Chapter 13 – Image Makers: Producers

There’s no business like show business.

—Irving Berlin

Chapter Summary

• Producers are responsible for financing productions, for hiring and firing the artistic and managerial personnel.

• Producers are frequently all things to all people: money machine, mediator, friend, tyrant, boss, enemy, gambler, investor, consultant.

• The producer’s job is to make the play happen.

Broadway

• Around 36 theatres• At least 16 owned by Shubert Organization• Very expensive to produce a Broadway show:

– $8 million for a musical– $800,000 or more for a dramatic play

• High cost leads to collaboration, sharing of resources and knowledge among producers

Broadway

• Why so expensive?– High labor costs– Limited opportunity to replace labor with technology– Limited distribution:

• Cannot be “canned” and delivered to millions (e.g., like film)

The Broadway Option

• Playwright’s agent shows play to producers.• Producers may “option” play:

– Payment advanced to playwright against royalties– Grants producers right to produce play within limited

amount of time• Playwright (or agent) may send script directly to artistic

director theatre:– Regional theatre– Off Broadway

The Broadway Option

• When script is optioned:– Playwright works on script in workshops, rehearsals,

tryouts, previews.– Reaction to play may lead to rewrites before New

York opening.– Playwright must satisfy several interests (especially

director and producer).• In meantime, producer begins process of securing

financial backers (“angels”), assembling cast and crew.

Broadway: Associations and Craft Unions

• League of American Theatres and Producers (founded 1930):– Represents theatre owners and producers in

negotiations with unions and associations

Broadway: Casting and the Casting Director

• Casting director receives “breakdown” of roles:– Includes outline of desired qualities for each role

• This information is posted with agents.• An audition space is reserved.• Actors’ agents submit names and resumes to casting

director.• The casting director selects names for audition.• Casting director is present at auditions, but director and

producer make final decisions.

Broadway:Nontraditional Casting

• Casting actors in roles for which they might not have been considered in the past

• Colorblind casting:– Ignores race or ethnicity – Casts actors on talent and suitability to a role

• Conceptual casting:– Alters the race or ethnicity of characters to bring

about a new perspective on the play• Casting inversions:

– Denying ethnic roles to minorities

Broadway: The Agent

• Acts on behalf of artists to find theatre, film, television, advertising, and publishing contracts

• Negotiates contracts and royalties• Artist’s lifeline into commercial theatre:

– It is through the agent that the actor or playwright is usually seen and heard by directors and producers.

Broadway: The Preview (or Out-of-Town Tryout)

• Traditionally, productions premiered in other cities before going to New York:– “Trial run” to fix problems in staging, script

• Less common today: too expensive• Other approaches:

– Preview (short run in show’s permanent theatre)– Transferring successful regional theatre show to

Broadway– Recreating successful London production

Broadway Openings (and After)

• Night after opening:– Cast, crew gather to await critic’s responses.– Reviews collected by press agent, read aloud.

• Morning after opening:– Producers, press agent, company manager meet.– If reviews are good, advertising budget planned.– If reviews are bad, show will likely be closed.– If reviews are mixed, stakeholders must decide

whether the show has potential to recoup investment.

Off Broadway

• Refers to smaller theatres (100 to 499 seats)• Smaller box office potential• In past, less bound by unions, contracts, financial

requirements• Today, simply a smaller version of Broadway

Regional Theatre

• Sometimes called resident theatres, resident companies

• Nonprofit• Often first choice for

premiers of new works:– Cheaper than

Broadway– Play can develop

without risk of being “killed” by critics

Mary Beth Fisher and Ian Lithgow in Boy Meets Girl at the Goodman Theatre

in Chicago

© Liz Lauren /G

oodman T

heatre(pictured are M

ary Beth F

isher and Ian Lithgow)

Regional Theatre

• Run by artistic or producing director:– Defines theatre’s

artistic, social mission– Deals with board of

directors, funding sources

– Plans theatre’s season– Hires artists

(c) Eric Y

. Exit/ T

he Goodm

an Theatre

(pictured are Gabriel B

yrne & C

herry Jones

Cherry Jones and Gabriel Byrne in A Moon for the Misbegotten at the

Goodman Theatre

Producers and Regional Theatre

• Deal with contracts, unions• Produce a season of plays (eight to eleven months)• May direct one or more shows in a season• Develop, manage budget for expenses:

– Artistic salaries and fees– Administrative salaries and costs– Travel and housing (for casting and artists)– Marketing and development costs– Production and personnel expenses– Equipment, facilities maintenance, and services

Regional Theatre: Money

• Funding:– Endowments– Federal and state money– Foundation and corporate sponsorship– Donations– Subscribers

• Staff:– Permanent staff of artistic leadership and

administrators– Small core of part-time actors:

• Low pay often results in “talent drain.”

Regional Theatre: Money

• New York commercial theatres a potential solution to fiscal woes:

– Shows established in regional theatre then moved to Broadway (with added capital):

• Caroline, or Change from the New York Shakespeare Festival Theatre

• Death of a Salesman and A Moon for the Misbegotten from the Goodman Theatre, Chicago

• Proof and Doubt from the Manhattan Theater Club, New York

• Having Our Say and Electra from McCarter Theatre, Princeton

Regional Theatre: Staging Diversity

• African American theatre companies:– New Federal Theatre, New

York– Penumbra Theatre

Company, St. Paul, MN– St. Louis Black Repertory

Theatre

Ain’t Misbehavin’, produced by the St. Louis Black Repertory Company

Maurice, M

eredith Courtesy of S

t. Louis Black R

epertory Com

pany. S

cene: The Ladies w

ho sing with the band.

J. Sam

uel Davis (A

ctors Equity—

as Ken) and E

ddie Webb (A

ndre)

Regional Theatre: Staging Diversity

• Asian American theatre companies:– East West Players, Los

Angeles– Ping Chong and Company,

New York City

Regional Theatre: Staging Diversity

Latino/Hispanic/Chicano Theatre Companies:– El Teatro Campesino, San

Juan Bautista, CA– Bilingual Foundation of the

Arts, Los Angeles– Gala Hispanic Theatre,

Washington, D.C.

• Native American theatre companies:– Native American Theatre

Ensemble– Spiderwoman Theatre

El Teatro Campesino’s La Conciencia Del Esquirol

Courtesy E

l Teatro C

ampesino

Core Concepts

• Producing means making a lot of difficult decisions about art, people, and money.

• Producing can mean firing your favorite actor, director, or designer.

• A producer has to have the personality and experience to influence people, raise money, hire, dismiss, mediate disputes, encourage and assist, option wisely, soothe bruised egos, and be all things to all people.

• Most important is the ability to get money from investors.

• In the American theatre, the Broadway musical is the pièce de résistance of producing—the costliest, the most lucrative, and the most popular of the theatrical arts.