Letting Go

I’ll admit it.  I'm a control freak.  If I could clone myself a dozen time to work on each and every aspect of the show - I’d probably do it.  I’ve always bought into the philosophy that “if you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself.”  This project means a lot to me on a personal level, and no one is going to treat it with the same level of care and commitment as I will.  I obsess over the smallest of details.  As a writer, I once spent thirty minutes deciding upon a single word.  That’s a half hour of work for one measly word.

And I’m telling you, as someone who aims for nothing less than perfection, you have to let it go.  You have to trust the people around you to do the job you hired them to do.  For one, talented people are not going to stick around if you’re telling them what to do all the time.  Everyone wants to feel like their contributions are valued - especially those who are good at it. 

And you know what?  When you do let go, the results will often surprise you.  Case and point:  I was working with my director (Jake Turner) and lead actress (Ydaiber Orozco) in an early rehearsal.  Jake asked me to do something that was totally different than what I had in mind when I wrote the script.  Jake has my complete trust and respect so I did what he asked.  And you know what?  It was a brilliant choice.  His idea was better.  If I had been stubborn and insistent I never would have found it.

Cutting Costs

Off Broadway shows don’t have a lot of money to work with.  Off-off Broadway shows have even less money to work with.  And when you produce a play, money evaporates at the drop of a hat.  At some point in the production, you’re going to have to make cuts – but there is a right way and a wrong way to do it.

The wrong way is to make a cut that will take away from the overall quality of the show.  For example:  if an actor needs a prop, article of clothing, or a particular set piece because it affects his behavior – that’s something you don’t want to cut.  It affects the overall integrity of the show.

One of the best ways to make a budget cut is to examine your game plan and look for unnecessary overhead.  A prime example was our promotional photography.  My idea for the photoshoot was thus:  put the set on an actual stage, and have someone take pictures of the actors doing the scenes.  So anyone who visits our website can get a glimpse of what the play will be like.  Good idea, but it incurs a lot of costs.  Renting a theater in Manhattan is very expensive.  To block one out for the whole day (even a cheap one) would be at least $500.  Plus my set is stored in Jersey City, so I’d have to rent a UHaul to move it.  With bridge tolls and gas fees a UHaul costs $200.  Then I have to pay the photographer which is another $600.  I also have to provide food for everyone, and with NYC grocery prices that’s 80 bucks.  In addition to the cost, moving a set from NJ to Manhattan is a logistical nightmare and I have to worry about getting stuck in traffic, having enough muscle, etc etc.  On top of all that, the storage facility closes at 7:30PM so the window I have to do this in is very slim.  My plan would cost at least $1,500 and a lot could wrong that day which would make the cost go up even further.

So after thinking about it I came up with a new plan.  I decided that instead of renting a theater in Manhattan, I would shoot the photos in Jersey City.  And I got lucky.  I found a loft that was perfect for what we were doing, and it was on the same block that I was storing my set in.  This makes load-in and load-out SO much easier, and I save $200 since I don’t need a UHaul.  Plus, space in Jersey City is a lot cheaper than Manhattan, so I saved a nice penny on that too.  And if that wasn’t enough, grocery prices are slightly better in NJ so I’m saving even more money!  All I have to do is throw up a black drape as a background, and it looks exactly like a stage.

Building a Set

How to build a set.  Or in the case of off Broadway, how to build a set for cheap.  At the Broadway level, there are companies that will design, build, and load-in your set all for a flat fee.  This could run you $10,000 for even the most basic of sets (to well over a million for something as complex as Spiderman) so for shows like us this isn’t really an option.  You have to build it yourself.

Never ever ever pay full retail price for a set piece.  Nine times out of ten someone is trying to throw away the very thing that you’re looking for.  Our set is more or less a studio apartment, which means we’ll need a stove, kitchen sink/cabinets, bed, dresser, bookshelf, and so-on and so-forth.  If we bought this stuff brand new, it would have cost us upwards of $4,000.  That’s a seventh of our budget.  Instead, we scoured craigslist for people trying to get rid of old furniture and saved a ton of money in the process.

When getting furniture for free, there are some logistical issues that you need to be aware of.  Where are you going to store it?  How are you going to transport it?  If you know someone with a truck and have access to a large warehouse, then you’re in great shape, but for those of you who don’t you’ll need to rent a UHaul and you’ll need to rent a storage space.  A UHaul will run about $150 for the day (you might as well budget $200 if you plan on feeding the people who’ll be doing the heavy lifting), and you can get storage space in Jersey City for $100 a month.  I choose to store my set in Jersey City for a few reasons.  One – it’s way cheaper than New York.  Two – I have very easy access to it via the Path Train.  And three – there are a lot of workshops in Jersey City that you can use to help build things and fine tune your set.

Something to keep in mind when building a set is the weight.  You want it as light as possible.  Anything heavy needs special attention which eats away time and money from your budget.  Also keep in mind that you’re going to have to throw all this stuff away (or find a place to store it) when you’re done.  So get creative.  Just to give you an idea, we got an old stove and realized it was too heavy.  So we ripped it apart (and I mean we literally dismantled the thing), and attached the face, top, and sides to a light wooden frame.  The result looks just like a stove, but weighs about a quarter of what it used to.

All in all our set cost about $1,500 to store and build.  An excellent price considering what it adds to the production.