Melbourne Festival summary 2016 updated after War and Peace

Melbourne Festival summary 2016 updated after "War and Peace" 

The 2016 Melbourne Festival was the 31st festival and we have attended everyone.  We saw fifteen shows and this is updated after seeing "War and Peace" on October 30th 2016.

I provide my summary and feedback:

Buying tickets:

I purchased tickets the Recital Hall Melbourne immediately following the Melbourne Festival launch. Thank you to the ticketing manager who assisted one of the staff with our purchases.

More ticket sellers are needed at the 2017 launch.  I always buy our tickets on the first day of Melbourne Festival tickets going on sale.  This year was the easiest in years as the staff were more prepared than previous years with their knowledge of events, genres and locations.

I thanked the staff who assisted me with purchasing our tickets.

Brochure:

We obtained the Melbourne Festival brochure at the launch.  Delivery of our mail brochures was about five days later.  We gave any extra brochures to friends and highlighted possible suggestions that may interest them.

Festival Planner:  I did not like pages 94 and 95 of the brochure at first because events were categorised via each show or genre in previous brochures.

I have now changed my mind and preferred this layout as it was easier to see if you were duplicating dates or shows.  The font is still  too small and the Festival Planner needs to be over two pages in order to be able to read it clearly.

Please include the dates for the next two years' Melbourne Festival in the brochures as was done in earlier publications.

I rang on October 26th to check if the 2017 dates on the Melbourne Festival website were incorrect as it stated "Sun 25th October 2017".  Sophia was grateful for me pointing out the "typo" as the festival concludes on Sunday 22nd October 2017.

This may seem pedantic but when I have local, interstate, and overseas guests organising their travel plans in advance the accuracy of the dates is important.

Venue announcements:

I am not impressed with the inconsistent pre-show announcements made at each venue.  "Off" with a phone is off.  If they choose to say "please turn phones to silent" then include "This means no texting during the show" as stated at the New York City Centre Theater.  I am sick of attending theatre and people rudely texting or taking photographs during a show.  The ushers need to be more vigilant.

Mobile phone etiquette and usher training:

This needs to be addressed urgently as this destroyed and interfered with our enjoyment of shows. The lights from the screen, texting, phone calls, recording are distracting not only for us but other patrons as well.

Statistics:  Six shows had major mobile phone or technology distractions or interference.

Three shows had moderate mobile phone or technology distractions or interference.

Three shows had some mobile phone or technology distractions or interference.

Six shows had no mobile phone or technology distractions or interference.

A woman in A Row stalls made a phone call as the lights went down and the MSO began playing. Iota walked on stage and sang a verse before this woman concluded her phone call.  Her female friend took photos with her camera held high.  Patrons were in absolute shock, as was Iota!

I am tired of trying to ask people to turn off their devices!

The David Bowie tribute at Hamer Hall was the only show where the staff tried to be vigilant in stopping phones and cameras.  The following day I rang to thank the Front of House Manager and congratulate his staff on trying to stop the distractions.

"War and Peace" had no mobile phone incidents, though about six people walked out.

Starting times:

In 31 years of attending the Melbourne Festival, and seeing many shows each year, there is only one show that we have attended that has started on time.  Interestingly it was driven by technology and time.  The only show to begin on time was "Since I Suppose." in 2014.

In the 2016 festival 5/15 shows started within three to five minutes of the scheduled time.

I understand the issues with the Front of House ensuring the foyer's are clear etc.  I sincerely congratulate the efforts of the staff in starting these shows within a reasonable time.

There are many reasons why starting on time is important.  One is not educating patrons that the venue will wait for them to wander in.  For some patrons they need to time their toilet visits for longer shows that have no interval.

The 2016 Melbourne Festival had the most shows that started within five minutes of the scheduled time in the festival's 31 year history.

An aside:

The timing of the Melbourne Festival is the perfect "SEGUE" for Melbourne as it slots neatly between the AFL Grand Final and the Melbourne Cup.  One press announcement regarding Halloween described this time period as the "SOFT SPOT" between these Melbourne events.

