ARTISTIC DIRECTOR’S THOUGHTS
HEY, WHY DON’T YOU DO THAT SHOW? PART 1
Recently, in both the Encore newsletter and online I asked for suggestions of productions people may wish to see on TCTA’s 75th season. (That’s the 2010/11 season, so it’s coming up fast!) I’ve heard from many of you and I really want to encourage you all to keep those titles coming. In September the Play Reading Committee will reconvene and the more we hear from you, the better we’ll be prepared to select a meaningful season for such a banner year.
But even as I ask for suggestions, I’ve already noticed some slight problems creeping up in the many suggestions that are coming forward. So I thought I’d address these issues with this column. I call it; “Hey, Why Don’t You Do That Show?” Part 1
Now, for the sake of expedience, I’ll focus on the most common questions concerning musicals first and address the plays next time. Now, TCTA is very proud of the balance we try to maintain each season. Our goal is to try and present something for almost everyone. To do this, we present three musicals, three comedies, and two dramas on the main-stage each season. But inevitably I hear almost every time we start our selection process the following question; “If musicals sell better, why not offer more musicals?” Good question. Here’s a hopefully good answer.
Musicals do to sell better. We often say around here that we “live and die” by our musicals. If a season falls short it is usually because a musical didn’t do the business we had hoped for and if we have a huge year it is usually due to a musical or two exceeding our expectations. Rarely does a play make or break a season. But musicals are highly expensive. By far the biggest line in our Artistic Budgets are the expense of Royalties. These are the licenses we must pay for to present our productions and for the most part they are nonnegotiable. This is the set price the authors or creators have placed on a given title are there is little to no “wiggle: room. Last season, (the 2008/09 season), TCTA paid over $41,000.00 out in royalties. And if that number astounds you, consider this, of that number nearly $37,000.00 was paid just for our three musicals. Astonishing isn’t it? Plays are simply far more inexpensive to license. Now add to that the musical rental fees of over $6000.00 for the orchestrations and musical accompaniment and the cost keeps rising.
Now add in the need for multiple sets, far more costumes, more microphones that literally eat batteries, more lights, and more personnel from music directors to choreographers to orchestras and the cost continues to climb. But even more important than the cost issue is the wear and tear on equipment and people. Most plays require around five to eight microphones. While almost every musical requires more microphones than we even possess which leads to trading them back and forth giving them an even shorter life span for the microphone. Plus we typically use every lighting instrument, every electrical circuit, and practically every rolling set piece we have. That’s okay, that’s what they are there for, but to push them into more and more productions and this equipment wears out faster too. And as for the wearing down of people, here I’m referring to the volunteers, not staff. We’re paid to keep going, but we rely on that army of talented people who work with us to produce our musicals. And though I’m constantly amazed at the vast number of talented performers within our community there still are a finite number of actor/singer/dancers to pull from as well as musicians for our orchestra. Every time I’ve done back to back musicals, or even musicals separated by only one show or two, I find myself shaking every tree in our talented forest to fill the ranks of our cast or orchestras.
Then there’s the question of where to put the added musical. Musicals offered in September or October tend to really suffer for attendance due to football season. The holiday slot, (November through December), is the best place for a musical and typically runs the longest, but this kind of burns the musicals January – February slot due to the proximity of the Holiday musical. And our summer musicals do quite well too meaning April –May are kind of out of the question, too for the same reason January – February is a dicey slot to mount a musical. That leaves us with March which can be quite successful and quite difficult. March Madness can play havoc with the box office and we tend to offer a more “off-beat” or “risky” musical here to attract audiences away from the television for one night.
So, for now anyway, three musicals seem to be the maximum we can offer a season. (Besides, I hate to say this but some people don’t like musicals, and they want to come to the theatre too.)
The second most asked question involves one title or another that’s simply not available. Just because a show is in playing in Chicago or even Kansas City, it doesn’t mean that TCT can do it. There’s a pecking order to availability and unfortunately community theatres fall to the bottom of the list. Now, I don’t think that’s fair either, but it’s true. I also don’t expect most people to know what’s available and what is not, but trust me no one wants to do Les Miserables, Mama Mia, Billy Elliot, or Spamalot than I do. Over all, I think our record is pretty good. We were the first in the area to do Les Miserable the School Edition, The Full Monty, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, and Buddy, The Buddy Holly Story. We are watching very closely for those new and hot musical properties. So please, feel free to suggest them, just know that many of those big shows out there are still highly protected.
And the final thing I want you to consider about a musical suggestion is, “When was the last time it was in the area?” We all have our favorites, those shows we can see over and over and never be tired of them. But unfortunately one man’s meat is another man’s poison. We have an unwritten rule at TCT that we have tried to live by. No show may be repeated unless it’s been at least ten years since we offered it. We’ve sometimes ignored this, but very rarely. And if another theatre in the vicinity has done the musical within the past five years, we tend to steer clear of that one too.
I certainly am not trying to “burst anyone’s bubble” about one production or another, and we sincerely want to hear from you. I just wanted to give you a heads up about the things we consider when we look at our musicals. We bank on them so much that we simply cannot afford not to ask these questions ourselves. Keep your suggestions coming! The 75th is just around the corner.
Sincerely,
Shannon Reilly – Artistic Director – TCTA