The Golden Rule

I'm working on several projects right now - one of which is a staged reading for a new play called The Darling Siblings by Ty DeMartino.  I'm one of the producers, and one of my responsibilities is to find and book a venue and a rehearsal space.  I've checked out a dozen or so small theaters, and something happened the other day that reminded me just how important it is to treat people with love and respect.

I was touring a space that we were considering for a venue, and the woman at the front desk was incredibly rude to me.  I won't go into details, but suffice to say, I'm generally a really nice guy, and it takes a lot to upset me.  So I politely excused myself and left.  Not worth my time.  Here's the aftermath:  

• They lost out on the rentals for the event which totaled around $1,500.  
• I've used this studio in the past for auditions, rehearsal rentals, etc.  Won't be doing that anymore.  Over the the next five years that could total several thousand dollars.
• People ask me all the time about where to rent space for theatrical projects.  Guess who I'm not recommending?

In the grand scheme of things it's not that big of a deal.  It was a small slip of the tongue.  But that small slip cost that company several thousand dollars over the next few years.  In today's economy that could be the difference between being in profit or operating in the red.

Apply this lesson to anyone working in a creative field:  it's hard enough to make it as it is.  It's even harder when you act rude to people.  Doesn't matter if you had a bad day or if there is some small misunderstanding.  People don't forget it when you're rude.  And you never know who it is that you're speaking to (or who they might become).  Nobody makes it alone.  That relationship you just burned?  It might have been the one person who would've propelled you to success.

People will forgive you for doing a bad job (always strive to do a good job, but we all know nobody's perfect).  People will not forgive you if you're rude to them. 

Designing a Website

The past few weeks I've spent a lot of time creating my own personal website (JonKakaley.com) so I can promote myself to casting, agents, directors, and producers.  

Back when I was working on A Hole In His Heart I learned a lot about how powerful a website can be if properly designed.  Just to give you an idea, 20% of the people who visited our website wound up getting a ticket.  That's a phenomenally high ratio, and I used a lot of the same concepts when designing a site of my own.  I figure a lot of other actors, singers, and artists would be curious, so for this blog post, I present you with a bullet point list on how to create a website:

• Adobe Dreamweaver - Dreamweaver is the best web design software on the market.  It's an industry standard.  In addition to creating complex sites quickly and efficiently, it has an array of other great features - like a tool that will help you resize your site to look good on mobile devices such as an iPhone or iPad.  Dreamweaver is not cheap (and there's a learning curve as well) but it's an investment that will pay you big dividends in the future.  I also recommend getting Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premiere.  With these tools you'll be able to design your own art work, retouch your own photos, and edit your own reel.  That way you won't be dependent on anyone else for your marketing materials.

• Choosing a Good Color Scheme.  Some people have a gift for matching colors.  Most people (including myself) do not.  Fortunately, there is an amazing tool called "Kuler" that does the work for you.  Go to  http://kuler.adobe.com/  and you'll find a catalog of great looking color schemes that match each other perfect.  And if you have Adobe Illustrator, this tool is already built in.  Pick a color scheme that matches your personality and that goes well with your media.

• Know Your Audience.  A personal website is something that you'll be showing to agents, casting directors, and other players in the industry.  That's a very different audience than say, TomCruise.com, which is a website devoted to his fans.  Think about what your "audience" is looking for when they visit, and let that guide you.

• Keep It Simple.  Agents, CDs, etc are very busy people.  And every day they are inundated by submissions from aspiring artists.  If they look at your site, they will have a very short attention span. Probably one or two minutes.  The layout should be simple and easy to navigate.  You should have a short bio, a reel, a handful of photos, your resume, and a link to some sort of site where you can post updates.

• Don't Make the Font Too Small.  There's a good chance that people with bad eyesight will be visiting your site.  And some people aren't too tech savy and don't know how to navigate through your site.  Using larger fonts will help with that.  To give you an idea, my menu bar is an 18 point font in uppercase bold, and most of the text is a 16 point font.

• Only Use Your Best.  A personal website is not a catalog of every single photo you've ever taken or every single film you've ever done.  It should be your best work.  You do not want an agent or CD to see anything other than your best work.  One great photo is far better than twelve mediocre ones.  One great reel is far better than two hours of film showcasing all your work.

• Make It Very Easy to Contact You.  Back when I was working on A Hole In His Heart, we made a simple change to the website that dramatically increased sales.  We put a large "Get Tickets" button on the top of every page.  I was blown away.  How could something so simple make such a big impact?  What it means is that a lot of people wanted to buy a ticket, but couldn't figure out how to find the small ticket page at the bottom of the screen (and after fifteen or so seconds they gave up).  It's a lesson I'll remember for the rest of my life.
  
  Now apply this same concept to a personal website.  What do you ultimately want them to do?  You want them to contact you and bring you in for an audition or job.  So make your contact information large and obvious, and put it at the top of every page.  If you're represented by an agency, their contact information should be at the top of every page too.  And make sure any email address is a clickable link.

• Posting Updates.  It's a good idea to link your site to some sort of blog so you can post updates about your career.  I'm using blogpot, but there are other sites (such as twitter) that are just as good.  There are also ways to embed your blog in your site, and so long as it doesn't look tacky, that's fine too.  Word of warning - if you're going to use Facebook, make sure you keep it professional.  If people in casting see a post about how bad your date was last night they won't take you seriously.

