10 Great gifts for the Producer in your life.

 Happy Black Friday! 

People are in line and online today, looking for great holiday gift ideas for their family and friends.  But what to you get for that odd bird in your nest that is or wants to be a Producer?

Here is a list of 10 gift ideas for those folks with shows on the boards, or for the Producers-to-be out there. 

And if you are a Producer, just email this list to your family and friends and tell them that it's their civic responsibility to do their part in stimulating the economy . . . by buying you everything on it. 

1.  The Abominable Showman:  The Unauthorized David Merrick Biography

David Merrick is to Broadway shows as Henry Ford is to automobiles.  Read all about how Merrick became the powerhouse that he was.  This bio is like a training manual of both what to do and what not to do.

2.  A subscription to Variety

Newspapers may be dead, but the weekly Variety is still a treat for Broadway Producers.  They may put us in the back of the mag, but anyone that titles the theater section "Legit" is worth a subscription in my book.

3.  The Kindle

Here's the bigger ticket item on the list that's worth 100x its weight.  In addition to reading more books, I'm now reading more scripts, thanks to the awesome PDF feature on my Kindle.  I took 8 scripts with me on a recent weekend away, all stored in my kindle.  If I had taken them by themselves, I would have had to check an extra bag (in a crazy way, the Kindle is already paying for itself!). 

4.  The CTI 3-Day Intensive

The 3-Day intensive taught by the Commercial Theatre Institute is a great primer for those looking to get a taste of what it means to be Producer.  CTI is the equivalent of teaching a man to fish.

5.  A Telecharge Gift Card

Yep!  You heard it right!  Telecharge finally has gift cards!  Woo-woo!  Celebrate by picking one up for your mini-Merrick.  My biggest regret as a Producer is that I didn't see enough shows as I was coming up.  It's expensive, as we all know, so help defray some of the costs with some good old fashioned tickets. 

6.  A subscription to the NY Lottery

Win the lotto and you could actually produce Spider Man all by yourself!  Hey, someone wins, right?  Why not you? And we all like to gamble, right?  Why else would we be in this biz.

7. A Donation to TDF's Open Doors program

This great program subsidizes high schools kids coming to the theater.  R&H told us that you have to be carefully taught, and TDF teaches better than anyone.

8. The Wii

We all need a little distraction, right?  

9.  A Domain Name

The key to web marketing is to start early.  Start your producer early with a GoDaddy starter kit.

10.  The iPhone

No list of mine is ever complete without the iPhone.  Sure, AT&T sucks more than Moose Murders, but carrying music demos of shows in a killer web phone that has an app-game where you can produce We Will Rock You is something I'm telling Santa that I want.