Sunday, March 05, 2017

Selling Tickets

The LA Philharmonic owes me: I sold six tickets to their Nixon in China in addition to the one I bought myself.

Three were purchased by a friend who saw my  new Twitter account, @NixonInChina87, which is dedicated to random tweets from the libretto. She discovered the LA performances and an hour later (or something), had train tickets to travel to LA, tickets to today's second (and last! why only two?!) performance, and plane tickets back to SF.

I went to lunch yesterday with a bunch of friends and by the end of the meal three of them had tickets.

Okay, I don't really think the LAPO owes me. (I owe THEM for putting on this wonderful piece.) But it does point to the value of audience members as evangelists, for an art form,  for an organization, for a particular work, or for a particular performance. It's one reason I advocate for all performing arts orgs to have "bring a friend" and "first one's free" programs. A good review from a knowledgeable stranger can be less valuable than an enthusiastic and trusted friend.

2 comments:

MEW said...

Lisa, did you see the column(s) in the Houston Chronicle accusing Nixon in China of yellowface? If so, what do you make of them?

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/life/article/Nixon-in-China-can-t-hide-behind-art-to-avoid-10877533.php

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/entertainment/arts-theater/article/Houston-Grand-Opera-s-use-of-white-actors-for-10876008.php
(this one may be behind the paywall)

Lisa Hirsch said...

Oh, man. i have not read those. I will take a look tomorrow and see what I think. Probably I will put any comments in their own blog post.