One Producer in the City

A Halloween lesson for businesses

For many of us, a big part of childhood was dressing up in a funny costume and going from house to house collecting candy (And in some cases Apples and Granola bars) and returning home with our bag of goodies. 

The interesting thing is if someone were to come to my door November 1rst asking for the same thing, they probably would get very little.

Now imagine if any time of year you were to walk up to someone's house, ring the doorbell and get a treat?

It'd be pretty cool right?

As a business owner that is exactly what you can do. 

Never underestimate the power of delighting your customers. Just like those little ghosts and vampires that will squeal with delight when a nuttybuddy gets dropped in their bucket, your clients will be just as excited, when they get that extra bonus on top of your latest offering, that phone call that you don't charge for, and that introduction to a new business partner just because...

The same applies for business partners. Every day in the business world, you can bring the same excitement to your business partners and potential clients that you bring to those little ones tonight, so why not do it?

Think of how you can "treat" those people today, because that my friends is the "trick" to growing your business.

Boo! 

and

Excelsior!

Curious about working with me as a consultant? Go to this page and type the code "halloween" for a major discount!

The PLAE 2 Day weekend is coming up! Grab tickets here before they run out. 

Awesome Person Thursday: Oh, you know..Just building an EMPIRE

This week's awesome person Thursday comes to us courtesy of Victoria Medley. She'll tell us a little about the show, and below is a cool event they are hosting.Take it away Victoria!

Like many girls with a flair for the over-dramatic, I once fancied myself a future celebrity and believed the social farce that performance isn’t difficult and that anyone can do it. However, those misconceptions were quickly removed when I met people, like Greg Turner and Brian Hewson, who were truly gifted and exceptionally talented in their art. Greg and Brian, who I have come to love quickly as both friends and coworkers, are constantly surprising me with their creativity. Whenever they present a new play, or musical, or song, or webseries, or anything to me I’m always shocked at how clever and complex the pieces are. It amazes me that people who can write such insightful and, entertaining things are so unassumingly humble. I read their words, and I have to face the reality that I couldn’t have written them or even thought of them. Some of us were born to merely be entertainment enthusiasts, the audience, like me, but people like Greg and Brian were born to enrich our lives with their ideas and, like their popular webseries Empire often provides, a bit of drama.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                                       Contact:

                                                                                                                                                                                      Greg Turner                                                                           [email protected]
                                                                                                                                                 646-327-6801   

 

EMPIRE Cast & Friends Live on Stage in New York City
“Sometimes Their Hidden Talents Don’t Make The Web Series”

MANHATTAN, NY—Two time Indie Soap Award winner and fast growing soap opera webseries, Empire, presents “Empire’s Got Talent” an intimate One Night Only Event full of songs, sneak peaks, and surprises!

 

Performances will range from stand-up comedy to burlesque acts to performances of familiar and original songs!    “The tag line for the evening is ‘sometimes their hidden talents don’t make the web series’ and it’s so true,” says co-Producer Greg Turner.  “We write the series to play on everyone’s strength as an actor, but as performers they have so much more to offer outside of the context of their characters.  A lot of our castmembers are incredible singers and  everyone has amazing hidden talents.  “Empire’s Got Talent” will give our brilliant cast a chance to shine in ways you haven’t seen before.”

 

Scheduled to appear are Empire cast members Afton Boggiano, Orlagh Cassidy, Ryan Clardy, Annalisa Derr, Ellen Dolan, Chris J Handley, von Hottie, Nick Lewis, and Yvonne Perry as well special guest Martha Byrne (Gotham, As The World Turns) and series creators Brian Hewson and Greg Turner.  Byrne, Hewson, and Turner are also collaborating on a new web venture. 

 

“Empire’s Got Talent” will take place live on stage at New York’s Kraine Theatre, 85 East 4th Street (between 2nd and 3rd Avenues) on Monday, November 7 at 8pm.  Tickets run from $50 to an $80 VIP-priced ticket which includes Priority Seating, A Signed Color Empire-Style Program, and a Champagne Toast!

 

Tickets are available thru SmartTix, directly at  https://www.smarttix.com/Show.aspx?ShowCode=EMP4

 

The event will also include a live auction, feauturing unique Empire related items.  All proceeds from the evening will help to fund the upcoming fourth season of Empire.

 

For more information and to tune in to the series, visit www.empiretheseries.com, facebook.com/empiretheseries, or on twitter at @EmpireTheSeries.

