10. PUBLICITY

PUBLICITY

GETTING THE WORD out about your show, or at least having a strategy for how you’ll do that, needs to begin early—before casting and before you even secure your theatre, about the same time you decide to self-produce. That’s because you’ll likely want to hire a publicist and the best ones get booked up months in advance. You can always do your own publicity--make up postcards and take out some adds--but I think you should hire someone experienced and well-connected in PR if you hope to get the best critics to see your show and have a sold-out run.

Getting audiences is NOT easy—not even for the bigger “better” theatres. If you have a star—and I mean STAR—in your cast, that’s one thing. But I see promotional material all the time saying something like: “A New Play by Elena T. Ruggiero,” (who?) “Starring Robert Urianisk” (who?) “as seen on Little Blip Theory, Cosmic Family… “ The point is, theatres try to pump up non-stars to star status hoping you’ll come see their shows. It sometimes works, by the way, so kudos for effort. But unless you have a real star in your show, I think you’re going to need help getting your show reviewed (hopefully positively) so you can use those reviews to pull in audiences. If your show gets some great notices from the more important media outlets—even without a star—you’ll most likely be able to put those “butts in seats” (B.I.S.).

In Los Angeles, there are only a handful of publicists considered “worth it” in small theatre. But they don’t come cheap; their fees are usually representing a good portion of your budget. Our publicist, Lucy Pollak charges about $3,000. Lucy and I started talking about Villa Thrilla six to eight months before we began casting. That was lucky, because had it been two months out, she couldn’t have taken the job. She already had shows lined up for the same time frame as it was. But some publicists, like designers, can handle more than one show at a time. Do ask your prospective publicist how many other shows he/she will be working on concurrently with yours. There is a point at which she can no longer handle the needs of all her clients and you want to avoid your publicist having two openings on the same night.

Getting the press to notice you is huge and made easier by having a good, reputable publicist who has solid relationships with critics. If, however, you are lucky enough to have Cate Blanchett or Stephen Tobolowsky in your play, chances are you could draft a press release yourself and people would come. So be realistic–how much effort do you want to put into selling your show? Your efforts will be on top of rewriting during the rehearsal period, and all your other production duties. Take off your playwright hat for a minute, and look at your play as a package. Would you–if you knew nothing about your show and knew no one in it, nor anyone who had seen/liked it—select your show to see out of the hundreds of offerings on a given night? And that’s just theatre offerings. How many times have you said to yourself, “Ahhhh, I’ll just stay home and watch TV”? If you’re honest with yourself, you’ll likely realize you need help to make your show stand out somehow. That’s the publicist’s job.

Here are a few things a good theatre publicist will help you with:

1.    Brainstorm how to publicize your show and come up with a pitch or pitches to sell to local and (when appropriate) national media outlets—TV, newspapers, online blogs, radio stations, magazines etc.;

2.    Assist and give input about actor and director choices, letting you know if any of your options have some cache or marketability in your area;

3.    Draft your press release and disseminate to any and all critics and media outlets. Then follow up by phone and email;

4.    Call key critics early, asking them to calendar your opening night. Your publicist may not be able to get a given critic to come, but she’ll at least be able to get that person on the phone;

5.    Arrange for a production still photographer to shoot a dress rehearsal, and get those photos out to media;

6.    Help plan and hype opening night and opening night party;

7.    Choosing graphics and advertising buys—online and in trades and local papers;

8.    Get you, your cast or members of your team interviews—online, on radio, TV and trades;

9.    Create press kits to give to critics as they arrive to see your show;

10. Coordinate with your ticketing services and house manager to ensure when critics reserve seats (for free) those seats are booked out and not subsequently sold;

11. Assist with social media promotion. Lucy was not particularly savvy in this area but our talented Associate Producer, Jerusha Aimee Liu was. Jerusha built the Villa Thrilla website, Tweeted and also created Facebook posts and giveaways for the show. This is becoming more and more important as social media becomes more prevalent and accepted.

