TBOT_S01E26 - We Work For Pennies and Cookies
Changes need to happen. We have to adjust. Change is hard but we must…we must!
WORKING TITLE: We work for pennies and cookies…
REJECTED TITLES: Bring Us Shubbery
"‘The Piano Lesson’ extends limited Broadway run" by Broadway News' Caitlin Hornik - "The limited engagement of “The Piano Lesson” will run on Broadway for an additional two weeks. The revival of the August Wilson-penned play will now close on Jan. 29, 2023, instead of the previously announced Jan. 15. The production had been announced to run for 16 weeks only." https://bway.ly/6omheg
DELAYED: "‘KPOP’ pushes Broadway opening to Nov. 27" by Broadway News' Ruthie Fierberg - "The new musical “KPOP,” which began previews on Oct. 13 at the Circle in the Square Theatre, will now open on Nov. 27. The production was originally slated to open on Nov. 20, but adjusted as one of the principal performers will be out due to COVID-19. ... Festivities will still be held on Nov. 20 to celebrate the opening of the show ... " https://bway.ly/x1obam
New Study Measures the Sales Decline of the 2021-22 Season
Fiorello! is a musical about New York City mayor Fiorello La Guardia, a reform Republican, which debuted on Broadway in 1959, and tells the story of how LaGuardia took on the Tammany Hall political machine. The book is by Jerome Weidman and George Abbott, drawn substantially from the 1955 volume Life with Fiorello by Ernest Cuneo,[1] with lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and music by Jerry Bock. It won the three major theatre awards - Tony Award (shared with The Sound of Music), the New York Drama Critics Circle award, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.[2] It is one of only ten musicals to win the latter award.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiorello !
Oh! Calcutta! is an avant-garde, risque theatrical revue created by British drama critic Kenneth Tynan. The show, consisting of sketches on sex-related topics, debuted Off-Broadway in 1969 and then in the West End in 1970. It ran in London for over 3,900 performances, and in New York initially for 1,314. Revivals enjoyed even longer runs, including a Broadway revival that ran for 5,959 performances, making the show the longest-running revue in Broadway history at the time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oh!_Calcutta !
Bye Bye Birdie...Playbill Leaves Twitter
https://playbill.com/article/bye-bye-birdie-playbill-leaves-twitter
New audiences over returning audiences.
Taylor Swift Calls Ticketmaster Woes ‘Excruciating’ in Statement to Fans
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/18/arts/music/taylor-swift-era-tours-tickets.html
Where the Mountain Meets the Sea
https://www.manhattantheatreclub.com/shows/2022-23-season/where-the-mountain-meets-the-sea/
Camelot - Lincoln Center Theater
https://www.lct.org/shows/camelot/
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TBOT_S01E24 - What Did We Miss
WORKING TITLE:
I Wanna Be A Producer
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REJECTED TITLES:
The One of Us to Survive
Save Your Programs
— From Wikipedia: A Theatrical Producer is a person who oversees all aspects of mounting a theatre production. The producer is responsible for the overall financial and managerial functions of a production or venue, raises or provides financial backing, and hires personnel for creative positions (writer, director, designers, composer, choreographer—and in some cases, performers). The producer chooses the material and decides what we are working towards.
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TBOT_S01E23 - Phantom, Sweeney and Beetlejuice
Today on the podcast, we talk about Phantom and Beetlejuice closing and a new Sweeney Todd coming to Broadway!
WORKING TITLE:
The Phantom of the Opera is there, but not for long.
REJECTED TITLES:
Ham4Sweeney
TBOT_S01E22 - 2 For 1
In this episode, Broadway Week promotions, Extended Into The Woods, The Emmys are coming up, JASPER and more.
WORKING TITLE:
2 For 1
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REJECTED TITLES:
10 out of 12 - refers to an Equity mandate that says that when actors are called in for 12 hours of tech rehearsal, they can only work 10 of those hours.
________________________________________
Entertainment Community Fund
https://entertainmentcommunity.org/
Coleman Domingo - DOT
Won an Emmy
https://www.concordtheatricals.com/p/60374/dot
NYC BROADWAY WEEK - 9/6 - 9/25
An experience worthy of a standing ovation.
