Turn Your Cell Phone On! continues with George Balanchine's The Nutcracker

Turn Your Cell Phone On!, an innovative new audience texting campaign, to be featured during select Pennsylvania Ballet performances of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker
As part of the PNC Arts Alive grant program, Phillyfunguide and the Pennsylvania Ballet will feature Turn Your Cell Phone On! live polling during performances December 26-31 at the Academy of Music 

John McInerney
Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance
johnm@philaculture.org; 610-399-3515

(Philadelphia)-During selected Pennsylvania Ballet performances of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker, Phillyfunguide will present Turn Your Cell Phone On!, a live polling service that will allow attendees to text instant responses to questions about the performance direct from their cell phones.  The answers will be displayed live at the Academy of Music, as well as online at both www.Phillyfunguide.com and www.paballet.org. Turn Your Cell Phone On! is an initiative of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance and is funded through the PNC Arts Alive grant initiative.

The Turn Your Cell Phone On! campaign will encourage audience engagement during intermission as well as at the end of each of The Nutcracker performances December 26-31. This is the second time this program has occurred, the first time being at this summer’s 2009 Live Arts Festival. 

"Turn Your Cell Phone On! is a fun and interactive use of technology that increases audiences engagement at live performances,” says Peggy Amsterdam, President of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance. “People can use their cell phones to pick their favorite characters and scenes, then share that information instantly with the rest of the audience.”

The program uses SMS, or texting technology, which is available on the majority of consumer mobile phones. The Cultural Alliance will not charge for submitting a text comment and no personal data will be collected from participants. The goal is to encourage audience interaction.

“The Nutcracker is a cherished part of the holiday and everyone has their favorite element of the show,” Pennsylvania Ballet Artistic Director Roy Kaiser says. “This campaign is a fun way for audiences to share their enthusiasm for the performance and engage with other patrons.”

The questions and answer choices for The Nutcracker performances are:
At intermission: What character would you like to be?
Answer choices: Marie, Nutcracker Prince, Soldier, Mouse King, Snowflake
After the show: What was your favorite scene?
Answer choices: Angels, Hot Chocolate, Candy Canes, Mother Ginger & her Polichinelles, Sugarplum Fairy & her Cavalier

Audiences can also add more detailed reviews on Phillyfunguide.com. Audience poll results can be viewed online beginning at the intermission of the December 26th 2pm performance by visiting http://www.phillyfunguide.com/turnyourcellphoneon

The following performances will feature the Turn Your Cell Phone On! program:

Saturday, December 26th, 2:00 PM
Saturday., December 26th, 7:00 PM
Sun., December 27th, 12:00 PM
Sun., December 27th, 4:00 PM
Mon., December 28th , 2:00 PM
Mon., December 28th , 7:00 PM
Tue., December 29th , 12:00 PM
Tue., December 29th , 4:00 PM
Wed., December 30th ,12:00 PM
Wed., December 30th , 4:00 PM
Thu., December 31th , 12:00 PM

Ticket prices range from $24 to $129. For more information on Pennsylvania Ballet’s George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker, please visit www.paballet.org.

“This is the kind of pioneering project that puts Philadelphia at the forefront nationally,” said Bill Mills, president of PNC for Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey.  “Turn Your Cell Phone On! is perfectly aligned with our goals for PNC Arts Alive to promote audience participation and innovative use of technology.”

The Turn Your Cell Phone On! program is part of Phillyfunguide, an online events calendar produced by the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance. It includes information on thousands of leisure events and attractions. Nearly two dozen cultural, tourism, and media organizations partner with Phillyfunguide, including the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation (gophila.com), the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau, WXPN, the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia, and Dance/USA Philadelphia. A complete list of partners is available at www.Phillyfunguide.com/OurPartners.

Turn Your Cell Phone On! is a project of Phillyfunguide and funded by PNC Arts Alive, a five-year, $5 million initiative to support the visual and performing arts through innovative audience engagement.  Additional information on PNC Arts Alive is available at www.pncartsalive.com. The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE: PNC) (www.pnc.com) is one of the nation’s largest diversified financial services organizations providing retail and business banking; residential mortgage banking; specialized services for corporations and government entities, including corporate banking, real estate finance and asset-based lending; wealth management; asset management and global fund services.

Phillyfunguide support is also provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts and the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes a great nation deserves great art.

Phillyfunguide is a part of the Cultural Alliance’s  Engage 2020 initiative, an effort by the Cultural Alliance to increase cultural engagement in Greater Philadelphia through research, marketing and innovative approaches to cultural participation.