As mentioned in a previous post, Villa Thrilla, was hampered by several factors in getting audiences: We had no stars nor did we have a recognizable name for the writer, producer or director, so the show was a hard sell. Nor could we get anyone to review the show on opening night; perhaps because twelve other shows opened in LA on the same evening. Realistically, though—had there been only eight, we still would have been way down any critic’s priority list. There’s so much good theatre to choose from here. Even after opening, we had a hard time getting certain critics to in. The top ones, the most trusted ones, never came.

And as the reviews we did get came in, though most were very good, they did not, unfortunately, carry much weight. See, anyone can start a website and call himself a critic. We also had one really bad review from a recognizable website/blog. This is my sour grapes story but I knew we were in trouble when I saw a particular man enter the theatre one day and was told he was a critic. He truly was among the most miserable-looking people I’ve ever seen. Scowling, angry at the world—or perhaps just angry with his boss for sending him to see our no-name play on a lovely Sunday afternoon. What a perfect choice to review a farce! Not. There was no way—if this guy’s face was any indication—that he would find anything positive to say. And he didn’t!

To sum up: If you’re going to self-produce your show—given all the work that entails—you probably want people to see it. So before you get too far into the process, assess how difficult it will be to get audiences, bearing in mind things like the appeal of your subject matter/cast, location of your theatre, parking and even the local restaurants. Do you want to spend time promoting your show in addition to everything else you’re doing? If not, think about hiring a publicist. If, on the other hand, you think you can get butts in seats with no help from a professional, more power to you. May you fill your house every night with enthusiastic audiences!

Next Up: Making it through the rehearsal process

11. GETTING THROUGH REHEARSALS

GETTING THROUGH REHEARSALS

In the theater things don’t always happen in a nice, sequential and unstressful order. And in Equity-waiver theatre—read low-budget—things not going as planned is the order of the day. Meaning a playwright doesn’t often have the luxury of a wonderful space to work in, fabulous designers to bring her vision to life, a positive casting period during which actors ideal for the roles you’ve written show up to audition and a smooth but exciting rehearsal period where each rehearsal builds upon the last; until finally your show peaks on opening night in front of an appreciative audience with top critics in attendance loving your play who would then write great reviews. Oh, would that it were so easy! In fact, getting a play up is more a case of overcoming obstacles—whether those obstacles be physical or mental. And with Villa Thrilla, we had our share of both.

Once we had our cast—a challenge in itself and no fault of the casting director—rehearsal began with just four weeks until opening night. Four weeks is not much time when you’re mounting a new play with a cast of ten; particularly when it seemed impossible to get all the actors to the same rehearsals, even though the play they’d signed on to do required that their characters be on stage at the same time.

You do your best to get peoples’ schedules ahead of time in order to plan rehearsals but a few people in our cast apparently hadn’t heard about looking at a calendar to verify their availability before committing to doing Villa Thrilla. Did they not know about Yom Kippur or their Mother’s birthday when they signed on? We also lost a cast member one week into rehearsals, lost another cast member for a week and a half when a parent 2000 miles away became sick and a were burdened by a third cast member who was so difficult to work with we wanted to lose him but couldn’t because replacing him would have meant losing another cast member we liked and there just wasn’t time to get new people up to speed.

The fact that we didn’t have all the actors to rehearse with when we needed them, and when they’d agreed to be there before we hired them, made more work for Gary Lee Reed (Director), Josephine Austin (Stage Manager) and me. Gary couldn’t tell what he was looking at with the stage missing up to five people at any given rehearsal, which resulted in his having to block scenes multiple times. Josie was constantly changing blocking in her master script and having to phone errant actors who were late or hadn’t shown up. And I was not able to watch and rewrite during rehearsals, something I’d been counting on. Why couldn’t I? Because I was standing-in for missing cast members—often two or three of them in the same scene. I spent my rewrite time dashing around the stage speaking with multiple dialects and vocal timbres providing “real” people for the actors (who had actually shown up) to rehearse with. Some nights, we wanted to strangle someone—usually someone who was missing—and yet, we had to try to remain upbeat for those who bothered to come. What would be gained by screaming? I don’t know we didn’t try it. I had hoped the rehearsal period would be a gloriously fruitful time when my script would change and grow in leaps and bounds. But alas, I didn’t get to have that luxury on this one.