That's all I've got for today!  If you'd like to see a template of what these concepts look like when put together, check out my website at JonKakaley.com

Long overdue...

It's been a while hasn't it?

Life after the show has been interesting, and I've been fairly quiet these last few months.  A lot of people have asked what I've been up to.  To tell you the truth I've been incredibly busy.  A lot of good things are on the horizon, and while some of it is beyond the scope of this post, be rest assured I'll share the details in the coming weeks.

I've been doing a lot of learning.  At the end of the day, your success is determined by the quality of your work, and since the play I've focused on becoming a better artist.  Some of you may be curious as to what this entails.  I certainly don't have all the answers, but I compiled a list of what I've been doing, and hopefully it'll be of some use.

Reading Great Plays.  If you want to be a great writer, you would be wise to study those who have come before you.  As such, I've been reading a lot of classic plays and trying to figure out what exactly makes them a classic.  I've found some real gems along the way.  Check out Anna Christie and Beyond the Horizon by Eugene O'Neil (both plays won the Pulitzer),  Orpheus Descending and Sweet Bird of Youth by Tennessee Williams, and The Rainmaker by Richard Nash.  Phenomenal examples of dramatic writing.

Reading  Books on Writing.  The craft of writing is an arcane one, and anyone who claims to have a "magic formula" is a charlatan and a liar.  With that said, there is a craft to it, and many a good book has been written on the subject.  Two that I've found to be particularly useful are The Hero With A Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell and The Writer's Journey by Christopher Volgar.  The former takes classic myths and fairy tales throughout history and provides a deep literary analysis, and the latter is a good textbook on plot structure and character archetypes in modern dramatic writing.

Writing Material.  You learn by doing.  You can read all the books in the world, but you're only going to get better if you pick up the pen and begin to write.  A lot of writers are scared that they'll sit down and nothing will materialize. Force yourself.  Some of my best writing came when I wasn't in the mood, but I forced myself anyways.  Look at it this way, sitting around and doing nothing certainly won't get you anywhere, so what do you have to lose?

Learning to Concentrate.  Ever have one of those days where you feel you can't focus?  Of course you have.  If you didn't, you wouldn't be human.  Concentration is particularly important to great acting (and useful for every other facet of our lives as well).  We live in a fast paced world, and exposure to modern media has destroyed our ability to focus.  Fortunately, there are exercises and techniques that can strengthen concentration, and anyone in the performing arts would be wise to do so.  I've begun the study of the art of meditation for this very reason.  Meditation (like acting) is one of those thing you have to "do."  Reading a book is not going to help much, but if you want to know some good exercises that will strengthen your ability to concentrate check out Concentration by Mouni Sadhu.

Reading  Books on Marketing.  If you plan on producing in any capacity, you need to have a good understanding of how marketing works.  And even if you don't produce, you need to know how to market yourself as an independent artist.  Marketing is an exact science, and basing your campaign on "instinct" is like taking an SAT test and guessing on the answers.  A few recommendations:  Scientific Advertising by Claude C Hopkins, Commonsense Direct and Digital Marketing by Drayton Bird, Purple Cow by Seth Goodin, and Influence by Robert Cialdini.


By the way, I plan to update this blog on a regular basis.  Once every other week.  Next time I'll talk about some of my upcoming projects.

What I learned

It's been two weeks since load out, and I've had quite a bit of time to reflect on the show.  As I was walking out the door, the space manager at Atlantic congratulated me and said that producing a play is like "a trial by fire."  Sometimes making it out alive is a victory in and of itself.  To an extent that's true.  There was a lot of good that came out of this, but there were also flaws.  And you gotta take the good with the bad.  I figure I'd share them both.

First I'll start with the bad.  No matter how good you are or what your intentions may be, you'll always fall short of perfection.  I'm certainly not immune to that.  And anytime you get more than ten people in an audience, there will inevitably be someone who doesn't like your show.  That's life, and you have to learn to deal with it.  We had a few critics stop by, and while they had some very kind things said about our show, they also had some criticism as well.

But I'm grateful for the criticism.  I'm grateful for the opportunity to learn, and I'm grateful for the honestly.  So to all the critics out there - thank you very much for your feedback.  I'll apply it to my future work, and hopefully you'll come review that as well.

Now for the good.  I'd like to share a few numbers with you.  We opened with about 80 tickets sold in advance.  That's not a very high number, and at first I was a little disappointed.  However, over the course of our 1 week run, that number climbed to nearly 240.  That's triple what we started with.  In one week's time-span.  I did very little marketing once the play opened, which means that despite any flaws the show might have had, people enjoyed it and we had a good word of mouth.  For a group of unknown actors, working for an unknown theater company (working on a first play by an unknown writer), that is a very impressive statistic, and everyone involved should be extremely proud.

I'd also like to comment on the acting, which I thought was quite good.  One thing most critics did praise were the performances.   Makes sense.  I've been acting for seven years and I've been writing for three.  I have a lot of room for growth in both, but it makes sense that I'm a better actor.

