Producing Your Own Showcase

Producing Your Own Showcase

A step-by-step guide to being a do-it-yourself producer.Author and successful producer Paul Harris blends his proven, hands-on experience with advice from industry veterans to show readers, step by step, how to become successful do-it-yourself off-off Broadway producers. This essential guide features hundreds of surefire techniques from selecting a cast to setting up rehearsals and putting on the performance. For anyone who wants to know what it takes to manage and produce a successful showcase production, chapters include: selecting the right play; creating a workable budget; finding a theater; raising money; attracting attention with publicity and advertising; rehearsing the play; putting on the performance; using the Internet; and more. This volume is filled with unique insights, tired-and-true advice, and sound guidance that can't be found anywhere else.Review"... contains a treasury of information ... for those who wish to begin the exciting journey into ... show business." -- Harriet Slaughter, Director of Labor Relations, The League of American Theatres and Producers, Inc."Actors, directors, producers, and playwrights . . . will find an absolute goldmine of information in this book. I highly recommend it!" -- Glenn Alterman, author, Promoting Your Acting Career and Creating Your Own Monologue"As an independent producer I found myself wishing I had had Producing Your Own Showcase when I was starting out." -- Julie A. Sacks, Emmy Award-nominated independent television and documentary producer, Producer of PBS's series pilot, The American NovelFrom the PublisherShow business professionals are often highly motivated and energetic individuals. Yet, despite this driven and hard-working nature, most actors, directors, and playwrights frequently spend long periods of time out of work. Faced with inactivity and the fierce competition for jobs in too few productions, many consider mounting their own shows, but hesitate because they lack the proper knowledge and resources. To fill this void, a successful playwright and producer, Paul Harris, has written Producing Your Own Showcase, a step-by-step guide to being a do-it-yourself producer.From the Author"Some people are finding that, rather than being passive parties in the industry, they would prefer to get out there and create work for themselves," Harris observes. With that, he sets out to show creative professionals how to channel their energy and stamina into the business side of production.From the Inside FlapNo aspect of producing a showcase is overlooked in this volume. Harris helps to define the goals of each production, then suggests appropriate strategies for reaching agents and managers, starting one's own theater company, or moving a production to a larger venue. Following Equity Showcase Codes, Producing Your Own Showcase details: choosing a script creating a budget fund-raising casting renting rehearsal and performance space using publicity and advertising to draw an audiencepromoting a production via the Internet The author has interviewed a wide range of professionals in the theater industry. Consequently, the chapters reveal the expertise of actors, directors, playwrights, producers, and Equity officials who have firsthand experience in showcase production. With the practical advice and expert strategies contained in this volume, stage professionals can make a business of displaying their creative gifts.About the AuthorPaul Harris is a playwright, journalist, and co-director of the Upstart Theatre Company. A 1998 nominee for the George Oppenheimer Award for best debut by an emerging playwright, his play Lost and Found was the recipient of the Panelist's Choice Award at the 1999 Edward Albee Theater Conference and was one of four plays selected for the 2000 South Carolina Playwrights' Conference. His articles have been published in numerous magazines and newspapers throughout the country including Backstage and Stage Di