Theo

I love trees, the earth and the environment. I use as many recycled products as possible. Many of them are in fact paper products so I have a really hard time believing that you have to kill a tree to print a playbill. I think there must be some kind of happy medium there, no pun intended. The Kennedy center just spent a ton of money to build "The Reach" which is some sort of outdoor pavilion. This is why I believe the 'no paper' policy is strictly about saving the dollars. The point they miss is how many people read the playbills. Many if not most audience members have their face buried in them as soon as they take their seats. Many probably take them home, as I do. Sans the playbills, what I saw was a bunch of lit up cell phones and lots of chatter with people trying to stare into their, or their children's devices. Anyway, I hope Kennedy Center changes their policy, and perhaps finds a creative alternative it like using recycled paper, or something. Sorry for taking this conversation off topic, and thank you for providing a forum in which I gently vent.

Thank you so much

I have been going to the Kennedy Center for a number of years. During the ABT Romeo and Juliet run in February, I was very, very disappointed. We finally got back into the theater after three years away and they have the nerve to serve up digital programs. It's disgusting. Of course a mature audience is not going to be prepared to download a program. We turn our phones off, or don't bring them in, out of consideration for the dancers, the musicians and our fellow audience members. I don't think digital programs have anything to do with conservation or being woke. I think going digital has everything to do with being greedy, cheap and tone deaf. My goodness, if they had any real sense they would keep the paper programs and charge a fee for those of us who would really like them. Use recycled paper and collect some revenue. The curtain was also handled differently than it has been in the past. It came slamming down on the principal dancers and conductor during the one curtain call they were afforded. I was in the second row of the Orchestra and I could clearly see the look on their faces as that curtain came down. How horrible for them. Their mouths were open in shock. It appeared to me that somebody did not want to pay the stage crew one extra penny. Sorry, but I've been holding this in for a while. Having said all of that though, I'm still very thankful to attend live performances again.