Post by chrisgrady on Jan 16, 2009 9:18:39 GMT
What tiny things can enhance the enjoyment of the audience at a live theatre event...
Apologies for not writing this one up for the pack, but it felt that this might be best as a running list, because we only touched the surface on Sunday with two of us tackling ideas.
This is also on the D&D Forum, but I was instructed by a master of web magic, that I ought to enter it here...so here goes...
Here's a couple:
Touch the Audience....
A supermarket did a survey on customer satisfaction by interviewing two queues as they passed through two checkouts. Custmers through checkout A were ok about the store, Customers through checkout B were very positive about the whole experience, and had clearly had a better time shopping. Why so different ? Well checkout person B had been asked to make sure she touched the hand of each customer when either giving change or a reciept. Human contact made everyone in the line feel they had had a better shopping experience. An idea for us all in some way.
I know of one colleague who always shakes hands whenever he meets anyone - friend or new acquintance. He is respected across everyone I know as a really personable welcoming and very special person to work with. I just wonder whether that impression is heightened (without taking anything away from his actual skill) by the fact that he connects physically with every human he comes into contact with.
Another story from the short gathering was
Mr & Mrs Knot...
This fictional couple had had a pretty hideous time getting to the theatre. Late babysitter, delayed in traffic, kids unruly, no parking space, they were knotted up inside by the time they got to the entrance to the foyer of this particular theatre. This couple were then used as an ongoing exercise for all FOH staff. The challenge was for the FOH person to consider each and every customer might be Mr or Mrs Knot and to see how they could welcome them so that by the time they reached their seat they were unknotted and really ready to be entertained, enlightened or transported into theatre magic.
The other piece of training offered to this FOH team was to remember that, in a small or large group of theatregoers there was probably one person responsible for buying the tickets (and maybe actually making the decision to visit the event). A lot of responsibility rested on their shoulders, and the rest of the group probably also turned to him/her to know what time the show started, ended, where to get a programme, where the bar was etc etc etc. So this FOH team were trained to try to spot this initiator of the visit, and try to give them some extra special attention so that they DID know where the loos were, they DID know how to get to the bar, etc. Ongoing training to make a whole group of people more comfortable and ready to enjoy the evening.
A final discussion we had before heading off to the other gatherings on issues, was to consider the effect of interval and welcome bells and announcements. We varied in our perception of whether they made people tense, annoyed, comfortable, and we agreed we should think about this carefully from case to case.
We agreed that there was less and less communal activity nowadays, and so we had to be even more considered when inviting and welcoming people to an event where they will spend a few hours together in a shared activity. We want them to be suitably ready for the actors/theatre makers to weave their spell. Do we want them on edge, excited, aware, relaxed, laughing, slightly oiled, set-up in some way. Do we want to start that experience before they enter the main performance event space.
We also agreed that there was need for time to consider what happened immediately the curtain had fallen (or whatever signalled the end of the main event). How do we wind the audience down, help them have space to chat about the event, maybe a chance to learn a little more, in fact anything which will help them go away and relish the experience offered at the centre of the whole experience.
Please use this to add your own Tiny Things.... Thanks for an extraordinary weekend.
Chris
Apologies for not writing this one up for the pack, but it felt that this might be best as a running list, because we only touched the surface on Sunday with two of us tackling ideas.
This is also on the D&D Forum, but I was instructed by a master of web magic, that I ought to enter it here...so here goes...
Here's a couple:
Touch the Audience....
A supermarket did a survey on customer satisfaction by interviewing two queues as they passed through two checkouts. Custmers through checkout A were ok about the store, Customers through checkout B were very positive about the whole experience, and had clearly had a better time shopping. Why so different ? Well checkout person B had been asked to make sure she touched the hand of each customer when either giving change or a reciept. Human contact made everyone in the line feel they had had a better shopping experience. An idea for us all in some way.
I know of one colleague who always shakes hands whenever he meets anyone - friend or new acquintance. He is respected across everyone I know as a really personable welcoming and very special person to work with. I just wonder whether that impression is heightened (without taking anything away from his actual skill) by the fact that he connects physically with every human he comes into contact with.
Another story from the short gathering was
Mr & Mrs Knot...
This fictional couple had had a pretty hideous time getting to the theatre. Late babysitter, delayed in traffic, kids unruly, no parking space, they were knotted up inside by the time they got to the entrance to the foyer of this particular theatre. This couple were then used as an ongoing exercise for all FOH staff. The challenge was for the FOH person to consider each and every customer might be Mr or Mrs Knot and to see how they could welcome them so that by the time they reached their seat they were unknotted and really ready to be entertained, enlightened or transported into theatre magic.
The other piece of training offered to this FOH team was to remember that, in a small or large group of theatregoers there was probably one person responsible for buying the tickets (and maybe actually making the decision to visit the event). A lot of responsibility rested on their shoulders, and the rest of the group probably also turned to him/her to know what time the show started, ended, where to get a programme, where the bar was etc etc etc. So this FOH team were trained to try to spot this initiator of the visit, and try to give them some extra special attention so that they DID know where the loos were, they DID know how to get to the bar, etc. Ongoing training to make a whole group of people more comfortable and ready to enjoy the evening.
A final discussion we had before heading off to the other gatherings on issues, was to consider the effect of interval and welcome bells and announcements. We varied in our perception of whether they made people tense, annoyed, comfortable, and we agreed we should think about this carefully from case to case.
We agreed that there was less and less communal activity nowadays, and so we had to be even more considered when inviting and welcoming people to an event where they will spend a few hours together in a shared activity. We want them to be suitably ready for the actors/theatre makers to weave their spell. Do we want them on edge, excited, aware, relaxed, laughing, slightly oiled, set-up in some way. Do we want to start that experience before they enter the main performance event space.
We also agreed that there was need for time to consider what happened immediately the curtain had fallen (or whatever signalled the end of the main event). How do we wind the audience down, help them have space to chat about the event, maybe a chance to learn a little more, in fact anything which will help them go away and relish the experience offered at the centre of the whole experience.
Please use this to add your own Tiny Things.... Thanks for an extraordinary weekend.
Chris