The Blog Is Back!

Well, I never thought there would be a sequel to Melanie’s Excellent Artistic Adventure but here we are starting a new adventure in London.

I just completed the first week of my new course at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. This world-renowned institution has offered me a place on their MFA Creative Producing course. Naturally, I accepted the challenge.

And what a challenge it will be. The schedule is jam packed with fantastic classes on the business part of show business. We will learn all about marketing, fundraising, legal obligations, contracts, hiring (sometimes firing), managing personnel, selecting material, booking venues and about a zillion other subjects and skills that go into creating, managing and selling a theatrical product.

Wait, what? Melanie, I thought you were an actor? Well, I am. That’s a chronic condition that never goes away. But, I have always been fascinated by and enjoyed working in other areas of the theatre industry. My history includes working in casting, front of house, play performance licensing, new play development, directing/coaching and production management. These past five years I have been doing more of those aspects and I really love it. I discovered this program at Central, which has always been a dream school of mine, and I jumped right out of my seat and applied.

So what is a Creative Producer? A producer by default has to be creative but in terms of the course, it means we will be exploring a large variety of production styles. We will cover the more “traditional” big theatre, big show styles like Broadway and the West End offer but, we will also look at festivals, guerilla theatre, immersive theatre and site specific, just to name a few. In regards to content, the course will cover new plays, revivals, performance art, musicals and more. Creativity is a must when considering all these variables.

But what does a producer do? A producer is the lead organizer of a show or event. She is responsible for finding and hiring all the team members needed to pull off the production, fundraising and budgeting and coordinating the logistics and legalities. Big job! You betcha. But a good producer is also a master delegator. She assembles a company to ensure all the jobs get done. Depending on the size of the show, the company can incorporate any number of people including production managers, accountants, designers, running crews, actors, marketing directors and everyone in between.

So what did I learn in my first week? I am going to need to buckle up and buckle down. There is a lot to do and all in a short amount of time. Lesson number one: Learn to manage your time so you can get it all done and stay sane. A very good lesson for any producer.

It’s going to be amazing…again! I’m ready! You coming?

See ya next week!
-m