And I couldn't have picked a better cast.  They should all be extremely proud.  I can't begin to tell you how many compliments I got on their work.  Every night was different, and while some nights were better than others, I thought that every show was good, and I thought that we "showed up" as a cast every single night.

We also had a fair amount of attention from the industry.  About 10 or so production companies came to see the show, and a few of them contacted me asking to see more work.  Several members of the press stopped by (including Vanity Fair), and many of them wrote me back after the show.

I had nothing but the best time working on this.  I'd even go as far as to say that January was the best month of my life.  I want to thank everyone who came to see it.  You really don't have a show without an audience, and I'm grateful for everyone - even the critics.  It couldn't have happened without you, and hopefully you'll come see me in the future.  I can't wait to do it again.


Until next time,


Jon Kakaley



P.S.  I'll be maintaining this blog, but less frequent.  Probably around once a week (until my next show gets going).

The Aftermath

For anyone who's been following the blog - I'm still alive and well.  I've just been on a little vacation.  It was a long hard journey and I decided to take the following week off after load out was concluded.  But I haven't forgotten the blog, and over the next few days I'm going to post some of the results and how we did.

But I will say this:  while you can always grow and improve in all areas of production, for our first time, we did very very well.

Stay tuned!

Last show

I would by lying if I said I wasn't a little sad that tonight is my last performance.

What an experience!  Some days have been exhausting, some days have been filled with great joy, but one thing is for sure:  I have had the time of my life working on this.  I'm incredibly proud of everyone who's worked on this show, and I'm so sad to see it close.  I had nothing but the best time, and I hope I can do this again as soon as possible.

I try to approach every performance like it's my last, but tonight I literally have no choice.  It will be a special show this evening, that's for sure (hopefully that means I'll be good!)  In addition, Chris Thompson (the kid I talked about in my attitude and passion blog tinyurl.com/84u9jw6) will be making his theater debut tonight.  The actor he's understudying had to attend a wedding, and I gave Chris the call two days ago.  He's been amazing in rehearsals, and I'm sure that'll carry over to the stage.

Tonight's shaping up to be a great show.  If you haven't seen it, now's your chance.  Student tickets and HOLA! members just $12.

The Show Must Go On...

A couple days ago we had a little scare.  Our light & sound board operator had to go to the ER two hours before our 8:00 curtain.  I of course sent her to the hospital right away (it would have been extremely foolish to get her to do the show - not to mention immoral).

Two hours before curtain and no lights and sound.  What to do.  What to do.

1. First thing is I didn't panic.  That never helps anyone.  Nothing ever goes according to plan, and production is all about dealing with the bumps in the road.
2. Second thing is I called my director.  We entertained the idea of doing the show without lights and sound (it's better to have nothing than to have them go off in the wrong places all night), but it adds so much to show that we decided against it.
3. We formed a new plan.  My director and stage manager would sit up in the booth and do the light and sound together.  The supporting cast would take over the stage manager's responsibilities.
4. I went to the green room to start my acting warm ups, but before I did, Jake pulled me aside and said, "Jon, we're gonna do sound, but if something goes wrong, we're gonna bail.  Just keep going."   Haha.  Good to know. This was about 30 minutes before showtime.  
5. At around 8:10, Jake came out and announced to the audience that the show must go on and that he'd be running the board.  Applause.  So far so good.
6. Lights went up and the show went off...  without a hitch.
7. Well, a few hitches.  We had to use the master dimmers instead of the light cues, so we lost a lot of the detail that our lighting designer created.  A blackout happened too soon, some of the scene changes were a tad too long, and we lost the "rain" effect in the final scene. However, these are all minor details, and considering the situation - it went very smooth.

And that's how you handle a situation like that.  I'm extremely proud of my cast and crew.  We could have taken the easy way out and done the show without lights and sound.  But they stepped up to the plate and made it happen.  I'm also happy to report that our light and sound operator is ok, and will be back for the remainder of the show.

We have two days left.  Tonight (Friday) and tomorrow (Saturday).  Student tickets just $12.  Also, if you're a member of HOLA! (http://www.hellohola.org/), show your ID at the door and get the student rate as well.  Come on out and see the show!

Student Tickets

We had a great response from the preview that we opened up to students.  Since then several students have contacted me about some sort of promotion for the show.  As a result, we've decided to offer student tickets for $12.  So if you're a student, simply go to the box office, tell them what school you're with, and you can get in the show for less than the price of a movie.

Only three shows left!  Hope to see you there.

What Makes Theater Special

Why does live theater still exist?  Can't we just record it on a camera?  It would be far cheaper for producers, a lot less work, and more people could afford to see it.

There is one reason, and one reason alone that has kept the theater going throughout the advent of TV and film. That reason is irreplaceable and you'll never find it anywhere else.  It's live.  And on any given night you never know when something special is going to happen.

I like to compare theater to sports.  Why do people show up and pay thousands for front row seats to watch Kobe Bryant or LeBron James?  After all it's the same game night in and night out.  It's because the performance is different every night, and every night there's the chance that something amazing might happen (like Kobe's 81 point game).

It's the same with theater.  The script is the same, and the director's vision is the same, but every night is different, and every night there's a chance the stars will align and an actor will give the performance of a lifetime.  And there is nothing like seeing it live.  Nothing.  That's what makes theater so special, and that's why it will never go away.

