a web site and then ask people, in somewhat the same way, to vote on a short list of the ballets those people have chosen, and do two performances each of six short ballets and two each of two evening-length ballets, like the third week. we might even have them vote on what their favorite decor for different ballets is (like karinska's midsummer versus the pnb one or something like that) so we can have a clue as to either where to rent them or see if mrs. gotrocks can fund a new production. of course if we end up with a brand new production of a ballet we could have some sort of contest about where it eventually ends up. i'll leave it to someone else to work out the details.

for the 19th century i will ask an eminent panel of critics to choose two ballets by petipa and two by bournonville, with two performances of each. there will be one critic each from every country that has a national company (or one or more like city ballet or abt). i want all of these to be evening-length, although they don't have to be stories, or even allegories.

now casting.....

[Mme. Hermine]

oh, you want this to MAKE money!

[Leigh Witchel]

Um, yeah

We've got widgets to save, you know!

[felursus]

Well, if your widget-lovers ALSO like opera, and given that money is NO object, I would do Liebeslieder Walzer and recruit (maybe they, too love widgets), Pavarotti (or Domingo), Hvorostovsky, and whoever may be the latest and hottest soprano and mezzo. That should pack 'em in. Just to up the ballet ante a bit, one could have international casting in the dancing roles - so one could have one's dream (eg) Russian ballerina paired with ones dream (eg.) Danish man....etc. Oh - and Kissen and another pianist of choice....just to please all the music but not necessarily ballet lovers out there.

For marketing strategy, I would make stuffed, cute, toy widgets - the gala audience would get them. Then afterwards, one could also sell them together with the "Save the Widgets" CD of the "Liebeslieder Walzer".

The other pieces on the program could also feature famous soloists from the music world. Hmmmm - perhaps a new piece choreographed to something by a pop artist - say, Sting, who is known to have a fondness for Widgets and who might well be persuaded to make an appearance.

I hope our town has a venue big enough........;)