Numbers of Performances
Hello all,
I have not updated this blog since August 9. That is 3 months of no updates! I can’t believe I let this blog become a dead blog. For that I am extremely sorry and hope I can make it up to all of my readers.
So much has happened in that time and I have several posts that I can make about various things that have to do with the management of my little theatre. That has pretty much become my full-time job as I have been unemployed since June of 2009. (I have high hopes for the economy. There HAS to be a job somewhere). Even though there has been no job, there has been plenty for me to do.
In the time period that I have stopped blogging, my theater has closed two shows (one was in performance and a whole show has gone by), opened another (it closes this weekend), changed the number of performances on some shows (extended due to business), Added a full production calendar, shuffled responsibilities of management, added a Staged Reading series, looked at a new space, got involved with better grant application organization, replaced a box office staff person, and I’m sure there is something else I have forgotten. Needless to say, we have been busy.
The thing which is on the forefront of my mind our decision to extend all of our runs. This was actually a reversal of an earlier decision to shorten our runs. A little history:
Traditionally, we would do six main stage shows per year, all with 18 performances. These performance are spread out over five weekends, Thursday – Sunday. This season however, we decided to shorten all of our runs to 14 performances over four weekends. There were several reasons for this. One was that a run of five weeks is harder on the actors and tech people, especially if they are non-paid (as ours our…all volunteer community theater). With a shorter run, you have less royalties to pay and that can add up, especially if you are doing a show by a playwright with high royalties, like Neil Simon. Finally, we were banking on a psychological response to a shorter run which would bring more people as there is a smaller chance to see it.
As we got into the closing weekend of our opening show, we realized that this might not be working for a couple of reasons. First of all, after looking at our box office returns we realized that we weren’t getting the huge jump in attendance we thought we would. There was a small jump, but it could have been by caused by several factors (larger cast size than usual, American classic play) and not enough to make our new goal….which is the second problem.
I may have mentioned in this blog before that while you need to look at your attendance as a whole, you also need to look at what your paid house percentage is. You should have a goal as to what your paid house percentage needs to be in order to keep the operations running. Non-profit theater is difficult because much of it is dependent on grants and donations so with a target paid house percentage, you can at least ballpark know what you have coming the door and then you know what you have to raise. With an 18 performance show, we knew he had to hit a certain percentage. When we subtracted performances, that paid target went up.
Here’s why:
Lets say we have a 100 seat house with 18 performances and need a target of 50% paid house. That is a total of 900 paid seats per show (100 seats x 18 performance = 1800 total seats. 1800 x 50% = 900 paid seats). We decide to take out a weekend and go down to 14 performances. All of a sudden the paid target has to go up to 64.2% paid house. Why? YOU STILL NEED 900 SEATS TO HIT THE TARGET! Just because you are lowering your performances, your target isn’t the same. So you need an additional 13 paid people to come to each show to hit your minimum target. You are now spending more time and effort to add audience, just to get you where you were before. The only way this works is if the same number come to all of your shows and are motivated to get there sooner. That is what we banked on.
When it became evident that this wasn’t working in our favor, I had to call a planning summit to discuss options. Some members of our board of directors didn’t want to change anything because the materials were out, others wanted to open the shows sooner to make sure that the closing nights were the same. Eventually we came up with plan which places two of our shows back to 18 performances (with a third already having 18 performances) and leave three shows at 4 weeks (the one which was about to close, the one which was about to open and our heavy drama of the season).
But wait, what about the extra cost of putting on four additional performances? We looked at that…overhead ended up being almost negligible, which left payroll and royalties. Our average ticket price is about $10/per ticket (That’s not our actual ticket price, but we average that price taking comps into consideration). Our payroll each night comes to about $25 and the royalties each night come to about $75 each night. That means I have an extra cost of about $100 per night (or $400 for the extra weekend). All we had to do to break even on those weekends was to get a total of 40 paid seats over the 4 nights…..which we usually have no problem doing. The decision was made based off of past box office returns to go ahead with the extension because the chance we would lose money was minimal and the chance for extra revenue was huge.
This is the kind of things you need to be thinking about when running a theater company. You have to look at how your revenue stream is doing and then not be afraid to make changes mid-course if necessary. The first show we extended closes this weekend and, by looking at the preliminary box office returns, we at least broke even. All it took was some analyzing of figures and trends.
The Breakfast Club (RIP John Hughes)
It was a great moment. The two men and two women were frozen in time as the lights came up on a third man who broke away from them to deliver the his final monologue to the audience. On que, they all say their one word which will help to wrap up this show. The the third man slowly comes to the end of his speech and the lights begin to fade.
“Sincerely yours, The Breakfast Club.”