Highly anticipated and back for another run, NYC Broadway Week makes its return engagement. Score 2-for-1 tickets with code BWAYWK.
https://www.nycgo.com/broadway-week/
INTO THE WOODS - Extended through January 8th, 2023
FUNNY GIRL: "‘Funny Girl’: Lea Michele Gets Four Standing Ovations – By Intermission; Jonathan Groff, Ryan Murphy Among The Gleeful Crowd" by Deadline's Greg Evans - "More ovations followed throughout the evening, including an extended and rousing one at the final curtain, with a sobbing Michele and co-star Tovah Feldshuh, also making her debut, accepting large bouquets of white roses." https://bway.ly/vx7kfx
NYT: "‘1776’ in 2022: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of a Dual Reality" by The New York Times' Jennifer Schuessler - "The revival, directed by Jeffrey L. Page and Diane Paulus, has the familiar rousing melodies (in new, rock-infused arrangements), star-spangled color scheme and corny dad jokes. But they’re delivered by a racially diverse cast of women, nonbinary and trans actors, whose embodiment, Paulus said, wakes the language up." https://bway.ly/xldkho
EMMYS: "Schmigadoon!, Annie Live!, More Win Creative Arts Emmys" by Playbill's Margaret Hall - "Schmigadoon! won Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics for the song "Corn Puddin'," and The Gilded Age, which is cast to the brim with Tony winners and nominees, won Outstanding Production Design for a Narrative Period or Fantasy Program (One Hour or More).
Additionally, Broadway favorite Nathan Lane took home the Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for his appearance on Only Murders in the Building, and Tony winner Laurie Metcalf received the Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her appearance on Hacks. As previously announced, Annie Live! received the award for Outstanding Hairstyling for a Variety, Nonfiction, or Reality Program via a juried vote." https://bway.ly/x7cyzy
JASPER - A New Play by Grant MacDermott
Facing the reality of their son's illness, a couple manages to keep both their child and marriage alive. But when a chance encounter gives birth to an innocent lie it could unravel everything. JASPER begins September 8 at The Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre at The Pershing Square Signature Center. Through 10/6.
https://yonderwindow.co/jasper
ATPAM -
Company Managers, House Managers and Press Agents
List of the longest-running Broadway shows - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_longest-running_Broadway_shows
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This podcast is an Em3ry production.
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TBOT_S01E21 - Pre-Fall as Summer MUST CLOSE
Today on the podcast, we talk artist housing and festivals. Edinburgh sales were down, What is “Festival of Brexit”, the value of Street Performers (Buskers). Let’s get to business!
WORKING TITLE:
Artists Should Be Carefully Housed
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REJECTED TITLES:
Festival of Brexit
Let the sun shine in.
Pandemic woes still linger, companies look to IP for fresh ideas, The Actors Fund has a new name, Plimpton “Let the Sun Shine In”, A church in Texas must have been out of their GD mind to take a spin on “Hamilton” #dontchangethewords, all part of the updates to The Business of Broadway. https://em3ry.com/updates-augustseptember-2022
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This podcast is an Em3ry production.
Visit us online at https://em3ry.com/tbot. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at “em3ryotm”.
TBOT_S01E19 - Out of Town Tryouts
WORKING TITLE:
Impossible Things Happen Everyday
REJECTED TITLES:
Everybody Rise
A Hamilton Parody
A Funny Thing
___________________________
Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire
History of Gmail
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Gmail
A Chorus Line
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Chorus_Line
Elaine Stritch - At Liberty
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elaine_Stritch_at_Liberty
Hamilton - Musical
Sunset Boulevard - Musical
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunset_Boulevard_(musical)
Come From Away
https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/come-from-away/umc.cmc.262n0v53nmotkz7ulzuuco7rq
13 The Musical - Netflix
https://www.netflix.com/title/80222822
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-show/a-funny-thing-happened-on-the-way-to-the-forum-1102
Disney Ultimate Movie Musical Collection - Annie, Cinderella and The Music Man.
