Lessons of Florence

There was not a time in my life when I thought I would hungrily read a 537 page book on marketing strategies.  Of course there was a time when the idea of living abroad never would have occurred to me either.  I’m actually, contrary to all evidence, not an adventurous woman.  But I guess I believe in things.  And it’s this belief more than anything that drives me daily and drove me originally so far away from home.  And…. which sparks interest in certain things and connects them for me at this stage in my life.  I find most things here both interesting and more times than not an enormous challenge.  Even a book on strategies for marketing the performing arts which is written clearly and even inspirationally is something that can’t be taken for the straight-forward guide it was intended to be given where I am.  We need intelligent marketing, of course, in order to grow FITC.  But our markets are so -  very different - that it offers a huge challenge to know how to articulate what we want to communicate.

I was sitting in a bar in Milan yesterday with Emily, who you may remember from Christmas three years ago. 

She’s my friend from college who’s lived here 22 years and is married to Franco a great man and musician.  They are very intrigued by what I am doing in Florence and feel there is a strong possibility of collaborative work between here and Milan.  Franco contacted an old friend and very well-connected actor to meet us for a coffee.  He wanted to talk to him about FITC and see what could be done to help me.  Alfeo was very nice.  He listened to everything Franco was saying (I let him explain about FITC first) and then he asked me some random questions in that way that always makes me a little tense…. he would ask the question, I would try to answer it, then he would stop me before I was finished and say he didn’t understand and ask another question.  This happens a lot when I meet Italians.  I finally - in this bar in Milan - came to understand a bit better why.  Because, even if we are speaking the same language - Italian in this case - we are NOT speaking the SAME language.  He would rush to conclusions of what I was saying before I finished speaking because his references are different.  Culturally.  And THIS is why - even after 3 years of speaking about what FITC is - of defining and re-defining it, Italians still don’t - for the most part - GET what it is.  There is no such thing as regional theatre in Italy.  The average theatre company travels around the state.  They don’t even have a phrase for community outreach which is a stong aspect of FITC’s mission.  This became so incredibly clear to me….. that as passionate as I am, as much work as we have done, as many initiatives and projects as we have created….. the concept which is the basic core of FITC is not clear.  Because it can’t be.  Yet.

So…. what’s a Producing Artistic Director living in a foreign land with her 537 page “Standing Room Only: Strategies for Marketing the Performing Arts” book to do?  Well, I’m going to finish the book, and figure out how to talk to my Italian audience and future audience in a way they can understand we offer them something they would really enjoy and benefit from.  And Alfeo’s going to help.  He’s going to set up an interview for me on a large local television station.

Of course I’m not really sure if he’s doing that because he finally “got” what FITC is…. or because, apparently, he finds me attractive.

However…. culturally speaking, and from the chapter I read on the train back to Florence: “Target Markets and Positioning the Offer”…. maybe my book will guide me well in Italy…. as long as I remember to wear lipstick, smile nicely, and let the nice Italian men finish my sentences for me!

Ciao ragazzi!  Never a dull moment in “Floville” as my friend says.

Bari