Fun role-playing activities on Repertoire Day!!

A panel discussion was conducted between Tracy Galligher, director of marketing and communications at Opera Company of Philadelphia; Charles MacKay, general director of Opera Theatre of Saint Louis; Richard Russell, director of marketing at Sarasota Opera; Marc A. Scorca, president and CEO of OPERA America; and Kevin Smith, president and CEO of The Minnesota Opera about reception of recent productions at their companies. The discussion focused on ways that companies successfully engaged audiences around non-standard repertoire, whether through community partnerships, compelling artistic approaches, and focused audience engagement activity. Then came the fun role-playing activities!

At each table, eight conference attendees worked in cross-disciplinary groups on a case study exercise prepared by Kelley Rourke, OPERA America’s director of research and publications. The premise was as follows:

Average Opera Company has had a change in leadership. The outgoing general director had completed plans and contracts for three of the four operas planned for the 2008-2009 season. One production remains to be chosen by the new administration.

You are in the Average Opera Company conference room for a meeting of the planning committee that includes all department directors and three board members, including the Chairman. One of the board members has underwritten several productions of major Verdi masterpieces. The other board member travels all over the world to attend operas she has never seen before.

The three productions already confirmed include The Daughter of the Regiment, Der Rosenkavalier, and La bohème. You must decide on the fourth production at this meeting in order to present your complete season plan to the board of directors later in the day. At previous meetings, you have narrowed range of possibilities to three choices:

• Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, which would mark the company’s first production of an 18th-century opera by a composer other than Mozart.


• Hamlet, by Amboise Thomas


• The Dangerous Liaisons, by Conrad Susa and Philip Littel

The case study included artistic and financial profiles for Average Opera Company, as well as descriptions of Average City, the location of Average Opera Company. Participants had 30 minutes to choose a general director from among the people seated at the table. That GD led the discussion about planning the season; at the end of the 30 minutes, the GD made a presentation that answered the following questions:

1. Which opera did you choose and why?


2. What other artistic decisions, if you any, have you made as part of your choice?


3. What audience engagement strategies will you employ?


4. What other strategies will you employ to ensure the highest possible artistic and financial success?

The participants were endlessly creative, enthusiastic, and witty while presenting their choices. Some groups chose to change their company name in order to create a more robust profile, some opted to toss their entire season and start from scratch, some came up with complex partnerships and outreach programs, and some simply made a selection based on a clearly explained strategy. Ideally, communication tactics developed in these discussions could be applied to real-life work situations. I’d love to see some of the more imaginative ideas pop up during planning sessions.