RAT Theater as Art Form/Party/Parade vs. Theater as Small Business

[Cat Hebert <virtualdrama@juno.com>]

Theater as Art Form/Party/Parade vs. Theater as Small Business

It's interesting that in the space of the last few posts we've managed to
broach what I think of as *the* key issue for practitioners of American
theater : how many cups of art form/party and how many cups  of small
business to combine into your own personal theater practice punch.

A. Art Form / Party / Parade

You and some collaborators get together and create theater that you find
mutually interesting. You invite other people. If they like you and your
collaborators and the things that you do, they'll come. Any payment is
strictly to defray expenses -- potluck. There is no expectation that you
will make money from what you are doing.

If you approach your work as the development of particular theater
processes/forms, then you may gradually build a body of work that
represents some way of working. If your work is documented, you may come
to be considered an expert in that way of working, and may be quoted,
discussed, written about. People who understand quite a bit about theater
may come to be interested in your work and you may be asked to lecture,
demonstrate, teach.

People who work with/for you on your projects may see their involvement
as a way of gaining experience, of learning the process you espouse, of
making contacts. They are likely to have relatively little time to devote
to your projects, especially if they have to make money doing something
else. However, they probably don't expect to get more out of the project
than experience / learning. If you constantly lure people into your
projects by promising them more [of whatever] than what they receive,
then you are use the plantation owner model [see below].

Theater as a Small Business

University education in the U.S. suggests to us that we should be able to
make a living at providing our expertise. For some reason this myth also
circulates among aspiring theater directors/producers. Because starting a
theater company business has relatively inexpensive start-up costs, and
since there are very few paying jobs with established theaters, many
director/actors start their own companies as part-time businesses --
waiting for other opportunities.

The purpose of a business is to produce products/services that are
purchased by others. Those purchases pay the people who run the business.


Theater provides a service which is similar in many ways to a massage.
The customer goes into a semi-darkened room; has an experience which may
or may not feel good; pays and leaves with no visible sign (except a
receipt/program). The customer may talk about the massage with others.
Unless the customer is very sure of the masseuse, there is no way to tell
in advance what the quality of the massage will be.

To be a viable business (non-profit or otherwise), a theater must assure,
like any other business, that:
1. Its products / services fill/create a demand
-- marketing surveys, trials
2. it has the means of promoting those products and services
-- advertising, press reports, word-of-mouth
3. it can assure continued quality of products / services to buyers
-- quality control of purchase, production, and delivery
4. it has sufficient capital to provide 1-3, and, where possible, to grow
-- funding from owners, angels, funding sources
5. it is able to protect its assets through patent, copyright, insurance.
-- sole/exclusive possession of rights, protection against major losses.
6. It is able to generate enough income to pay owners, employees, and all
service/product providers/vendors.


Like any small business, it will have to make some key decisions along
the way:

1. Is this company essentially a consulting collaboration working on a
project-by-project basis, or will it be a more permanent arrangement?

2. What is the specific theater product/service we are providing? How
does it differ from competing products? Who will buy it? What need does
it fulfill among theater consumers?

3. How will company execs monitor/evaluate the quality of the theater
product?

4. How much time can company founders realistially devote to the
business? How do they know when they are spending too much time without
sufficient rest/reward?

5. On what basis will the company grow? How will the company decide when
it is time to grow and in which direction? When is it time to fold the
company?

6. What financial relationship will the theater management have with
theater workers?
 A. Income shared on some specifically agreed upon basis
 B. One or more company execs receives a salary/%, with rest of profits
distributed using some pre-determined formula
 C. Most company members receive little or no pay. Profits are shared
among company founders
 NOTE: In many theaters this relationship is strikingly similar to the
plantation owner / migrant worker relationship. The workers are desperate
to get jobs and owners, who control a limited number of jobs, seek to
hire workers as inexpensively as possible.
 

Cheers,
Cat Hebert
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