A New York City Travelogue in Theatre Management with The Theatre School, DePaul University

by Leslie Shook ©2002

From March 20-24, four Theatre School students and three faculty/staff were in New York City for a Theatre Management Seminar. The students—Christine Hale, Micki Meyer, Christina Stevens and Sara Tolbert were guided by Maury Collins (Commercial Theatre instructor), Lara Goetsch (Director of Marketing and PR) and Leslie Shook (Theatre Manager and Head of the Theatre Management Program). We stayed at the Millennium Broadway Hotel, in the heart of Times Square's theatre district.

Our first meeting was at the American Airlines Theatre Nabisco Lounge. Susan Vargo (TTS '98) had invited her colleague Nancy Nagel Gibbs, producer, to speak with us at our first discussion about New York Theatre. Nancy feels that her job is to "create community with a commercial company." She works with two partners to develop audiences for the work she produces; among the plays she has produced are Bat Boy, De La Guarda and The Vagina Monologues.

Susan spoke with us about the job of a general manager, the person who protects the producer's interests. She is currently the company manager for The Last Five Years at Off-Broadway's Minetta Lane Theatre.

Members of the East Coast Alumni Association met us for dinner at Virgil's Barbecue on 44th Street. Gary Gorman (GSD '68), Adam Mathias (TTS '96), Paul Baron (TTS '00), Theo Harter-Carus (GSD), Paul Miller (TTS '87) and Susan Vargo talked with us about their varied careers. We were also joined by Donald Christensen, a 4th year student majoring in lighting design who is interning in New York with Ken Billington. Our alums were impressed by our itinerary.

The Shubert Organization had generously donated tickets for the 7 of us to see Top Dog/Underdog at the Ambassador Theatre, where we met the house manager, Patricia Berry.

On Thursday morning, we walked across the street from our hotel to the Lyceum Theatre. We were met by Maryann Chach, Chief Archivist,and took a quick tour of the theatre. They were teching Morning's at Seven. The Lyceum has been dark for a long while, and the Shubert maintenance crews were busy dusting and bringing in supplies.

We took the elevator to the top floor, where we were greeted by two more Shubert Archive curators, Sylvia Wang and Mark E. Swartz. Our three hosts had prepared a potpourri of archival treasures, beginning well before the turn of the century. They gave us a brief history of the Shubert family and its acquisition and construction of 1000 theatres. Mark told us that there are more than 5 million items in the archive, and he explained how researchers may take advantage of this wealth of history, catalogued by personality, production or theatre name. Sylvia shared how the archive's book, The Shuberts Present: 100 Years of American Theatre, was commissioned and completed. We all had the opportunity to hold a Tony Award and Drama Desk Award, and some of us took photos to see how we will look when we accept ours.

After lunch, we met with Brian Mahoney at Telecharge. The 20-Year Anniversary of this ticket service was Friday, March 28th. Brian told us that business at Telecharge has exploded, with the service handling over 5 million calls a year and selling more than 3.5 million tickets a year. They also sell 15-20,000 tickets over the web each week, but the web requires a lot of manual customer service work and has not cut into phone sales. The focus is full price sales with a small group sales division, open 24 hours a day. The sales staff, all members of the clerks union, see themselves are "theatre counselors," and they are not allowed to sell one show over another.

A few blocks away is ATPAM, the Association of Theatrical Press Agents and Managers and a member union of IATSE, representing house managers, company managers and press agents. Gordon Forbes, the Secretary/Treasurer and CEO, spent an hour with us, explaining the structure and membership requirements. He suggested a variety of avenues into the union, through 2-year apprenticeship and/or organizing drives. The union exam is now a 2-day event, both written and oral, and is jointly trusteed with the League of American Theatres and Producers.

We thanked Gordon for the information and the ATPAM caps, ran back to the hotel, changed and rushed up to the Gershwin Theatre for the opening night performance of Oklahoma, a 6:30 p.m. curtain! As we entered and when we left the theatre, we saw Al Hirschfeld, Kristin Chenoweth, Barbara Walters, Mandy Patinkin, Fran and Barry Weisler and many other Broadway personalities. It was exciting to be part of a huge opening night, and we couldn't wait to read the reviews on Friday morning. We all felt like we were participating in a piece of theatrical history—and the toy train was really cute! (You had to be there!)

The weather turned very cold and windy, but we decided to brave the elements and walk down to Sardi's. Since we had seen a show with an early curtain, we had no trouble getting a table for seven. Soon, we were joined in the restaurant by a few more people, among them the actress Marion Ross. Miss Ross came to our table to talk with the students and posed for a few photos. She was pleased to learn that the students were majoring in management, saying how much the profession needs good managers!

Friday morning, we met at the Dramatists Guild conference room and talked with quite a few people who work in the industry: Joel Szulc, DG General Manager, Christopher Wilson, DG Executive Director, Susan Birkenhead, lyricist and DG member, Veronica (Roni) Claypool, TDF Executive Director and Joan Channick, TCG Deputy Director, joined us for a lively conversation about "The Play: Where it Begins and Where it Goes." Everyone stressed the importance of communication. They encouraged our students to get into the community, telling them there is a strong network to plug into. Joan said, "It is a very small world. This is a field that is hungry for talent. If you are good at what you do, there is a place for you."