I urge the Melbourne Festival board and management to maximise the leverage of this "SEGUE".or "SOFT SPOT" in their future promotions.

Festive atmosphere:

The festival did not seem to have an atmosphere on the streets of Melbourne.  Sadly we missed the
"Les Tabours De Feu" and still have not seen one of the decorated trams.

I think that not having the Festival Hub was a sad loss.  We kept asking ourselves "where were is the new hub?"

Page 69 of the brochure and the "Festival Lates" should have been promoted more in emails etc.

My Favourite show:

Only one previous Melbourne Festival has come close to the consistent quality of programmes on offer. Therefore, I am pleased to announce that I had numerous favourite shows at the 2016 Melbourne Festival.

"887", "The Echo of the Shadow", and "The Money" were my favourite three shows.  The other eight (yes eight favourites) were split marginally due to audience interference etc.

Three shows received a 9/10
Two shows received an 8.5/10
Five shows received an 8/10
One show received a 7/10

Two shows received a 6/10

One show received a 2/10.

My score for 14 shows as follows: This equates to a score of 105.5/140 =75.36% satisfaction.

If I take away the lower three shows there is a score of 91.5 out of 110 = 83.19% satisfaction.

After seeing "War and Peace" the new statistics are as follows:

Three shows received a 9/10
Two shows received an 8.5/10
Six shows received an 8/10
One show received a 7/10

Two shows received a 6/10

One show received a 2/10.

My score for 15 shows: This equates to a score of 113.5/150 =75.66% satisfaction.

If I take away the lower three shows there is a score of 99.5/120 = 82.92% satisfaction.

Note that these scores do not justify the enjoyment of the festival.

If mobile phones and technology were not distracting then my satisfaction would be higher.

Communication:

I was so impressed with the communication from "Since I Suppose" before the event in 2014. They also built my curiosity and interest.  They organised a Question and Answer session on Tuesday 28th October 2014.  This event was wonderful to be able to celebrate such a unique event, meet with the cast and crew, and also to give closure to a very good Melbourne Festival.

Sadly the email notice for "The Echo of the Shadows" Q&A was sent on the day of the event. The following was received at 12.42pm on October 22nd 2017:

"We wish to invite you to share your experiences at a free discussion at ACMI 7PM tonight—Saturday 22 October—with Director Enrique Vargas and the cast from Teatro de los Sentidos, hosted by our Artistic Director Jonathan Holloway."

Suggestions:

The communication and emails for "The Money" differed to the website.  We did not know about the "Live Streaming" as this was not in the brochure or in the reminder email.

Some people knew about the live streams and took advantage of this during the show and used this to manipulate the result (which we understand is part of the process).

Plus we did not give our permission for our images to be used on the Facebook page of Kaleider.

The communication needs to be consistent.  Plus release forms or consent needs to be given by audience members if they are to filmed and then shown on Facebook etc.

Possible commission:

Maybe you could have "Piracy Pirates" who pop up and make announcements prior to shows to educate the audiences that sms, texts, use of iPADs and tablets, making and receiving phone calls, blocking the stage and the screen (by lifting recording equipment high) are unacceptable behaviours.

Congratulations and thank you:

Congratulations to the Melbourne Festival Board, Jonathon Holloway and his staff on presenting either the best Melbourne Festival we have attended in 31 years.

The 2016 Melbourne Festival provided such a consistently high standard of events.


Overall the 2016 Melbourne Festival gets a mean average of  7.6./10.  This is an excellent score considering that three events really brought that score down.

2016 will be soaring in my heart and memory for many years to come as this was a sublime festival.

Melbourne Festival summary 29th October 2014

Melbourne Festival summary 29th October 2014

The 2014  Melbourne Festival was the 29th and I provide my summary:

Buying tickets:

I was in Chicago with my partner in late July 2014 when trying to buy tickets this year.  I always buy our tickets on the first day of Melbourne Festival tickets going on sale.  This year it was more difficult than ever, partially due to the lack of an international direct phone on their website from the day ticket sales opened.  This apparently changed after I provided the Melbourne Festival with feedback.

