Last Saturday night, self mentioned that Washington University's Ovations series at the Edison Theatre was in its last hurrah, as this performing arts series terminates in April 2015, this being its 42nd season. Having partaken of the performance by Arabesque last Saturday night, 3CM is back there for more this evening, in a manner of speaking, for this event. In principle, one would expect this event to sell well, if not sell out, certainly compared to last Saturday night's event. However, the fact that last Saturday night's event had far from a full house is more due to the community than the quality of the performance or the ensemble. More, after a fashion, below the flip....
Regarding last Saturday night's performance by Arabesque, an apparently abridged version of their dance piece "The Mist", the most obvious reason to speculate why the house was not even half-full is precisely because they are unfamiliar to US audiences, as this was their first set of appearances in the USA (so pretty good for STL there). In principle, one would expect the Vietnamese community to show an interest. However, Ovations executive director Charlie Robin commented in the post-performance chat about an unanticipated reason for the lack of response from said community. Apparently, the older generation who got out of Vietnam to escape the Communist regime has the mindset that any sort of touring ensemble from Vietnam must have government support, and thus they want to avoid anything from Vietnam with that taint like the plague. However, if you look at the opening sentence of the Ovations blurb, you will read about Arabesque (emphasis mine):
"Arabesque, the very first private neo-classical and contemporary dance company in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam....."
The advertising pointed out from the start that Arabesque is a private arts organization, not a government-funded ensemble. Yet that old perception from the older generation was evidently a stumbling block here. In fairness, Robin said that the Vietnamese community did not actively boycott, as such, the appearance of Arabesque. Yet there were very, very few Vietnamese faces that I saw in the crowd. Maybe things were different at the Friday night performance, or the crowd was larger. I hope it was, because the dancers are excellent, even if I didn't really get all the cultural references embedded in the movement and the staging. The audience even got wooden dowel-like instruments, two strung together, which allowed for audience participation in the most crowd-pleasing and high-spirited part of the show, with a lot of STOMP-like percussive action from the group. But they were smart enough to dial down the temperature to close out the work, but then gave another high-energy 'audience participation' encore like that one section to send everyone out happy.
One worry at the start was that the program notes said that the work would run about 53 minutes, with no intermission. So the ticket value seemed a bit steep for such a short time duration show. However, the running time went more like 60 or so minutes, and the post-show chat ran maybe another 20. In the end, it turned out to be worthwhile in all senses. So this was a splendid, and in terms of financial risk, remarkably brave move to bring this ensemble to STL for its US debut. St. Louis didn't really know what it was missing, even with this article from Calvin Wilson in the Post-Dispatch in advance. But you'll notice that it had no comments, FB recommends, re-Tweets, or Google recommendations. STL didn't know what it missed, but if they don't know then, they won't care now, will they? (Kind of like forgetting to vote in the mid-terms next week, where I don't expect enough Presidential year Democratic voters to show up and stop the Repuke juggernaut.)
The story should be very different tonight, because unlike Arabesque, Ira Glass and his show This American Life are most definitely known quantities, and have been for a long time. Wilson has another preview article about this show here, where unlike the last article, this one at least has 16 FB recommends and 2 re-Tweets. The local NPR station also had an on-air feature with Robin here, which (finally) puts a bit of information out there as to why Wash. U. decided to pull the plug, like:
'After this season, Washington University has no plans to present Ovations-type fare. Its stated reasons for ending Ovations include “the desire to prioritize student and faculty performances; the increase, in recent years, of other local venues providing similar programming; and cost savings.
Robin doesn’t agree that other venues are offering enough such programming.'
From my own perspective, Robin is actually correct, to a point. To qualify a bit what I wrote last week, one other university, Lindenwood University in St. Charles, does have
its own performing arts series, which has indeed ramped up its offerings in recent years with the construction of their new performing arts venue, so my apologies to Lindenwood there. The catch is that it's way out in St. Charles, quite a hike away from the city, or its immediate suburbs. Self confesses that he hasn't been to an event there yet, because nothing has been of interest, besides the long drive. And to recap what I did write last week, UMSL's series at the Touhill Performing Arts Center hasn't really ramped up its offerings of visiting acts. So Wash. U.'s explanation about other venues providing similar programming doesn't hold up, IMHO.
However, what is a sadly more confirmable state of affairs comes in the next bit in the KWMU article:
"But Ovations attendance is down since 2008, by about 10 percent. That’s consistent with a national trend. The Americans for the Arts’ 2013 National Arts Index (page 65) shows that a national performing arts audience fell from 86 million in 2003 to 77 million in 2011.
At The Edison, the decline has resulted in programming cuts. The number of acts is not fewer but there are 10-to-15 percent fewer performances. Subscription sales are down and the theater has ramped up its efforts for single-ticket sales. People are buying more tickets at the last minute, especially for dance performances, but those sales are influenced by other factors, such as bad weather."
If you remember the protest video from the St. Louis Symphony performance of Brahms'
A German Requiem 3 weeks back, among the comments away from the obvious politics surrounding the Michael Brown shooting, in terms of the symphony itself, sharp-eyed observers noted the swaths of empty seats in Powell Hall. That unfortunately is pretty much standard now at STL Symphony concerts now, and fits the excerpt just quoted above.
In principle, I would expect the audience picture to be much better than last weekend. I won't know until I get there, of course. In a little less than 2 weeks, they'll be featuring the Reduced Shakespeare Company, for one night only, which I again I would expect to do very well. I won't be at that one, though, because of a schedule conflict. Even if this is the final season for Ovations, one hopes that more people show up just for that reason, even if it is too little, too late, as noted last week. For tonight, unlike last week, where there was no intermission for a break to provide a report on the crowd, there may be time for a real-time posting on tonight's event (if anyone cares).
With that, time for the usual SNLC protocol, namely your loser stories of the week.....