Opening Weekend...

Whew!  After 16hr days for the past three weeks, opening weekend is behind us.  I enjoyed it immensely.  Things are going well.  People seem to be enjoying the show, and ticket sales picked up a bit over the weekend which means that we're getting a good word of mouth.  Hopefully that'll continue through next week.

I'll be updating my blog and sending a few emails, but today is really my first day off.  Not really sure what to do!  But it's good to relax.  No matter how committed you are, burning yourself out isn't good for anyone.

I'll probably still go over my lines a few times.  You always want that fresh in your mind.

Sunday's Show Starts Early

Just wanted to take a little time to remind everyone that Sunday's show starts at 7:00pm. It's a hour earlier than we usually start and I didn't want anyone to be confused. We had a decent crowd despite the weather last night so come on out and see the show! Hope to see you there!

Always Look to Grow

I don't think I could have asked for a better opening night.  We had a great crowd, and I felt really good about the work we did as a cast.  I couldn't be more proud of my fellow actors.  There were several points where I felt we were working extremely well.  

I'd like to thank everyone who came.  It was a really good night for the show.

So where to go from here?  Well, there are always things you can do to grow as an actor.  I was talking with a fellow cast member after the show, and he told me, "You know, every night we go out there and try to achieve perfection even though we know it's impossible.  But every night we go out there and try to do it anyway."  And it's the truth.  There's always a way to make it better.  And that's not just for acting.  That's for every facet of life.

So make it about growth.  Pick one aspect of the work that you think could be improved upon and make that a focal point for your next performance.

Opening Night

Our preview last night went well.  There were a few technical kinks (one or two lighting cues were off and we didn't have any music for house opening and intermission), but other than that I thought things went extremely well.

As an actor, there are always ways you can grow during the show's run, but I felt really positive about the work we did last night.  I had fun out there.  And at the end of the day, that's the most important thing.  The audience doesn't start having fun until you do.  It was a great confidence builder, and hopefully I can knock it out of the park tonight.

Preview

The great thing about live theater is that it's different every night.  Even though there's structure to what you do in rehearsals, there are still so many variables that will affect the performance.  A big one is the presence of an audience.  The nerves and pressure you experience as an actor are completely different when an audience is watching.  A preview is about getting used to those differences and learning how to handle them.  Quirks will arise here and there, and you'll get a chance to deal with them before opening night.

Our preview is tonight at 8:00PM at Atlantic Stage 2 (330 W 16th Street).  House opens at 7:30.  We had a handful of people buy tickets for it (and I sincerely appreciate that), but I also wanted to open up the preview to students.  A good turnout will help us get the show on its feet, and it's a great way for students to experience the theater for free.  So if you're a student, come by the theater when the house opens (let the box know that you're a student), and as long as there's seating left, they'll let you in free of charge.

We partnered with a few schools on this, and I'm not exactly sure what kind of turnout we'll get, but we got a lot of traffic to the website yesterday, so hopefully we'll get a nice crowd.

Letting it go

It's been pretty crazy the last few days.  It's tech week and that means long hours and hard work.  I have a running list of technical things that need to be fixed for the show to be in ship shape (thankfully it's a short one).

We had a production meeting last night, and as I was going over the list, my director spoke up and said "Jon, this is the last night you'll be doing this."  And he's right.  I need to let it go.  The show's ready to go, and I need to trust that my team can handle the details.

Right now I'm just an actor, and there's only one things on my mind:  giving this show the best performance I can possibly give.

Tech Week

I woke up at 6:45AM today to head to Stage 2.  I got out of the theater around 7:30PM.  Right now, it's 9:00PM and I'm still working (various emails, paperwork, marketing, etc).  But that's par for the course as far as tech week's concerned.

And if anyone noticed, I didn't update my blog yesterday.  That's how busy I was.

Tech week never goes according to plan.  To start things off the freight elevator wasn't running (second time this has happened to me in this production).  Then we started constructing the two doors we needed and ran out of lumber.  Then after we built everything, we discovered the door was slightly bowed and didn't close properly.  Tech week never goes according to plan.

Thankfully we got everything fixed by the time I left the theater.  But tech week really separates the wheat from the chaff as far as your production team is concerned.  Thankfully I've got a lot of wheat on my team!

One thing I wanted to stress though - don't let the chaos of tech week break your stride.  For the first time in about two months I broke my diet and ate a slice of pizza.  I'm not too bent out of shape over it.  I had to have some form of nourishment, but it got me thinking - if ever there was a time to stay disciplined and focused - tech week is that time.

Props are Important

Space in New York comes with a premium.   We often take for granted how the set and props as stored.  As a result, actors will often rehearse without those things.  And I think that's a mistake.  Props and set affect behavior (and thus they affect acting).  We interact differently (and feel differently) when we're working with the real deal.

As a producer, I fought really hard to get the set and props into the rehearsal space as soon as possible.  And we were successful.  By the second week we had everything we needed.  And, boy, what a difference this made in our rehearsals.  When it comes to love scenes, working on an actual bed made a *night and day* difference (we were using rehearsal blocks - ouch!).  And working with actual pots, pans, and vegetables makes a *night and day* difference over miming the action of making soup.