Being an AEA actor as well as a playwright, I like to think I understand actors but when I put my producer hat on for Villa Thrilla, I was shocked by the behavior of some of my fellow thespians. Emergencies are one thing but it would never occur to me to commit to doing a show, commence rehearsals and then spring a few “unavailable” dates on the producers. In retrospect, I would have helped myself by choosing a play with a smaller cast but I’ve already explained why I chose this play in the post entitled THE PLAY’S THE THING

Shockingly, we did not have our entire cast onstage at the same time until five days before opening. And the only thing I can say by way of comfort if you’re considering producing your play is that once we got to tech, the actors were mostly great. They showed up for the remainder of rehearsals and performances and, for the most part, knew their lines. So you may get a few more gray hairs, but if you hire professionals, they will be there when it matters—for them.

Next up: Ticketing

12. TICKETING

TICKETING

A playwright friend told me a story about how her first play was a week from opening when she realized they hadn’t accounted for how tickets were going to be sold. That’s TOO LATE! Once you’re in rehearsals (and regardless of how they’re going) you should already be selling tickets to your show, or at least figuring out how to.

There are lots of ways to sell tickets; too many, really. So, if your budget allows, this is where you might be best served by hiring a box office manager or combo box office manager/ticketing person/”front of house” manager. This person should know how theatre tickets get sold in your region and have the experience to help you choose the best, easiest way to do it. And when I say best and easiest I mean best and easiest for your potential customers, i.e., your paying audience; not you. Because believe me, they’re different.

Have you ever showed up to something, expected to buy a ticket and been told they only take cash? Or you’re online and whatever site you’re on doesn’t take a certain credit card? If you don’t want to lose a prospective customer, you want to make it easy for him or her to buy a ticket to your play. If you don’t care about selling tickets or have such a small house, short run and built in audience that it’s not worth setting up multiple ways for people to buy tickets, then forget all this. But that’s not most shows and certainly not most plays that are self-produced.

I recommend setting up some combination of making tickets available online, by phone and at the door. Figuring out what will work best for your show isn’t hard, it’s just one of those time consuming jobs that needs to be done.

Starting with online ticketing sites, there are several to consider. We used Brown Paper Tickets: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/createevent.html.

BPT lets you choose your ticket price and how many tickets will be available through them. The site allows ticket purchasers to enter discount codes (that you disseminate via any number of ways) and keeps track of it all. At any time before online sales close before a given performance, you can see how many tickets have been sold and who bought them using which codes. And BPT paid us for tickets sold within a few days of performance.

Then there’s Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com which is similar in functionality to BPT but seems to be used for more “one off” types of events.

Each of these sites takes a percentage of ticket sales and will deposit net proceeds into a bank account or via other means such as a PayPal account that you choose at the set-up stage.

In LA, we also have a full-service ticketing and promotional site called Plays-411: https://www.plays411.net/newsite/ticketagency/ticketagency.asp 

Plays411 offers ticketing as well as other services, including email blasts about your show that go out to their very large list and “hosting’ your show’s informational page. This last feature is great if you choose not to get a dedicated URL for your show as we did with villathrilla.com. There you can provide reviews, cast member info, pictures and the like. Publicists like Plays 411 because they can go into the site and directly book Press tickets. But do your due diligence. Not only does Plays 411 take an up front fee plus a percentage of sales, several producers told me Plays-411 can take longer to pay you for tickets sold. The amount of lag time can be critical if you are hoping to use ticket sales to pay actors and other expenses in the later weeks of your show.