NEXT INSURANCE
https://www.nextinsurance.com/
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This podcast is an Em3ry production.
Visit us online at https://em3ry.com/tbot. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at “em3ryotm”.
TBOT_S01E18 - Donkeys and Unicorns
WORKING TITLE:
THE BEST DAY EVER
REJECTED TITLES:
Your salary could have funded several small companies.
Unicorns and Butterflies Everywhere
Squidward taps, SpongeBob Slaps
PAID INTERNS?
Two years on, several of these programs remain in limbo, suggesting that systemic change is easier dreamed than done. But other artistic directors are tackling the big questions head on and introducing new programs, offering glimpses into what might be. In conversation with these artistic directors, one trend seems abundantly clear: more equitable access to better opportunities for fewer people.
The Hangar Theatre in Ithaca, N.Y.’s had a fellowship program for actors that was tuition-based. Now the theatre pays participants; whereas the tuition-based model saw a cohort of around 22 young people each summer, the salaried model will accommodate about 15.
Meanwhile, at New York Stage and Film (a partner of Vassar’s Powerhouse Theatre), artistic director Chris Burney, has made dramatic changes after he witnessed the company’s pre-pandemic work culture. “I was shocked,” said Burney, who began at the job in spring 2019. “People were working seven days a week for two months straight. It’s not right, even if it’s fun. It’s not right.” Burney brought all positions at the festival into compliance with state minimum wage laws, which drastically raised intern stipends, and paid for overtime while discouraging workweeks that necessitated it. The company now employs about half of the interns it used to (though not all of the other half disappeared into the ether—some have been moved into staff positions).
And Williamstown Theatre Festival, which as recently as 2019 paid its artistic director more than a quarter of a million dollars a year while employing several dozen unpaid interns and low-paid staff members, has entirely pivoted its operational model. It suspended its internship program and replaced it with smaller, more focused opportunities: in 2021, the Early Career BIPOC Theatre Makers Program, and in 2022, a similar program open to pre-professional theatre artists. Both programs pay stipends and offer room and board, and this years’ program emphasizes a well-rounded theatre education: It will operate “within various departments so participants get a more holistic sense of how theatre is made,” offered interim artistic director Jenny Gersten. Gersten seems genuinely interested in providing hands-on experiences that are of primary benefit to the intern; the new program, she said, “doesn’t require their labor but does allow them to get hands-on experience. And the program combines time in an experiential setting as well as classroom time.”
These companies are leading the charge and walking the walk. But faced with the financial precarity inherent in the industry and exacerbated by the pandemic, it seems unlikely that most other theatre companies that put tuition-based, unpaid, or underpaid entry-level programs on hold will reopen their doors to new crops of well-paid young people. And many of those companies whose programs do revamp and reopen, like WTF and Hangar, plan to sustain their new models with smaller cohorts. All of this adds up to fewer entry-level opportunities in the theatre industry.
DONKEY SALARIES
The unicorn employee: someone with all the skills across a multitude of platforms, isn’t limited by job titles, and efficiently completes tasks at an awe-inspiring pace. They are willing, and even prefer, to wear different hats, inspire colleagues, and never lose empathy.
Unicorns can make the difference between surviving and thriving and perhaps unsurprisingly, they are hard to catch even when you have the right bait.
And this is why it never ceases to surprise me when I come across a job description from a nonprofit arts and culture org that is clearly looking for a unicorn but offering a donkey budget.
Following the pandemic, this has become a bit more common, and I get it; staffs were gutted and the funds to rehire at previous levels doesn’t exist. All of this makes the temptation to offer a little more for unicorn level duties and responsibilities is strong.
All of this is the latest byproduct of a system that has underpaid staffers for decades while expanding the pay gap between entry/middle management and executives at exponential rates. As such, I can’t say any of it is a surprise and while I wish there was a simple solution here, don’t expect much to change until the field begins to make pay equality a priority.