I’m not a big fan of miming.  When you mime, you have to concentrate on imaginary details.  But when you have real props, you can forget about the miming and focus on other things, like, you know – the acting.

Marketing 501 – Be Yourself

Ever heard of the phrase “don’t pretend to be someone you’re not”?  Pretty sound advice.  Same applies to marketing.  When you present yourself, don’t try to convince people that the show is something that it isn’t.

Let’s take this example to the extreme.    Suppose I sent out an email with the subject header “World renowned playwright produces new hit play!” – which is of course a lie.  I’m not a world renowned playwright, and my play has yet to become a hit.  However, it’s a catchy subject line and it might get a lot of opens.  But you’re not looking for opens - you’re looking to sell tickets.  And the moment they realize your subject header wasn't exactly truthful, they’ll lose interest.  No one likes to be mislead.

We’re not a Broadway play.  We don't have all that glitz and glamour.  It would be foolish for us to pretend otherwise.  What we are is a brand new play and even though we’re a small production, we’re trying to do things at a very high level.  We have a great director who was nominated for an Emmy.  We have a very talented cast that's done some incredible work in rehearsals the last two weeks. We're very proud of who we are.  And there are plenty of people who want to see a show like that.  That’s who you want to reach.  And that’s how you want to present yourself.

Marketing 401 – Analytics

Remember how I said that a website is one of the best investments you can make?  It should be at the very core of your marketing campaign.  Every brochure, postcard, and pamphlet should point straight to your website.  I’ve already stated many of the benefits in a previous blog entry, but here’s one that’s not so obvious (yet it’s perhaps the most powerful):  website analytics. 

So, what are website analytics?  It’s special software that tracks how users interact with your website.  It will tell you when people visit your site, where they’re from, how they got there, and what specific information they looked at before they bought a ticket.  The insight that this tool give you is incredible, as it allows you pinpoint exactly what’s working and what isn’t working with your marketing campaign.

Imagine that you send an email to 20,000 theater goers about your play.  With website analytics, you’ll see exactly how many of those 20,000 actually visited the website, and you’ll see how many of them bought tickets.  Even better, you can track what they looked at right before they clicked on the “ticket” page.  So if a lot of people are looking at photos before they buy tickets, then it’s pretty safe to say that the photos are what’s selling the show.

So how do you get website analytics?  Here’s the best part:  it’s free.  Google offers a service called Google Analytics absolutely free of charge.  And here’s the even better part:  it’s effortless to install (provided you have a basic understanding of HTML).  You add a few lines of tracking code to the <head> section of your website and it’s up and running.  That’s it.

Memorize your lines

I remember watching one of those “Inside the Actor’s Studio” interviews, and they were talking to Al Pacino.  They had asked him if he had any advice for all the young actors out there.  His response:  “Yeah, memorize your lines.”  Everyone of course laughed their behinds off, but I think he wasn’t joking.

As I continue to rehearse, I’m constantly reminded of one thing:  memorize your lines.  And I don’t mean half-memorized, I mean front and back.  It’ll help you work with a minimal amount of tension – always a good thing for an actor to do.  It also lets you concentrate on other things like doing an action, listening to your scene partner, using a piece of yourself, etc etc.

Talent is talent, and some have it in larger doses than others.  But everyone can have their lines memorized.

Make it good

I've been told that the mark of a good producer is in his attention to detail.  And it’s true.  I spend a lot of time worrying about frivolous things.  I over analyze everything.  If a press release is a day late I get upset.  If I don’t book the theater for the exact dates I want I get upset.  And those blue suede shoes that I bought for the wardrobe?  They better match the pants perfectly or I’m going to be upset. 

Attention to detail is a good thing.  But sometimes you can get so caught up with it that you forget the most important thing:  make the show good.  As in the writing needs to be good, and the acting needs to be good.  At the end of the day – that’s why people come to the theater.  If someone complements me on how nice the set is (or how beautiful the clothes were) then I’ll consider the show a failure.  Because if the set stood out over the writing and the acting then we have a serious problem.

So all these details like “what time of the years is best to open,” or “how should I word the press invitations” – give them due thought, but it’s far more important to make the show good.  Good shows survive and bad shows die.  Period.

Remember, you can produce a hundred mediocre plays and get nowhere in this business.  But produce one hit and you’ll be remembered forever.

Budget Cuts

Two things in life are certain – death and taxes.  And if you’re a producer, there’s one more.  At some point during the production, you will be sitting at a table with two sheets of paper in front of you:   1) a list of everything you’d like to happen, and 2) a list of what you actually have the money for.

I hate budget cuts.  If I had my way, I’d take a full page ad in the NY Times, give all my actors a $5,000 stipend, and extend the show’s run for a couple more weeks.  But I just don’t have the budget for it.  And if I don’t make hard decisions about what stays and what doesn’t, then the show doesn’t go up – period.  And that’s not good for anybody.

The trick is, don’t cut something that will compromise the artistic integrity.  If you’ve found the perfect actor and he needs a little more money to pay his rent – try and make it happen.  But hosting an after party that will cost you several thousands of dollars?  Scale it back a little.

Moral of the story – if you come to our opening night party, we’ll be serving Prosecco instead of Dom Perignon!  (I kid I kid – only the best!)

