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I recently participated in a survey of artistic directors of theater companies, which was kind of cool as it gave me a chance to think about aspects of this life I had never really put into words. So, for what it's worth, here are my answers...
Describe your job. In particular, please list and prioritize your key responsibilities as Artist Director.
My company is very small, so my job probably entails more than the usual Artistic Director. Mostly, I keep the company together. We’re more a confederation than a typical theater company, so the name of the game is “loosely organized”. I pick our projects, negotiate with spaces and venues and set up our schedule. I then appoint directors to helm each project, and over-see them (they are free to pick their own casts, designers, etc.), provide opinions when asked and make myself as available as I can as a resource. The bulk of public relations and marketing tends to also fall into my lap, as do vendor negotiations, event planning and other elements of the production which are not show specific.
What are the primary factors/considerations that go into determining a season for your company?
Every play we decide to do has to run a gamut of questions, namely (1) Why do we need to tell this story and why now? (2) How will this play challenge us? (3) Is this play something we can actually pull off successfully? (4) Have we done this kind of play before and if so, how long ago and has enough time passed to justify us revisiting a genre/theme/style if we’re inclined to do that? We’re always trying to find a balance between offering a consistently good and challenging product, and also never doing the same thing twice in a row.
“The play’s the thing.” Agree? Explain how much of the commercial, artistic and critical success a theatrical production is the play itself verses the contribution of the creative team that stages it.
I think the commercial success of a play is impossible to predict, and when people go about trying to “manufacture a success” they are basically going to shoot themselves in the foot. Doing anything for the money is the wrong reason- you do it for the art, and if that just so happens to make money- fantastic. Generally speaking, I think audiences respond to sincerity and enthusiasm in productions, to good stories told by people who care about those stories. The most successful shows of my career, critically and financially, have almost always been one where I put the artistic values first, the financial concerns second, and picked a team of people who I knew believe in the work that we were doing- whether that was an experimental play or an established hit, a new work or a classic. The people behind a production are what make it worth watching; a good script is very important of course, but it’s just the starting point and ideally the playwright is one more person who is part of that team putting a show together.
What is most valuable and most difficult about collaboration in theatre?
The things which are the best part of collaborating are also often the most difficult: namely managing personalities and finding ways to get so many different people- writers, directors, producers, staff, designers, crew, actors, musicians, dancers, etc.- to work together and to all buy into the project at hand. Watching people break down boundaries between people and bring people together is my favorite thing in the world. But it’s tricky, sometimes, because in order to work in this art form you definitely need some ego- after all, you’re asking people to come watch something you made or help make, and you’re asking them to love it, pay for it and tell everyone else to come see it too. That takes a certain degree of pride and that same pride can sometimes create walls that make it hard to really connect with one another and a good show relies on connection between everyone involved- onstage and off stage. It’s why the theater is infamous for intense, prolific and productive relationships… and also for dramatic falling outs, vindictive grudges and internal politics of Machievellian proportions.
Describe your job. In particular, please list and prioritize your key responsibilities as Artist Director.
My company is very small, so my job probably entails more than the usual Artistic Director. Mostly, I keep the company together. We’re more a confederation than a typical theater company, so the name of the game is “loosely organized”. I pick our projects, negotiate with spaces and venues and set up our schedule. I then appoint directors to helm each project, and over-see them (they are free to pick their own casts, designers, etc.), provide opinions when asked and make myself as available as I can as a resource. The bulk of public relations and marketing tends to also fall into my lap, as do vendor negotiations, event planning and other elements of the production which are not show specific.
What are the primary factors/considerations that go into determining a season for your company?
Every play we decide to do has to run a gamut of questions, namely (1) Why do we need to tell this story and why now? (2) How will this play challenge us? (3) Is this play something we can actually pull off successfully? (4) Have we done this kind of play before and if so, how long ago and has enough time passed to justify us revisiting a genre/theme/style if we’re inclined to do that? We’re always trying to find a balance between offering a consistently good and challenging product, and also never doing the same thing twice in a row.
“The play’s the thing.” Agree? Explain how much of the commercial, artistic and critical success a theatrical production is the play itself verses the contribution of the creative team that stages it.
I think the commercial success of a play is impossible to predict, and when people go about trying to “manufacture a success” they are basically going to shoot themselves in the foot. Doing anything for the money is the wrong reason- you do it for the art, and if that just so happens to make money- fantastic. Generally speaking, I think audiences respond to sincerity and enthusiasm in productions, to good stories told by people who care about those stories. The most successful shows of my career, critically and financially, have almost always been one where I put the artistic values first, the financial concerns second, and picked a team of people who I knew believe in the work that we were doing- whether that was an experimental play or an established hit, a new work or a classic. The people behind a production are what make it worth watching; a good script is very important of course, but it’s just the starting point and ideally the playwright is one more person who is part of that team putting a show together.
What is most valuable and most difficult about collaboration in theatre?
The things which are the best part of collaborating are also often the most difficult: namely managing personalities and finding ways to get so many different people- writers, directors, producers, staff, designers, crew, actors, musicians, dancers, etc.- to work together and to all buy into the project at hand. Watching people break down boundaries between people and bring people together is my favorite thing in the world. But it’s tricky, sometimes, because in order to work in this art form you definitely need some ego- after all, you’re asking people to come watch something you made or help make, and you’re asking them to love it, pay for it and tell everyone else to come see it too. That takes a certain degree of pride and that same pride can sometimes create walls that make it hard to really connect with one another and a good show relies on connection between everyone involved- onstage and off stage. It’s why the theater is infamous for intense, prolific and productive relationships… and also for dramatic falling outs, vindictive grudges and internal politics of Machievellian proportions.
posted by Stuart Bousel | 2:19 PM
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