Jill Kozloff ’09 was the first person to enter the Grasshopper Night Ticket Lottery last Thursday at 6:00 a.m. As one of the first 50 students to enter the lottery this year, she was automatically guaranteed tickets. This year’s system is a slight deviation from last year’s traditional lottery, in which all students had equal opportunity to receive tickets to a show. According to Malin Adams ’09, School President, the Student Council and the Department of Theater and Dance wanted to find a fair way to distribute Grasshopper Night tickets that both rewarded people who prioritized finding tickets and equalized distribution. According to Adams, 50% of the 699 students who entered the lottery did not receive tickets. “That’s a lot of unhappy people,” he said. “It’s unfortunate, but it is just impossible for every student to see Grasshopper Night every year.” To appease students who did not get tickets, Student Council proposed simul-casting the show to Kemper or online, but the Theater and Dance Department stressed the importance of Grasshopper Night remaining an entirely live show, so such an event is unlikely. Cam Boll ’09 thinks the new lottery system is a good idea, even though he did not win tickets this year. “It’s definitely easier and more fair since you can get the tickets from your room, and people who put in the effort to wake up early have a better chance of getting [tickets],” said Boll. Sophie Fourteau ’10, who also did not receive Grasshopper Night tickets this year, said, “I think having people wait in line is more fair because the people who really want tickets would wait in line and some people couldn’t access the link online. Just because someone was able to sign up earlier doesn’t mean that they want it more.” Fourteau added that she thinks that giving Seniors preference in the lottery might be a good idea. “Ideally, all Seniors should get to see [Grasshopper Night], but there’s probably no totally fair way to go about it.” Kozloff does not believe that Seniors should be given preference in the lottery but suggested instead that they be invited to the final dress rehearsal for Grasshopper Night as they are for Theater 520 performances. Adams said, “In the future [Grasshopper Night tickets might be distributed] more like the old system, based on first come, first serve.” He said that Student Council wants to respond to issues with the lottery now, so that next year’s council will be able to learn from this year’s data and move forward with knowledge of what works and what does not. Carl Jackson ’09, a Techmaster and Director of The Phillipian Online, wrote the program for the ticket lottery. According to Jackson, in the first half hour of the lottery, 120 people signed up and all hit their refresh buttons at the same time. As a result of this, many people received emails directing them to choose dates and showtimes, but could not open the link. Jackson said that the student Techmaster server, which did not have the capacity to handle the magnitude of activity, was responsible for problems with the site. “Most people agree that this year’s lottery was better than last year’s, which was down for hours at a time. I’ve only received one angry email,” Jackson said. Next year, the Technology Department will handle the online lottery system.
