Ken Davenport - Opinions from a Broadway Producer

10 Questions for a Broadway Pro: This guy cleans up on Broadway.

Bruce Barish and his wife Sarah could be the busiest couple on Broadway.  What do they do?  Well, you know how most theater folk are night owls?  Well, these two can't be . . . because if they slept in, 80% of Broadway would be naked.

The Barishes are Ernest Winzer Cleaners . . . THE Broadway dry cleaners.  I know, you've probably never even thought about who dry cleans Broadway costumes before, have you?  Well, someone has to, believe me, because after a few Fosse-like dance numbers, these outfits can be so soaked with sweat, they could practically do pirouettes on their own.

Why does Winzer control such a large part of the market?  Well, they do a great job, duh, but more importantly, they care.  Period.  And Bruce, Sarah and the entire staff at EW care about every costume they work on like they designed it themselves and they have to wear it themselves.  

It's my pleasure to introduce you to Bruce Barish, this week's Broadway Pro!

1. What is your title?

Owner/Operator of Ernest Winzer Dry Cleaner.

2. What show/shows are you currently working on?

We normally dry clean 75-80% of the costumes for all Broadway productions, as well as Radio City, television, movies, concerts and mascots.

3. In one sentence, describe your job.

I am the Captain of the Ship that makes sure my entire staff of 17 employees not only dry clean the costumes properly but makes sure they are delivered back to the theaters in time for the daily productions.

4. What skills are necessary for a person in your position?

Time management would be number one on the list that would also include multi-tasking skills as well as organizational know how.  I also understand the science and chemistry behind the dry cleaning process and stain removal process and the delicate fabrics that we see on a daily basis.  Lastly, I possess the knowledge behind the mechanics of the equipment in my dry cleaning facility.

5. What kind of training did you go through to get to your position?

I have worked here my entire life learning every aspect of the business from the front office to picking up the shows to cleaning and spotting the assortment of costumes we see every day. 

6. What was your first job in theater?

Ernest Winzer Cleaners has been dry cleaning Broadway costumes since 1908.  We are the longest running production on Broadway.

7. Why do you think theater is important?

It is an important part of the fabric of New York City history.  I can relate to “The city that never sleeps.”  Just this past year, we delivered in the Christmas Blizzard of 2010 and the Hurricane of 2011, both of which shut down NYC but not Ernest 
Winzer Cleaners.

8. What is your profession’s greatest challenge today?

Continuously trying to find the best ways to get costumes cleaned in a green environmentally conscious way.  If it’s Green, but does not clean properly or safely then it is not for me and my customers.

9. If you could change just one thing about the industry with the wave of a magic wand, what would it be?

This does not apply to the industry as much as to the city that we work in, but it would be nice if when I was delivering an entire production of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular that a New York City police officer would not write my trucks parking tickets.

10. What advice would you give to someone who wanted to do what you do?

Be prepared to be fully committed to the industry 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year. Our job is to take the worry of caring for the costumes away from the wardrobe department. You have to love what you are doing and who you are performing for because “The Show Must Go On”!

 

(Got a comment? I love 'em, so comment below! Email subscribers, click here, then scroll down, to say what's on your mind!)

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10 Questions for a Broadway Pro: Lincoln Center's Ira Weitzman

Ira Weitzman is a musical midwife.

He has helped some of our industry's most celebrated authors give birth to musicals like Falsettos, Sunday in the Park with You Know Who, Once on This Island, Parade and many, many more over his 30-year career.  

If you're an author, and you had a chance to choose between winning the lottery and having Ira guide the development of your show . . . I'd tell you to go with Ira.  You could always win the lottery some other time.

Take it away, Ira!

1. What is your title?

Musical Theater Associate Producer at Lincoln Center Theater. 
 
2. What show/shows are you currently working on?

I just finished a long cycle of development and production that began in 2005 with The Light in the Piazza in the Vivian Beaumont Theater and just ended with A Minister’s Wife in the Mitzi Newhouse Theater.   In between those shows were six other musicals including our Tony Award winning production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific in the Beaumont and Clay which opened our new theater, LCT3.  Now it all begins again with a new cycle.  I am too superstitious to talk about shows at such an early stage.
 
3. In one sentence, describe your job.

As an artistic producer of (mostly) new musicals, I am involved in almost every aspect of bringing them to fruition in collaboration with Artistic Director, Andre Bishop.
 
