Working in American Theatre

A brief history, career guide and resource book for over 1000 theatres

Jim Volz

• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Year: 2011
• ISBN:
  9781408152317
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Theatre

"I cannot think of a better book for aspiring and working actors, craftspeople, artists, and managers" Kent Thompson, Artistic Director, Denver Center Theatre Company, Past President TCG Board of Directors

"It's time for a new look at the complexity and richness of America's growing theatrical landscapre and Jim Volz is just the person to provide that overview" Lesley Schisgall Currier, Managing Director, Marin Shakespeare Company

Working in American Theatre is a coast-to-coast overview of the opportunities awaiting theatre practitioners in every discipline.

Featuring tips from America's top theatre professionals, this resource offers job-search and career-planning strategies, as well as detailed information on over 1, 000 places to work in the American theatre, including regional companies, Broadway and commerical theatre, Shakespeare festivals, touring theatres, university/resident theatres, youth and children's theatres, and outdoor theatres. Offering an overview of the evolution of American theatre and behind-the-scenes stories of the regional movement, this single volume is an indispensable tool at every stage of your career.

Part 1
Everything you need to know about working in American theatre … from the professionals!

Life lessons from America’s artists and professionals

The fool wonders, the wise man asks

Benjamin Disraeli

Whether you are wailing on stage or welding in the scene shop, there’s the potential for a great life in the theatre. Career choices in theatre range from acting, directing, playwriting, and designing to costuming, set building, marketing, stage managing, fundraising, and a whole host of other challenging, potentially career-satisfying positions that offer employees the opportunity to create theatre.

Fortunately, for those just heading into a high school, college, or theatre training program, I’ve asked many of the nation’s theatre professionals to help guide you in your decision-making. Happily, they don’t all think alike – many have found their own creative avenues to successful careers – and all have been stunningly candid, unpredictably blunt, graciously helpful, or all of the above! The great news is, it is your life and you can read through all this grand advice, listen to the debates of theatre professionals who also had to make key life choices, and decide for yourself what’s best for you!

Nobody’s sweetheart is ugly

Good news! If you are already in college or preparing for a career in the theatre in other training programs, or already working in professional, community, university, or myriad other theatres, there are still plenty of extraordinary tips for managing your career and strategically planning for your life in the theatre. An old Dutch proverb declares that ‘nobody’s sweetheart is ugly,’ and regional theatre is the ‘sweetheart’ and artistic home of many quoted in this text. Keep this in mind as you weigh the advice. No doubt many Broadway producers would regale you with the joys of life in New York and the thrills of Times Square. My contributors strive mightily to strike a balance in their advice about working in regional theatre and commercial theatre – but it’s up to you to make your own choices.

As you might suspect, when you are fresh out of school, it sometimes seems impossible to break into the larger, more financially stable theatres or work your way past the volunteer or low-paying intern stages of any theatre. For most of my career in the theatre of over thirty years, it has driven me crazy when not-very-well-informed Broadway agents or film or television casting directors advise students and young actors, directors, designers, and craftspeople to go ‘Cut your teeth and get experience in the regional theatres and come back when you’ve grown up.’ Ha! Generally, this is ridiculous advice as it’s often harder to get a job in a League of Resident Theatres (LORT) venue than in any other theatre in America. Perhaps community theatres, membership companies (where you pay to support the company), or smaller, generally volunteer-based companies allow you to ‘cut your teeth’ with less-than-brilliant skills, but be ready for a highly competitive regional theatre marketplace rivaling Broadway’s employment challenges where polished skills and soaring potential are expected to mesh with unrelenting dedication, fervent loyalty, and long hours.

So where do you start and what do the leaders of American theatres have to say about working in their venues? It’s great to have a career mentor and ongoing advisor, and I hope you will seek out many along the way. In the meantime, how wonderful to have so many theatre professionals share their lifelong lessons and career advice with you in this book. I am so indebted and grateful to the many industry leaders and artists who ‘answered the call’ to share their ‘best practices’ with you.

This is the moment!

Before you plunge in, let me remind you that there are so many ways you can prepare now for your life in the theatre. Seek counsel from your high school teachers, from your university professors, and from professionals with theatre experience in your home community. Nurture relationships and gather written recommendations that will help you in the future. Research the websites of schools and/or training programs that interest you and sit in on classes, workshops, and seminars to determine if the work is right for you. Attend performances, read theatre reviews, peruse trade papers, go to the library or bookstore and devour Theater Communications Group’s American Theater magazine, Todd London’s The Artistic Home, Robert Cohen’s Acting Professionally, Tom Markus’s An Actor Behaves, Sherry Eaker’s The Back Stage Handbook for Performing Artists, William Ball’s A Sense of Direction, and the myriad other books on the market.