 

NOTHING is more important than what I am about to write about

The email below did it.

As an educator and an artist, I read the request below from another amazing Indie Theatre supporter and I made a very clear cut decision.

There are currently at least 70 people who I owe an email and I am putting off continuing my series about raising money and everything else I have to do today because this needs to be addressed.

In the letter below you will read about funding and the reason for certain cuts and the all too familiar punch line that the arts programs suffer and in turn the children are deprived of something that genuinely helps them.

When I taught I was not paid extra to create a theatre course, a drama club, a movie club, produce a show with my students, or take my students to see shows. 

I did it because the arts were important to me and no matter what the cost was on my time or energy, I knew it was important to them. 

Every day dozens of teachers take it upon themselves to provide their students with opportunities in the arts while fighting cuts that make it harder and harder and I salute every single one of them. 

They are the greatest producers in the world. 

Producers produce.

End of story.

If we have no money, we find it. If we have very little money, we make it work. 

Every single day teachers do the same.

I like to say that teaching is the easiest job in the world if you don't care, and the hardest job in the world if you do.

Guess what?

The same appplies for making a difference and doing work that matters. 

I know that this blog is read by artists, entrepreneurs, producers, actors, musicians, sculptors, and teachers plus whole ton of other folks.

The statement below should move you to action. 

This school is looking for connections with a Children's Theatre Company and I know some of you know those people. The statement below illustrates a much bigger problem though. The arts are losing funding and it's up to the smart people to stop complaining and do something about it.

So today I am asking you (that's right YOU) to use whatever power you have to make a difference.

Do it by reaching out to Sean, do it by retweeting, do it by reaching out to a councilman, a theatre company, a church, but for god sakes do something.

The government is not going to do it for us and here is the only truth you need:

We are the artists.

We are the indispensable ones

We are the future and we are pretty damn loud. 

If you're a producer, think about something you can do.

If you are an actor think about something you can do.

If you are a ____________ think about something you can DO. 

Here's the crazy thing.

If we all do something, no matter how small, and we do it all together...

A change will happen. 

Each and every person reading this and each and every person you pass this on to has a superpower that can make this a world where the education system gives students the opportunity to experience art.

With great power comes great responsibility.

Read this letter.

Contact Sean.

CHANGE the World.

Nuff' said.

Excelsior! 

Once you have read this, if you can think of a better organization for me to
reach out to, PLEASE don't hesitate to send me that contact information.

The public schools had their budgets restructured this year. It's a very
small tweak, but basically you have to have 60% of your student body
eligible for free lunch in order to have access to *Federal* funds - but
until this year, you were allowed to combine the free kids with the
subsidized kids (lunch costs $1.50, subsidized lunch costs the kids $ .25)
in order to make up that number. What this means is that a lot of schools,
including ours here in Astoria, went from having federal funds to having
none.

In fact, our school is between 54% and 57% free lunch, meaning that well
over half the kids' parents make little enough money for them to be eligible
for public assistance, but we still lost $889,000 this year in Federal Grant
money.

So, naturally, and with great regret but no apologies, the school
automatically canceled all of the arts programs. We have one music teacher
that goes from class to class for fifteen minutes every three weeks or so,
but other than that there's nothing.

Of course, our PTA has me. And I've got you.

If any of you are producing entities that have done a children's theater
project and are interested in finding an audience for it, please let me
know. Also, if any of you are filing for your non-profit or 501c3 status (or
both) and you want to expand your qualifications, there is no better way to
prove your educational angle than to do a couple of performances for a
public school. Please understand, up front, that you would be doing this
entirely for the bona fides associated with producing a piece of theater for
a NY public school, to say there is no money is an understatement. In the
current climate, teachers are paying for their own supplies, parents are
paying for the stuff in the classroom and the PTAs around the city are
raising money simply to keep the schools from collapsing. I'm on the board
of our PTA - we're paying for structural work ON THE BUILDING. Because there
is no money coming from the local or federal governments.

If you have wanted to include a children's theater component in your
company, but don't have a script, then write back to me as well. I can help
locate whatever you're looking for.

Thanks so much!

Sean

And the number 1 thing that people want me to write about is....

Raising money.

It's interesting, I posted an entire series on my system for raising money and still when I sent the survey out this was the most requested topic. So I'll dig in again based on what I have learned about raising money in the last year. 

So as I had stated previously, you need to decide if you are raising money for a Not for Profit or a commercial project and each option has its own challenges. This time around before I get into any of the specifics, I want to talk about what makes raising money easier and (gasp) even fun. 