Writing a Synopsis

I hate writing a synopsis.  You’re asking me to boil an 80+ page work of art down to a few sentences.  I hate it.  But you have to have one.  People expect it, and they won’t give you a second look if you don’t.  And to an extent they have a point.  Why should people take a chance on $25 and two hours of their time if they don’t like the premise?

I must have re-written the synopsis at least 20 times.  I wanted it to be eloquent, sophisticated, and I wanted to capture all the drama that’s contained in the script.  Every synopsis I wrote with this philosophy was an utter failure.  They were all too complicated.  I’d read them over and think “this is just going to confuse people.  They won’t understand the story.”

Then it dawned on me.  Make it simple.  Just tell the story.  And in the case of my play the story’s pretty obvious:  It’s a reunion between two lovers that haven’t seen each other in ten years.  That’s it.  Nothing confusing about that.  Now, the story has a very deep artistic message about the world we live in and how we define happiness, but they don’t need to hear all that.  They just need to know it’s a good story.

And I think the same approach should apply to the promotional photography.  Don’t try to get a picture that encompasses every dramatic element of the play.  Just get some photos that highlight one particular aspect of the drama they’ll be seeing.  And in the case of A Hole In His Heart, we wanted to highlight the relationship.   It’s a play about passion.  It’s a play about love.  And I think our pictures do a good job of showing that.

Attitude and Passion

I have a friend named Chris.  He’s not an actor.  However, he’s a great guy, and he’s got one of the most interesting personalities I’ve ever seen.  And he just so happens to be the perfect type for one of the play’s smaller roles.  So I asked him to audition.  He did really good (no acting training whatsoever).  So I brought him to the callback.  He did really good again.  More importantly he showed a tremendous amount of passion and excitement for the work.

I was really torn when it came time to cast.  He did really well, and I wanted to give him a shot, but on the flip side, I’ve studied acting for the last decade, and I know how important training and experience is.  Trained actors typically take direction better, grow more with rehearsals, and can focus better under the pressure of a large audience.

So I cast another actor who auditioned equally well, but had a lot more experience and training under his belt.  However, I talked to Chris, and asked if he’d like to understudy.  Most actors would scoff at this, but not Chris.   You should have seen the way his eyes lit up.  He didn’t care about attention or “being seen” – he just wanted to learn more about acting and be part of the project.  He thanked me profusely, and then proceeded to tell me that he’d work as hard as he could and even take time off from work to make it to rehearsals.

The reason that I’m telling you this is because his excitement towards the craft is better than most actors out there today.    And that really made me think because I’ll bet you most actors were like that when they first started out.  But after years and years of rejection that passion is slowly destroyed, and you’re left with someone who cares about money and how much screen time they’re going to get.  And what a shame that is.  Imagine if there was an actor out there who had that passion and ten years of experience to boot?  I’ll bet you agents, directors, and producers would be killing themselves to meet him.

                I really hope that something works out and Chris is able to go on stage.  But either way, he can’t lose.  The theater is what you make of it, and with an attitude like that, he’s only going to have fun and learn.

Auditions – Actor’s Edition

This particular blog post doesn’t really have a whole lot to do with production.  But I can’t help but think of how much I learned by being on the other side of the table and watching the actors for a change.  And since a lot of actor’s are reading this blog, I present to you a list of audition tips for actors:

1. Be on time.
2. Refrain from asking questions like “how much does this pay?” or “who’s going to be at the opening?”  We all know those concerns are in the back of everyone’s mind, but it’s a little insulting when someone’s more concerned with the business aspect as opposed to the creative.
3. Open yourself up when you walk in the room.  Give us a little bit of your personality.  We’re looking at who you are as a person and deciding whether or not that’s right for this particular role.  Chances are you have it in you, but if you don’t show us, we’ll never know.
4. If a scene requires kissing, don’t kiss the reader unless explicitly told to (yes, someone tried this).
5. Follow direction.  Even if that direction is totally wrong for the material.  If we give someone a direction, and they read it the exact same way, we instantly know that they’re capable of very little growth.
6. If you genuinely like the script, let them know.  And if you have an honest question about the script – please ask.  We want to cast someone who’s passionate about the material.  Just don’t do it if you don’t mean it.  If someone is blowing smoke up my boat, I can smell it a mile away.
7. Unless they say otherwise, take your time.  If you need a moment to do a prep then do it.  I respect an actor who’s unwilling to compromise where his craft is concerned.  You’re coming here to show us how you work.  Don’t let anything stop you from doing that.
8. If you’re given the sides a week or so in advance, don’t come in the room barely familiar with the lines.  Your competition sure won’t.  That’s for sure.
9. If you’re given the full script before the audition, you should read it.  And if you haven’t read it, and they ask, you should lie and say you have.  I’m dead serious.
10. If the playwright’s in the room, do not ad-lib your own lines into the script.
11. Please look like your headshot.  We’re all vain, and we all want to look like a cover model, but if you walk into the room and you’re someone else – you’re definitely not getting the role.  And most of the time we don’t even want a cover model.  Just be yourself, and be proud of who you are.
12. Have fun.  We want to work with people who are fun.  If we enjoyed working with you at the audition your chances of getting cast just shot up by a factor of ten. 

