Putting On A Play Off-Off Broadway
New York theater can be a daunting place for a new producer. But, if you understand a few things, you can do quite well. Broadway is the place of the million-dollar commercial production. Off-Broadway is where you can produce a slightly cheaper play but not too cheap. Plus, Off-Broadway plays usually are less commercial, having an edge or being experimental. Off-off Broadway, however, is friendly to new producers in that plays can be put up quite on the cheap. This can mean pennies on the dollar up to ten of thousands of dollars. There are many factors to consider. You probably won’t make money at this level but if you are starting out, this may be the place you want to be.
Many people stumble at the start because they don’t know what to produce. Others have a play in mind or wrote on themselves. If you need a play, just hit the racks at your local library or bookstore and start reading. I find, if you don’t have time to get to the library or bookstore, ebook readers are great. They can be taken anywhere and you can read and read at work, at play and at rest until you find the perfect play to produce.
Next, you should pick a location for your play. Off-off Broadway theaters are located all over New York. The factors you should consider are price, location and size. Price obviously depend son your budget, location depends on the audience you want to attract, uptown, downtown, Brooklyn, etc. And size depends on how much publicity you can do to bring in audience or the scope of the play itself.
Now you are ready for the audition process. You can hire union or non-union actors. If you hire union, you are getting experience and talent for sure but you are raising your budget quite a bit. You then need a union stage manager, director. Lighting designer and more. You have to pay into union benefits and other costs.
Now you have to dress the stage. This doesn’t just mean on the stage but above it with lights and around it with sounds, etc. If you are innovative, you can find inexpensive ways to do this. I produced a play where we acquired crystal jewelry wholesale in large quantities for props. We got a great deal.
The final piece to the puzzle is getting an audience. You have a few options here. You can hire a PR person to build an advertising and publicity campaign. It is also their job to bring in reviewers. Or you can put ads in the paper yourself and write your own press release. Also make sure to list your play in the local papers - this is often free or very low cost. For one play, I actually got in audience by advertising a raffle where we gave away an Ibanez electric guitar that was donated to the production.
The price of producing an Off-off Broadway play can definitely be reasonable, especially for someone with a little money burning a whole in their pocket. It is also within reason to ask friends and relatives without causing them to use their life savings. The play probably won’t bring back what you put in money-wise. But, it will definitely be rewarding and if it’s good and gets reviews can lead to much bigger things.
Tags: off-broadway play, producing
