An audience member wrote this week as follows:
“I am not interested in what’s on the schedule right now. Why? And when will it change?”We hear this comment from time to time, and the thing we ask people to keep in mind is that the Basie's schedule is not a static roster of events that we fix in place at the start of a season, like a theatre company or a symphony orchestra's schedule.
Our roster of events changes constantly. We add new shows almost weekly. During a 12-month cycle we will typically host 175 to 200 performances, but if you look at our calendar of events on any given day, you may only see 50 to 75 shows on sale. That's because we will add shows as we go along.
Why do we do it this way? Mostly it has to do with the availability of the performing artists. Say for example we have an interest in Big Name Artist #1. I might call his or her agent today, only to find out that BNA #1 is not working right now. Or maybe BNA #1 is working, but is recording for the next few months, and not touring. Then, 6 months from now, maybe BNA #1 is finished recording and is ready to hit the road. So, you might look at our calendar of events today and not see Big Name Artist #1, or any comparable performance either, but if you check back in a few months that might change, and then we might have a terrific run of many, many shows you want to see.
In my experience, these things tend to be cyclical. Some of it is predictable. Like, January is typically a slow month because nobody wants to be on the road right after the holidays. Or December is the big month for holiday shows (obviously) and not so much for just "regular" shows. But some of it is just cosmically strange. Like one month, finding a comedian to book is like pulling teeth, and then the next month, every great comedian you ever wanted to see is hitting the road.
Predictable or not, mostly we're at the mercy of when artists want to work, when their tour is going to be in our region, do they have the same dates available that we have available, and a dozen other variables.
So, this is the extended way of saying that if you don't see something on our calendar today that interests you, keep checking back, because we’re adding new shows all the time.
______________________________
Numa C. Saisselin
CEO
Count Basie Theatre, Inc.
99 Monmouth Street
Red Bank, New Jersey 07701
Phone 732-224-8778, ext. 105
www.countbasietheatre.org
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