In the meantime, you’ll be more likely to attract the best candidates possible by conducting an honest unicorn to donkey review before posting your next job
OSKAR EUSTIS IS NONPROFIT THEATER’S PANDEMIC PAY CHAMP
https://mailchi.mp/bwayjournal/sprecher-loses-rights-to-rebecca-15042585?e=c0d6480bcc
EXCLUSIVE:
In 2020, a year in which theaters were dark for nine and a half months, Public Theater Artistic Director Oskar Eustis earned $1.15 million in pay and benefits, more than any other nonprofit theater leader in New York.
Eustis’ 10 percent jump in overall compensation — disclosed in the Public’s 2020-21 tax return filed with the New York Attorney General — runs counter to the company’s messaging about pandemic pay. In an April 2020 New York Times story about the cancellation of Shakespeare in the Park and planned staff furloughs, Michael Paulson reported that much of the remaining staff “will take up to a 25 percent pay cut. Eustis will take a 40 percent pay cut.”
The tax return, which details compensation for calendar year 2020, tells a different story. Eustis, one of the highest-profile figures in nonprofit theater since assuming leadership of the storied organization in 2005, was paid $901,000, up from $807,000 in 2019. Benefits and deferred pay were valued at an additional $255,000.
TO PONDER:
Who is the most valuable in a nonprofit?
When should the leader transition to allow for new leaders?
How do you prep your artistic bench?
Interns call your lapsed subscribers…
Why does any of your staff matter?
Every theater artist needs a ghost light!
How do we catch a unicorn?
If you don’t recruit diversity, you will not have diversity in your organization.
TBOT_S01E17 - The Old Ways of Work/Life Balance…Continued.
Today on the podcast, we continue our conversation about work/life balance. We also talk about Fat Ham and The Farm’s rising star, Grant MacDermott!
WORKING TITLE:
FAT HAM SLAYS
REJECTED TITLES:
WORKING SHIT OUT
FAT HAM - Is and Ain’ts
THE FARM - Commissioned Writer, Grant MacDermott and his rising star!
______________________________________________
Too Big NOT to Fail: Nonprofit Arts Behemoths Pre-Post-Pandemic
TICKETS AND LOTTERY
Grant MacDermott - http://www.grantmacdermott.com/
Jasper, by Grant MacDermott, Sets Off-Broadway World Premiere
https://www.theatermania.com/off-broadway/news/jasper-grant-macdermott-world-premiere_94105.html
Theatre Exile - Best of Philly - 2022 Theater Subscription
https://www.phillymag.com/best-of-philly-archive/theatre-exile-2/
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This podcast is an Em3ry production.
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TBOT_S01E16 - Cheating, Stealing and Work/Life Balance
Cheating and Stealing and Work/Life Balance. This business is filled with temptations and woes. How do you mange to balance it all out. That’s what we talk about here. So, let’s get down to business.
WORKING TITLE:
I Wish…More Than Anything
REJECTED TITLES:
The Drabinsky Files - Do Not Work
It’s Not COVID, It’s Tonsillitis
Last Summer…”You Will Be Found”
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When is it time to leave the wood? Find your family. It’s not about leaving, it’s about growing. Work/Life Balance.
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This podcast is an Em3ry production.
Visit us online at https://em3ry.com/tbot. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at “em3ryotm”.
TBOT_S01E15 - Summer Sizzle
WORKING TITLE:
No Laughing Matter
REJECTED TITLES:
There are giants in the sky
We’re revolting (Edinburgh Fringe)
& Juliet
Tale as old as time - Beauty and The Beast on ABC
Time to leave Paradise Square
A Company Man-ager
LINKS:
- FringeArts - https://fringearts.com/
- Intar Theatre Company (International Arts Relations) https://www.intartheatre.org/
- BroadwayCon - https://variety.com/2022/scene/news/hillary-clinton-broadwaycon-1235312361/
- Edinburgh fringe tries to quell revolt after criticism of 2022 event: https://bway.ly/9rakeg#https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2022/jul/07/edinburgh-fringe-tries-to-quell-revolt-criticism-2022-festival-comedians-open-letter
Subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. Share the podcast with a friend, colleague or give us some social media love.
This podcast is an Em3ry production.
Visit us online at https://em3ry.com/tbot. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at “em3ryotm”.