The Overhelpful Production Member

God it’s been forever since I posted. Well, everyone, gather around for our next installment.

Those of you who have either been in a show, directed a show, designed a show, teched a show, or just knew someone who had some sort of doings with a show in general will know what I’m talking about here. There is always one member of any production who is so into what is going on that they overstep their boundaries and move into uncomfortable land. Sometimes it’s the actor who directs their fellow cast members. Sometimes its the Light Board operator who tells the Sound Designer what Curtain Call music to use. Whatever form this person takes, they can derail your production and seriously hurt your morale.

“How can they hurt my morale?”, you ask? Trust me, this is one of the worst things that can happen to a production. I had a friend of mine ask me that question with the caveat that these people are doing it out of the goodness of their heart and just want to help. She was surprised that her fellow actors hated this kind of person. “Doing it out of the goodness of their heart?” That’s precisely WHY they are so toxic.

You see, these types of people are completely oblivious to what they are doing. Their suggestions come from an honestly good place (most of the time, the malicious types is a different post for a different day) and really WANT to make the show better. That’s what makes it so hard to say anything to them, because you like the creativity, but hate their approach so you sit there and try to be nice to them until it’s too late. You end up festering. Which is WAY not good for the creative process.

AS a director, I find the best way to handle these people is to LISTEN to what your cast is saying about these people. Are they getting angry? I mean, just because you think someone is overstepping their bounds and giving direction where none has been requested doesn’t mean you actors necessarily mind. If your cast is starting to get annoyed, you have to stop it sooner rather than later.

I did a show where I handled it this way. I made a general announcement to the cast that I knew they were all excited about the show and had really good ideas, but to keep some kind of common theme, all ideas should go through me. If they had an idea of how something should look or sound, they should discuss it with me first and then, if I liked it, I would incorporate it into the show. This served two purposes. First, I wasn’t having actors just go off and do their own thing under the direction of someone else, and I was taking the heat off of everyone and putting it squarely on my shoulders.

Then the tricky part happened. Since I had basically given permission to these people to come discuss everything with me, I opened myself up to a lot of conversations and ideas regarding the show. The key here was to always listen to these people and talk with them over their ideas. Again, they came from a good place and they wanted to be that much more involved in the creative process, but there was really no room for that much conflicting information.

Listening was hard, especially if it’s always the same person with lots of ideas that kind of run in the opposite direction to your vision. You have to let them know whether the idea will work or not and WHY it won’t work. You don’t want to shut them down because all that does is destroy their creative process and then you get nothing from them and they resent you. Not good.

So remember, take the heat off your cast and listen to these people, even if they aren’t talking about their character or going in a different direction as you. Who knows, they may have a gem of an idea you haven’t thought of which WILL make the show better?

Analyzing Financials

So it’s budgeting time at the theatre and as Managing Director, I get to put together the budgets for the next season. Now, of course, my budgets aren’t set in stone the second I turn them in (if only….) and they often take a couple of months of give and take from various board of directors type people, but ultimately after this process we have a budget.

Sounds easy, right?

I Laugh at you.

There is nothing about this process that’s easy, but it’s so necessary, you have to get past the crap going into it and suck it up and do it. The budget is what your theatre SHOULD live and die by for the upcoming season. How are you going to know if your spending too much money? How do your producers know what their directors can spend? This is why it’s so vital to DO a budget.

I know, I know, we’re theatre people…we don’t do …..MATH. Guess what, open up Excel and suck it up. This is the single most important thing you can do to have a successful season. Here’s a couple of things I do when it comes to budgets

1. You can’t budget if you don’t know what your season is. Get on your Artistic Director and get them to pick your season. The earlier, the better as it gives you a lot of time to figure out what you may or may not need in terms of production costs. You can’t even get the first numbers down until you know what plays you are doing.

2. Do NOT ask directors what they need for cash Any director worth his salt is going to be thinking big and they will ask for big numbers. Your job is to take a look at the show and with your Artistic Director, determine what the needs of the show are and then you give the director and producer their budget. They don’t tell you, you tell them.

3. Make sure you have historical information You can’t just walk into each season and budget from scratch. How do you know what your trends are if you don’t have historical information? Run at least your P&L from the last season and if you can, the last two. Look at a show by show comparison. What shows did well, what didn’t…was it because they were a comedy, Drama, musical….what time of year was it? Do you know you have to work harder because people don’t come see your summer shows?

