PRODUCER’S PERSPECTIVE: "I got an email from a college student this week who knows she wants to be a Producer. There's no question about it. She'd declare it as a major . . . if she could.
Her school has a theater major and a business major but it doesn't have a 'producer's track' . . . and not many do. Even my alma mater only has a minor (and until we can turn Producing theater into a more stable and viable career choice, I'm not sure many will).
Since her school hasn't spec'd out a plan for producers-to-be, she asked me what I thought she should study on her way through school."
7 comments:
What about those business classes? As far as drama schools go, it's not to hard to figure out the four or five classes to take to immerse yourself with the future stars in the field, but what about business? If one would like to become a Producer, I'm curious to know what kind of business classes would be most helpful. Marketing? Consumer Behavior? There isn't exactly a Producing Theater and Management 101 class. I think that elaboration on the second half of this career would help out Producers a great deal more.
To be a producer it seems to be important to really understand the art of theatre. Taking four or five classes is probably not enough. I would want to know not just basic concepts, but higher up ones as well. AS for business, a well rounded background is probably ideal in this world to. Taking a little bit of everything and then expanding on key ones like marketing and accounting.
In all actuality it would be great if this could become one of the next majors in theatre (along with projections/video). Trying to find a nice balance between a university's business school and drama school would be an excellent challenge for professors and very beneficial to students who wish to be producers or even more business focused managers.
The producers are the select few who can understand all of the different parts, and pull the best talent to create the best product. I agree with this article's statement that someone who wants to produce should take theater classes and understand the art of theater. The business world can, for those successful in it, be picked up by instinct and experimentation. There's a reason that the business school people so often have very little class time- much of their business is experience. If you go out into the theater world for a few years, there's always the opportunity to return to school for a masters in business if there is a need to formalize this instinctive knowledge.
The producer should know as much as possible about people, business and theatre. One would have business knowledge including accounting, law and marketing etc., and communication skills obtained through his experiences. Of course, the one should know the industry, people and history and the jobs of entire teams of a theatrical company. I would research and learn from the precedent producers.
I know the job of producers is hard. That's why they have final decision to the production and make a money. But why you want still be a producer? Because you love theatre for life.
I think its a shame that there aren't a lot of producer programs in universities. A producer is a major part of theater and without them theater would not develop as quickly or be as creative, or be as good. I do agree that a producer needs to take all the different theater class, but its equally important for them to take business classes. One of the more import classes he said was contract law.
I forgot to say, even the career seeker of a designer, like me, needs to know who's who in every shows to make myself through the industry. Communication network building is a must. For that purpose, at least knowing people's name is critical. I always check each of the assistant level of members, crews, the credit of equipment providers and actors as well as people on the first page. I think this is also because I like people who I can work with possibly in the future and theatre, not only from "business" purpose.
It seems a bit odd to me to be wanting to be a producer right out of undergrad or grad school. Hasn't it been the practice in our industry to start as a bottom feeder and work your way up to being a producer? While i'm not against getting the business, management, and artistic training to be a producer, IMHO having the major life goal of being a producer at the age of 18 is a bit lofty.
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