It really starts with you. 

Take a second right now and answer the following questions honestly about yourself.

1. Do you enjoy being around other people?

2. Are you helpful to others?

3. Do you love hearing other people's stories and sharing those stories? 

4. Do you go out of your way to go and see someone else's work? 

5. Do you make big promises and keep them? 

6. Do you volunteer to help out on projects and causes?

7. Do you have a group of people who believe in you and the things you stand for? 

If you answered yes to the majority of these questions, then you are in a position to raise funds. If you answered no to most of these questions, it will be more difficult for you. 

Notice in all of this there is no mention of how rich you are, how many clubs you belong to, or whether or not you graduated from a certain school. Those are all factors that may help you, but will be of little use if you are not willing to help others. Think of all of the great fundraisers you have met. Chances are that you enjoyed being in the room with them. They made you feel special and they took the time to get to know you and help you. 

In times when our money is precious, we are predisposed to give to the people who we trust and who give to us. It's just natural. 

One of my favorite stories is about how Bill Clinton would raise funds for his campaigns. He would take someone into his office and spend the entire time talking with them about the things they loved to do, about the person's family, passions etc. and at the end of the meeting he'd stop and say, "I'm so sorry we ran out of time to discuss the campaign, but I trust you to make a decision that works for you" and then end the meeting. 

Before you decide to raise money, make sure that you are a complete person first. Take the time to support other causes, listen to someone's story about their children, and build a base of people who believe in what you say.

If you do, I promise that you will have less trouble when it comes time to ask for some money and many of those people will be happy to give it. 

Excelsior!

P.S.- If you are interested in Arts Entrepreneurship, a number of great speakers just signed on for our PLAE 2 day weekend intensive, I hope you'll join us. You can grab early bird tickets here. See you there!

When is a blogger, not a blogger?

When he's sick in bed and can't blog. 

Last week I kept trying to fight a cold, but sure enough, it evenetually clobbered me. Thanks to those of you who asked about me. My health is back to normal now and I'm rearing to go and speak on another panel tonight. All the details are below and this one should be really fun. You can grab tickets here. 

Look forward to seeing you and have no fear, the blog is back.

Excelsior!

 

Theatre Artists Connect

Singing OnStage Productions (SOS) presents “Theatre Artists Connect.”

 

 

SOS is all about building a community of theatre artists to create musicals for the 21st century. As part of that community building, we’re putting together a special evening. Join composer/lyricist Joe Iconis, director John Simpkins, actor/entrepreneurs Jodie Bentley and Doug Shapiro, producer Michael Roderick, and actor Jason “Sweet Tooth” Williams while they discuss ways to connect with others and find work.

Here’s the plan: On Monday, October 24, at the Davenport Studio, 250 W. 49th St, Suite 302, we will host an evening event for ALL theatre artists, including directors, choreographers, and writers.The evening will be divided into three parts:

I. An interactive discussion, featuring active writer Joe Iconis, directors John Simpkins and Richard Biever, actor/entrepreneurs Jodie Bentley and Doug Shapiro, producer Michael Roderick and actor Jason “Sweet Tooth” Williams.  We’ll talk in detail about how these relationships began and what has kept them together.

II. Participants will have a few minutes each to talk a bit about their past work and the kind of theatre that excites them, the work they hope to do, and the people they would like to meet.  Think of this time as YOU in a nutshell!

III. The last portion of the evening will give participants a chance to begin to build these very relationships. We trust there will be many wonderful connections made!

While we’d like to make this a totally free event, there are some expenses that we can’t avoid. So, we’ll do the next best thing: we’ll make it really cheap! The fee is only $15!

You can also upgrade to our Premium registration. For only $50, you’ll be admitted to the October 24 evening and get an hour one-on-one consultation with Artistic Director, Richard Biever. You can use that hour to talk about the biz, ask questions, or even coach for an upcoming audition.

A little about Singing OnStage Productions:

Richard Biever (NYC credits: Smile, Harmony, Kansas, Side by Side by Sondheim) is the Artistic Director and Founder of the company, and Greg Santos (Transport Group, Musicals at Mufti, The 92nd St Y Lyrics and Lyricists Series) serves as Producer.

Part of what we do is bring artists together to meet each other– newbies and more experienced folks– and to discuss the art and craft of making theatre.