We talked about the primary mission of each organization: TDF, to make theatre affordable to those who might not otherwise be able to attend—the TKTS booth and Kids Night on Broadway; TCG, the national service organization for 430 member theatres; and the Dramatists Guild, fostering the ongoing nurturing of playwrights and protecting their 6000 members in the creative sense. Susan talked about the creative process for new work in the commercial theatre, lending insight into the relationship between the writers, the producers and directors. She also spoke about the importance of copyrights, saying that "there is widespread ignorance about the basic legal principals with regard to changing a production."

At the end of the panel, our students posed with our guests in front of Richard Rodgers' grand piano, a gift to the Dramatists Guild.

Next it was on to Lincoln Center, to the New York Library for the Performing Arts. We took a guided tour for an hour, seeing the variety of resources available. The library had a very fine exhibit of Ming Cho Lee's models for the New York Shakespeare Festival and the Delacorte Theatre.

At 2 p.m., we met with Zarin Mehta, Executive Director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Zarin came to New York from Ravinia Festival where he had been Executive Director for 10 years. He told us "There is no such thing as a typical day." He works with a 45-member Board of Directors who must each make a $50-$75,000 commitment to the orchestra each year. He works with and supervises people in artistic planning, production, finance, marketing, public relations, education, archives and human resources—75 people on staff plus 106 musicians, members of Local 802.

The orchestra performs an average of 4 concerts a week. Since September 11th, they have been performing chamber music downtown in lobbies of buildings and hotels. They also perform in the boroughs and on radio on WQXR-FM with an audience of 18-20 million people. He believes in making customer relations very personal, not only based in data.

One of his biggest challenges is being a constituent and not directly operating the space at Avery Fisher Hall. He looks forward to the redevelopment of Lincoln Center. And his advice to the students: "You have to enjoy your work and not think about it as a job."

On to a one-hour tour of the Metropolitan Opera House—a small city within Lincoln Center. The Met houses a lavish theatre with 4 moving stages seating 3800, a large costume shop, two scene shop areas, property shop, electrics, rehearsal rooms, dressing rooms and storage. This season, the Met is presenting 25 operas to an audience exceeding 800,000 people.

We caught cabs to 1650 Broadway, the offices of Alan Wasser Associates. We met with Robert Nolan, General Manager for Oklahoma and Les Miserables and Susan Bell, Company Manager for Oklahoma. They explained that the General Manager is responsible for financial management, marketing and press relations and works out the deals with the theatre chain for the rental of the theatre, contracts with personnel and monitors production budgets. The Company Manager has day-to-day contact with the box office and all of the people in the building.

Producer Cameron Mackintosh joined the conversation, saying "There isn't a huge divide between non-profit and commercial theatre. In England, the infrastructure is crumbling. Local communities are taking a great pride in what they produce. New work can get an airing." Susan commented that the intensity is different in non-profit theatre. Cameron added, "The point is to do work that other people might not do. I do it because I think it is the right material for a co-production. Too many people go to the subsidized theatre to save money. There should be no difference—the public. . .you want the show to grow in the most helpful circumstances. Commerce has always followed art and not vice versa. The hardest thing is to keep the shows running—being inventive. It's fine if the show is a hit, but you have to keep it being interesting and fresh."

Robert Nolan explained, " You have to pay back the investors. The budget for Oklahoma was $6 million, small by industry standards because it is still a revival, and revivals have a shelf life of 2 or 3 years." On producing, Cameron said "The theatre shouldn't be a rich person's plaything. Success isn't about money; it is about doing something that other people are interested in. A lot of shows have to find their time in history."

Cameron also told us, "We are rogues and vagabonds—nobody owes us a living. Anyone that is really good in the theatre has a unique skill. You have to find what that skill is and recognize it. Do anything you are asked for and make yourself indispensable in the process."

Thanking everyone, the Theatre School tour grabbed dinner and went on to see Elaine Stritch: At Liberty at the Neil Simon Theatre. She did more than 2 hours about her career, selling every song with skill and freedom achieved from experience.

Saturday morning, we continued our adventure with a tour of Radio City Music Hall. We walked through this glorious historic 1932 building, through the art deco lobbies and back stairways to the viewing booth. We saw the apartment once occupied by S.L. "Roxy" Rothafel, and we met a real "Rockette."

At 3 p.m., we met for a performance of The Last Five Years at the Minetta Lane Theatre, where we again saw Susan Vargo and met Patty Lyons (TTS '87). After the show, the students met the composer, Jason Robert Brown, and they signed up in the lobby to receive information about the CD recording.

Dinner was at Café Un Deux Trois, a favorite Broadway restaurant, where we had a choice of three appetizers, four entrees and two desserts. Most of us dug into Chocolate Mousse and shared a box of chocolates left for us by David Johnson (TTS '84), manager of the Houston Theatre in the Millennium Broadway Hotel. Mmmmm!

The final performance on our trip was The Lion King at the Ambassador Theatre. Caroline Cazes (TTS '00) had arranged the purchase of terrific seats. The spectacle of Julie Taymor's imagination wowed the audience, and I think it is safe to say that we were wowed, too.

After a Sunday deli breakfast, we checked out of the hotel, content to follow our various paths to home. Christine, Micki, Christina and Lara boarded the Circle Line tour and took the boat around Manhattan before heading to LaGuardia. Sara spent an extra day in New York. Maury and Leslie flew home to Chicago, happy that everyone had enjoyed a great seminar with theatre professionals, good food and great theatre!