You’ll also want to register with Goldstar https://www.goldstar.com which has become the go-to place to search for discount tickets (even though the practice is controversial due to the forcing down of ticket prices). If your graphics and logline grab people here, you can even pull in people to your show that might never have learned about it otherwise.

Something else a producer should consider in LA, apropos ticketing is the Ovation Awards, managed by the LA Stage Alliance http://lastagealliance.com  To be considered for an Ovation award, you need to be a member theatre (or affiliated with a member, as we were) and your show needs to run for at least 6 weeks. You also need to make tickets to your show available to Ovation voters for free. Ovation voters will then use the LAStage Alliance website to reserve their tickets. (Additional discounted tickets can be made available here too, though we didn’t pull in anyone other than voters from this site.)

All of these outlets will get your show in front of prospective ticket buyers and give them an opportunity to buy. But I’m sure you can see the downside to having multiple outlets: Checking in with each of them to determine how many tickets have been sold for a given performance. This can be a headache and even a nightmare if you have a hit show, though granted a good nightmare to have. You have to decide how many tickets you will give each outlet to sell at what price, sometimes changing that number if one site is running low. Invariably mistakes get made and you and your various outlets have created a situation where more tickets have been sold than you have seats. The whole thing requires monitoring and that takes time.

Then there are phone and “at the door” sales, and believe me, there is a large, generally older segment of the population that still prefers one of these two ways of buying tickets. They just feel better talking to a real person. We didn’t want to pay for a new phone number or use our own. So we got a free phone number through Google, which allowed us to both set up an informational outgoing message and gave callers an opportunity to leave a message. We’d then pick up the messages and call people back to take a credit card number for their ticket purchase.

As for sales at the door, we accepted cash, check and credit cards through our Square account. There are a lot of different mobile credit card applications now so again, choose the one best for you and your customers. The percentages the different companies take off each sale varies but I don’t think you don’t need to sign up for more than one service.

We had a master list for each performance compiled that afternoon from all the different outlets we were using so we knew who to expect. As people arrived, we gave them programs for entry. This is what most theatres in LA do these days. With most people buying tickets online and having the ability to print a receipt, there’s really no need to print up tickets. But if you want to, there are plenty of services that will take your money.

In closing, whatever means you choose to offer tickets to the public, may you sell out your houses and make your money back!

Next up: Opening Night

13. OPENING NIGHT

OPENING NIGHT

GETTING A PLAY READY for an audience can be exciting, hard work. It can also be torturous, expensive and maybe even fun. But I don’t think it’s the producers who experience much of that last one. Understanding ticketing (the subject of the previous post) and all its 21st century permutations will likely be the least of your concerns. Filling seats may be critical to your show’s financial viability. But being artistically ready for that audience trumps all in terms of the show’s critical success and your play’s future. If it’s not, you might find yourself returning money when you delay opening or close early because you never should have opened in the first place.

Villa Thrilla needed more time to be ready for an audience but we forged ahead, despite encountering more than our share of obstacles. We had four weeks for rehearsal, which could have been enough, but one week in we lost a key actor in our 10-character show and it took another 10 days to find a replacement. Several actors were sick, or otherwise didn’t make it to rehearsal a lot. They had auditions, sick parents and/or needed to leave the state to attend religious holidays, which had somehow appeared on the calendar after they turned in their conflict sheets, a situation that made us pull our hair out and surely contributed to the lack of readiness.

Villa Thrilla was also a brand new play, which could have benefited from workshopping, a luxury I couldn’t afford. Rewrites were needed for any number of reasons—bits didn’t work, actors had trouble with lines, our set would not accommodate the actions I’d written or, and here’s a good reason to rewrite, I found ways to say things more concisely. All these rewrites meant new pages daily until Gary (our director) finally said “Stop!” I didn’t want to kill multiple trees in this process so I’d bring in new pages to insert into existing scripts. Well, this was a failure with most actors having the “old page 6–A-2” or whatever it was. This reached a devastating conclusion at what must have been among the worst designer stumble-throughs in the history of theatre. It brought new meaning to the phrase “not on the same page.” Our well-mannered lighting designer wore an expression of embarrassed dread. I was feeling it too.

