AriZoni Awards ResponsesMark S.P. Turvin
mspt@goldfishpublishers.com
Received from Wes Martin and Responded to by Bobb Cooper 7/28/03
AriZoni Awards ResponsesLisa Arnseth sent me a letter wondering about the ariZoni Award nominations and about the process in general, and among many comments and responses I received, the most eloquent and prolific came from Wes Martin Artistic Director of The Shakespeare Theatre, on Monday, 7/28/03. Mr. Martin has allowed me to post his response.
I forwarded Mr. Martin's response to Bobb Cooper, who also contacted me on Monday. I apologized after he informed me that I had incorrectly noted he was no longer the President of the ariZoni Award Committee. He explained that the nominations were forthcoming as noted in his responses to Wes' comments below. What I post here is Wes' letter to me, and Bobb's comments responding to Wes' letter. Bobb's comments are in red.
From: Wes Martin <***@***.***>
Subject: AriZoni Awards
To: mspt@goldfishpublishers.com
Dear Mark,
I just asked Deanne Poulos what was up with the ariZoni nominations. They usually are out by now. Without going into a lot of detail (I,m not sure how much should be public knowledge), there was a problem with the categories that a couple of theatres listed their shows under, so they are waiting to clear that up before they announce. They anticipate being able to announce in the next week or two.
This is correct, we are waiting for the Independent Accountant who does the tabulations to return from vacation to make the corrections. Also, I can be reached at bobb@vyt.com
As for the question you received about adjudicators, I can only speak from my personal experience.
The way the adjudication works is: Five judges attend the production, rating the production in each of the specific categories on a scale of 0-10, with 10 being best rating, 0 being the lowest. The high and low scores are dropped and the remaining three are averaged together, giving the final score. If only 4 judges show up, they drop only the lowest score. If only 3 judges show up, they don,t drop any, they just average the 3 they have. If only 2, 1 or none show up, well, I guess you,re screwed.
We have five judges adjudicate each show. We drop the High and the Low score. If four Judges attend we still drop the high and the low. If less than four judges attend the show is forfeited and not up for adjudication. We have expressed explicitly the importance for the Judges to attend all of the shows that they are assigned and It is the theatre's responsibility to communicate with the adjudicator and the liaison if there is a problem. We have created a process with which to safeguard against a show being dropped. I don't believe that any shows were dropped this year a result of not enough judges.
In the five years of my companies existence, I have not done a single production where I haven,t had to hunt my judges down and get them scheduled. Also a lot of the judges try to schedule for the final weekend, or even the final performance, which according to ariZoni rules, they are not supposed to do. But they still do it.
We have done our best to scrutinize the adjudicators to make sure they are responsible, credible etc. In a few situations some adjudicators needed a little poking and prodding. We don't know what else to do in this case. They are after all volunteers and if they error it is not because the don't care it could just be they are busy and made a mistake.
The adjudicators have been instructed NOT to attend the last weekend and certainly not the last performance! The theatre companies have the right to refuse to take the reservation and can call their Liaison to request another adjudicator.
In all fairness, I DO NOT blame the ariZoni
organization for this. They really have been doing their best
to stop this from happening. The real problem with this situation,
as with all the problems sited by others in the theatre community,
is with THE ADJUDICATORS THEMSELVES!!!! Many of these adjudicators
don,t take the responsibilities of their job seriously. Even though
the people at the ariZoni Awards go out of their way to train
these people, most of them ignore the rules and just do what they
want. Before I start getting hate mail of my own, I want to state
that I know not all the adjudicators are this way, but as I said,
I can only speak from my own experience. And in the 15 shows The
Shakespeare Theatre has had adjudicated over the past 5 years,
we have had a problem getting at least 1 judge scheduled ON ALL
15 PRODUCTIONS!!! As a matter of fact, when we did King Lear
2 years ago, 2 adjudicators scheduled for the last performance,
swearing to me up and down they would be there, and then didn,t
show up. I almost did not renew our membership this year because
it is such a problem, but then I thought better of it. I believe
in what they are trying to do, and the only way I can affect change
in the system is to remain part of the system.