Marketing 301 – Website Design

                A good website should be at the cornerstone of your marketing campaign.  The amount of information you can provide is staggering when you look at the costs.  You can purchase a domain at GoDaddy.com for $10.  You can have it hosted for $50 a year.  Sixty bucks and you get to provide ticket buyers with unlimited photos, videos, press quotes, and most importantly:  a link to buy the tickets.

                So how do you go about building a website?  If you don’t have a friend who can build websites, I suggest you start looking for one immediately.  Or better yet, pick up a copy of Dreamweaver for Dummies and learn how to do it yourself.  The internet is the future for marketing and communications.  The cost savings of doing things online are through the roof.  Any time you invest in understanding the internet will not be wasted.

                With that said, here are a list of tips and guidelines to follow when creating your website: 

1. Please, please, please – make it look nice.  Make sure the colors match, and make sure the layout looks pleasing to the eye.
2. Make sure the website loads quickly.  I hate slow websites.  Flash-based websites are the worst because they take nearly a minute to load.  By that time I’ve lost interest. 
3. Do not have music play automatically the moment you open the page.  I cannot tell you how much I hate this.  Most people listen to their own playlist while surfing the web.  It's rude and disruptive to invade my space like that.  And what if I'm at work?  If something starts blasting over the speakers you just humiliated me in front of all my co-workers.  If you’re producing a musical, have a page where you can listen to the tracks, but give them a choice.  Don’t ram it down their throats.
4. Three things should be visible on every page.  The name of the play, the location of the theater, and a link to buy tickets.  This is common sense, but I am continually shocked at how difficult sites make it to find basic information.
5. Make it as easy as possible to buy a ticket.  An easy to find link that says “tickets” should be on every page.  When they make up their mind to purchase a ticket, you want that process to be as smooth as possible.
6. A picture is worth a thousand words.  Invest in great pictures for your website.
7. A good photo is more effective than a good illustration.  There is marketing data to back this up.  (but make sure they’re good).
8. People will assume that the quality of your website reflects the quality of your show.  So again – make it look nice.  It should look like a lot of TLC was put into it (which will give them the impression that a lot of TLC was put into the show).

Website Data

I'm looking at the analytical data for the website, and I figure I'd share a few things:

• The most popular page (other than the home page) is the cast page
• A very close second is the promotional photography

There is also something called a "drop rate."  Meaning the percent of people who leave the website after visiting a page.  You want a low drop rate.  The page with the lowest "drop rate" is photography.  Second lowest is the cast page.

What to infer from this?  People want to see photos and people want to know more about the actors that they're seeing.

If you want to see the website check it out at:

http://www.holeinhisheart.com

Script Development

                The script is the most important part of the show.  It serves as the foundation for everything that you do.  “If it ain’t on the page, it ain’t on the stage.”  If you ever watch interviews with famous actors, you'll often see them talking about how long they worked on the characters (often times it's several years).  What they're really talking about is script development.  Good scripts take time to write.  In particular, this one took three years.

                A script is a story told through dramatic events.  The keyword here is dramatic events.  In a bad script the story is told through an exposition.  In a good script, the plot unfolds through the drama of the scene.  Expositions are boring.  Drama is not.  After the first draft of a script, I’ll go through each and every scene and ask myself the following questions:  What is the event?  What is really going on here?  What is happening between these characters that makes this scene exciting to watch?  If I don’t have a good answer to those questions, I’ll go back and revise the scene until I do.  Good writing is rooted in behavior, NOT dialogue.  Dialogue is a subset of behavior, and while it can add a lot to a play, a good scene can be acted without words.  If you need words to do the scene, there is something fundamentally wrong with it.

That’s not to say that words are not important.  Well written dialogue and alliteration can do a lot for you (like help the actors affect their scene partners, improve the tempo, etc), but the words need to be rooted in non-verbal behavior or they have no meaning.  After I feel like I have a strong event for each individual scene, I’ll go back through the whole play and re-work the dialogue – focusing on tempo and continuity.

After all that’s done, I’ll start to collaborate with other artists (like a director and actors), and do table reads.  It’s important to get good actors for the table reads.  If you don’t, the reads won’t do you much good.  You’ll just want to bash your head in from hearing a bad actor butcher your words.  Table reads do a good job of separating the wheat from the chaff in terms of the writing.  You’ll quickly find out what works and what doesn’t.  The stuff that works well - you keep.  The stuff that doesn’t – back to the drawing board.  Rinse and repeat until you feel the work is ready for the public.  Just to give you a benchmark, we did well over a dozen table reads for this project.

                This is a very basic overview of what script development is like.  The actual nuts and bolts of it is very complicated, and way beyond the scope of this blog.  You have to understand how to give a writer feedback that’s going to help him and not confuse him.  There’s a real art to that.  You have to understand the commentary on life he (or her) is trying to make, and help guide the script in that direction. 

Marketing 201

In my last blog on marketing (Marketing 101), I talked about direct marketing and how it can be a great tool to promote your show.  In this blog, we’ll take it a step further and talk about the cost and practicality of actually doing it.

First of all I’d like to link you to another blog written by one of my favorite Broadway producers (Ken Davenport).  In this particular post he talks about proofing a direct mail advertisement.

