Point of Contact
The Butler Opera Center should provide an assigned contact person that will be the sole point of contact for the marketing designer during a single program’s production. The marketing designer will funnel all communication through this point of contact.
The programs office will only send proofs to and receive changes from the assigned point of contact; see details under Making Corrections below.
Submission Form
All Ensembles must submit a program submission form to begin the programs process. Programs must be submitted using the provided form.
Download the Opera Submission Form
Forms are due 30 days before your event.
Only official forms in Word (.docx) format will be accepted. We will not accept:
- Submissions in your own form or template
- Google doc links or Apple Pages documents
- PDFs
You can save Apple Pages or Google Documents as .docx files for submission.
Submit your form by uploading it here. Do not email it.
Synopses
The Programs office will provide an original synopses for your programs, usually included in the first draft of the program, and the opera team may make revisions during the corrections process. In most instances, you will not need to provide a synopsis.
Production Workflow
Opera Program Deadlines
The workflow for receiving a final program is as follows:| From Concert | Action |
|---|---|
| 37 Days | Programs office will email the ensemble contact a reminder with a new submission form. |
| 30 Days | Program submission is due. This is a hard deadline. Programs that are not submitted by the deadline will not be produced by the programs office. If you are missing some information, e.g. your roster is incomplete, you should submit as much information as possible by the deadline and plan to update the rosters during the proofing process. |
| 27 Days | First draft delivered. |
| 27-18 Days | Revision Period: Contact should solicit & collect revisions to the draft and submit them to the programs office promptly. For each round of changes received, the programs office will supply new drafts within 3 business days. The revisioning process is 15 days. the number of drafts you receive is entirely dependent on how promptly you submit corrections. The revision process is for making corrections, and simple additions, e.g. completing rosters, adding missing headshots, etc. Major additions to the program, like adding translations are generally not possible. |
| 18 Days | Your final set of corrections is due. This is a firm deadline. No corrections or additions will be considered after this date. |
| 18 Days | Your program will print in its current state. There are no exceptions. Completed programs are delivered to the box office by press staff. |
| 7 Days before your event | Opera programs must be picked up by BOC staff and delivered to McCullough Theatre. Programs can be picked up during normal box office hours. There are typically several boxes of programs, so you might enlist the help of another person to assist getting everything moved at once. PLEASE SAVE ALL BOXES. |
| After your final event | Please return all boxes to the box office. Failure to do so will result in your automatic enrollment as tribute in the hunger games. |
Reminders
The only reminder you will receive from the programs office is the initial email with the included submission form. the programs office will not send follow-up emails to remind you to proof your programs. It is your responsibility to ensure the program is finished by the 12-day deadline.
Please note all reminders are provided as a courtesy. Deadlines do not change, and it is your responsibility to submit programs on time, whether or not a reminder is received.
Degree Requirement Notations
A unique requirement of opera programs is that any M.M. or D.M.A. candidate who is receiving recital credit as part of the performance must be notated in the program. This is a requirement of the graduate school, and failure to do this can result in a lot of headaches for Butler Opera Center and their students.
For all programs please note all performers & crew who are receiving recital credit by placing the proper asterisk after their names:
* Denotes M.M. candidates receiving recital credit
† Denotes D.M.A. candidates receiving recital credit
Making Corrections
- The opera production leadership may choose who on their team should be included in the proofing process, however the marketing designer will correspond with only the assigned contact person. Have your point person distribute the proofs to your selected team, and collect edits from your team.
- Before sending corrections to the marketing designer, the point person should collect & collate all the changes into a single document or email, and ensure that none of the changes contain conflicting information. If there is a conflict, resolve the conflicting data internally before sending corrections.
- Whenever possible, an annotated PDF is the preferred method for receiving changes. You can use the markup tools provided in MacOS Preview to make clear changes throughout the proof. A single change-list in a Word document or the body of an email will also be accepted. The changes must be collated into a single list. Do not simply forward multiple change-lists from multiple email addresses.
- Please make every effort to send a single list of changes for every cycle. Upon receiving changes, a new draft is frequently generated on a quick turnaround, so multiple changes coming in at different times can cause confusion.
