Whatever Their Arts Desire

Some people approach the New Year with resolutions, others with wishes. Some resolutions and wishes concern our personal lives, others concern professional matters.

And sometimes, it all overlaps.

We recently asked local arts leaders what was at the top of their wish lists, and what resolutions they might make, both personally and professionally.

Most arts leaders want more time to themselves; travel and getting into better shape are priorities. They all want increased support for their organizations. Beyond that, responses ran a gamut from frothy to fiercely serious.

Here are a few of the highlights:

Patrick Veitch, general director, Opera Pacific.

Wish list/personal:

“A vacation in Tuscany and the time to take it. No, make that to move there for the rest of my life and be able to afford it.”

Wish list/professional:

“That Bill Gates retires, moves to Orange County and pursues a secret passion for opera.”

Bill Gates has a passion for opera?

“I don’t know. But I sure wish he did, and if he did, I sure don’t want him to pursue it somewhere else. You’d see [Wagner] Ring cycles . . . and all the Meyerbeer you ever dreamed of!”

Resolution/personal:

“Learn to love Handel operas. I produced one before. I find him very, very long and very, very repetitive. But I’m going to give him another try. A great composer deserves two or three chances.”

Naida Osline, director, Huntington Beach Art Center.

Wish list/personal:

“More play time, more rain.”

Wish list/professional:

“I would wish for what everyone would wish for: A large, adventurous, magnanimous mystery donor who’s anonymous.”

Why anonymous?

“The whole idea of no strings attached. Plus the surprise of it.”

Resolution/personal:

“Not yet, not yet. . . . The problem with resolutions is you have to keep them, otherwise you get into the habit of breaking them. . . .”

Tom Bradac, director, Shakespeare Orange County.

Wish list/personal and professional:

“Top of my wish list for 1997 is to make a full-color film of Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream.’ I just need funding.

(“It’s a wish, not a reality.”)

Resolution/professional:

“To do our best to increase our equity actor ratio.”

Lou Spisto, executive director, Pacific Symphony.

Wish list/personal:

“That life after 40 is all that it’s supposed to be.”

Wish list/professional:

“Pretty standard. I’m looking for the largest audiences and the most generous donors that we can find for the orchestra. I’m looking for sold-out houses, and a balanced budget, and orchestra members that are not only artistically stimulated by what we do, but proud to be part of the organization.

“As always.”

Resolution/personal:

“I make this one every year: I’m going to try to get up early and work out in the morning instead of night. It usually doesn’t happen.”

Mark Johnson, board chairman, Orange County Performing Arts Center.

Wish list/personal:

“Spend lots of time playing with my new grandson. Survive upcoming adventure travel with my young stepsons--we’re contemplating Patagonia and Antarctica.”

Wish list/professional:

“To find that special president for the Performing Arts Center--someone who can walk on water, has the wisdom of Solomon and the patience of Job.”

William Hall, music director, Master Chorale of Orange County.

Wish list/personal:

“I have a lot of wishes. Most of them are being answered.”

Wish list/professional:

“That the new hall at the Orange County Performing Arts Center will be a choral hall, an orchestra hall; Segerstrom Hall is simply too large for the regional groups.

“Segerstrom Hall is the highest-priced hall [for presenters] in the world. They keep saying they give regional groups a break, but if you breathe hard they charge you for it. . . . They already charge 10% of ticket sales on top of fees charged for the house. Now they’re [suggesting an increase of] another 5%. That makes it not only the most expensive house in the world, but the most expensive house in the universe.”

Janet Baker, director of public programs, Bowers Museum of Cultural Art.

Wish list/professional:

“To travel as much as possible. The caveat is that most of my travel opportunities are going to be involved in education and academic exchange in China. I’m hoping to make more people in Orange County aware that as we approach the 21st century, Asian culture is going to be more and more important on a global scale.”

Resolution/personal:

“To work toward maintaining health and energy so I’ll be up for all that travel. . . . When women reach a certain age, this becomes very important. You can no longer rely on the energy of youth, you have to cultivate it.”

Naomi Vine, executive director, Orange County Museum of Art.

Wish list/personal:

“A trip to Venice, Italy.”

Wish list/professional:

“There are things we really need. One is a 25-foot panel truck for moving works of art. We end up renting them all the time. We have a small van, but it’s just not large enough. Maybe somebody has one in the garage that they don’t need. We also need a new fax machine. The old one works most of the time but not all of the time.”

Resolution/personal:

“To spend more time horseback riding.”

Dean Corey, executive director, Philharmonic Society of Orange County.

Resolution/personal:

“Not to add any more bad habits to the ones I already have. As opposed to getting rid of ones I do have.”

Resolution/professional:

“Do with less paper. I’ve got to cut down on paper. And I don’t mean news.”

Martin Benson, artistic director, South Coast Repertory.

Wish list/personal:

“That I actually buy some furniture for the new house I bought three years ago. . . . That I try not to buy any more dilapidated airplanes and fix them up, and get my beloved Stearman biplane to start real good when the engine is hot.” (Benson is an aviation nut who owns four vintage aircraft; the Stearman was built in 1941.)

Wish list/professional:

“That all the talented writers of plays throughout the English-speaking world think of South Coast Repertory first when they think of having one of their plays produced.”

Resolution/personal:

“As I do every year, that I get back down to 175 given all the delicious food of the holidays, which I don’t eschew as I should.”

Resolution/professional:

“That I continue to demand the most of myself, in no way allow myself to rest on any putative laurels, to work as hard on every project as I did when we started 33 years ago.”