We recently hosted a wonderfully successful Music Director Weekend Intensive, where 27 emerging MDs and 18 industry pros, including Music Director David Chase (How To Succeed), Tony Award winning Orchestrator Michael Starobin (Next to Normal), Director Stafford Arima (Carrie, Altar Boyz), and Composer Adam Gwon (Ordinary Days, The Boy Detective Fails), discussed the many facets of what it takes to be a Music Director. Singing OnStage arranged this for many reasons: 1. To give MDs practical information that allows them to be better at what they do. 2. To help emerging MDs find work and be able to support themselves. 3. To provide the opportunity for established pros to meet those who are up and coming and begin to build relationships.

Here’s some comments by those who attended: “Absolute top of the line MD’s, Conductors, Voice Teachers, Arrangers, Orchestrators, Composers, Directors, Choreographers, and Music Entrepeuners all giving back to the new generation of MD’s! What’s not to like? “ “I’ve been a professional musical director for the last ten years; the MD Intensive taught me more in a weekend than I have learned in a decade.” “[The Intensive] has redefined my concept of modern music directing.” We now want to do something similar for other theatre artists! We feel that traditional methods of finding talent, like auditioning, though still very necessary, are not the sole paths to work. In fact, a lot of work is gained through networking. An example close to home: for our reading last spring of HARMONY, KANSAS, the entire company of 9 men  was cast by the creative team suggesting people known to them! The same is true of our most recent production of SIDE BY SIDE.

We hope you will join us for an evening of connections and conversations.

 

Guest Blog #56: If you're a playwright, you'll love this!

 

This week's guest blog comes from Lanie Zipoy, An amazing producer who wants to let all the playwrights know about a remarkable new program. Take it away Lanie! 

 

"How does one adequately ever thank another human being for basically making you whole again, and by extension, giving your life back to you?"  

 

That’s a question Rickie, one of the inmates at Northpoint Training Center, asked this summer. Something special is happening at that medium security prison near Danville, Kentucky. A playwriting class is changing lives and developing voices on both sides of the barbed wire. 

 

Voices Inside is an inspirational inmate writing and theater program that uses theater arts and creative thinking to increase communication skills, build self-esteem, humanize and enrich the lives of those closed off behind bars.  Founded in the summer of 2010 by Robby Henson (Managing Director of Pioneer Playhouse, Curt Tofteland (Founder/Artistic Director, Shakespeare Behind Bars and playwright Liz Orndorff, the program’s reach has extended to New York City and beyond in less than 18 months.

 

Six of the inmates’ plays  -- including Rickie’s moving drama-- were presented as staged reading in May at Baruch Performing Arts Center in Manhattan, and New York City-based playwright Mac Rogers was the inaugural recipient of the Northpoint Voices Inside Playwriting Residency.  He spent two weeks working with the prisoner-playwrights at Northpoint,in July and August, offering writing exercises and discussing his writing process.

 

The residency was such a success that we are moving ahead with plans for the second one. And, we are currently accepting applications for the residency.  The Northpoint Voices Inside Playwriting Residency will take place over eight days in July 2012, and the selected playwright will help the prisoner-playwrights develop their work further.  It should be noted that these inmates are some of the best students anyone could ever expect to have.  After every class, they asked Mac for additional homework and writing exercises.

This residency is meant as an exchange – an exchange of ideas, experiences and art.  The prisoner-playwrights will also read the resident playwright’s work and discuss his or her style.  As Mac so eloquently puts it, "Working with the playwrights of Voices Inside was a profoundly rewarding experience. Seeing how much the act of playwriting means to these men was a powerful reminder for me of how much solace and enrichment there is in artistic expression. I was proud of what little I could teach them, and grateful for all they taught me."

 

Applications for the residency are due November 19, 2011.  The residency includes a stipend, airfare, car rental, meals and lodging.  For more information, visit www.northpointplays.com.

 

You can see Rickie and some of his fellow playwrights describe their experience on this local NBC newscast: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQKwd2pwH1E

 

 

A big shout out to Synge Maher for starting the ball rolling, Montserrat Mendez for being the best creative partner and Theaterlab for supporting this endeavor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The reason for the radio silence

My apologies to those of you who follow the blog on a daily basis.

Mom, you can breathe now. I am still alive

I am currently General Managing the show Tour De Fierce by The Broadway Dolls and have also been a victim of the Blackberry Blackout of 2011. 