I appreciate his responses,
we as the Board of Directors of the ariZoni Awards can't
be blamed for the irresponsibility's of a few adjudicators or
the theatre companies. We seem to want to pin everything on
the adjudicator, let's just say that they are not always at fault.
The theatre companies need to accept some of the responsibility.
Communication is key, we have companies change dates, places,
phone numbers, etc. without so much as a word to us. We have
tried to communicate the need for updated information at mandatory
meetings and all we got was whining and complaining about having
to attend the meeting. The information, rules, regulations, directions,
processes have been in the information packets we have been sending
out for years. It seems that some folks just don't pay attention
to the details. This is why scheduled the meeting so we could
talk about it in person. Still, some don't make us aware of any
changes.
I'm glad that he renewed this year. I also appreciate his comment
"the only way I can affect change in the system is to remain
part of the system" I would just like to add that's not
the only way. Getting involved is even better!
We as a board are knocking ourselves out to better the process.
We hope that the community will leave the past in the past and
start to recognize the tremendous strides we have accomplished over the past several
years.
The other problem I see is that the scores
you get can vary greatly depending on the adjudicator you get.
And I don't mean this in the obvious way. Most adjudicators put
a lot of thought into the ratings they give, and some just give
a show they liked all 10's and a show they didn't like all 1's
and 2's.
This is not correct at
all! We now receive the ballots after the awards are presented
and we are looking closely at the judges scoring habits.
I don't think I have ever seen a 1 or a 2 and
you would be surprised on how few 10s are being doled out.
A great example from the ariZoni past: Remember
a few years ago when Long Days Journey Into Night won an
award in every technical catagory, every acting catagory, every
directing catagory, but DID NOT win Best Overal Production, yet
there were other productions that won for Best Overal Production
that didn't win a single award in any other catagory? Something
not right there.
The reason for this is Overall Production is not up against
lighting, sound, set design, actors, directors, etc. It
is only up against Overall Production.
To sum up, I would say this: The only way the
theatre community will begin to start taking the aziZoni Awards
seriously is if the adjudicators start taking their jobs and their
responsabilities more seriously. Also, we as the theatre community
need to be more vocal if we don't like what's going on. And not
just bitching amongst ourselves. Let the people at the ariZoni's
know. Their very nice folks, and they want the awards to be something
we're all proud of as well.
Wesley H. Martin, BFA
President, The Shakespeare Theatre
I would have to disagree with the first sentence of this (last) paragraph. The only way for the theatre community to take the ariZoni Awards seriously is for the community to stop gossiping, complaining, griping, and take the ariZoni Board up on it's open invitation to be on the board and find out what is really going on and be a part of the process. Put your money where your mouth is! Last year at the mandatory theatre meeting we expressed that we wanted more representatives from the theatre community on the board. Only two people came forward. Go figure! I guess some folks like to live in the negative world and feel much better complaining, griping, gossiping than to roll up their sleeves and make a positive contribution to the process. Thank goodness that the board that we have have has not adopted this attitude. We role up our sleeves (as volunteers) and do everything we can to make things better. We spend countless hours processing paperwork, juggling adjudicator schedules, preparing, all of the correspondence, putting together an Awards Show, etc.
Not too often do we
get a pat on the back. We certainly are not looking for one either.
We just are getting tired of being slapped in the face for
what uninformed people think we are doing wrong!
Make a positive impact by being informed and getting involved!
Packets will be out to the adjudicators and theatre companies
by the end of the first week in August.
We hope to have the nominations announced by the end of the first
week as well.
The Awards Ceremony is Monday, September 22nd at 7:00PM at the
Herberger Theater Center.
Bobb Cooper, President
ariZoni Theatre Awards of Excellence