Conduct an informational interview with someone who has the life and career you think you want and ask how he or she achieved success. Most people enjoy sharing their life stories – especially if they think they may be of help to you. An informational interview is a fact-finding session that you create by calling someone who has been successful at your dream job or a related job in the profession. You call them up, make it clear that you aren’t applying for a job – that you would just appreciate fifteen minutes of their time. Ask them to share their thoughts about how to break into their business, how they have enjoyed their career climb, and what advice they might have for you in regard to the profession.

Mentors and mottos

Ben Cameron, past executive director of the national organization for the American theatre, Theater Communications Group (TCG), is one of the most articulate, engaging, embracing, and respected professionals in the field. He worked on the American theatre’s front lines for a number of years, was lured into the philanthropic and service communities, then returned to head TCG and devote time to ‘strengthen, nurture, and promote the professional not-for-profit theatre.’ He discusses the mentoring process and offers advice about training and a life in the theatre:

I was blessed by being mentored by a number of people, of whom two rise to the top: the late Tom Haas, who was perhaps the most important figure for me, steering me toward graduate school, nurturing me as a director, teaching me how to read text in an uncluttered but heartfelt way; and the late Peter Zeisler, who during my NEA days taught me to see a field, not a string of separate theatres, while teaching me to value the concepts of service and leadership. Conservatory training is, for many in our field, indispensable: it provides a basic framework for thinking and instills a basic vocabulary and approach for work – a vocabulary that (like Picasso breaking out of the realistic tradition in which he had been trained but which was pivotal to his development) we will be increasingly shattering as we solve the problems and challenges that lie ahead for us, artistic and managerial alike. That said, mentor relationships are critical. I heard Lloyd Richards once say, when asked whether someone should enroll in a grad program, that the more important thing was to find the person with whom you needed to study and attach yourself to them – a counsel that embraced, but did not mandate, formal grad programs. My motto: life is too short to be serious and too serious to be frivolous.

Paul Nicholson, executive director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, offers these seven thoughtful bits of advice:

1) Remember that we work for a theatre that does not exist.

2) Before anything can be accomplished, some poor fool has to put something down on paper.

3) If you keep doing what you’re doing, you’ll keep getting what you’re getting.

4) Winston Churchill’s definition of planning: ‘Ponder deeply, then act.’

5) You cannot afford not to make the time for strategic planning.

6) There is nothing like the threat of being hanged in a fortnight to concentrate your mind.

7) The goal of every theatre artistic director, managing director or general manager should be to enable the people they work with to make a life in the theatre; just making a living is not enough.

Advice to the players: get out of that suitcase!

Former National Endowment for the Arts chair Dana Gioia helped inspire and revitalize America’s arts community. A working artist himself, Mr. Gioia directs those interested in regional theatre ‘to keep working – no matter what the obstacles. I have only impractical advice, but for artists impractical idealism is ironically the most pragmatic: to read as much as possible, to act as much as possible, and to put your art at the center of your life.’

Former Stage Directions magazine editor-in-chief Iris Dorbian encourages aspiring theatre professionals to ‘be curious and open-minded. Learn something else besides theatre – read newspapers, cultivate your brain, and get out there! Do some investigation of the theatres where you’d like to work and then find out if they offer internships in your desired area.’

Jan and Griff Duncan, producer and artistic director of one of America’s premier musical theatres, California’s Fullerton Civic Light Opera, explain the upside and downside of a career in the theatre:

Theatre requires endless devotion/perseverance and a personal constitution that can accept rejection and a willingness to try again after failure. As a performer, it is ‘life out of a suitcase’ and the constant judging of your ability (auditions). Theatre is fickle and there will be failures. Each new production offers hope of success and it is enormously rewarding when that happens.

Sweep the floors and stay out of debt!

Near the breathtaking Zion National Park is Cedar City, Utah – home to a glorious complex of professional theatres and the Tony Award–winning Utah Shakespeare Festival. Fred C. Adams, one of America’s wisest, most active, and most experienced theatre producers, offers sound advice for all theatre job seekers:

I beg young promising theatrical entrepreneurs to refrain from debt. Borrowing money has proven to be the kiss of death to young and promising theatre groups. Build first an audience, and that is done with credible high-quality work, then when the demand is great talk about building a theatre. Sweep floors, usher, volunteer in the box office, learn everything you can from the ground up. My university courses were wonderful ways of learning what makes a script great, how you market, how to measure the taste of your audience – these were all great topics. But no class can teach you how to approach a foundation for funding, what to look for in potential actors, how to maintain the theatre’s restrooms. So learn what you can in school, then go out and immerse yourself in the actual day-to-day operation of a regional theatre.

I would tell any young dreamer to remember the advice my father gave me: ‘Hell is going to work eight hours a day at a job you do not love.’ Stay the course, pay your dues, and remember that the American theatre is a very small family, so make no enemies, do not spread tales, and be honorable to your peers and even more to the people you hire.

Pseudolus, Pericles, or the cover of People magazine?

