Hey all,
I was hoping to get some additional perspectives on a ticketing setup issue that I've been pondering lately. Our small consortium is adding a new member, a Philharmonic, and I've been working on building their performances over the last few days. However, I'm undecided on how to do the Title and Production levels of their performance setup.
Up till now, I've primarily had to set up plays, so it's all been pretty straightforward. A production of Winter's Tale? No problem, Winter's Tale is the Title and the specific production design is the Production, just as Tessitura is designed for. However, with productions for the Philharmonic, there are so many variables that it upends this approach. What about a concert featuring selections from various Beethoven pieces? That's not so bad, Beethoven could be the title, and the specific grouping of pieces the Production. But wait, what about a performance highlighted by a specific guest Orchestra member, containing a selection of works by different composers? Or how about a medley of different works with no clear focus?
Additionally, since we're in a Consortium, and Titles are communal to everyone, I've tried to ensure that everything at the Title level at least has the potential to be used by any member of the consortium, and is not specific to a single organization. Therefore, I'm trying to figure out a solution that is broad enough that the Title isn't tied down to a single org, but still specific enough that it's not a guessing game for what Title a production is built under.
So, any thoughts? How have other Philharmonics approached Titles? Any other Consortiums who have wrestled with this issue?
Thanks for any and all insights!
Aaron
Hello Aaron,
Under titles, could you put the name of the theater they perform in and then under productions do Classics 1, Classics 2, etc? Under production season you could put the composer/season and then list the performances that way. As I wrap my brain around it, that might seem the only way to keep the title level as general as possible.
Chris
Christopher Cuhel, Patron Services Manager
First Stage
Transforming Lives Through Theater
From: Tessitura Ticketing Forum [mailto:forums-ticketing@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Aaron MiletteSent: Tuesday, February 05, 2013 1:55 PMTo: Christopher CuhelSubject: [Tessitura Ticketing Forum] Setting Titles and Productions for Philharmonics and Consoritums
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Aaron,
I struggled with this issue when I first came to work for the Santa Barbara Center for the Performing Arts coming out of a Theater Company. I tried the first season to follow the Title, Productions, etc. but found that was not a great solution, especially with the number of presenters we have. We have since went with a model where the title is the season, i.e. 2013-14 Philharmonic, 2013-14 Broadway, and then we create a specific production in the Productions tab for each event in the season, and so on. We have continued with model with our small consortium and it seems to work very well. While the title is broad it is still specific enough to make sure everyone knows what it is for and helps keep everything for each presenter grouped together. (It helps that we were not using all of the features of the Title page but we have been able to add all of the specifics that we need about each show at a lower level in the Production hierarchy.)
This model works well for us.
Elizabeth Carlock
Director of Ticketing Services
The Granada Theatre
From: Tessitura Ticketing Forum [mailto:forums-ticketing@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Aaron Milette Sent: Tuesday, February 05, 2013 11:53 AM To: Elizabeth Carlock Subject: [Tessitura Ticketing Forum] Setting Titles and Productions for Philharmonics and Consoritums
Similarly, I guess, in our implementation, in a consortium with an Opera company, two orchestras, two performing arts Centres and a theatre company, it was obvious that the title/production model wasn't going to suit. We had a look at how it worked, and decided that the main purpose,for the Title entity, for us, was just to group Productions in some convenient way, that made it easy find what we were after in the production elements screen. It doesn't really affect much else, unless you've built some reports using it, or you want to drive ticket prints from there. Like Elizabeth, none of use use the other title fields for anything.
So... different partners use it in different ways, but none of them use it as an actual Title - they just use appropriate groupings for their kind of season. Mostly it's the program or season or presenter season that the production belongs to, in some sense. It works ok.
This is some samples of our current Titles, to get the idea:
ACO 2013
ACO 2013 Education
ACO 2013 Misc
ACO 2013 Regional
ACO Merchandise Sales
BSC Learning
BSC Mainstage
BSC Merchandise
BSC Works In Development
Guided Tours
OA Mainstage Productions
OA Merchandise
OA Miscellaneous
OA Opera Lounge
OzOpera
SEY Seymour Centre
SOH Australian Ballet
SOH Bangarra Dance Theatre
SOH Musica Viva
SOH Presents
SOH Co-Presentations
SOH House:Ed/Kids
SOH Commercial Events
SOH Drink/Program Vouchers
Ken
Thanks for the input everyone! I'm so used to operating in the standard Play>Production>Season>Performance approach, that it was a little difficult to shift gears and consider other options! After mulling over everyone's suggestions, I think I will use the Title level as a seasonal category to group the productions under, and then use the Production level to start breaking out the separate performances. I've used a similar approach in a limited way for things like class registrations and other similar events, so I think it's time to embrace it to a greater degree!
Thanks again for the feedback!