country
activities

Yekaterinburg Region
June 5–7, 2007

Stephen Brown, Company Manager of the Metropolitan Opera, David Young, professor of theater, and Jillian Poole held meetings and conducted a management seminar on “Contemporary Methods of Theaters Work with Audiences and Partners” in Yekaterinburg, the third largest city in Russia, from June 5 – 7. One hundred representatives of theatres and musical organizations in the region attended. The seminar was arranged by the offices of the Consulate General in Yekaterinburg, who generously gave partial funding for the event. The Fund is particularly grateful to Yulia Grigoryeva for her painstaking planning of the seminar and Consul General John Stepanchuk for his personal interest.

The seminar began with a discussion of elevator speeches and mission and on a breakout session in which the participants developed some examples of mission statements and then shared them with their colleagues for discussion. After lunch, the seminar leaders and participants launched into an extensive discussion of various contemporary issues under the heading of “Product”, including repertoire choices and casting. David Young also provided a list of American plays which could be suitable for production in their theatres and discussed their themes and attributes.

That night Mikhail Safronov, President of the Urals Theater Association and Director of Musical Comedy Theater, hosted a dinner for the presenters, the Minister of Culture, the Consul General, and a small group of distinguished guests. The Minister, the Consul General, and Jillian Poole engaged in a discussion of the possibilities of encouraging private fundraising in the Oblast. It was suggested that The Fund might be a catalyst for a high-level roundtable of legislative and government officials, key industrialists, and leaders of the major cultural groups to explore incentives to further develop mechanics for this. This may be an item for further consideration.

The second morning of the seminar was focused on audience development and marketing, including audience research, and building programs for both music and theatre, including building new audiences, which was discussed in detail. The breakout groups discussed developing new outreach programs, and their reports provoked lively discussions. The afternoon was devoted to various issues connected with financing theatrical enterprises and different methods of fundraising and providing benefits for donors. There was detailed discussion of managing financial resources and developing annual operating budgets.

On the final day of the seminar, sessions were devoted to fundraising and managing volunteers and covering all remaining questions raised by the participants. This was followed by a most gracious reception hosted by the Consul General in his residence at which genuine appreciation was expressed to The Fund and its outstanding consultants.

According to the participants’ opinion poll, the majority of them found it most useful to get the experts’ overview of the effective performing arts management in “a more developed country”. Per the participants’ comments, the seminar stimulated new thinking as well as provided insight and fresh ideas for many. The respondents expressed their willingness to learn more about contemporary theater marketing, advertising, branding, lobbying, more practical information on formation of creative and administrative teams, and the system of interim communications within a large American theater. As Mr. Safronov put it in his closing remarks, the seminar was useful as it allowed them to take a look into the future, evaluate their current approaches, and plan accordingly. Despite the huge difference existing between the mobile, flexible, and dynamic American theater and the stationary, somewhat inert Russian theater, there have always been issues of common interest and perspectives of successful partnership.

Four years ago, as part of her initial visit to the region sponsored by the Consulate General, Jillian Poole had spent time with Mr. Kolotursky, Director of the Sverdlovsk State Academic Philharmonic, and Alla Petrova, Deputy Director for Development, who remained The Fund’s principal contact. Ms. Poole also addressed their volunteer corps and met with their trustees in the very early stages of development. As a result of this initial visit and the promise the Orchestras plans seemed to hold, Fund Consultant Bob Jones went twice to the region to conduct seminars for the regional orchestras and to hold consultations with Mr. Kolotursky. Clearly the early promise of the Orchestra’s development has been fulfilled; they have multiple international invitations to perform in distinguished venues, they have an active volunteer corps and their trustees contribute the equivalent of one million dollars annually – a staggering sum of private contributions in Russia! Mr. Koloturskiy asked for two things from The Fund: that we send them an expert in volunteer management to spend a couple of days with their group, and that we send one or more U.S. orchestra trustees to meet with their board to discuss the responsibilities and challenges of trusteeship. It was agreed that The Fund would address these issues, and later the Consul General agreed the matters are of both interest and importance and he would offer what support he could.

In a separate conversation, Virgil Strohmeyer, vice consul, expressed interest in an idea originally raised by Sally Yerkovich, President of The Fund, namely the idea of a conference of the leaders of Museums of Conscience to be centered on the Gulag Museum outside Perm. He proposed that it might be led by someone from the Holocaust Museum, and that there might be U.S. representatives from Japanese-American Museum in Los Angeles, CA and some museum concerned with the slavery issue such as National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, TN.