The end of an an absolutely astounding new piece of theatre.
Except it hasn’t happened….yet.
With the passing of John Hughes, I started thinking about his movies and how they basically defined a generations of teenagers. I don’t really think there is anyone out there who doesn’t think of Andie Walsh, Duckie, Long Duck Dong or Jake Ryan when they think of the 1980’s (points if you can name the actors and movies).
These characters are all creations of John Hughes. Somehow, he tapped into the collective conscious of adolescence and was able to push that consciousness into the world in a way that has never been duplicated since (I would argue, though, that Cameron Crowe came close with Fast Times at Ridgemont High as did Joss Whedon with Buffy, The Vampire Slayer). That push came to an apex with his release of The Breakfast Club in 1985.
The Breakfast Club, if you have been leaving under a rock for the last 25 years, is about 5 teenagers who are stuck in detention for an entire Saturday to atone for various acts of rebellion they caused. Their jailer is their overbearing principal, who life choices have led him down a path where he has to give up his Saturday to babysit. Through the course of the day, these five people beat the system, rebel against their captor, and learn that perhaps they aren’t as different than they thought.
What is great about The Breakfast Club is that it is as relevant today as it was 25 years ago. In 1985, there were millions of 16 year olds who sat in a movie theater, watched this movie, and instantly recognized themselves on the screen (and most likely recognized most of their classmates as well). Those 16 year olds grew up to have 16 years of their own and those kids also recognized themselves in the movie (although I’d be willing to bet a lot of them see themselves differently than their parents did).
The appeal of this movie is that these characters have always existed and will always exist. The movie will always work as a frozen moment in time that almost every adolescent will see themselves in somewhere in.
One of the things which makes the movie work is a tiny band of characters who are literally locked in one location. The library is acts as both a jail and psychiatrist’s office and the events which happen there have the potential to change these characters lives (whether they actually do or not is a topic of debate. Are all of these people friends now? Are they secret friends? Are the pressures of high school to great that they have to go back to the way things were? Who knows.) This is also the thing which will make this movie work on stage.
7 Actors, One Set, lots of easy dialogue, and characters which represent 90% of people see themselves in is a great equation for a really good play. However, The Breakfast Club is not officially a play (I know there have been staged versions of the show, but as far as I can tell, they were not granted the rights to perform it). Personally, I would love to explore these characters as a director. I think they have a life to them that transcends the screen. To see this story on stage, done with a cast who really cares about the material would be an orgasmic night of theater.
Perhaps now, with all this nostalgia about John Hughes and contribution to cinema, someone will realize the theatrical gem this movie is and adapt it for the stage. It’s time for a new generation to see this movie in a whole new way.
Preview Night and Thursday at San Diego Comic Con 2009
Wow, it’s been a while since i updated. Luckily, I have stuff to talk about now. 
This is my Comic Con 2009 review space. So far it has been a great time and its only Thursday! Of course, this being comic con, there are always going to be issues. They key is to know that, accept it and move on.
I parked at Seaport Village on Wednesday night. Driving in from Point Loma on Pacific Highway was not easy and the turn onto Harbor drive seemed impossible. Then I thought, “I wonder if Seaport has parking?” and sure enough it did. I got my ticket validated so parking cost me a total of 2 dollars and I got a snapple out of it! MMMMM snapple. .
The walk on the embarcadero was quite nice as I made my way to the convention center. It was cool to see some actual tourists who were here on vacation…if they only knew what was coming. It took me about 10 minutes to walk from Seaport to the front of the convention center.
I have never had a problem with getting my badge on preview night. Sure, there is a line, but the line never really stops. This year they had us walk ALL the way to the end of Hall H and the loop back around to get in for the badges…I want to say to hall E. I was in line with a very nice couple who went to their first con in 1977 (Seeing the Star Wars preview….which is, quite frankly, awesome). Something which shocked the hell out of me was that people were actually CAMPING to get into Hall H.
People Camping Outside Hall H
Finally getting upstairs, I was checked in by a lovely Irish girl (who was fairly cute too) and then got to the floor. Even on Preview night, the floow is crowded and there are lines.
And that was pretty much it for Wednesday
Thursday Morning was an early morning. I picked up my friend, Des, at 8:00 and drove downtown. Getting there at 8:30 put us downtown about an hour early. Luckily, there was a breakfast place right at the foot of 5th ave. SyFy turned the entire cafe at the Hard Rock Hotel into Cafe Diem from Eurika. We spent an hour there and had a good, albeit pricy ($16.00 for my omlette) breakfast. They did a good job and since they don’t have a booth at Con, this works to get the SyFy word out there. (Ok, personally I think it’s a better idea than a booth because you have a captive audience when people are eating)
Cafe Diem at Hard Rock Hotel
We walked to the convention center, and, through a stroke of luck, we ended up on the floor ahead of the line. Say what you will about Elite Security, they don’t talk to each other. I have a feeling that they weren’t supposed to open the doors were were were as early as they did, but hey, I’ll take it. And then I saw a site I never thought I’d see…..an almost empty Comic Con Floor.
