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Tips Of the Month |
July 2008
Both Sides Now Millions of business cards change hands daily. Make your card into a miniature ad or sales brochure. Use both sides or a fold-over card. Include a discount or other special offer. Scrimping on Scrim? Mosquito netting is a good substitute for scrim, and costs only about five cents a yard. It does not create a moiré pattern when layered, and is more transparent as well. It can be ordered through military surplus stores and outfitters for expeditions. Eating Out South Coast Repertory, in Costa Mesa, California, has offered subscribers a Restaurant Bonus Program. Seven restaurants participated, giving discounts or a free course when the user ordered two or more entrees and showed their SCR ticket for that day's performance. SCR encouraged its subscribers to attend a different restaurant each time they visited the theater. Board Promotion The Maryland Association of CPAs scheduled a Board Matching Night to provide nonprofit groups an opportunity to distribute information and to describe their mission and board needs in order to entice CPAs interested in serving as board members. More than 80 nonprofit representatives and CPAs met at one of these events. Let's See Those Set Changes! Here's a clever idea from Opera!Lenawee of Adrian, Michigan. A special student performance of Die Fledermaus, which was trimmed to about 40 minutes, offered an additional learning experience as well. "In the world of theater, when several sets are called for," explained the event's promotional piece, "the pieces of each must be constructed so that they can roll or fold up and be taken offstage or turned around to reveal a whole new scene. All this must happen in the few minutes the curtain is down between acts. However, during the . . . performance of Die Fledermaus, the curtain will be kept up so students can watch the amazing scene changes take place. (No other Opera!Lewanee audience gets this unique opportunity!)" Words of Wisdom These are some of the 62 words that increase sales, according to Nicholas E. Bade's Marketing Without Money: discover, easy, refundable, look, hurry, today, confidential, yes, reliable, end, safe, personal, exclusive, learn, and tested. The Church Connection Connie Hillesland of Hubbard, Iowa, found the best way to make her high school theater program known was to go through churches. Her speech team and some of her drama students volunteered free performances at church social functions. They discovered a lot of people stopped going to high school productions once their own kids graduated. By sending kids into the town to perform, those people were brought back because they now had someone to cheer for. Result: Audience numbers doubled. 94-07
June 2008
Listen Up When considering candidates (volunteer or paid) for a position that requires dealing with people, do your first interview on the phone. Listen carefully. Much of their work will undoubtedly be done on the phone, to it's important that they come across well. An idea from the newsletter of the Oklahoma Community Theatre Association: Approach a local advertising agency to design a season ticket brochure for nothing. Such a project gives them the chance to be innovative and creative, as well as something they can enter in a design contest. You get a great mailer. Just be sure to agree in advance that any design they come up with can be produced at a reasonable cost. The San Luis Obispo [CA] Little Theatre used the occasion of its move to a new location as a fundraising theme. "The San Luis Obispo Little Theatre is a Very Moving Experience," says the handsome two-fold brochure. "The new location is our interim theater until our permanent facility is completed.... Our community's financial support has always kept our curtains rising, and now with the approximate cost of $72,000 for the remodeling, we need your help more than ever." The brochure has a detachable panel that gives various donor options, and the entire piece gives the impression of an organization on the move--literally and figuratively. The best way to get a good response from an ad is to announce a free offer in your headline. This shouts to readers that they can get something without charge. What you offer doesn't have to be expensive. For example, you might offer a pen with your theater logo on it, a calendar, or some other inexpensive item. Or offer a free ticket for every three purchased for a weeknight performance. When attempting a cold reading at an audition, expect that you may fluff a line or two, and don't apologize. Directors know that mistakes will be made. Instead, concentrate on the next line to be read. Don't go back and correct yourself, either. You spoil whatever momentum or character you've created. Imagine how painful it must be for directors to witness an actor's obvious distress. Don't aid in making them uncomfortable--you want to create a positive feeling about your work. Scouting for theater space in a storefront, warehouse, or other nontraditional space? Assess your space needs by listing the types of plays you plan to present. Determine what size audience you want to reach, and allow for reasonable expansion in the future. Define cast and crew requirements for backstage space and storage. Be honest as you undergo this assessment. Once you're in a space, it may be difficult to change if you find it isn't adequate for your needs. 94-06
May 2008
Three Little Words Three words to avoid when dealing with ticket buyers over
the phone: "That's our policy." It's better to prepare explanations that sound credible to your customers; hiding behind
policies only turns them off. If, as a lighting designer, you find that the rest of
the production staff say they are too busy to meet with you and go over plans for lighting, prepare a synopsis
of your design for circulation. A synopsis is a list of cues, but in a general sense. Since
people often find it easier to edit than they do to fill in a blank sheet of paper,
you can expect the synopsis to come back with alterations and annotations that can be reconciled into a master synopsis. Before quitting for the day when working on a project, such
as blocking a scene or preparing a report, write yourself a few notes on where you go next with the undertaking. That will
make it much easier when you pick up the effort again. When dealing with a know-it-all, don't attempt to be
a know-it-all in return. When you disagree with know-it-alls, they will immediately freeze their ideas and won't
budge--and then you've created a standoff. It's better to ask questions about the
idea, since know-it-alls love to answer questions. As they look for answers, they might just discover that some ideas you
present could be useful. In fact, they'll probably blend some of your ideas with theirs and think they came up with all of them. If you're trying to create the effect of a radio or television playing on the set, use the unit's original speaker if possible. Many old TV and radio speakers had a thin, tinny sound that is hard to create artificially. It's usually as simple as disconnecting the leads that link the electronics inside the unit to its speaker and running your own speaker line to the built-in speaker. Make sure that the rewired speaker works properly, and that it plays as loudly and clearly as you need.