4.Do your revenue first Too many people think they have to get their expenses done first and then figure out what revenue they need to cover those expenses. Figure out your revenue first, then do your expenses. If you realistically budget your revenue based on historical information, then you’ll know what you can spend to not be in the red at the end of the season. If you aren’t hitting your revenue targets, you can adjust your expenses accordingly.

5. Use metrics that matter As you are looking at your numbers, there are elements that you need to look at to determine how you are doing financially. Too many theaters don’t look at what matters. For Example, if you have been budgeting using a metric like Paid % House (How many paid seats you have), you are putting yourself at a disadvantage. Or counting Comps as an expense. That too is wrong (Comps are 0 income revenue items and, in a sense, represent opportunity costs).

My advice is to use these metrics: Net Income (Revenue – Expenses), % Occupied (Total occupancy including comps), Average Ticket Price (including comps!), RevPAS (revenue per available seat; take your revenue and divide it by the total number of seats. This number will give you a good historic indication of where you have been. If this number is growing, you are making more money).

6. Do a budget for each month, the year, and each show A Profit and Loss Statement shows how much revenue and expenses you had for a certain period of time. If you subtract one from the other it shows your Net Income. A P&L is usually done for each month as the months are over. As you budget, you do the same exercise for each month….but you should also do one for each show. This way you know what each show should bring in to pay for itself and that revenue can go into the total monthly P&L. All of that feeds into your fiscal year P&L.

My way is not the only way to do budgeting, but it is the way that works for me. After you get your yearly budget done, you’ll be better equipped to have a financially successful season. I know that we are not usually math oriented folk, but the better your budgeting is, the better chance your have to survive to your next season.

A New Season

February is always a fun time for the theatre I work for. February is the time of year where we select our next season slate. Our season runs 6 mainstage shows from July through June which means right about 1st Quarter of any given year, we need to sit down an decide what our upcoming season will be. With 2 shows left in the existing season, we have an opportunity to market our next season to our existing patrons.

Going into season selection is always an interesting thing. In the past, before I accepted the role of Managing Director, I was always excited about what was going to be picked. I was a little younger then, but there was always an excitement about what shows we were going to do. I remember one year the we picked both “Cabaret” and “The Graduate” in the same season was very exciting from an artistic point of view. It was just a good season and as an director and artist I was very excited about the shows we were going to put on

Fast forward a couple of years and I am now our Managing Director. My focus has changed greatly from where it was before. While there still is a focus on artistic merit, it has also moved into something I never thought I would be looking at….the financial aspect of our season.

The process goes as this. My Artistic Director takes submissions from local directors who are passionate about directing the show they are submitting. From those submissions, she puts together her season of 6 shows (plus some season extras). She presents it to the board and we vote on the slate. She has to figure out what 6 shows, with what directors, in what order, will fit on our stage. Coming from an artistic point of view, there usually is a through line where we try to ask, artistically, about this upcoming season. What is the through line? What are the directors that we have going to bring this season? Who are the best directors for these shows? What kind of actors can we expect to audition? These are all questions that the Artistic Director asks herself.

I don’t really care about any of that.

Ok, I do. As a director who wants to direct a show a season, I work very closely with my Artistic Director on my submissions and how they fit into the artistic through-line for the season. However, as the Managing Director, my main questions are: Are these shows going to bring us money? Are they situated in such a way that will bring us money? What are the costs associated with teh production of these plays?

And THAT’S what you have to think about when going into a season from a BUSINESS point of view. Artistic Merit is extremely important, but, as a theatre teacher I once had said to me, for every avant garde show you do, you have to do “Oklahoma.” And in this economy….you have to do “Oklahoma” twice. You need name shows to bring in your $$$$$$$.

So, what are my criteria for looking at shows my Artistic Director picks:

1. Name shows – As an audience member, I want to see name shows. I want to see “Barefoot in the Park.” I want to see “Romeo and Juliet.” I want to see a “Cabaret” or a “Graduate.” These are name shows. Name shows people see and recognize. It doesn’t matter what marketing you use, people see these titles and remember them. They will say, “God yes, I want to go see ‘The Goodbye Girl’, cause I really like that song.”

2. Director’s concept – Not in regards to artistic merit….but in regards to “How much is this going to cost me?” It’s great if I want to do Chicago, but if the director wants to do this giant set with expensive costumes….it’s not going to help the bottom line. We can’t do that type of show. I LOVE seeing a show which would have possibly cost me a bundle, pared down because the director thinks they can get the point across very minimally.