That being said, if you are an aspiring producer, manager, or in any way involved in the theatre industry, you want to see this show. It's entertaining, fun, comical, and touching all while maintaining the entertainment value of a rock concert. And for today only, they are offering a limited number of 50% off tickets. You can snag them by going here and using the code "fierce50" You can see more about the show in the video below, but believe me, you'll want to see it in person. These girls really are fierce!

Ok that was cheesy, but I'm willing to lay on a little velveeta for these ladies. 

Check em out.

Excelsior! 

 

A chance to PLAE for a weekend

Some of you may remember the class PLAE that I have been teaching for the past three years. One of the challenges I was presented with was that the time commitment of 10 weeks was difficult as was the price. In response to this, I created a two day weekend intensive for PLAE which will feature great speakers and the opportunity to meet with other arts entrepreneurs at a quarter of the price. The full price tickets will be $250, but right now I just put up a batch of ultra early bird tickets at a substantial discount. My apologies if they sell out before you get to them. Hope to see you there.

Excelsior!

 

Guest blog# 55 - A new kind of Start up

This week's guest blog comes from Jillian Johnson who is creating work following the start up entrepreneur model. Below is a peek inside of the process. Enjoy.

Excelsior!  

find three things unsatisfying as an artist: working alone, working without a budget and working with established material. However, since we live in a commodity-based society and almost anything new, experimental or collaborative will spend a good stretch of time working toward the potential of the concept/content and not compensation - I figure conquer two of the three and the third will come. So, in my pursuit of satisfaction, I am carving out a process of creating new work with a group of very talented and intelligent artists that has the artistic worth to gain further development and investment. Yeah, me and everyone else, right? Well, it depends on your definition of compensation.

 For example, our next production is a new multimedia play called ACEDIA that was collaboratively created out of the exploration of Group Apathy. We wanted to create something new, both in writing and in staging, that spoke about the general malaise and inaction we all felt within our current culture and generation. Over three months, Acedia was developed through a mix of open and honest dinner discussions, improvisation-based assignments and academic research.

 

 Through that process we narrowed the show’s theme down to a point of view mission statement: Apathy in this generation is a result of “over-individualism”. As we become more individually empowered through technology, we come to fear the group's ability to prove or judge our individuality as worthless or inadequate. We judge and know we are judged becoming apathetic to action, especially group action, that may expose us to ridicule. We become afraid to risk our egos being tarnished. "Better to be quietly thought a fool than open your mouth and remove all doubt." And yet we want to be happy, admired, and loved. We want community. This is apparent in our embrace and indulgence in social media and technology. We want others to know how great we are - we want to link in with a group of like-minded individuals. We want them to call us worthy. Our call to action comes from a collection of individuals validating each others' worth and encouraging each other enough to suffer the humiliation we fear is inherent in acting.

 From this statement, with two weeks of writing and a week of group feedback on the script, we created the alternate world of Acedia where public humiliation, cyberbullying and "troll"-ery has become so ubiquitous that governments worldwide have criminalized any act of malicious humiliation; creating an American society that is more afraid of public embarrassment than personal harm. Then we put six unique characters, based off of apathetic archetypes, into this world who have been charged with criminal humiliation and must spend a night of incarceration together where their crimes are revealed and they are forced to be responsible and judged for their actions.

 The process hasn’t paid any of us a penny (actually it has cost some of us many pennies), but we all share the credit of creating the show. And I know - when push comes to shove - creative authorship isn’t enough compensation. You can’t eat it and it doesn’t keep you warm at night, but it does give artistic satisfaction and when artistic satisfaction is the only thing keeping people on board a project, it’s probably a worthwhile project.

 I’m not saying this is a good model by any means - every person working on Acedia right now deserves to be paid well for the great work that they are doing and I hope someday I will be able to show them their worth with a paycheck but that depends on our next step - proving our worth to investors and producers. I’ve worked for a couple of start up companies and their model, unless venture funded, is pretty much the same as creating new theater: create a product/service at a loss that has the potential to be profitable.

 Right now, we are betting that Acedia can be more than a labor of love - we’re literally banking on it. We have eight work in progress presentations of the piece October 26-November 5 in Theaterlab. I look forward to getting your feedback.

 Acedia website.

Buy tickets here

 

 

 

i can't think of anyone more Awesome for Awesome Person Thursday

Yesterday we lost someone who inspired more entrepreneurs than any of us can ever imagine. Below are some videos about this genius. In some of my darkest times, I can hear this voice telling me to 

"Stay hungry"

"Stay foolish"

Excelsior,  Mr. Jobs