I must thank the staff who did assist me with the tickets and the emails.

With my experience in project management and particularly projects that re-occur annually, like the Melbourne Festival,  they need to evaluate more rigorously and improve upon their systems.  Do not go backwards and delete information from the website or the booklet.

Brochure:

When we arrived home the Melbourne Festival brochure had been delivered.  There was no mention of an international booking phone number as in previous years.  For example please refer to page 74 of the 2013 Melbourne Festival brochure that clearly outlines under "Booking Information" there is a sub heading "By Telephone" that states "Call Ticketmaster on 136 100 or from outside Australia +613 8623 2139.

When we arrived home I tried four times to buy tickets for "Since I Suppose."  We finally bought them, thankfully.

They should include all venues on the maps, as does the Melbourne Fringe Festival brochure that uses more than one map.

I provided feedback to the Melbourne Festival regarding "Early Works" by Trisha Brown Dance Company and was not impressed that the brochure did not state there was no seating, nor that we could photograph or record the event, nor was there an announcement stating such at the Meat Market.  They made a minor alteration to the website after my feedback.

Venue announcements:

I am not impressed with the inconsistent pre-show announcements at each venue.  "Off" with a phone is off.  If they choose to say "please turn phones to silent" then include "This means no texting during the show" as stated at the New York City Centre Theater.  I am sick of attending theatre and having people rudely texting or taking photographs during a show.  The ushers need to be more vigilant.

In 28 years of attending the Melbourne Festival, and seeing many shows each year, there is only one show that we have attended that has started on time.  Interestingly it was driven by technology and time.  The only show to begin on time was "Since I Suppose."

An aside:

The timing of the Melbourne Festival was perfect as I was able to show my friend around Melbourne.  I had worked with her on an Australian tour in 1978/79.  As a former circus and aerialist performer and at 78 year old, former circus performer from the USA, I was conscious of her interests and short amount of time.  Sadly she was unable to see any shows and it was lovely to be able to introduce her to the Golden Mirror Carousel and the Vault Exhibition.  She was so thrilled with the circus theme within the festival and left her with such fond memories upon returning to Melbourne.

My Favourite show:

My favourite shows this year was "Since I Suppose" by One step at a time like this.  This show should have gotten 9/10 but did not due to the difficulty in buying tickets.  Ironically I was in Chicago for ten days when they were probably rehearsing in Chicago.

I was so impressed with the communication from "Since I Suppose" before the event.  This built my curiosity and interest.  They had a Question and Answer session on Tuesday 28th October that was wonderful to be able to celebrate such a unique event, meet with the cast and crew, and also to give closure to a very good Melbourne Festival.

Congratulations to Josephine Ridge and her team.

Overall the 2014 Melbourne Festival gets a mean average of 7.2/10.  This is a good score that had a consistent standard and we only saw two shows that brought this score down.

Since I Suppose, Arts House, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Thursday 16th October 2014

Since I Suppose, Arts House, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, one step at a time like this, Richard Jordon Productions Ltd and Melbourne Festival, Thursday 16th October 2014

For those new to my blog I write about the holistic experience of attending the theatre.

I tried to book these tickets while I was in Chicago in late July 2014 to no avail.  I was told to wait until I got home in order to do so as bookings were via Arts House and the time delay was an issue as I kept being put on hold.

I managed to book all of my other Melbourne Festival tickets whilst in Chicago.  It was not as easy as previous years as they did not have a dedicated international line like in previous years.  Maybe they fixed this up after I provided them with feedback.

I wrote to the Chicago Shakespeare Theater telling them how eager I was that they were coming to my home city. Being in Chicago at the time I had to go past their theatre at Navy Pier and savour the moment - knowing they would be coming to Melbourne.  They were showing the cut-down children's version of "Seussical: The Musical" playing at the time.  I had seen the full version and did not want to see the condensed version.

