The 2010 Spring Road Conference is underway and there have been many interesting panels and breakout sessions.
A session I attended yesterday was called, “Reimagine…” where a panel of esteemed Road Presenters from across the country discussed their experiences with programming and producing smaller shows in their markets.
The panel included, Jeff Chelesvig, President & CEO of the Civic Center of Greater Des Moines, Judy Joseph, Vice President of Programming at Straz Center for the Arts, Gina Vernaci, Vice President of Theatricals for Playhouse Square Foundation and Randy Weeks, Executive Director of Denver Center Attractions and was moderated by Tom Gabbard, President of the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center.
The general message from the four panelists was that they all like to present and produce smaller shows when they can, but that, ultimately, smaller shows can be very costly in the long run, so they have to plan and choose carefully, and even then the results aren’t always successful.
There have been success stories, though. In October 2002, Chelesvig programmed a show called TRIPLE ESPRESSO into the newly created 268-seat theater space in the Masonic Temple in Des Moines. Though only a three-person show, he put it on the Broadway Series and hoped it would run for eight weeks.
It ran for sixty-eight weeks.
For Vernaci, JACQUEL BREL IS ALIVE AND WELL AND LIVING IN PARIS was a big success story, running for two and a half years in their cabaret space. She admitted, though, that just when you think you have it all figured out, you realize you don’t have it all figured out, and you have a “train wreck,” as when she created a show from dollar one without a subscription load-in and had difficulty covering costs. She also made bad chair choices. Her subscribers were apparently used to the comfy style chairs in the mainstage theaters, not the hard chairs and high backed stools she selected for the cabaret space.
Weeks had great success with small shows when at one point he had two titles run for a total of eight years. He said his train wreck happened when he chose to produce a fantastic, but esoteric production that he loved, THE LAST FIVE YEARS.
What about a long run for a small show? Joseph remarked that doing small shows on subscription for, say, four months could be very cost prohibitive, even with the small cast because the performers would need housing, for example. To make it work in those cases, she likes to use local talent and designers. She also noted how hard it is to market small cast shows that are unknown. When asked to define a small cast show size, Joseph replied, “as small as possible,” and specifically said that an eight-person show is as high as she’ll ever go. Weeks said he currently had a show running that had only two performers.
Each of the panelists said they liked to co-produce shows with other presenters or producers when there was the opportunity to work with people they knew and trusted. Working with a partner takes some of the risk out of producing smaller shows. Additionally, each entity has something to contribute, and they can also each learn things from working with the other.
So what’s the takeaway? While seemingly inexpensive on the surface, the small show is actually tougher to produce and present in many ways than the large-scale show with a known title. Unless you have a surprise hit, the potential financial return is very small in relation to the time and attention required to get it up and running and properly marketed, making it a risky proposition. That said, small shows also have the potential to be long-running successes, and they also offer theater-goers a more intimate experience. So, while the overall news spelled out here will likely be discouraging to those who have small properties that they are hoping to tour, it was heartening and encouraging to hear how these presenters were still interested in producing and presenting smaller shows at their venues, and how they are continually looking into innovative ways to make this happen.
So, maybe your small show will be the next big “small” thing that runs for sixty-eight weeks in Des Moines.