American Ballet Theatre’s Met premiere of LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE 22 June 2023

[Jan McNulty]

Hello @selene and welcome to the Forum!  I hope we hear more from you.

[AnnabelCharles]

Just a word on paper cast sheets. I love them - who doesn't - and it's taken me a while to adjust to digital versions. But the climate emergency is pressing and in the UK we're not meeting our own targets in terms of reducing carbon emissions, so I'm making myself remember this and adjust. Now I need to stop printing tickets because worried phone will give out ....

 

PS Don't understand why digital programmes are 'woke' in either the original or Daily Mail sense of the word. 

[Sim]

Two posts hidden because unedited versions were quoted.

[DrewCo]

12 hours ago, AnnabelCharles said:

Just a word on paper cast sheets. I love them - who doesn't - and it's taken me a while to adjust to digital versions. But the climate emergency is pressing and in the UK we're not meeting our own targets in terms of reducing carbon emissions, so I'm making myself remember this and adjust. Now I need to stop printing tickets because worried phone will give out ....

 

PS Don't understand why digital programmes are 'woke' in either the original or Daily Mail sense of the word. 

I sympathize with this thought, but I think the practices of the companies producing and powering phones and other digital technologies are, unfortunately, not quite the answer just yet. They need to be greatly modified if they are going to help reduce carbon emissions and not, instead, increase them. (A google search will turn up a lot on this problem. Cell phone and other digital technologies have a large carbon footprint.)  Of course, I don't have the answers on this issue!

 

I enjoyed Wheeldon's ballet -- much like @Jeannette I wouldn't want to see ABT's repertory dominated by dramatic theatrical works of this kind altogether--but as a different kind of ballet-theater experience that also stretched the dancers, it was terrific. Beautiful and moving and fun. London fans are lucky to have the Royal Ballet, but I thought ABT did great across different casts (I caught three);  Wheeldon wrote a warm Instagram post about his experiences with them, also paying tribute to his assistants in setting the ballet on multiple casts:

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CuCE8_DrQ3h/

Edited June 30, 2023 by DrewCo

[Theo]

12 hours ago, AnnabelCharles said:

Just a word on paper cast sheets. I love them - who doesn't - and it's taken me a while to adjust to digital versions. But the climate emergency is pressing and in the UK we're not meeting our own targets in terms of reducing carbon emissions, so I'm making myself remember this and adjust. Now I need to stop printing tickets because worried phone will give out ....

 

PS Don't understand why digital programmes are 'woke' in either the original or Daily Mail sense of the word. 

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.

[Jeannette]

I was told by a Kennedy Center insider (usher) that shows that book a Kennedy Center theater - who are not directly presented by the KC - such as The Washington Ballet, DO hand out printed Playbills to audience. They hire a new playbill graphics company called En Face, (run by Rampant Creative Inc), who prepare and print the playbills.
https://m.facebook.com/rampantcreative

 

I saw a lovely Washington Ballet En Face magazine for their recent Sleeping Beauty (Julie Kent edition). Color photos, dancer mini bios, production history, etc. interesting that such booklets/playbills are being produced independently, rather than by the theater, as in the past.

 

Info/examples:

https://enfacemagazine.com/

 

Edited July 1, 2023 by Jeannette

[Jan McNulty]

7 hours ago, Theo said:

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.

Hello @Theo and welcome to the Forum!

[Jeannette]

7 hours ago, Theo said:

I have been going to the Kennedy Center for a number of years. ….    I don't think digital programs have anything to do with conservation or  being woke.  ….

For some, not printing playbills/cast sheets means saving the environment…print a playbill = kill a tree. It’s probably just saving the theater some money, as you write, @Theo. That’s an opening for En Face and other digital companies to go in and prepare playbills for companies who want happy audiences. To heck with saving the tree!

[Theo]

6 hours ago, Jeannette said:

For some, not printing playbills/cast sheets means saving the environment…print a playbill = kill a tree. It’s probably just saving the theater some money, as you write, @Theo. That’s an opening for En Face and other digital companies to go in and prepare playbills for companies who want happy audiences. To heck with saving the tree!

 

6 hours ago, Jan McNulty said:

Hello @Theo and welcome to the Forum!

Thank you so much

[Theo]

6 hours ago, Jeannette said:

For some, not printing playbills/cast sheets means saving the environment…print a playbill = kill a tree. It’s probably just saving the theater some money, as you write, @Theo. That’s an opening for En Face and other digital companies to go in and prepare playbills for companies who want happy audiences. To heck with saving the tree!

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. 

[MAB]

Surely if the ROH genuinely wanted to restrict their use of paper, they would reinstate cast sheets and stop selling progamme.  Also the last time i went to the ROH shop they were still selling books.  If they wish to uphold their 'green' credentials, they must stop that pracctice immediately.