4. What skills are necessary for a person in your position?

Taste and an eye for talent, working knowledge of musical theater both historical and current, good communication skills, good judgment and a desire to collaborate.   Though it isn’t really a skill, I would also add that having a real passion for this work helps, particularly when the going gets tough.
 
5. What kind of training did you go through to get you your position? 

I didn’t go to college so everything I learned was from experience.  I created my job, so in a sense my whole life is training for my work.
 
6. What was your first job in the theater?

I was Bob Moss’ assistant at Playwrights Horizons in 1977 during his last season as Artistic Director there.
 
7. Why do you think theater is important?

I believe in the communal power of live performance. Musicals are especially powerful.
When everything comes together, a musical can be entertaining, provocative, enlightening and enriching for both the audience and the performers.   
 
8. What is your profession’s greatest challenge today?

The challenge of finding a musical that we can be excited about working on.  It has not changed or gotten easier through the years.   On the more practical side there are always financial challenges since musicals are not cheap to produce.
 
9. If you could change just one thing about the industry with the wave of a magic wand, what would it be?

I would make theater affordable for those who want to produce it and those who want to see it.

10. What advice would you give to someone who wanted to do what you do?

To love what you are doing and to not be afraid of taking risks.   

 

(Got a comment?  I love 'em, so comment below!  Email subscribers, click here, then scroll down, to say what's on your mind!) 

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FUN STUFF 

- 65 Days to Godspell!  Read the day-by-day account of producing Godspell on Broadway here.

- Enter to win 2 tickets to The Unauthorized Autobiography of Samantha Brown!  Click here.

10 Questions for a Broadway Pro: A few "notes" from Lin-Manuel Miranda.

To call Lin-Manuel Miranda just a writer is like saying Da Vinci was just a painter.  

Like the ancient Italian, Mr. Miranda does a whole lot of things, and, unlike most, he does a whole lot of them unbelievably well.  He's a composer, lyricist, actor, musician, poet, and one of the most beloved guys on the Broadway scene.  I wouldn't be surprised to hear that he invented a flying machine too.

And to say he gives back to the community is an understatement.  In fact, here's a perfect example of how much he cares about the movers and shakers and the writers to be . . . when I ask people to answer my "10 Questions," the most common answer I get as a reply (when I get a reply) is . . . "How long do my answers have to be?"  Sounds like a 12-year-old getting an essay assignment, right?  

You know what Lin said?  

"My answers are turning out CRAZY long. Is that okay?" 

'Nuff said.  Without further ado, here are Tony Award Winner Lin-Manuel Miranda's awesome answers to our 10 Questions.

1. What is your title?

I write music and lyrics.

2. What show/shows are you currently working on?

I’m working on Bring It On: The Musical with another composing team, Tom Kitt and Amanda Green, which opens in November at the Ahmanson Theater in Los Angeles.

I’m also working on a concept album about the life of Alexander Hamilton.

3. In one sentence, describe your job.

I write the parts of the show that end up on the cast album.

4. What skills are necessary for a person in your position?

Musicianship. You don’t need to be a piano or guitar virtuoso, but if you’re getting into this because you have music in your head that you are burning to express, you must have a means by which to express it clearly. It’s not enough to be able to hum a tune: You can’t hum a chord. (I mean, some Tibetan monks can, but I can’t.)

Reading and writing music is not necessary, but it certainly helps. Music is like any other language: you can make yourself understood if you’re not fluent, but why not endeavor to make yourself understood as clearly as possible?

You have to ENJOY collaborating, and being part of a team. Musical Theater is many different art forms smashing together: music, storytelling, dance. You may have to change a lyric because your choreographer is planning an amazing routine, and they can’t hold that long legato note you wrote. Your book writer may come up with an amazing scene that renders a particular lyric redundant. If you’ve chosen great collaborators, you talk, you debate, and the best idea in the room wins. Other artists give you perspective and make you a better writer, if you’re running with the right crew. Finding the right crew is the hardest part.

5. What kind of training did you go through to get to your position?

Musically, I took piano lessons at a very young age. I had a solid grounding of music theory in high school, at least enough to be able to fake play something by reading the guitar chords.

But the most formative training I had was a childhood spent with all different kinds of music. My parents and friends had eclectic tastes, and when I began seriously writing music of my own (as opposed to song parodies to amuse my friends), a lot of different influences began to seep out.

I went to Hunter College High School. We had an entirely student-run extracurricular theater program, and an amazing faculty adviser named Gina Dooley. I began acting in 8^th grade and never stopped, though I soon began writing one-act plays and musicals, and directing as well. I cannot overstate how much I learned during these years. When you are directing your fellow high school students, and you have no authority to pay, fire or punish them, no motivating force at all other than to make them believe in your vision of how the show should be, you learn to project confidence very quickly.

I majored in theater at Wesleyan University. As a theater major, you need to log a certain number of hours doing BTP, ITP or ATP (Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced Technical Practice). BTP is applying makeup, painting a set, knitting a costume. ITP is a design position: you can stage manage or create costumes: I did most of mine by doing sound design or writing incidental music for other people’s plays. ATP is acting or directing. So you learn to do a little of everything before you graduate. I learned to sew, I applied makeup, I built and struck sets, I learned to work within a tight budget. I’ll never light a show, but I can tell a Source-4 from a Fresnel. The take away here is enormous: Understand what everyone is bringing to the table, in every discipline. Be around people who want to do what you want to do. You don’t need to go to college for either of those lessons, though I did.

6. What was your first job in theater?

I had a summer job as an unpaid intern at Repertorio Español, an amazing Off-Broadway theater in New York. They have a repertory company that does productions in both English and Spanish. They do several shows simultaneously, so they’re striking sets and putting others up every day. I mostly cleaned floors and struck sets, but I got to see amazing theater for free.

7. Why do you think theater is important?

I can only tell you why it’s important to me: I don’t ever feel more alive than when I’m in a theater full of strangers, and the magic that’s happening on stage makes us all scream, or laugh, or cry together. And those moments are rare because they're hard to get right, getting all those different elements to coalesce. But when they do? In Phantom, during Masquerade, when it keeps building, and building, and then the Phantom shows up, and the horns BLARE his theme? Or the end of Act One of Sunday In The Park With George, when the painting begins to take shape? I can’t describe the feeling of when everything comes together just right, other than to tell you it’s overwhelming, and powerful, and it has NEVER happened to me staring at my computer at home. It is a uniquely communal experience. 

8. What is your profession's greatest challenge today?

Most immediately: rising costs, rising prices. If we don’t find ways around it, then the only theater that gets produced is custom-built for the people who can afford it. And that club gets smaller every year.

In a macro-sense: funding and supplementing arts education if our schools cannot afford it. I was very lucky to go to a specialized public school where music was a class, right next to science and math and history. No, BEYOND lucky: I won the LOTTERY by getting into that school. It saved my life.

9. If you could change just one thing about the industry with the wave of a magic wand, what would it be?

Comfy seats for everyone. Not just Broadway. My magic wand wave will give every regional, community theater and every school auditorium and gymnasium on Earth comfy seats!

10. What advice would you give to someone who wanted to do what you do?

Learn marketable skills with which you can make a living while you pursue this passion. Listen to anything and everything critically. That doesn’t mean criticize what you like and what you don’t like. It means, if a piece of music moves you, start to break it down. What is the part that gives you chills? Is it the way the horns start playing in unison right at the climax of the song? What is the rhythm section doing: is it playing with those horns, or providing a counterpoint? Let’s say you’re at a show, and you just don’t like what you’re seeing. If you want to do this for a living, DON’T TUNE OUT, and DON’T DON’T DON’T CHECK YOUR PHONE. Look closer: what about this show isn’t working? Did that rhyme pull you out of the story? Is this actor working too hard, and making you see the work instead of the story? Is it the sound system? There is no theater experience from which you cannot learn. In doing this, you begin to learn your own tastes, which will inform the kind of writer you will be. I wish you luck.

(Got a comment?  I love 'em, so comment below!  Email subscribers, click here, then scroll down, to say what's on your mind!) 

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FUN STUFF 

- 86 Days to Godspell!  Read the day-by-day account of producing Godspell on Broadway here.

- Win 2 tickets to The Voca People. Click here!

10 Questions for a Broadway Pro: A Broadway Stage Manager speaks.

The first job I ever had on the ol' Broadway was as a Production Assistant on the revival of My Fair Lady starring Richard Chamberlain.

As a PA I worked very closely with the Stage Managers and learned a ton about how shows are put together, how people are managed, and so on.  If you are coming up in the biz, and get a chance to PA, take it.

I was lucky enough to get to PA a few shows, and eventually got promoted and ended up SMing myself, including a stint with Grease on Broadway with everyone from Rosie O'Donnell to Brooke Shields.  

I learned a lot.

But you know what the biggest lesson was?

Stage Managing is one of the hardest jobs in the biz.   

In fact, I hung up my headset, and decided to leave Stage Managing to the pros . . . like Pat Sosnow, who is this week's star of our 10 Questions for a Broadway Pro!  Pat has worked on a bunch of big-time Broadway shows including A Steady Rain with those two unknowns Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig, Promises, Promises . . . and the about-to-preview, How to Succeed with another unknown . . . Daniel Radcliffe.

Here's Pat!

1. What is your title?

Stage Manager

2. What show/shows are you currently working on?

How to Succeed in Business...

3. In one sentence, describe your job.

I help run/manage the show on a day-to-day basis.

4. What skills are necessary for a person in your position?

Organizational skills. Ability to multi-task. Patience. Tenacity. Extreme sense of humor.

5. What kind of training did you go through to get to your position?

I have been stage managing since high school. I did not however, major in Theater at Barnard. I did study Psychology which has on occasion come in handy. I worked at any job I could get in any backstage (electrician, props, carpenter) until I started as a PA at the NY Shakespeare Festival. Worked my way through Off-Off-Broadway to Off-Broadway into Broadway.

6. What was your first job in theater?

My first big PA job was on Measure for Measure in the Park in 1985, directed by Joseph Papp.

7. Why do you think theater is important?

It is a form of entertainment that cannot exist without live participation from performers, an audience, and the people/crew who run the show. No show can ever be the same or be duplicated. In an age of Film, TV and computer generated entertainment, it forces live, visceral responses that are of the moment. Spontaneous laughter. Unexpected Heartbreak. Profound ennui. Live theater is a wonderful, real, living thing.

8. What is your profession's greatest challenge today?

Maintaining a neutral position between Producers, Managers, Talent and the Unions

9. If you could change just one thing about the industry with the wave of a magic wand, what would it be?

I'd remove the caste system that has become so pervasive in recent years.

10. What advice would you give to someone who wanted to do what you do?

Don't even consider working in the theater unless you are absolutely sure you cannot live without it.

10 Qs for a Broadway Pro: Driving Miss Daisy Director David Esbjornson

The first play of the Fall to announce that it recouped wasn't Merchant of Venice.  It was the much sweeter and smaller Driving Miss Daisy, which was helmed by David Esbjornson.  David has directed just about everywhere, from London, to Broadway, to just about every major regional theater across the country.

And just yesterday, The Public tapped him for Measure for Measure in the Park this summer.  

On top of his talent, David just happens to be one of the nicest guys in the business, which is why stars like Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones want to work with him.

But today he's working with us, answering our 10 Qs.  Take it away, David!

1.  What is your title?

Stage Director and Producer 

2.  What shows are you currently working on?

I’ve just opened Alfred Uhry’s Driving Miss Daisy with Vanessa Redgrave, James Earl Jones and Boyd Gaines on Broadway and I’m preparing for Shakespeare’s Measure For Measure with the New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park

3.  In one sentence, describe your job.

I interpret, develop and present plays.

4.  What skills are necessary for a person in your position?

A love of theatre, practical intelligence, intuition, a perception of human motivation and behavior, an ability to stay focused and organized, empathy, a real interest in collaboration, a need to break rules and a “thick” skin.

5.  What kind of training did you do to get to your position?

I worked as an exterior painter, a carpet cleaner, telemarketing interviewer, furnace cleaner, farm worker, retail clerk, Christmas tree decorator, building handyman assistant, apartment renovator, waiter, bartender, silk-screen printer, teacher for “problem teenagers”, floor sander and as a display artist. Plus, an undergraduate degree in Theatre and English Literature from Gustavus Adolphus College and an MFA in Directing from New York University.

6.  What was your first job in theatre?

My first truly professional job was actually part of a program entitled “The New Director’s Project,” produced by New York Theatre Workshop. The fee was only seven hundred dollars but it allowed me to work on a level I had not yet experienced.  It also provided me the great luxury of being completely supported for the first time. The play, translated from German, was called Farmyard, written by Franz X. Kroetz. The text prescribed a very spare, harsh and unforgiving world. As a director, the play required a super sensitive attention to detail. For my production, I personally provided the “live” kittens, the “farm dog” and the disgusting toilet for the “masturbation scene.”

7.  Why do you think theatre is important?

The majority of our culture might argue that it isn’t.  I guess I believe that theatre can provide important insights about our own lives and the lives of others. It’s a public connection to one another that lets us celebrate what it means to be human. It can also be a cultural tool for learning that when done well, can occasionally transform a receptive individual’s thinking and personal growth.

8.  What is your profession’s greatest challenge today? 

The greatest challenge, in my opinion, is the enormous financial barrier of ticket cost that prevent an average individual from having an important, and perhaps meaningful, experience in the theatre.

9.  If you could change just one thing about the industry with a wave of a magic wand, what would it be?

Taking away the financial pressures on producers that limit the kind of work that can be presented--that hampers opportunity for new talent and limits the demographics of the theatre audiences.

20.  What advice would you give to someone who wanted to do what you do?

Ask yourself if  “deep down” you have the talent to succeed and if the answer is “yes” then decide how much you are willing to personally sacrifice while working tirelessly to achieve those ambitions.

I also believe you should embrace interesting work whenever it presents itself and refrain from judging where that work might originate. Some of the most meaningful artistic experiences come out of the least likely circumstances.

You must also acknowledge and be sensitive to the shifting needs within your life. You aren’t much good as an artist if you ignore yourself and those around you. At the same time, you might have to balance this with openness to unique opportunities that may present themselves to you at the most inconvenient times.

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10 Questions for a Broadway Pro: A Local 1 Stagehand talks Props.

My office is right next to the Eugene O'Neill theater, home to the recently departed Fela!, home to the soon-to-arrive Book of Mormon, and the permanent home of Chris Beck, the Property Master or "Head of Props".

Props men and women have to do it all.  Whenever there is ever a question about what department should handle a tricky technical situation, it's always seems to end up on the Prop guy's desk.

Chris Beck is no exception.  But his renaissance-like skills extend past the properties department.  In addition to his full time gig at the theater, Chris is also the Managing Director of Lights Up & Cue Sound, a lighting and sound rental company that services Broadway, Off-Broadway, touring and installation markets.  Oh, and they also do parties too - if you came to my social (the only social in the city with moving lights), you saw their equipment in action.  

On top of all this, Chris is a heck of a nice guy who just plain loves the theater, which is why he was the first guy I thought of when I wanted to do a 10 Qs with a stagehand.  

Take it away, Chris.

1. What is your title?  

Property Master, Eugene O’ Neill Theatre

2. What show/shows are you currently working on?  

Fela! (which we are loading out right now) and the upcoming Book of Mormon (which will start loading in as soon as we finish with Fela!)

3. In one sentence, describe your job.  

I load in, assemble, fabricate and handle all props necessary for an attraction at the O’Neill, in addition to maintaining all seats, curtains and furniture owned by the theatre.

4. What skills are necessary for a person in your position?  

Basic carpentry and electric with specializations in seat repair and maintenance.  One winds up with a rather large scope of highly specialized and unusual skills.  From building a radio controlled and dimmable lantern to arranging flowers “just so”. 

5. What kind of training did you go through to get to your position?  

On the job. In theatre, you must learn from the best people you can find, failing that, jump in and make it work (safely).

6. What was your first job in theater?  

Load in crew on the Great Lawn in Central Park for the Statue of Liberty Centennial Celebration

7. Why do you think theater is important?  

The ability to take someone from depths of depression to the heights of exhilaration in the span of about 2 hours broadens horizons and changes perceptions.

8. What is your profession's greatest challenge today?  

The same as it’s been since Shakespeare’s time, finding the new idea.

9. If you could change just one thing about the industry with the wave of a magic wand, what would it be?  

The schedule.  All shows would play during the week during the day. The theatre gives so much, but cannot replace time missed with family and friends.

10. What advice would you give to someone who wanted to do what you do?  

Get your degree and take as many classes on as many things you think you may need as a Prop Master.  It will never be enough!  A wise Prop Man I know said he was going to write two books on the subject: one entitled Absolutely Everything You’ll Need to Know About Props and the sequel, Throw Away the Book, Baby, This Is How It Really Is!.

If you want to read more 10Q articles, click here.

Upcoming Get Your Show Off The Ground Seminars

NYC - This Saturday, January 8th.  SOLD OUT!  (Email me for waiting list)

CHICAGO - Saturday, January 15th.  Register today..  VERY FEW SPOTS LEFT.

LA - Saturday, January 29th.  Register today.  VERY FEW SPOTS LEFT.

For more info on the seminars, click here.

 

 

10 Questions for a Broadway Pro. Volume 9: An Agent for Writers

"If only I could get an agent," are the words I hear so many playwrights and screenwriters say.

That's when I correct them.  First, no one can promote your work as well as you can.  Second, you don't just need any agent.  You need a good agent.

You need an agent like Sarah Douglas.

Sarah took some time out of her schedule of searching for the next Tony Kushner to answer our '10 Questions for a Broadway Pro.'  Here we go!
 
1. What is your title?

Title?  I have never understood titles.  That said, Co-Director, Literary Division, Abrams Artists Agency

2. What show/shows are you currently working on?  

Too superstitious to name anything until it has opened.  Suffice to say that musicals seem to take forever but I’m honored to be working with some of the greatest talents working in professional theatre today.

3. In one sentence, describe your job.

Present, promote and protect.

4. What skills are necessary for a person in your position?

Eye for talent, ability to communicate, reconcile two seemingly opposite concepts, prioritize.

5. What kind of training did you go through to get to your position?

I’m fortunate to have been mentored by two amazing agents with very different styles and approaches to the business: Helen Harvey and Flora Roberts.  

6. What was your first job in theater?

Answering the phones and taking care of house seats in a two person (3 counting me working part-time) literary agency.

7. Why do you think theater is important?

Live storytelling serves society in so many significant ways – as a catalyst for the gathering of community, a way to create and share common experiences, expression of thoughts and ideas and entertainment, to name a few. 

8. What is your profession's greatest challenge today?

Besides the general decline in civility and honesty cultivating an educated audience.

9. If you could change just one thing about the industry with the wave of a
magic wand, what would it be?

Just one thing?

10. What advice would you give to someone who wanted to do what you do?

You have to really love theatre, relish confrontation and have a HIGH threshold for annoyance.

If you are a Broadway Pro that would like to shed a little light on what makes your position tick, drop me an email and maybe we can feature you in an upcoming post.

10 Questions for a Broadway Pro. Volume 8: Rina Saltzman, Company Manager

Before I was a Producer, I spent about 10 years as a Company Manager for Broadway shows both in NYC and on the road.  And I loved every moment of it (except that time when a blizzard snowed my company in at the Best Western Westward Ho in Grand Forks, North Dakota).

Today you're going to read the answers to our 10 Questions from one of the industry's favorite CMs, Rina Saltzman.  I've worked closely with Rina on several occasions, and let me tell you something, the woman knows how to take care of a company. Count yourself lucky if you find yourself in her cast or crew.

Take it away, Rina!

1. What is your title?

Company Manager

2. What show/shows are you currently working on?

Billy Elliot National Tour, which is in a lovely long sit-down in Chicago.

3. In one sentence, describe your job.

I would describe my position as the day-to-day business manager, in-house marketing manager, HR department, Housing and Transportation Secretary, and Camp mom.

4. What skills are necessary for a person in your position?

Some of these are not skills but qualities:  patience, a sense of humor, appreciation for the artist, some business acumen, a knowledge of union rules, patience, the ability to juggle 5 or 6 things at once, to react calmly in a crisis and to be able to talk others off the ledge (this is especially helpful in production), an understanding - if not practical knowledge - of marketing, promotions and box office procedures.  Oh, and did I say patience?

5. What kind of training did you go through to get to your position?

I have a B.A. in Theatre Arts from Douglass College and a M.A. in Performing Arts Management from NYU, neither of which really helped me to get to this position.  I worked in a variety of jobs, ranging from Studio Supervisor on As The World Turns to Telemarketing Director for the Met Opera's Centennial before I became a Company Manager, all of which prepared me to work with a wide range of artists, stagehands, marketing gurus and managers.  The best training came when I got my first company management position at American Ballet Theatre - 150 dancers, staff, crew, management, travelling around the world - and I found a mentor in my General Manager - that is the most anyone could want in this career, someone who cares enough to teach you.

6. What was your first job in theater?

On the day I graduated college, a friend told me that there was a job open as Box Office Treasurer at the George Street Playhouse - as I was leaving town, I stopped in, interviewed, and by the time I reached my parents' house in Jersey City, I had the job and moved back to my college town.

