But what does a producer actually do? I'm sure the majority of people will be familiar with the term producer from movies and live theater and you may even know that producers are considered to be the "head" of a production. To help you understand how the role of producer works with Lyric Theatre, let's jump back in time to the very beginning of a production. Some of you may not know this, but a production like The Mikado begins one to two years before it ever reaches the stage. The very first step is for our repertoire committee to meet and work out our season for the next year. They will consider many factors including; popularity of show, when it was last performed, demand inside the company to mount a production, etc. After approval by our board, the process moves into the hiring committee. This group looks at potential directors and will interview and hire a stage and music director. It is usually at this point that a producer is hired as well. From that point forward the producer is charged with making a production happen.
One of the first things a producer needs is to gather the remainder of the production staff, this consists of people like; stage managers, lighting designers, set and costume designers, props managers, and other technical staff. This list can be quite large depending on the show and it is truly amazing that even six to eight months before rehearsals begin about ten people are already hard at work planning and organizing. Over the coming weeks we will be exploring what some of these positions entail and you can see how much thought and care are put into areas many of us don't think about.
In addition to hiring a production staff the producer is in charge of budgeting a show. This is a delicate task that requires allowing the directors and designers the freedom to realize their artistic vision while keeping expenditures down. It is not my favorite part of the job, but a necessary one. From this point, everything kicks into high gear and multiple meetings are called to prepare for auditions and rehearsals. There is a dinner meeting with the music and stage director to talk about the vision for the show and to begin organizing auditions. Speaking of auditions, we will discuss those in more depth on the next blog entry, it is an interesting process and I want to do it justice. After auditions there is a long process of contacting everyone who has been cast and beginning the process of organizing rehearsal schedules.
Finally, we are ready to gather the full production staff for a meeting to get everyone started on their tasks and layout the general feel for the productions. As producer, I really have the freedom to set the tone for the production and a good producer can make or break a production staff and through them a cast. After all this rehearsals finally start and we still have ten weeks to go!
So there it is, the whole process of being a producer from start to the beginning of rehearsals. The job doesn't end there, I will continue meeting with the staff to make sure we are on track as well as check in with the cast to see how rehearsals are going and to help solve any issues that arise. I will end this post by saying that there is an old saying "jack of all trades"...we'll ignore the second part of the idiom for now. What I mean by this is the job of producer is always evolving and there will always be something that was not planned for, so perhaps my biggest job is to be flexible and attentive trying to anticipate issues and resolve them and going forward to help the company better plan for new challenges.
Thank you so much for checking out our blog, as always you can keep in touch with us on facebook, twitter, or our website. I hope you will consider sharing this blog with your friends and help us build excitement as we embark on another production!
-Justin Horn, Producer "The Mikado"