This Melbourne Festival brochure describes this production as "stolen tale from Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure"."

There are aspects to building excitement around a production with marketing and publicity.  I love the description in the brochure and the subsequent follow-up emails.  Not one, but at least two emails to ensure that you knew that the starting location is the Melbourne Grand Hyatt's Russell St entrance and the finishing location is in North Melbourne.  Another email outlined some important information about the event and offering a short synopsis of "Measure for Measure" and a link to print a programme in either PDF or Word format.

Wow am I impressed!

But there is more....

There was a follow up phone call by Lexia from Arts House on the morning of October 16th making sure that we had received the email and watched the video to prepare us for this exciting event.  What a build up.  No wonder this event is sold out.

"Since I Suppose" is presented by the Melbourne Festival , one step at a time like this, Arts House, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, and Richard Jordon Productions Ltd.  We attended the 6.20pm performance on Thursday 16th October 2014. Performances run every 25 minutes.

In fifty years of attending the theatre "Since I Suppose" is in my top ten theatrical experiences.  I was lucky enough to be able to tell some people at the end that I rated it as memorable as the original Peter Brook's "Conference of the Birds" at the old HSV Tele-theatre in Fitzroy in the early 1980s.

Sadly I cannot tell too much about what happens during "Since I Suppose"  as it would spoil it for others.  But I will be documenting my full experience for historical theatre records.

Upon arrival a the  Melbourne Grand Hyatt  we went up to a desk thinking it was to do with the show, when in fact it was a trio of woman from the Jehovah's Witness God's Kingdom conference celebrating 100 years (1914 -2014). 

How ironic that in the space of five minutes we had one of the greatest designers of fashion who highlights the sexuality of men and women, Jean Paul Gaultier and his entourage wander through.  They were on their way to the National Gallery of Victoria for the opening of an exhibition of his work -"The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From Sidewalk to Catwalk."  Soon to wander through the foyer was the androgynous model, Andre Pejic to model both in his men's and women's wear range has just had gender alignment surgery to become a woman and now as Andreja Pejic  These happenings are so relevant to the sexual themes of the show.  What a prologue.  You could not get any better.

In fact the political sexual scandal and events recorded in the Herald Sun and The Age are so relevant to the theme of the show.  Also, in the same edition, the cartoon on page 68 of the Herald Sun  (October 17th 2014) is so appropriate and makes the show such an ongoing experience.  You could not get a better epilogue to a show.

The initial phone call at 6.20pm in the foyer/lobby of the Grand Hyatt meant that this was the first show in the 28 year history of the Melbourne Festival to start on time.  (We have seen about ten events at every festival.)

We advise going to the toilet upstairs prior to waiting in the downstairs foyer.  Also take a small box of sultanas or nuts and maybe a bottle of water with you. Or maybe not if you want to experience potential hunger pangs.

We were welcomed by a voluptuous woman in red. She confirmed our name and "I asked if she were Isabella?" I loved her provocative answer to my question when welcomed "I can be what you want me to be." We were provided with a choice right up front!  Whew - where was this going?

We received our headsets and instructions for using a Moto G smartphone after our initial greeting.  These actors are fine improvisers and ready for any challenge within the boundaries of the theme. 
We are given a device to wear and also warned about crossing the roads and watching our step.  A great example of health and safety.  We were also provided with a help phone number in case of problems.  What if we opted out?  I chose not to ask this as I wanted to experience the event and only use this option via the help line if desperate to do so.  I will be interested to see if anyone does opt out during their session.

We finished at 9.10pm and were delayed due to some traffic delays.  This was about half an hour longer than anticipated and was the only major drawback.

Also we experienced indecisiveness at one venue due to the construction works.  It was roped off all around and we had to find our way.  yes, we could have called the help line but you have to use some common sense and be street wise.  These works were finished a few hours after our venture there.  So you have to be willing to take calculated risks and use common sense.  When in doubt call the help line.

There are ample opportunities to use toilets along the way. Being such a cold night meant the bladder weakened a little more than usual.  Maybe it was the anticipation, excitement or adrenalin.  I think it was all of the above.

