Post-Show Evaluation — MARIA HARMAN

Whenever a show or event wraps, I try to schedule time on my calendar to evaluate very soon after. Yes, it’s good to evaluate the actual production, but there’s another piece to evaluation that often gets overlooked—the process.

I believe the process in creating a production is just as important as the production itself. If you’re leading a team and everything is last minute, half done, unorganized, or not communicated well, most likely, that team isn’t going to want to continue working on productions with you. There’s a lot to learn from the process, so take time to ask yourself some questions and really analyze it.

Here are a few questions I often ask myself:

What would have made the event/process easier?
What would have made the event/process better?
What could have been communicated better/differently?
What worked that was worth repeating in the future?
Knowing what you know now, what would you change? (It can range from any small detail to a big change.)
What do you wish you knew before the event/production?

Ask Others:

Try to circle up with different types of people who were involved with the event, and ask them some of those questions. Sometimes you think the process went well while others were frustrated about something you didn’t even realize was a problem. I love asking, “What else could I have done to make your time in this production better?”

Hot Tip:

If you’re leading a process, event, or production that you may lead again, take time to copy all of your communication into one GoogleDoc. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been grateful I did this. It’s not about being able to copy/paste exactly what I did the first time, but it’s always a great starting point. I find there are details in the communication that are good to remember to include or that I could have included earlier on in the process.

What questions do you ask in the evaluation process?