Empty Con Floor
Which, of course, didn’t last long.
We wondered over to the Browncoat booth, which didn’t have much different than last year. I might go pick up a shirt before con is over.
I purchased the Dollhouse Season 1 DVD’s last week so I needed to go pick them up. The line at the FOX booth wasn’t actually too bad. I got about half way through when I heard FOX employees calling out, “Pre-Orders?” amd I walked right up. I think they realized that they needed a pre-order line next time the did this.
And then Des and I wandered the floor. There weren’t really panels we HAD to see so we shopped. I found a shirt for the wife at FuzzyBallsApparal.com booth (#4936). They were great. I suggest going there and buying something.
The rest of the day was spent walking and people watching. We met up with more friends for lunch at Seaport Village, walked the floor and did not get into Dr. Horrible.
However I did realize that the con suite at the Marriott ALWAYS smells. I have no idea why.
Tomorrow is Friday. Dollhouse Panel, and (I think) Watchmen Directors Cut. There are also some Comic Arts COnference panels I want to check out (yay panels to keep my feet from falling off.) More tomorrow!
But first, pictures
Yes I know it's for Breast Cancer, but it looks like candy
Batman and Batgirl
Defy Gravity, Dorothy
Fighting Demonstration
The Star Trek Problem
No, this is not a review of the new Star Trek movie (It was great, by the way. I highly recommend it.). I did go see Star Trek over the weekend, however, and was amazed at how much the cast channeled the original cast. That got me thinking about, as a director, how you handle an actor you cast in a show which is already known for iconic performance.
In case you have been living under a rock over the last year or so, the new Star Trek movie chronicles the meeting of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy and the coming together of the original Enterprise crew. Now the original Enterprise Crew is HELLA OLD (and in two cases dead….RIP Deforest Kelly and James Doohan. You guys ruled!), so there is no way they could make us believe that they were young recruits straight out of Starfleet Academy (Shatner, the work you had done is good, but not that good…). So they had to recast the original characters with brand new people.
Now we have a situation where brand new people are not only stepping into characters other people have played, but stepping into characters who are so well known that their patterns of speech and physical movements have entered our public subconcious. It’s hard to imagine anyone else saying “Damnit, Jim!” and be the same.
Often this happens in our profession. How many times do we do a show or play a character which has been made famous by someone else? What do we do then?
The key, I find, is to neither completely emulate the famous performer nor completely make the character something different, but rather a combination of the two. On some level, the audience would like to see the character they fell in love with, but as an actor, you don’t get to do your job if you just copy someone else’s performance.
Finding that balance can be hard. There is a tendancy to either get lazy and not work as hard and just do it like it has always been done or to go so far over the top to get away from it that the character becomes unintelligible.
Which beings me back to Star Trek. The new cast, with Chris Pine as Kirk, Zachery Quinto as Spock, and Karl Urban as McCoy. Watching these actors tackle these characters is nothing short of amazing. Urban’s McCoy is by far the outstanding one. He was able to completly get DeForest Kelly’s accent, inflection, and demeraor without me once thinking I was watching a mimicry of an old performance. It’s JUST enough McCoy to work, but Karl Urban has completly made the role his. Pine and Quinto are equally as good in their portrayal of these characters, throwing in the essences of the character we have see other actors play for years, but completly making them their own characters.
As directors it is our job to help the actor balance the two. Even though I asked my actors NOT to watch the movie when I was directing “The Graduate” (The characters are COMPLETELY different in the movie and I didn’t want them to pick up bad habits), I will ask my actors to read AND watch the movie version of To Kill A Mockingbird when I cast it later this year. Those performaces are just too iconic not to at least have the essences of those character in the show.
So next time you are doing a show which has a very iconic character, don’t be afraid to try to capture the essence of someone else’s famous performance. They defined the character, let that definition shine your (or your actor’s) intrepretation of it
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?
Top 5
Ok poll time. I got into this discussion today and I’m really curious what people think. So…..
1. What is your favorite play/musical?
2. Favorite play/musical you’ve done?
3. What is your favorite play/musical you’ve done from a production standpoint (acting, directing, light designing)
4. What is your favorite play/musical you’ve from a business standpoint (ease, good for books, cheap)?
5. Least favorite for any aspects
Go ahead and hit the comment button and let me know. I’ll post results later this week!
