Why do shows rarely start “on time?
We are in the business of “arts-management.” Arts management is an oxymoron! Art does not want to be managed. Art (or very often, live artists, musicians, poets, etc) is not so much a commodity that you can tell what to do and when to do it, but rather a fluid, free-thinking, free-feeling, entity that comes and goes as it pleases. Art, by it’s very definition, is outside of the lines, and has a will and spirit of it’s own. Therefore, in our business, anything goes. Out of respect for our attending audiences, we do the best we can to move things along. However, illness, missed flights, ardent personalities, tardy drum sets, and late moving production managers, all contribute to a common sense of powerlessness in this arena. That is why any prospective “door opening” time is always subject to artist final approval. In other words, “we ain’t got much say.