Then there were the stage and set preparations that went awry. The scrim was measured wrong or so said the construction crew. Or was it that the construction crew cut the scrim wrong, thereby screwing up the designer’s measurements? We had to buy more of this expensive scrim. Critical personnel were rarely there at the same time so communication broke down. We had plenty of time to build the set before opening (though all would agree it was an elaborate set) but we had delay after delay with causation and responsibility difficult to ascertain. Promises made, broken, remade and broken again. And if you’ve been reading these posts, you might remember the “couch” issue, where I drove all over LA wasting gas and checking out couches that would meet the expectations of the set designer, Gary and my wallet. I painted the floor myself, because it had to be done on a certain day and there was no one else to do it. And there were lots of other challenges with getting the set ready in time, though once it was up and functioning we were all very happy and it received its own share of good reviews.

Failure is not an option as one is negotiating all the obstacles one is faced with in getting a show up. It’s just a question of how you will compromise on your vision with the materials you have to work with, keeping in mind that vanishing time horizon as opening night draws near. Then you get to tech week, which can be so torturous Anne Washburn wrote a play about it called 10 of 12, in which the entire show within a show implodes.

Our first day of tech represented the first time all the actors were present for rehearsal since the first read-through, so for me it was less torturous than most other rehearsals. Tech is the rehearsal when actors run through the bits of the show when light and sound cues occur. All that gets put into a computer for the Stage Manager to run during performances. Fortunately for Villa Thrilla, we had an unbelievably patient, knowledgeable and kind stage manager in Josephine Austin. Throughout the entire process and despite all the turbulence, Josie remained unflappable and held us all together.

With tech over, Josie took control and we were ready for our two previews. No obstacles to overcome appeared on either night. Costumes, the set, make-up, the board—everything worked. People came to watch and both previews went well. We made a tweak or two to sound/light cues but nothing major. There were still quite a few bungled or forgotten lines—no wonder with so few rehearsals— but with ten actors onstage, someone usually knew where they were and could get the play back on track. All of us felt pretty good about the show we’d made and were looking forward to opening.

Finally, the Saturday morning of opening night dawned. Everything was ready to go. Our associate producer, Jerusha Aimee Liu had arrangements for the after party in hand. Wine, beer and concessions to sell at intermission had been purchased. A few critics would be in attendance though none from the top newspapers or blogs, despite our publicist’s best efforts. I knew what I was going to wear and there was nothing more to be done. So I rose early and went on a hike. About halfway in, my brother called throwing down the last obstacle I would need to surmount for the coming evening. His call was to tell me our father had died. Though it wasn’t a complete surprise it was still devastating. Not only because I loved my father, but I had planned to see him two days later, as soon as the show opened. I sat down on a rock and cried, questioning the timing of it all. I might have spent several hours on that rock but I had to get on with it. As things went, opening night went by in a blur. I was too filled with sorrow to be worried about anything that might go wrong and yet being at the theatre that night kept me from wallowing in grief. I didn’t watch the show but from the audience response, I knew it had gone well.

Next up: Critics

14. CRITICS – How much should you care?

CRITICS – How much should you care?

Save a playwright, shoot a critic? Unwise, though many a playwright has thought about it. According to Bernardo Cubria, who helms a NY Theatre podcast called Off and On, “At some point in their lives, theatremakers develop hostility towards theatre critics.” To Bernardo I’d say, “Why bother?” One bad review doesn’t make or break a play, a playwright or a theatre, even if it feels that way and even if the person penning the review might like to think he’s got that kind of power. Similarly, a couple of great reviews won’t necessarily drive people to your play and turn it into a hit. And sometimes a bad review can even make people want to see a show.