Godspell Blog

Direct mail is very effective.  Broadway producers wouldn’t use it if it wasn’t.  Now let's examine the costs and see how we can apply it to an off-off Broadway production.  A first class stamp is 44c.  A nice colorful direct mail postcard is going to cost between 50c to a dollar.  Let’s be liberal, and say the postcard will cost us 56c giving us a grand total of $1 per mailing.  Now let’s say we send this mailing out to 500,000 people who are active ticket buyers.   Think about the costs associated with that.  At minimum, we’re spending half a million dollars on supplies, and that doesn’t even cover the labor involved in executing such a feat (you can’t just walk into the post office and drop half a million brochures into a mail slot) or the costs of obtaining such a list in the first place.

A mailing like this, if put together properly, can give you a return of around 3%-4% (meaning 3% of the people you contact will actually buy a ticket).  If you do the math 3% is 15,000 tickets sold.  Now, if you’re producing on Broadway and you’re selling tickets for $100 a pop, that’s a potential $1.5 million return.  And if the show has a good word of mouth, the return will be even greater, making direct mail totally worth it.  But if you’re producing a limited run off-Broadway (and selling tickets for $25…) you’re going to lose a lot of money.  And most likely you won’t have the $500,000 initial capital in the first place.

What if I told you that you could send something out that was much more detailed and extensive than a postcard, and that you could send it out to 500,000 people at a fraction of the cost?  And by fraction I mean sub $5,000 range.  I imagine you’d sit up and listen!

First of all, use a website instead of a postcard.  A website will cost you $10 a month to maintain, and it can have as many pictures, videos, biographies, etc as you want.  Loads more information at a fraction of the cost.

Second of all, use email instead of direct mail.  Direct mail costs $1 per mailing.  Email costs $0 per mailing.  The only cost associated with email is buying the list.  Critics may argue:  marketing via email is bad because no one likes spam.  I disagree.  Email "spam" is no less intrusive than a hardcopy of "junk" mail.  And second of all, the companies that rent these lists only send emails to people who want to hear about new shows and events.  This means that someone had to subscribe to the list meaning it's not unsolicited.  So what you're sending is not really spam.

A $500,000 marketing expense down to $5,000.  Nice.  This is what off-off Broadway producing is all about folks.  Finding a way to get it done at a fraction of the cost.

Wardrobe

Wardrobe is usually an afterthought in Off-Off Broadway.  A lot of 99 seat plays just tell the actors to bring in clothes of their own.  Actors wearing their own clothes is not necessarily a bad thing (more often than not, they get it right), but as a producer you should be concerned that it's given proper attention.

Clothes are important for two reasons. 

1)      How you dress represents who you are, and how you’re perceived in the world.  Good playwrights write specific characters, and how they dress helps tell the story. 

2)      Clothing has a dramatic impact on an actor’s behavior.  Your body language is different in a fitted suit than it is in shorts and a t-shirt.  If want the actors to do good work, then you need to put them in the right clothes.

Now that I’ve established how important wardrobe is, I’d like to tackle the reason why most shows ignore it – money.  Good clothes are expensive.  Particularly in my play, one of the characters is wealthy, and he loves to flaunt it.  Clothes than emanate wealth and status can’t be faked.  The color palette and fabrics used by high end designers aren’t really found anywhere else.  And I don’t since I don’t have $6,000 to spend on wardrobe, this presented a real problem.  But as always, when you put your mind to it, you'll find a few ways around it:

1)       Get connected in the fashion industry.  I found someone who could get me top end clothing for dirt cheap.  I got a Gucci cashmere sweater for $40.  Probably retails for $800.  I got a Versace black leather jacket for $60.  Easily costs over a grand.

2)      Clothes can be dyed, and sometimes it’ll save you money.  We were looking for a burgundy leather jacket (burgundy is one of the hottest colors right now) for the male lead.  I saw a nice one at Prada, but with a $5,000 price tag I can forget about that.  My friend in the fashion industry got me something really nice by an Italian designer, but it was tobacco colored, and wasn’t much use.  However, there’s a guy on the upper west side who runs a leather shop and can dye leather.  I talked to him (he didn’t speak a word of English) and he agreed to dye it for $60.  Came out looking perfect.  $5,000 down to $120.  I’ll take that.

3)      Goodwill.  I’m serious.  A lot of incredible stuff can be found there if you have the patience to look.

4)      Sometimes you have to bite the bullet.  I paid $600 (ouch) to Versace for a pair of blue pants.  But they were perfect (wait to you see them, these are incredible pants), and I couldn’t find them anywhere else.

Callbacks

I saw some amazing talent at the initial audition.  It was such a good day, and I had so many good choices that I was honestly a little dumbstruck.  Afterwards, I was talking with my director, and I foolishly asked “do we even need to have callbacks?”  His response?  Absolutely.  Why?  It tells you who is capable of growth and who isn’t. 

There is an initial buzz you get at that first audition.  Seeing the work come to life with a fresh voice and a fresh face is very exciting for both sides of the table.  But what are they going to be like two weeks from now?  Hold a callback and you’ll find out.  Some actors get better, some stay the same, and some even get worse.  The ones who grow are the ones you keep.