You will encounter other people on your journey who will be intrigued with your earphones and your Moto G smartphone. We did look very conspicuous!

Some times you have to walk at a faster pace to keep up with your guide. There are times when for example a shop front has changed name and you have to do a double take to make sure that you are in the right location.

Taking some gold coins may be worth your while.  There may be opportunities to use such - if you choose.  I was engrossed by making a note about my reactions that I regret now I did not think to take the opportunity to spend some coins to record a part of our journey.

There is a list of guardians and performers in the programme.  There has to be minders or guardians looking out for your welfare on the journey to make sure that you do not get lost and are on track.  Some are more obvious than others as we struggle with different aspects of our journey.  At one stage I had gone one step ahead by accident.

My partner and myself use the one, two, three fingers to synchronise our pressing of the stop or play or pause buttons.  This was fun to watch other people's reaction to our obvious choreography.

"Since I Suppose"  is an event.  When attending the theatre I have  experienced many emotions of compassion, empathy, sadness, tragedy, love, joy and laughter.  I have never experienced the range of emotions that I felt during "Since I Suppose."   My boundaries were pushed at times and they could have gone further.  But then I did have the choice to go further if I wanted to. So yes I even experienced some post-show regret. The emotional connections and themes link into  "Measure for Measure" magnificently.

How does it feel to be a part of a sinister plot? How does it feel to not know what will happen?  You are physically guided at times.  Sometimes you are directed, coaxed, persuaded, seduced, tempted, bribed.  It is your choice.  Or is it?

Do not take any valuables with you as you stand out in the crowd.  Even though I safely finished the event does not mean you will. That is why the guardians are so important.

It is amazing as I write this as I want to share more with you but that would spoil the event. 

What would you accept from a stranger? 

Do not attend if you do not like to be challenged with claustrophobia or the fear of the unknown.  But the actors are obviously prepared for any issues as I can attest.  They know how to make you feel safer when you feel unsafe.  They do not patronise you and keep in character at all times.

I love the use of the cards and magic or slight of hand.  You get to keep some souvenirs and I suggest you keep them as they will be sought after by collectors in years to come.

I also got to experience some emotions of pay-back to one performer who challenged me.  By me asking for her identification or my threat to call 000 made her speechless.  It was as if we were not only observers but a part of the action.  After a pause, she quite rightly said that she could call security - she realising that I was playing with her emotions as she and the other actors were playing with our emotions.

I have to laugh about the waste of money on establishing the Myki system and the political dramas that ensued.  How do these link in?  Well in New York it costs less to buy a similar card and only $5 for a Ventura card in Chicago that you can keep.  Imagine having yours taken from you at $16 a pop.  Or are they taken from you?  Are you stranded?  What does it feel like?  Can a Myki card be worth so much? Is your life worth so much? MMMMMM Is this relevant?  Without giving too much away - it all relates to the politics of power.  Maybe our own power.  Are we powerless?  Do we have choices?

There are so many aspects of "Since I Suppose" to be relished.  I think I will always remember the holistic experience from trying to book my tickets in Chicago, to the emails, the build up and excitement, the waiting, the anticipation and the event itself.  Most of all  - are the memories and my notes to record so many happenings.

Our only quibble was getting back from North Melbourne at the end. We were very hungry and it was very late eating at about 9.30pm.   Otherwise park your car in the North Melbourne area before the show.  (MMMMM maybe a Myki card!  That is why a tourist card is so important.)

Congratulations to Suzanne Kerstan and one step at a time like this for sensationally orchestrating such a theatrical event.  It would have been more sinister doing the lone journey in Chicago and thankfully I got to experience it (most of the time) with my partner.

I cannot thank the actors, guardians, technicians and producers enough for creating such a memorable theatrical event. Namely, the Melbourne Festival , one step at a time like this, Arts House, Chicago Shakespeare Theater and Richard Jordon Productions Ltd.


Overall this production gets an 8.5/10.