If anyone remembers the controversial and often hostile New York Magazine critic, John Simon, now 90, you might know what I mean. His brand of theatre criticism was erudite but scathing and after reading a Simon review, I would often feel compelled to see the show that was the source of so much vitriol. A case in point was Joseph Papp’s Cymbeline. In Simon’s 1989 review of that show, he took apart (among other things) the actress, Joan Cusack, and her performance: “The heroine, considered by many, Shakespeare’s most golden girl and described right off as ‘divine Imogen’ is played by Joan Cusack, known from the movies as the low-comedy, lower-class, addlepated or wisecracking, homely sidekick of the leading lady. Here she looks like a travesty of Tenniel’s Alice after ingesting EAT ME (but having grown more sideways than upward) and talks in her usual proletarian accent and in that breathlessly breathy voice we associate with Saturday Night Live parodies… Miss Cusack remains ‘unimogenable.’” You can read the whole review here. Yes, it’s cruel but I think it’s also a case of so much hate being the flipside of love. To work up the passion to be so nasty, at least he cares! I think it’s way better to be hated than leave the likes of John Simon wholly indifferent. Personally, I miss this type of theatre criticism because as cruel as people thought Mr. Simon to be, he knows the English language and theatre history and, best of all, he was entertaining to his readers (unless of course you happen to be the victim of his ad hominem evisceration that week). As a playwright and novelist who’s developed a thick skin, I’d rather have a scathing John Simon review than a milktoast blogger spewing my plot back at me anyday.

But back to you… “I need to get critics to see my show!” you say. “If I don’t, people won’t come!” Possibly, even probably. But there are plenty of stories about shows by no-name writers, starring people no one knows, that somehow get traction, and go on to be successful. When these shows finally do get reviewed it’s almost embarrassing for a critic to admit he’s so late to the party. See it’s hard being a critic, too. Think about it, if she says awful things about the work, she’s accused of being cruel; if she’s too nice, she’s pandering.

Critics are just there, like your set, and they have always had a symbiotic relationship with theatre as well as the other art forms. They have just been opining longer and louder so we have elevated their opinions above those of every other person seeing shows or movies or museum exhibitions. Maybe we shouldn’t care so much.

Jonathan Mandell, a member of the American Theatre Critics Association, has written about theater for Playbill, American Theatre Magazine, the New York Times, Newsday, Backstage, NPR.com and CNN.com, among other outlets. He currently blogs at  New York Theater and tweets as @NewYorkTheater. HowlRound, which bills itself as a “knowledge commons by and for the theatre community” invited Mandell to answer the question: “Are Theatre Critics Critical. An Update.” In the post he quotes Mark Twain (along with several others with varying perspectives) on the value of critics and the future of criticism in general. Mandell’s been in the trenches and I recommend all aspiring producers read the piece. But in essence, Mandell thinks theatrical criticism no longer has the sway it once did.

As touched on in previous posts, our need to be reviewed stems from our fear that without good notices, our show will somehow not have the legitimacy needed to fill seats. But this isn’t true. There are other ways to get people to buy tickets and we all need to think more creatively about how to do that. There are too many tiny theatrical presentations, at least in LA, for the critics who count to get to them all. And even if they could, there’s no guarantee they will review your show with the enthusiastic pull-quotes you need to promote it on posters, websites and ads.

But don’t worry, the economics of supply and demand have kicked in—at least in LA—and, as a result, several things have occurred. The first is that the limited supply of what I’ll call the “power” reviewers has created a vacuum that’s been partially filled by bloggers and others who call themselves critics. They write for online sites like Stage Happenings that don’t have much clout with the LA theatre intelligentsia. Even a good review from one of these folks won’t motivate most of your potential audience to buy tickets. And yet, you may feel having a few of these independent blogger types review your show is better than nothing? It’s not for me to say. I would argue, however, that you should consider fresh ways to promote your show rather than grovel at the feet of critics, particularly critics with no clout. It’s a waste of time.

