That's for the survey. You're fine, Ben.
Possibly there was a long meeting where they tried to find a nice way to say "To look at fit peoples' butt" and it last so long they just gave up.
That is super dumb for all the reasons you cite.
It also feels like the questions came from a big repository of potential questions that was created 10 years ago without context.
When I worked in call center hell there was an employee survey. Each item was a likert scale in the form, for instance, "This company is evil." with 5 ("strongly agree") literally printed in red, followed by, "If you circled 5, please explain why. _____"
All corporate surveys are horrible, though it's sad that SF ballet reveals itself as just another corporation. I've stopped filling them out, or answering 'customer satisfaction' surveys. When I'm not a satisfied customer, it's invariably for a reason they are determined to exclude.
I'm so glad you wrote about this! I am frustrated every time I got to a theater/dance company's website and it's a) impossible to navigate because they've contracted with an appallingly terrible third-party ticket provider, and b) guaranteed to trigger exactly this kind of survey.
It's especially bad when you can TELL that the company is genuinely trying to think about new audiences, but is unwilling to change anything about itself that might in fact draw those audiences. Try 30-minute performances! Try a double-bill with a sporting event! (Nothing crazy; I'm thinking capoeira). Try a makeup tutorial with the theater's best makeup artist before the show! Try a performance venue in a "bad" neighborhood! ....nope, they're just going to offer the same two survey options of "Pub Night" and "Audience Talkback."*
*This latter can actually be good, if the theater invests in a competent moderator. But mostly they don't, which is especially apparent when the topic is a wildly controversial one (e.g. police shootings) and the audience "talkback" goes completely off the rails in the first four minutes.
Aren't these kinds of things mostly run by near-elderly and elderly white people of the kind who have had money for a couple of generations? Theater groups, not marketing survey makers.
I'm not arguing that we should let them damage the arts so they don't get the idea to take up politics and damage the country as a whole. I'm just mentioning it as a possibility.
nope, they're just going to offer the same two survey options of "Pub Night" and "Audience Talkback."*
Oh, you mean like this?!
I don't *think* there was a terrible survey, but I have heard from friends in independent, new-work theaters that they have a terrible time imagining a new audience too. Also that they mostly manage change by burning out a whole cohort of volunteers. New people, new vision! (The grantwriters and accountant have to stick it out.)
When you have real estate of your very own, and salaries and all, I guess people stay and fight instead of shabbing off.
I've heard lots of good things about real estate.
The problem with real estate is that it's too easy to make more.
You just need to try harder.
The good thing about the rise of electric vehicles is that "died tragically while charging a battery" will be revived as a cause of death only this time instead of being restricted to dashing young cavalry officers it will be open to all, especially suburban commuters.