April 2008
Up in the Air When a children's production needed an "anti-gravity" device, designer Dex Edwards used a balloon half-filled with helium, half with air, so that it stayed roughly where it was placed in the air, instead of rising. The effect almost always drew gasps from the audience. Period Costuming When costuming a show set before the present time, remember that while you're trying to be true to a period, ultimately it's all illusion. That's the advice of costume consultant Charlotte French. "You want to create something that looks realistic in terms of the period. However, you can only do so much. Corsets, for example, changed over time, and we don't have access to all those. So you're stuck with boning costumes or using merry widows that can at least give you the stiff body carriage. The best thing you can do for actresses is to get them into a practice skirt, particularly if the costumes will have trains. It will give them the chance to get used to the demands of the costume, and the result will be a more natural, more realistic, performance." K.I.S.S. "The experienced actor thinks simply but deeply, and tends to follow a few hunches," writes Hugh Morrison in his book, Acting Skills. "A dramatic character will not stand up to psychoanalysis; what's needed is a deep human understanding, and the profoundest common sense." Lights Up For a production of The Women, lighting designer Brenda Berry used intensely bright light to reveal a character's duplicitous nature with a dazzling display of clarity. In a profile about Berry in American Theatre, she describes how the stage lights had been dim for a very long time, "and we brought all the lights to full and just flooded the space. The first time we tried it in the preview everyone clapped. It's one of the few times I can remember getting applause for a light cue." Audience Building New Jersey's George Street Playhouse has offered six special nights for each of its productions: pay-what-you-can on the first Tuesday of each run; audio- described; sign-interpreted; Young Professionals Night (which includes a buffet and post-performance get-together); Lambda Night (offered as a social alternative for the gay and lesbian community); and a Half-Century Singles Night (for patrons who remember sock hops and big bands). Similarly, Paper Mill Playhouse, in Millburn, NJ, has offered audio-described performances for some of the run, before which the blind or visually impaired audience members were invited to visit backstage for "sensory seminars," where costumes and props were available for touching. Paper Mill also has offered an Adopt-a- School program that involved students from 12 inner-city public schools who attend performances and workshops and then work in their own classrooms with theater professionals. Some Don't Like it Hot Most lighting systems suffer significantly from having loads patched or plugged into the dimmer while the dimmer is on and its control channel is reading more than zero. This is referred to as "hot patching," and the resulting arcing damages the components of the patch system. Another problem is overloading, which occurs when there is no proper documentation on what load is in each circuit. Accidentally patching too many instruments onto one dimmer will trip the circuit breaker or other over-current protection device. In newer setups this may cause a momentary inconvenience, but remember that as circuit breakers age they begin to fail under smaller loads and should be replaced. Bypassing an over-current protection in any way can lead to serious damage to your equipment--or a fire. Looking Back The newsletter of the Punxsutawney, PA, Theatre Arts Guild has run a series called "Company Scrapbook." Each was "a look at the productions and events that made the Guild what it is today." A recent edition focused on the company's 1984 production of No, No, Nanette, pointing out its shortcomings and successful moments. This is a good way to remind long-time members of the company's progress--and make newer members more familiar with the company's history. Keeping It Together Swiftachment Guns and Fasteners are used by retailers for tagging garments. Many costume shops also find these useful for several projects that would normally take hours of hand tacking. For example, keeping scarves and shawls attached to overcoats for fast chorus changes, or securing items that might fall off in the dark backstage. One designer used them to attach silk scales to a foam pod to make dragon scales that fluttered when it moved for a procession in the musical Two Gentlemen of Verona. The gun and fasteners are manufactured by Avery Dennison. Harsh Lighting Can Be Good To achieve a bleak, oppressive look for a production, professional lighting designer Brenda Berry bought yard lights and used them for footlights, then hung bare bulbs from the ceiling. Lighting the show cost under $50.
94-03 |
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION