Advice for getting On in Off-Broadway

Last week we met with Michael Roderick of Small Pond Entertainment. We were looking for help and advice regarding shows like our upcoming Circus Terrifico, to be premiered in its live orchestra version by the Winnipeg Symphony in April.

For a price, Michael provides advice for making it big (or little) in the world of theatrical production.
http://www.smallpondentertainment.com/enterprises.html

Michael was kind enough to give us more than an hour gratis. Here are some of the things he suggested:

• Come up with a written plan that includes objectives and a networking strategy
• Networking is all important and that means meeting people in person. A friend of a friend of a friend, etc. may be the way to go. 
• The Internet represents a lot of people shouting to be heard. It can be useful but only if it leads finally to a personal contact
• The artist, i.e. the creative person, is spreading himself (herself) too thin by trying to produce his (her) own work. 
• Off-Broadway shows (as opposed to off-off Broadway) typically cost into the hundreds of thousands, and more. Some of this is to be laid at the feet of unions requiring guaranteed wages (even if the show closes early) and some at the feet of Off-Broadway theaters, which require high rental fees and guarantees. 
• There are indeed wealthy people out there who are bored with their normal routine and might drop money on something they find different and interesting
• Build relationships. For instance, if you want to tour, build a relationship with a touring company and let them do the touring
• Periodically check the effectiveness of your plan. If it is not effective, change it.
• If you are really doing something outside the box, create your own box or niche.
• Be careful about the messages you send out. Often, unwittingly, you will be sending out negative vibes or sending out messages that don't require an answer
• And this, possibly most important of all: be of use to the person with whom you want to network. At least initially it's about them and not about you
• Often it's in the very last minutes of a conversation that anything is said about your own project. Encourage your networkee to talk about their own interests. So definitely research what those interests are.

From my own rather long experience in this business, this is all very sound advice. It is also very tough advice to put into practice, very tricky. If you can afford Michael and want to put on a Broadway show, it might be a good idea to have a seasoned hand to help navigate the tricky and dangerous waters of the Broadway theatrical world.

Comments?

Tango Dreams = a composer's dream

Here's something to keep warm the heart of a composer and keep the creative juices flowing: David Earle of Dancetheatre David Earle has created a ballet based on Tango Dreams, my composition for string trio and accordion. And it is a wonder to behold How did this happen? Before I explain, please have a look at the ballet on another wonderful concept = Youtube. http://www.youtube.com/user/voiceafire#p/a/u/1/J_EYoECrD4s

Truth is, in all happenings there is a chain of causation. I believe this because I need to believe it. I need to believe that my efforts vis a vis getting my music out there and performed have had a result.
Here's the chain of causation:

• I meet Joseph Petric, accordionist extraordinaire. How? I don't remember exactly. Probably after a concert.
• Joseph, who somehow knows my music and is a proseiitizer for the accordion, asks me to write a piece. I write Serenity for accordion and clarinet - a great piece (I think) - which he performs in England. 
• On the basis of this (I suppose) Joseph asks me to compose a piece for accordion and string trio - since he is performing with the Adaskin Trio.
• I compose Tango Dreams, since I have become enthralled with tango dancing - but that's another story.
• About 15 years later I decide that, having composed a number of theater pieces which are undeservedly ( I believe) languishing after one or two performances, that I should take matters into my own hands.
• I found a music theater company called Voice Afire Pocket Opera and Cabaret and pay substantial money to attend Ontario Contact - and later, APAP, Chamber Music America, etc.
• David Earle of Dancetheatre David Earle had never heard of me till I attended Ontario Contact.  I was trying to sell The Pocket Madama Butterfly aka Butterfly's Trouble as well as a few other productions, but not specifically Tango Dreams.
• At Ontario Contact Dancetheatre David Earle has a booth. 
• Since nobody - and I do mean nobody - seemed at all interested in my particular booth at Ontario Contact, I began wandering and in the course of my wandering chatted with the people manning David Earle's booth. Not David himself, mind you. One person, whose name I am embarrassed to say I no longer remember, is particularly encouraging.
• I send the score of Tango Dreams to my personal contact at Dancetheatre David Earle
• About 3 years later voila! There is a Tango Dreams ballet.

Life is about human contacts. Comments? 

Rave Review for Butterfly's Trouble

Having just put on 2 different productions in NYC, I have not had the energy to look for any reviews.
Low and behold, a rave review on Theatre Mania!

http://www.theatermania.com/off-broadway/shows/butterflys-trouble_188269/reviews/

And now the cat's out of the bag - Butterfly's Trouble is about revolution. From the review: "...while the plot still evokes tears it seems a bit shallow and faded these days. This new version by Ray Luedeke  breathes new life into the Puccini work as a real piece of theater, and may mark the direction for opera to take as a living art form in the coming century."

The reviewer divined my perspective and my purpose exactly. I could care less about saving or  resuscitating the body of repertoire commonly associated with opera: Verdi, Mozart, Wagner, et al. As theatre, they stopped working long ago. Rather I'm interested in the use of music to enhance and support the drama. As a composer, I am interested in the possibilities of the genre called opera and not in the repertoire commonly called opera. 

And so I reworked Puccini. I fixed the dramaturgical problems that were capable of being fixed. Through the use of a chamber group (carefully orchestrated) and of spoken dialogue, I made sure that the drama and all the nuances of the drama (in English) could be understood. 

Not 15 minutes from my NYC apartment is the Metropolitan Opera. For me, this particular emporer has no clothes. The Met has a budget that runs in the hundreds of millions, while mine is simply in the hundreds. Nevertheless, watch out, Metropolitan Opera!

(Proviso! Friend Bob, don't take offence. I'm sure your job is secure, and I do dearly love those Met tickets you sometimes have for me.)

 

The Art of Love / Beware of Friends

The Bergmann Piano Duo is absolutely wonderful! Musically and personally. Do check out the selections from their Merkin Hall show:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_EYoECrD4s&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

The Art of Love / Into the Labyrinth with visuals by Ron Hurwitz happens about 3 minutes into the  video. I've had both positive feedback and negative feedback from friends regarding the combination of music, words, and video. Myself, I think that one needs a different mental perspective in order to accept the almost equal importance of the 3 elements.

Beware of the advice of friends. Witness Anton Bruckner's Symphony #7. This hour++ work includes exactly one crash of the cymbals. It occurs in the middle of the opus, by which time the cymbals player has likely fallen asleep. This one note for cymbals was added by Bruckner on the advice of friends. How un-necessary, not to say expensive.  At each performance, the weary string players, who have millions of notes, must be beside themselves with envy - if they are even aware of that one cymbal crash.

So, please send your opinions - but beware! I am leary of repeating Bruckner's mistake.

Butterfly's Trouble on the road

Great show! Wonderful twist on Madama Butterfly! That's the feedback from the off-off Broadway premiere of Butterfly's Trouble at the 45th Street Theatre. See for yourself:
http://www.youtube.com/user/voiceafire#p/a/u/0/dfNVdTdf51Q

OK, the video is slightly out of focus - I accidently hit the wrong button on my camcorder. Still, it seems like the perfect show for touring. Essentially, it's Madama Butterfly with an interesting, creative twist and for only 7 performers.

Attending the show, we had at least a couple of representatives from each of the three major arts presenters organizations holding conferences in New York that week, APAP and ISPA and CMA. After the show I had people lining up to tell me how much they enjoyed it.

So why are we still not signed up for a tour? I need feedback. Here are a few possibilities:

• It's great, but it will never sell in Peoria
• The word adaptation is box office poison
• The word opera is box office poison
• It's too long (2 hours)
• It's too expensive (No it isn't)
• It has an unhappy ending (suicide)
• It has an unhappy beginning (suicide)
• B. F. Pinkerton is not a nice man
• Cho-Cho-San is not a good mother (She tells her son that she is killing herself "for his sake")

Am I giving up? No way! Why?

• I'm a stubborn German? (actually half Austrian)
• I have money to burn?

Real reasons:

• Good music (even Puccini) is worth fighting for
• I believe in the concept of music theatre embodied (or invented) in Butterfly's Trouble

I will consider all advice, commentary, and criticism (both constrictive and destructive)

Butterfly's Trouble tonight and tomorrow in NYC

As happens with shows such as ours, they keep getting better and better. Hope you can attend.
Butterfly's Trouble tonight at 8:00 at the 45th Street Theatre NYC. And by the way, Art of Love at Merkin Hall last night with the Bergmann Piano Duo was fabulous.

http://www.voiceafire.com

The Bergmann Piano Duo and the Art of Love

Tomorrow Jan. 9 at 8 PM the Bergmann Piano Duo and actor Charles Murray will perform The Art of Love / Into the Labyrinth at Merkin Concert Hall in New York. Pardon me if this composer beats his own drum, but it is not to be missed. The Bergmanns are absolutely great and my music, thanks to them and to Charles Murray, is serious where it should be serious and funny where it should be funny and sexy where it should be sexy. Don't miss it!

http://www.voiceafire.com