7. Why do you think theater is important?

It changes lives.  Period.  Trite as that sounds, when I was managing the Bus and Truck of CATS, we played towns that had theatrical performances once or twice a year, if that.  I watched young children literally changed by the experience, in the same way I was when my parents took me to my first Broadway show when I was 5.

8. What is your profession's greatest challenge today?

Company Management has evolved so much over the past 24 years.  When I started, the Company Manager basically did payroll, signed the box office statement, did a settlement and arranged travel and housing on tour, now we do that and so, so much more -- we negotiate contracts, we work incessantly with our marketing teams and box offices to make sure we are optimizing sales, we deal with many more complex issues within our companies, and we watch the bottom line constantly.

9. If you could change just one thing about the industry with the wave of a magic wand, what would it be?

For my fellow Company, House Managers and Press Agents to be given their due within the industry.  (Full Disclosure - I am a member of the Board of Governors of ATPAM - the Association of Theatrical Press Agents and Managers).

10. What advice would you give to someone who wanted to do what you do?

Work anywhere you can get a job - intern, answer phones at a General Management office, run for coffee in production - you will learn an amazing amount about the business just by being around the business.  Don't scoff at the small jobs - make yourself indispensable.  One of our NLA interns worked for me as an Assistant on Billy in Chicago and for his first job out of college, he is going to be the Asst. Company Manager of Mamma Mia on Broadway.

10 Questions for a Broadway Pro. Volume 7: Arbender Robinson, Dance Captain/Swing

Hair played its last performance on June 27th.  And while I'm sure everyone in the cast/crew was very disappointed to see this love-and-flowers-filled production close, I'd bet that it took the show closing to finally allow Arbender Robinson, the Dance Captain and Swing, to catch his breath!

Dance Captains/Swings are some of the hardest working people on Broadway.  They have to memorize a bunch of different tracks and be ready to go on for any of them at a moment's notice (sometimes during the show).  They are constantly in rehearsal, and they have to keep the show in shape by giving notes to their fellow cast members/friends (which ain't easy).  

It's no wonder that so many Dance Captains and Swings go on to choreograph, since they have to possess great creative skills and great leadership skills simultaneously.

But enough from me about what these gutsy guys and dolls do for a living, because God knows I've never done a pirouette on Broadway (ok, there was that one time at 3 AM on Broadway and 51st St., but that was after an opening night party, and . . . well, never mind).

Here's Arbender!

1. What is your title?

Dance Captain/Swing

2. What show/shows are you currently working on?

Hair.  Love Out Loud!!! (I love that phrase)

3. In one sentence, describe your job.

That's impossible!  Actually I maintain all of the blocking and choreography for the show, assist in training all understudies, swings and replacements, and I am also responsible for knowing what every ensemble role does in the show, and I must be able to go on for any of those tracks (male or female).

4. What skills are necessary for a person in your position?

Attention to detail is most important. In my show I am looking at over 20 people onstage at a time and if things are wrong, or unsafe, or not what the choreographer intended, then I need to see it, note it, and devise a quick plan to fix it for the next show.

Self motivation is great, too.  Not only do I need to know the show, but I need to be sure that I am ready to perform any of these roles at any time...this requires a ton of homework to remember different vocal parts, blocking, choreography, and acting intentions for each character.  This includes everything they do offstage, too: costume changes, prop shifts, entrances and exits etc.

Time management as well.  Sometimes you may have a list of things to tweak or adjust and you have limited time to get the notes out and fixed before the show.

5. What kind of training did you go through to get to your position?

Well I do have a degree in Theatre and Music.  I do think it's more of my people skills that helped me land this job.  Everyone learns and takes notes differently.  You need people skills to be able to communicate effectively with each individual.

6. What was your first job in theater?

A Play called Magic In the Toyshop.  I was in 3rd grade and I played a robot name Marv-L.  I even remember the lines.

7. Why do you think theater is important?

Theatre has been around forever.  It's a constant link between the past, present and future.  It is a medium that can teach [and] allow self expression and creativity.  It, like music, can touch anyone [regardless of] race, age, religion, or sex.  For me, I truly think theatre and the arts saved my life.  Honestly, but that's a much longer conversation.

