CMU School of Drama


Thursday, January 19, 2023

Every Production Is a Moonshot: Research on Improving Repertoire Selection

HowlRound Theatre Commons: Making theatre repertoire decisions is complex, high-risk, and difficult work. These decisions set the trajectory for all that follows, and the process of making them deserves far more attention. After decades of audience erosion, the future of theatre clearly depends on more people choosing to attend.

1 comment:

Selina Wang said...

I’ve never given much thought to the repertoire selection because so far, every production I’ve done has been chosen by the institution. However, the article provides 8 questions that many repertoires have used when selecting their seasons. The one that stood out to me the most was “is there a compelling reason to produce the play now?”, which is something that we also talk about in SoD – why this show now? The question has always been difficult for me to answer because there are so many things going on in this world at the same time, with new things coming up unpredictably every second, but the season selection has to be determined far in advance. The article shines a light on how to better find an answer to this difficult question, and that is to do as much research as possible with your goal in mind. For instance, knowing that your mission statement is to bring theatres to children, then selecting works that are children-friendly would be compelling.