Perhaps the best placed LORT theatre in America is California’s Laguna Playhouse, a brisk walk from the Pacific Ocean and surrounded by glorious cliffs, leaping dolphins, and international intrigue. Longtime Laguna Playhouse artistic director Andrew Barnicle offers sane, sound, practical advice:

Recognize what the ultimate goal is and be honest with yourself. If you dream of being on the cover of TV Guide, by all means move to LA without regret. If visions of accepting a Tony put you to sleep at night, by all means move to New York. If playing Hamlet maybe in a storefront in South Dakota – even if you’re too young – gets you hot, then by all means move to South Dakota; just don’t expect many people to notice. For non-actors (development directors, managers, designers), recognize that you will be overworked and not remunerated at the level of the regular commercial sector. You must love making a contribution to an art form you truly believe in, or that one-bedroom apartment and the ten-year-old Hyundai will get boring very quickly.

New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts is one of the premier training grounds for theatre students in many disciplines. Arthur Bartow, former artistic director of the undergraduate Department of Drama, offers this canny advice:

See the work of as many regional theatres as you can and study their histories. Look at their current repertoires. Determine those artists who you admire and how you can fit into the structure of their theatres. Develop the skills necessary to do the work of those theatres. Once you are ready, start a communication with their casting directors and their artistic directors. Keep at them, continue to grow, and you will succeed. The pathways for actors, directors, and designers are unique in their own ways. But knowledge is power no matter what your discipline. Gather as much skill as you can and be a person that others like to work with. Life is short and we would prefer to work with people whose company we enjoy rather than those who may be brilliant but take out all the air in the room. Remember, you are there to solve the problem, not be the problem.

Theatre, film, and television director Craig Belknap is one of the rare directors who has managed to create a career in regional theatre, Hollywood, and academia (California Institute of the Arts). Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of sitting on the hard benches of Washington DC’s Folger Theatre, the plush seats of Alabama Shakespeare Festival’s Stage, and the dark screening rooms of Hollywood’s private studio theatres to watch his productions. A gentle, yet determined, assertive, and seasoned professional, Mr. Belknap shares his secrets for success:

Work in all venues whenever and wherever you can, make contacts and stay in touch. For directors, until you run a theatre, always remember that you are a ‘guest.’ If you want to be asked back, do your homework, stay on schedule, provide a positive atmosphere, and collaborate! Research the production. Stay under budget! Egos and indecision must never, never enter on-stage or off!

Located in America’s heartland, the Dallas Theater Center helped define the dramatic future of regional theatre. In a recent letter from Paul Baker, one of the pioneers of regional theatre (and a co-founder of the Dallas Theater Center), one begins to understand the demands of regional theatre. ‘Are you willing to donate eighteen hours a day for years to learn your trade?’ he asks. ‘Are you willing to sacrifice your energy and all you value?’

Do it yourself!

Chicago has long been hailed as one of the most vibrant of America’s theatre cities, and Joel G. Fink, professional director, casting director, and associate dean of the Chicago College of Performing Arts helps explain why:

If you are interested in regional theatre, take the time to discover what a particular theatre is doing now and if that is the work that you want to be doing. Of course, having lived in Chicago for the past decade, I have become used to groups of people with like artistic visions banding together to start their own theatre companies. Companies such as Steppenwolf, Lookingglass Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theater are all products of the Chicago mentality of ‘do it yourself!’

Howard J. Millman’s favorite saying is, ‘Don’t let the bastards get you down.’ As former producing artistic director of Florida’s Asolo Theatre Company, he urges ‘those interested in regional theatre to believe in regional theatre for what it is, not a stepping stone for anything more. Let’s all try to go back to the original concept of acting companies created specifically for our communities doing work designed for our audiences.’

Take responsibility (and stop that whispering)!

Dan McCleary, founder and artistic director of the Tennessee Shakespeare Company, offers a strong dose of reality and some historical perspective:

What’s needed now is a strong sense of personal responsibility … the art of theatre, and its inherent creative risk, increasingly is giving way to the industry of theatre, and its inherent safety and fiscal assurance. As regional theatre creativity becomes industrial, artists and managers become increasingly specialized and enclosed, driving to achieve financial or employment objectives in their area of specialization without knowing how their creativity cooperates with others. The result is that there are few Renaissance women or men, fewer artist-managers (like Shakespeare and Burbage, for instance), fewer resident companies of artists, and, sadly, even fewer regional theatres that we can call our artistic homes. An artistic home might be described as a s...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Dedication
• Acknowledgements
• Preface
• Part 1 Everything you need to know about working in American theatre . . . from the professionals!
• Part 2 A brief history of theatre in America
• Part 3 Career planning
• Part 4 The American theatre employment universe
• Part 5 American theatre’s major employers totalling over 1,000 theatre companies
• Part 6 Survival strategies and directories for lifelong planning
• Part 7 Leaving a legacy
• Bibliography
• About the Author
• Imprint