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Re: I must disagree on a couple points
by
I agree with Catherine. While I like hearing the informal response from my actors and comments shared with them by audience members, this is not something my museum will accept as "evidence of the impact of the program". When my actors approach audience members to interact with them after a program, people are always nice. Be honest. As theatre professionals how many times have we been approached right after a show and asked, "Well, what did you think?" and how many of us are ready to upset someone who has just worked hard and say, "It was horrible!"
The more formal techniques of feedback without any actors present have netted us the best comments. In fact, the constructive comments have really helped us to grow.
We do annual membership surveys that ask about what attracts people/keeps them coming back to the museum, comment boxes at the entrance and informal surveys, and we have a comment book/evaluation of our programming for the theatre program.
I think we need to be careful about saying that we know we do a good job and we know we add value to the museum experience. Yes, we know that to be true. But our passion has to find a way to present our worth to non-theatre folk who sometimes only look at the bottom line. In the museum field, we must be artists and business people.