Hey 2011 - I'm a Producer Now

So I have had a gap in my season from December - March for some time and I wasn't actively fighting to fill it. I figured it would give me a little time to adjust to living in a city (I still haven't really taken time to do that) and work on my own projects.

Fortunately I keep finding things to do.

I am co-producing a Festival!

I had a meeting with Michael (artistic director at Forum where I am a company member) and told him I would like to shadow him a bit and learn more about producing. Instead, he made me co-producer of a festival I didn't even know that they were planning. They want to do a festival of Naomi Wallace's plays to lead up to the opening of One Flea Spare by Naomi Wallace. I said "okay!"

First, we had to secure venues. I was co-producing with another guy who hadn't produced a festival and wasn't involved with Forum, but had been around in DC longer and knew a lot more people and venues, which was great. They wanted to do the festival for free so we were trying to find free venues, which was really difficult. People love to not reply.

Venues were a pain, but we eventually secured them.

Then the company choose 2 directors and then let us direct the 3rd play together. We each paired up with one of the directors and became the primary producer for that show. I had secured rehearsal space for my director as well as actors. He let me know who he would like and I contact them. He also bounces ideas for casting off of me (which I'm not much help with since I don't know them, but I usually find a way to field the question to someone else and still get back to him with something useful.)

Anyway - so I'm learning to produce. It's good. Lots more to it than I described, but if you want to learn about it - ask.