Many of you are familiar with the story of the girl who receives a nutcracker in the shape of a toy soldier, which comes to life in the middle of the night to do battle with the Mouse King and his army of mice. The Atlanta Ballet has been staging this production since the late 1950's and this is believed to be the longest continuously run production in the United States. To make this work, the child actors are assigned to one of five casts that perform the 20 shows during the month of December (each cast appears in four shows).
As good parents, my wife and I are quick to grab front row tickets for the four shows in which my daughter appears. Even though each ticket costs close to $100.00, I love sitting in the front row because I have an unobstructed view of the stage and the orchestra pit where the Atlanta Ballet Orchestra performs the music for the show live. I love classical music and Tchaikovsky happens to be one of my favorite composers and "The Nutcracker" is undoubtedly his most well-known composition, since it is basically the soundtrack for Christmas.
Last year, I was completely mesmerized when the music began as the curtain came up on my daughter's scene; I would watch intently as she hit her spot, perform the synchronized routine with the other mice, and then scamper off on stage right. For four shows, I was completely impressed with my nine-year old's ability to know exactly what to do and when to do it!
This year, once again we have front row center aisle seats for all four of my daughter's performances. She has a different role this year, but like last year, she knows exactly where to go, when to enter the stage, when to exit, and how to interact with the other child and adult performers on the stage. Someone else is playing the role of her mouse character from last year, but that little girl is hitting the same spots on stage, performing the same synchronized routines, and exiting at precisely the right moment. As a matter of fact, all of the performances this year are exactly the same as the performances last year. The music sounds the same. The costumes are the same. The sets are the same. Everything is the same, except for the child actors; as they get older, they move on to different roles and younger actors come along and take their place.
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So my night at the theater has become a lesson in quality! The Atlanta Ballet must select five sets of children actors, with over 20 children per show, to perform in 20 shows per season. And since patrons of the Atlanta Ballet are paying close to $100.00 to enjoy "The Nutcracker," each performance must be as perfect as the one before it and the one after it; it doesn't matter whether you come to the opening night performance, or a Saturday matinee performance, or the last performance, every performance must be the same!How does the Atlanta Ballet control the quality of this production so well, that over 3,000 people will pay a premium to attend each of the 20 annual performances of "The Nutcracker" for more than 50 years?
Does your organization control the quality of its services as well as the Atlanta Ballet? Are there standardized processes in place to ensure the quality of the services your organization delivers? During these tough economic times, can you control cost and risk to ensure quality service for your customers?
VeNí Consulting has a solution to help our clients improve service delivery by analyzing the quality, cost, and risk of their services. Go to veniconsulting.com for more information.
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Read about the history of the Atlanta Ballet.Read about Atlanta Ballet's "Nutcracker".
Read the Wikipedia article about the history of Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker".
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By: Plez A. Joyner, CIO & Managing Partner, VeNi Consulting, LLC (c)2011
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