Chaandana Senevirathne - BMR 2010

Dear friends,

Since Cicil has asked for opinions, I thought of writing mine.

Comments, we need at this time. But no! not from the production team.
Production team knows the show in advance (well, minus sounds and visuals).
Sounds and visuals are just add-on's. If the core item is strong and captivating, its entertaining by itself.
As such, I think the comments from the production team should come prior to the show.
Now we need comments from the audience.
As I've expressed during our team conversations, we should do an item-basis survey (on a 1-10 scale) from the audience.
In that way it will be a proper one to analyze. Not a distorted, over-heard, or verbally-conveyed-by-a-third-party type comments.
But it was an overkill, at that time, to concentrate on.

Well, thinking about the objectives that Cicil concentrated on during the production, I agree with most of them.
But I'd shake it out this way.

1.       Provide a quality show
2.          Be financially viable.
3.       Build community relationships

The third objective, a very important one, contains the Artists we work with, Technical and Non-Technical teams we work with and the Audience (including the guests, invitees, etc.etc.) to which the show is directed. This whole involvement is the foundation for the community relationship. Within that we create an audience for our artists, kids and community workers. Its all embedded in this  objective. We hear criticisms & comments of all sorts because we are all in a relationship. The show (BMR) creates a path and strengthens it.

The second objective is self-explanatory and it depends on how we manage the other two.

Unfortunately, the very first objective is the issue here. If we could achieve this, it will be financially viable and shall create avenues for better understanding for the community.
The bottom line is BMR should be the pinnacle.
All artists (except kids) should try to achieve this pinnacle, which means, they should strive to do a better one to be listed in the BMR.
But, what has happened in some years is that the BMR has lowered its standards, accessible to all - no matter the quality. This will not help the community - it will sow disharmony instead. People think, if X can do a crap, why Z cannot do the same.
It s not the same logic when its come to quality.
People think twice before entering themselves to BMR or they try to upgrade their skills set.
This is what we wanted at the end. That way,  we can give a push to boost the taste & love for 'art' within our community.

Otherwise it will be a downward-spiral for all concerned.

So, to put it simply, we need to maintain quality.
To achieve that we need guidelines, some will get hurt at the beginning, but everyone will nod in appreciation in the end.
Lets concentrate on these (potential) guidelines from now on.

kind Regards.
Chaandana