8. What is your profession's greatest challenge today?

There is a lull in amazing creativity.  I'm not being mean by this but it seems that commercial success is more important than creating new creative and innovative pieces of art.  I'm not a writer or a designer, but where are the new creators?  What innovation in the arts will a history book say about today?

9. If you could change just one thing about the industry with the wave of a magic wand, what would it be?

I wish everyone could recall that the work is what counts.  If it's a show at school, or community theatre, Broadway or Regional; it is all about the work, the passion, the precision.  We always have our eyes set on the dream of Broadway but the dream should be to create great work.  It does not matter where.  We would have no Steppenwolf, no Groundlings, no 2nd City if someone did not realize...I JUST WANNA DO THE WORK and CREATE ART!

10. What advice would you give to someone who wanted to do what you do?

This is simple.... JUST DO IT!!!   You will get a ton of "no's" and discouragement, you will kick yourself all the time...  Just dont give up.  Once you doubt it.... then it's over.  You have to be your biggest motivator and JUST DO IT!   Accept nothing less...

10 Questions for a Broadway Pro. Volume 6: Flora Stamatiades, AEA Union Rep.

When you hear the words, Actors' Equity Association (AEA), you probably think of the more than 40,000 actors (and stage managers) that are represented by that professional union.  Well, AEA has a lot of folks toiling tirelessly behind-the-scenes as well, trying to keep all those members working.  And in today's theatrical economy, that is not an easy task.

But that's exactly the job that Flora Stamatiades has.  And let me tell you from firsthand experience, she's good at it. I've watched her single-handedly create hundreds and hundreds of union jobs where there were none before . . . while at the same time making the Producer happier about it!  Win-win is her middle name, and that's usually what she gets.

So without further ado, here are 10 Qs for Flora about what it's like working for one of the most important unions in our biz.

1. What is your title?

National Director, Organizing & Special Projects, Actors' Equity Association

2. What show/shows are you currently working on?

I can't really describe it in that way - but right now, I'm taking a look at several projects/industry sectors that we would like to see available for our members. There is also a constant flow of performers back and forth across the Atlantic keeping me busy.

3. In one sentence, describe your job.

I'll give you two sentences for the two very disparate parts of my job:

1) Working with staff, members, elected leadership, and Producers to create more opportunities for work under Equity contracts.

2) Handling all issues of foreign performers appearing here and Equity members appearing abroad.

4. What skills are necessary for a person in your position?

You need to be a good listener and a creative thinker.  You should also have a broad-based understanding of the industry, and it doesn't hurt to be both flexible and stubborn as hell.  I'm still working on all of these, especially the first.

5. What kind of training did you go through to get to your position?

Most of my training has been "on-the-job" - I've been fortunate enough to be guided by mentors who not only let me take on projects that might traditionally not be seen as my duties (especially before I was in my current position), but who also supported me in taking extra classes and training during my time here.

6. What was your first job in theater?

My first job after college was as the "Shop Assistant" at the (sadly) defunct Coconut Grove Playhouse.  Interestingly, our attempt to organize the tech staff there led not very indirectly to my being laid off after one season.

7. Why do you think theater is important?

It nurtures communication, emotion, thought, and sometimes, just plain fun! Also, it's a shared experience that fosters teamwork both in its execution and its enjoyment.  It's also an economic driver in its community - providing not only jobs, but ancillary income in restaurants, concessions, local businesses like the lumber yard or dry cleaner, and so on.

I would get into all that talk about how the arts improve people's lives/children's educations, etc., but I'll leave that to someone who's more expert in those areas.

8. What is your profession's greatest challenge today?

Assumptions - on both sides.

9. If you could change just one thing about the industry with the wave of a magic wand, what would it be?

I think transparency and trust (which I really see as two sides of one coin) would make the labor/management relationship more productive.  I see efforts in this direction all the time from both sides, but too often it is easy to fall back into old patterns, especially as we are "taught" that we are enemies.

10. What advice would you give to someone who wanted to do what you do?

It helps to have a broad-based understanding of the industry - not only from the perspective of the members you want to represent, but from the perspective of other industry unions, and even of employers.

Long before I decided in what area of the industry I wanted to work, I had tried most everything - even acting, sadly for some audiences. But the skills gained in each area of work added to my understanding of what it takes to put a show/season together, and I hope leads to more productive conversations with Producers and especially, our members (and future members).

And one final thing I recommend for anyone doing any type of work - keep studying and training.  There is always more to learn!

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