But if getting a critic or two to review your show is of utmost importance, there’s a sure fire way to get at least one person to write it up and this presents the next item on the list of what’s been spawned by the reviewer vacuum: since April 2015, producers in Los Angeles can pay for the privilege of being reviewed. That’s right, for $150, (or less if your show’s a “fringe” show) you can pay the creators of the Lemon Meter who run the online review-aggregator site known as Bitter Lemons to review it. I don’t think an artist should ever have to pay to be reviewed, but you can read all about what’s called the “Bitter Lemons Initiative” (BLI) in the BL boss’s own (and excessive number of) words and decide for yourself: http://socal.bitter-lemons.com/learn/article/2456

Even if you pay for your BL review, it’s still not going to have the weight of a review from the LA Times or NPR. That’s because a lot of seasoned theatregoers still don’t even go online. They trust their big local newspaper and nothing else. It’s also because another part of the theatre-going population goes to shows to support friends, damn the reviews. In 99-Seat theatre in LA, which I attend at least a couple of times a week, I see the same people in the house over and over. The new folks are usually friends of cast members I’ve never met. This is fine but it goes to the question of who the audience is for small theatre. I submit that most of the people in the houses of waiver theatre are not there because of the reviews. We all know each other. That said, in order to be really successful, one needs to break out of that womb, as it were, and reach an audience that might be interested in your play if they simply heard about it. This might mean getting a star in a lead role or doing a play that’s particularly topical. So you see the problem isn’t really critics, it’s marketing and that starts way back when you’re considering what play of yours to produce.

As a group, critics are like any other profession. Some are good and some are terrible. Some have agendas they’re unable to put aside when writing a review. It rarely happens that everyone who sees your play, critic or not, is going to love it. What people think is out of your control. My advice: Don’t give critics that kind of power and just do your work. You didn’t write your play for critics and if you did, you might want to reassess your theatrical motives. Playwright and co-artistic director, Daniel Pinkerton, summed it up well in the comment section to Mandell’s post, “Does a bad review hurt some people? Yup. Is war hell? Yup. Next subject, please.”

Next up: The Wrap – Settling Accounts and Moving On

15. THE WRAP – Settling Accounts and Moving On

THE WRAP – Settling Accounts and Moving On

Eventually, closing night will arrive. Your actors will take their final bows and the people who worked so closely with you to bring your play to life, will go their different ways. All the work, all those sleepless nights, the worry, the bleeding of money, will cease. And when it’s over, you’ll be left with a sense of accomplishment, even if it’s tinged with a degree of sadness. You’ll also likely realize a few things you wished you’d known before you started. That’s what this post is about. It’s the cheat sheet of the whole Self-Production series with some “if only I’d knowns” tossed in. If you went to school for theatre management, all this may be overly simplistic. But for those of you who came to theatre production via an alternate path, here’s what I can tell you after having self-produced:

--Choose a show to produce that you believe in, one that people will want to see and for which you have a marketing plan to get people in the seats. If you’re an actor/producer, select a playwright who has a reputation that will entice audiences and critics to come. (Like these actors in Denver did with Rajiv Joseph’s Gruesome Playground Injuries) http://www.denvercenter.org/blog-posts/news-center/2015/07/29/a-gruesome-introduction-to-self-producing-live-theatre).

--Put together a reasonable budget, based on recent research in your area, talking to others who have produced and by getting bids from possible hires. Figure out where you’re getting the money to pay for your show and have most of it raised before you begin rehearsals. You shouldn’t count on selling tickets to cover your late-in-the-run costs. And worrying about how you’ll cover your commitments instead of your play will only lead to misery.

--Select a theatre which suits your play viz a viz the size of your set and cast, as well as for its location and other features. Make it easy for your audiences to get to and see your show. Think about a non-traditional venue for a non-traditional piece—a museum or a restaurant. Audiences enjoy novel experiences. LA based writer/producer Eric Rudnick suggests selecting a theatre where support is offered in the form of staff and equipment, and “Make sure you get names and numbers of everyone—box office, technical directors, concessions people, etc.— and establish communication early on.” Will they help you strike the set when your show closes? Make sure that’s in your contract.

