From now to the new NPAC season

With the summer season of music wrapped up for me and the Van Wert County Foundation, you would think it is time to relax, kick back on the porch and enjoy a cold glass of lemonade.  People often ask me if this is a good time off before concerts start at the Niswonger Performing Arts Center.  In some ways, it is relaxing in that there are no shows to present or artists to cater to; however, there are many other activities that require one’s attention when the aforementioned isn’t going on.

I just returned from a staff meeting and a publicity meeting.  Although we have a system of releasing tickets that seems to be successful and orderly, we reach a time when we must assess where we are and where we want, and need, to be as a music presenting business.

There are numerous people who volunteer their time to serve on committees at the Niswonger.  Publicity is one of those very important committees.  Nowadays, an ad in the paper or a poster in the window doesn’t alone accomplish what needs to be done to fill seats.  Today’s way of marketing is so different from even yesterday’s!  That’s why a publicity committee is so valuable.  We try to reach people through traditional as well as cutting-edge marketing techniques.  And the more heads we can get together, the more ideas we come up with.

In this so called “down time”, we also are busy putting together the printed season program, which will include information about our performances and other pertinent hall information as well as give advertisers an opportunity to reach our patrons with important information that might be useful for particularly, out of town guests.  It is also nice for our locals to see who supports the arts in Van Wert through the Niswonger PAC.  This is a responsibility of our marketing director who also covers advertising, print creation and layout and so much more.

Our facility coordinator is busy securing and training volunteers to cover the concert events for the upcoming season as well as securing lodging, catering, and sometimes travel needs for our artists. It is the job of our tech director to advance shows with tour and production managers of the upcoming shows to make sure we have a clear understanding of what will be required to make the show outstanding for you, our patron, in our Saltzgaber Music Hall.  He must also line up volunteers for stage crew and much more.

Meanwhile, the box office is busy trying to sell tickets and provide, sometimes, the best available seat of a diminishing supply of available tickets.  And although it really is true that most every seat in the Niswonger is a good seat, there are choices to be made and requests to try and fill.  I just now took a call from the box office manager who told me we must move some people who had purchased seats that we just found out will be obstructed because of artist production needs.  It’s always something!  But this makes each day interesting and challenging and never boring.

Me? I just sit around drinking my lemonade and watch everyone work. Oh, and pop a few Tylenol once in awhile.

FINÉ.