3. Production through-line – When picking a season, I need to look at what type of production elements there are in the various shows. For example, did my Artistic Director pick shows that work together artistically that all have living room sets? All living room sets mean minimal build time and minimal lumber costs because we are just moving around doors and doing set dressing. Lumber and paint is a HUGE cost for me. Also, Actors get on a finished set earlier which helps tremendously with their blocking. And then, because I’ve saved all these costs, I can then have one HUGE tent-pole show in a season.

4. Royalties – Royalties are what we have to pay in order to put a show on. If my artistic director wants to put on a musical, that’s going to have HUGE Royalties associated with it and I am going to want to know what other royalties I’ll have to pay for each of the remaining shows. Remember, royalties occur before we start sewing costumes, hanging lights, or casting actors. They cause every show to start at a net loss. ANd it’s not just musicals which cost a lot. If “Barefoot in the Park” is submitted, that play is going to cost me about $50 more per performance on average (Neil Simon) than other shows. It’s almost the cost of a musical! I have to ask myself, is this financially worth it? Am I going to get the same or better return on this show than others with lower royalty costs? Same or better than a musical? And, should you find a royalty-show that doesn’t have high audience attendance and low ticket sales, your profit percentage on that show will be closer (if not better still) than other shows that season, simply because there are no up-front royalty costs.

5. Ticket Prices Our theatre has several different discounts for various conditions of who you are: Student, Senior, Military, Groups over 10, Groups over 20…..and on and on and on. When picking a show, I need to look at what that audience for that show is. You do “Romeo and Juliet,” you’ll probably get a lot of high school kids (as long as you market to high school kids). Student prices are obviously lower…meaning I’m going to have a lower RevPAS (Revenue per available seat), lower average ticket price, and lower box office return. However, I may also get a higher occupancy which will cover the lower revenue. I nned to look at each show and kind of figure out what my revenue rectangle for each show we have is. If I think we can sell the show to it’s intended audience and get the profit % we need…I’m happy. It’s great if you want to do “Closer” and try to get those full price tickets, but if you offend your lower ticket cost people and don’t get as full houses you want at the higher ticket price, you may not make the revenue you need.

6 Cast Size – I alway look at how many people are in any cast. The more people in a cast, the more people who are instantly connected with that show. A show like “Three Days of Rain” has three cast members. Those 3 people only know a fininte number of people and it’s way less than something like “To Kill A Mockingbird,” which has a cast of 17. Look at the math….if each actor brings 8 people to see the show, I get 24 paid seats in “Three Days of Rain” and 51 out of “Mockingbird.” For a community theatre, the number of paid seats is crucial. Stack your season with too many small cast shows and you run the risk of losing paid seats which would have been there with the large cast show

So, as you can see, there is WAY more that goes into picking a season than what shows would be fun to put on or what shows have artistic merit. Those things are VERY important as well, but you have to keep a head for your business or you won’t have a theatre to perform those shows in.

Theatre as a Special Event

I just got back from a day at  The Special Event convention at the San Diego Convention Center.  Event Planners are an interesting bunch of people to watch in their own element.  They are creative, passionate, and have a great sense of humor about what they do.  They pride themselves on telling a “story” through their events  and do their best to get different technical elements (lights, sound, entertainers) to help them tell that story.  They are great with the show part of their job and sometimes not so good with the business part of their job…..remind you of anyone.

It dawned on me that most of us theater folk sort of fall into the same category.  If that’s the case, then isn’t really any show you do a “Special Event”, albeit one that goes for mulitple weeks.  This is a huge shift in thinking for what we do.

From my experience, people tend to view a play like they would a movie down at their local 20plex.  When is it? What time is it playing?  They go like they are going to sit for two hours and watch a “live” motion picture.  But if a play isn’t a movie, but a Special Event, just think of what that does to they way you approach it.

People are excited to go to events.  They like to feel like they are one of the few who got to experience that particular set of circumstances. It give thema feeling of importance and people like to feel important.  Your audience members should feel like they are a part of this event and as such, will be more apt to come again.

This new mind set also works wonders for your actors.  No matter what any Event Planner says to the contrary, people are excited to be working for events.  Yes, they are hard.  Yes, they can be a bear to get through.  Ultimately, however, there is a feeling of comeraderie from the staff because they worked as a team to get the event off without a hitch.  What is more “theatre” that that?  If your actors are no longer just “doing” a play, then the energy that they put into the show would increase 10-fold.

And it’s not just each show that’s a special event, but each performance within that show.  Each night, there is a new crowd, coming for a new event.  And we get to put on that event and tell a story using performers, sets, costumes, sound, and lighting.  Our two industries are closer than we think.

Now if we can only get Event Planners to get that Special Events are Theatre….one thing at a time.