Papering the House

I can’t remember who it was  — just who it wasn’t.  The ticket office was frantic: where were all the ticket buyers hiding?   The more obscure the name, the harder PR toiled.  And it happened so early in my days at the Symphony that I had no idea what to do when the general manager sprang the alert:  “We’re papering the house — Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.”  That’s when my boss explained that we needed to do whatever we could to ensure that our artist not be humiliated by rows of empty seats.  Showering schools and whoever we could welcome in with free tickets  — without a second thought about breaking even — is  how the house paper trade works.  To balance out the enormous cost of enlisting legendary performers, one or two less sought after artists, who don’t break the bank, are slipped  into the season roster.  Which is exactly why I can’t remember who exactly it was who inspired my first “paper route.”

Encore 2013: The anxiety of filling seats rushed to mind this morning as I deleted my fourth anxious email pitch in two days hawking seats for Saturday night’s political gala.   True, their effort was wasted on us   — we bought our tickets  a few days ago, well before the “Last Call” messages rolled in.  But I connected in a flash,  like I was back on mission.  How ever many messages it takes — make sure those senators  play to a full house!