--Choose your director, co-producer, designers, stage manager and builders with care. Make sure you get hard quotes from all the members of your team or you might suddenly find your budget blown on one line item. Playwright, Mary Portser, goes further saying, “Make sure you get solid commitments from all your hires for the time period you need them or you may find yourself scrambling at the last minute.” Ask questions—even if you feel silly doing so. Once rehearsals started, Rudnick discovered his otherwise fantastic stage manager had neither a car nor a smart phone. So she couldn’t be reached, nor could she be counted on to bring snacks and water to rehearsals. “Take nothing for granted,” he says.

--Select actors who are committed to their careers AND to your project. Vet people. Choose actors who ideally come with their own fan base who will be a draw to audiences. Having an actor of some renown in your show (if you can get one) will sell tickets. And if you’re a no-name playwright, self-producing your own work, this becomes even more important. You’re competing with other plays, TV shows, movies—you have to give people a reason to come see your show. If you’re using Equity actors, familiarize yourself with the union rules in place in your area.

--If you can afford to hire a publicist, hire one—ideally someone with social media savvy who knows how to use Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. And whether you have a publicist or not, establish your show’s social media presence at least as early as the start of rehearsals. Get your cast and crew onboard with promotion and sharing posts, tweets and any videos or pictures. If you’ve selected your play and team wisely, you’ll create a buzz through the exponential power of the Internet. Don’t forget to GGG—get good graphics! Have a visually provocative campaign with an intriguing logline to put on posters, postcards and ads.

--Register with various ticketing outlets to maximize visibility across all the possible platforms where tickets can be purchased. Develop creative strategies and synergies to sell those tickets. Offer discounts and giveaways, and develop cross-promotions with local businesses and restaurants. Try to get local business to have a stake in your show.

--Get critics excited about your show and secure their promise to see it as close to opening night as possible. If you have a publicist, he/she will be working on this for you. If it’s looking like the only way you’ll get a review is to pay for it, decide if it’s worth it to you. A lot of reviews and reviewers don’t carry much weight. You might be better-served using that money to draw audiences in a more creative way.

--Prepare for the unexpected because it will happen on the way to opening night. Rudnick suggests things will go smoother if producers keep the channels of communication open, “You don’t and can’t know everything so remain open to possibilities even while having a vision. Listen and try things before saying, ‘no.’ “

--Know it’s likely to be stressful. If you’re the type who gets stressed, figure out— ahead of succumbing—how you’ll deal with it. Playwright Portser says she didn’t realize the amount of work there would be the month before opening. “Between being at the theatre–for rehearsals, letting tech people in, cleaning the place, contacting people online, and then hunting for props, picking up flyers, programs, etc., it was a full-time job.”

--Surround yourself with kind, competent people with good follow-through and take care to be kind to EVERYONE who is helping you. The corollary to this is: If you are unkind, apologize immediately. It’s unlikely you’re paying people what they deserve. So if you go berserk on your production designer because an actor quit on you, say you’re sorry for taking it out on her. As Tiffany Antone says in her Little Black Dress Blog http://www.littleblackdressink.org/for-kendra-and-all-the-other-playwright-producers-in-the-room/ sometimes you’re the pain in the ass so be nice.

--Lastly, keep good financial records (or hire someone to do it). Hopefully you made money or at least broke even. But if not, and you’re facing a loss on your production, you may be able to write off those losses, particularly if you are a financially successful writer or actor in some other medium. But don’t quote me on that because I’m not a tax professional. A tax professional would probably advise a less risky venture.

For myself, and for the most part, I had blast self-producing my show, and in recounting for you my experiences doing it. Would I do it again? Absolutely. I hope you’ve enjoyed the ride along.

The Self-Production Series first appeared on the website of the Los Angeles Female Playwrights Initiative, LAFPI.com