Theatre DIY Don’ts: Don’t Settle for Your Venues

HowlRound: The main venue for my first forays into production was a small hippie nightclub that was used to hosting indie rock and electronic music acts downstairs in its basement. There was a tiny rickety stage supported with a multi-thousand-dollar sound system and a few lights. There were no chairs, but there was a skateboard half-pipe along the back wall. It was painted in all kinds of colors, and dark and cold all the time. For a death metal concert or rave with scores of mosh pit regulars, this would have been the perfect place. For a theatre troupe it needed some work. On top of that, they did some work promoting each show; because we were the only theatre group on their list, they didn't really know how to promote us. So why was this the spot that I chose to place my productions? They didn’t ask for the money up front. Back in my greenhorn days that was a huge bonus to me.