Thanks
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.
Midsummer Production Photos
I had some requests to post production photos from A Midsummer Night’s Dream at OnStage Playhouse in Chula Vista, CA. All of these photos were taken by Andrew Rodgers, a dear friend of mine and a simply awesome photographer in the San Diego area. So…here they are!
Joanie Baumgardner
Azalia Flores, Leslie Reyes, Sarah McKenna
Nick Anderson, Bea Gonzalez, Joanie Baumgardner, Nate Plummer, and Carol Cabrera
Nick Kennedy as Oberon
Carol Cabrera as Puck
Sven Salumaa, Holly Stephenson, and Thomas McCaverly
The Perfect Show
It feels like it has been forever since I updated this site and with good reason. First, I was in Las Vegas at the Catersource/Event Solutions conference at the Las Vegas Hilton and then I had tech week for A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Needless to say, it was a exhausting 2 weeks which I am only now recovering from.
Midsummer has gone exceptionally well and in many cases better than exceptionally well. It had a better opening weekend than any show over the last two seasons. Normally, I would be doing jumping jacks and cheering, but I’m actually not very surprised. See, I have realized something very interesting about this show
The Universe has been working for the last 20 years to get this show in place.
No, I’m not crazy. Yes, I realize I sound like a New Age crazy person, but just go with me for a second……
So, orginally I was to direct Accomplice by Rupert Holmes which was to open on March 6 of this year. We had everything in place (except actors) but it just didn’t feel right. Our theater needed a hit and something low cost and Accomplice was probably not going to be that (especially not with the BEAST of a set that it required). My wife came up with a great idea to do A Midsummer Night’s Dream and I approached my Artistic Director with it….and she said yes. So, 100 days ago, we completey changed the show.
That required a whole new list of designers, adding a dramaturg, figuring out how to fit 18 actors into our little space (we eventually dropped it down to 15) and a whole other slew of problems which, with some creativity, we solved. We cast the show, it opened to a great audience, it was a hit….and cheap to do.
But looking at all the crazy things that happened…I can’t help feel that the Universe set this show into motion YEARS ago.
Have you ever had a show like that? I mean all shows have some feeling of comraderie attached to them, but it’s usually a, “Hey this is pretty cool! I’m sure glad I got to work with you!” kind of feeling. Not so here. Everything fell into place and I often wonder if I’ll ever have a show like this again.
I think we all work to ward having that feeling, where everyone gets along and everyone looks forward to going to rehearsal. Where you almost don’t want to open because that means the end of play time with the director and the actors. Where people you cast have random connections to each other that you didn’t even know was possible.
For example:
- I asked my wife to co-costume design and help me cast. I asked a friend of mine to do the set design. The set designer was in a show at his college. He told a fellow cast member about the auditions and that gentlemen came to read for the part of Lysander. The guy who came to read Lysander went to high school with my wife and they hadn’t seen each other in years.
- My producer found my dramaturg who was in Romeo and Juliet with me year prior. My producer had no knowledge of that…and my dramaturg and I both forgot the other one was in that show until midway through auditions
- I was in Romeo and Juliet with another person who founded a Shakespeare only troupe with the gentleman I cast as Oberon. Had no idea they knew each other
- The gentleman I cast as Oberon works in the same department I used to work in at a local Casino….we know the same people but never worked together
- The lovely lady I cast as Titania went to the same church in Chula Vista I went to as a kid….never met each other.
-The guy I cast as Lysander (the one who knew my wife) has a best friend who was my wife’s high school boyfriend….is now “hanging out” with girl who plays Titania
- My dramaturg brought me my awesome Assistant Director, who also randomly is an acquaintance of my set designer….and I hadn’t met her until auditions
- 2 of my actors started dating (not unusual, but still pretty cool)
I’m sure there are more, but the amazing coincidence are just astounding. Which makes me realize the power that theatre has. Everyone got along, everyone is friends with everyone else. We hang out outside of rehearsal, for fun. The creativity was astounding….every element just perfectly fit and got what we were doing. I have never worked in any other medium where that has happened.
Theatre truly is more than the sum of its parts and this show proves it. This is why we do it and I know I will spend the rest of my life trying to find another show that works like this one does.
So it’ll be a bit before a full update
I’m at Catersource/Event Solutions in Las Vegas this week, learning all about Catering and Special Events. I’m sure that I’ll have a lot of cool theatrical stuff to share later this week. However, I did get a chance to take an awesome event lighting design class. It’s so easy to create neat event lighting, mostly because it’s really based in theatrical lighting conventions. People are amazed with what you can do with some uplight, saturation, and gels.
More to come throughout the week!
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