By FRANK CERVANTES
Managing Executive Editor
Students have two more days to enter their names into a lottery for their chance to win a ticket to the triennial Faculty Follies performance.
Tickets for the show will only be sold through the lottery created by the organizational Faculty Follies committee to prevent the long lines, disorganization and potential scalping witnessed in previous sales.
“What we realized was at Winter Formal and the other dances there was a good system with [students] checking in,” Faculty Follies Committee Head and World Language teacher Mr. Chris Esposito said. “So we knew we needed a system to make sure students could only buy one ticket.”
Sign-ups began Tuesday and will remain open until Friday, April 12 at 3:00PM.
From April 14 to 19, winning students will receive a confirmation email and will have until 3:15 PM the following school day to pay for their ticket, according to the Google Form application.
Tickets will be linked to student ID accounts, with unclaimed tickets recycled back into the lottery. Winning students will have the option of picking which day to attend: Thursday, April 25, Friday, April 26 or Saturday, April 27.
“Of course, those who win the lottery Sunday will get to pick their [preferred] day first,” Esposito said. “ Whoever gets picked on Thursday, there’s no way to know what days will still be opened.”
The change was inspired by the current method of selling tickets utilized by third-party vendors for professional musical productions. The Broadway musical Hamilton and the two-part stage play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child were two examples that came into mind when deciding whether to switch the way Follies tickets were sold.
When deciding whether to change the traditional method of ticket sales used in previous years to the current lottery system, the Follies committee discussed whether or not seniors would be prioritized, as was the case in prior years.
“It was split on the committee,” Esposito said. “We see ‘seniors get priority because seniors get priority,’ but seniors also had the chance to possibly see it twice [as will be true for this year’s freshmen].”
According to committee member Ms. Barbara Smith, the deciding factor in switching to the lottery system was ensuring each student has “an equal opportunity to see the show.”
The lottery will be conducted by committee member and Mathematics teacher Mr. Eric Shulman.
“I feel like its a lot more fair in this manner,” ASB Student Representative senior Neiman Araque said. ”Although there may be a handful of seniors that [may not be able to attend], this is the only time for the juniors and sophomores to see the performance too…seniors should be held to the same standards.”
Of the 2,309 students currently attending UHS, nearly half, or 1,104, can attend one of the three show nights.
“We are considering ways to perform some of the acts for those who didn’t get to go, but that would be for a future performance year,” Esposito said.
The committee considered a possible Sunday matinee as well as a second show week but neither received enough support from the performing faculty.
The 2016 Faculty Follies performance raised $10,600, with $9,000 awarded to students in a three year period through the Future Educator Scholarship (FES).
The FES can be awarded to any senior who intends to teach in the future and completes the online application under the College and Career’s Financial Aid and Scholarships page on the UHS website.
Faculty Follies tickets to be sold Monday
April 11, 2019
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