Lecture 26 - The Producer

Today, the subject is the producer. It is at this point that we really begin to cross a line from art to commerce. Theater can be, and usually is, presented as a business proposition. The talents and services of the artist are sold through the purchase of tickets to see their product. The producer is the business manager, the person who makes all of this happen from a commerce standpoint. This is going to be true whether it be commercial theater on Broadway in New York, whether it be regional resident theater, professional theater, down to community theater, university theater, high school theater. And while there may not be an individual who is actually called the producer in some of those organizations, it is still the intent in most cases of all those organizations somehow to sell tickets to their production. And in so doing, then they are certainly serving the function of the producer. In this particular case, the producer, in the sense that he or she is the individual who is producing this particular event, is the one who seeks funds, who makes up the budget, who stays on top of the expenses, who markets the show, who keeps the production afloat during the performance, who makes decisions if this is what is called an open run. Who makes the decision when the production will conclude, when it will be over, when it will close. When artistic decisions and cost come into conflict, the producer makes the decision as to what way to go. They control the purse strings. In the commercial theater, in the Broadway theater, the producer is the visionary. In fact, he or she is the original catalyst. It is he or she who imagines the production, chooses the way to bring it about, uniting script, artist, and audience. They have a property that they wish to produce, that they wish to see a production made for, and wish then to have this production to sell tickets. So the producer secures the property, starts to raise the funds for it, assembles the artistic team, secures the theater, sets the time schedule, makes sure all the funding is available. And then at that point, he or she turns it over to the artistic team to create the work within the parameters, the budget, and other monetary matters that he or she has established. Now once the production opens, the artistic team is finished. They leave. They have, in most cases, nothing else to do with it. The running of that production, if it is what is called an open-ended run, in this particular case applies mainly to commercial theater and especially to Broadway theaters. That is that a production opens under the hope that so long that it will garner good notices and then, in turn, will sell at the box office. And so long as the box office meets a certain minimum per week, if it's a sum established by the producer, then that production just keeps on running and running and running. As in the case of the production "Cats" musical, which was a phenomenon unto itself and ran for something more than 20 years. And yes, it went through many casts and through many changes, but it was still the same product that was being sold on the last day that it was given as on the first night that it was given. But is the producer then or the executive producer, because producers can frequently be a team... There's usually going to be one person who is the executive producer for the whole group. It is the executive producer who is in charge of seeing that the production keeps up its artistic merits and level, and that performance after performance, the public is guaranteed to see the same production, two years later, five years later, ten years later, that the audience saw on opening night. Yes, there may be different casts, sometimes different chemistry, but as far as the overall artistic product is concerned, it is the one which was seen at the beginning. The stage manager is the individual who is responsible for seeing that what happens on stage continues in the same way. The stage manager answers to the producer, and the producer is the overall executive who is going to see that this product remains something that can be sold to the public. Each production has what is called a "weekly nut" - the amount of money that must be made in order to keep the show open. So, the producer must ensure that each week, the box office meets the nut. This includes, of course, the salaries of all the people involved in presenting the production. This includes not only the cast on stage, but also the crew who are running the production backstage, the box office people from whom you bought your tickets, the ushers who showed you your seats, and all the other people who operate in the theater. The weekly box office must also include the money to pay the rent for the theater. In New York, all theaters are real estate owned by companies who then rent them to the producers for a particular production. If a production dips below its weekly amount, at that point, it must close. In order to keep it running, the producer must decide how and what kind of advertising it will take to keep the show open, so that there can be enough money made at the box office to meet the weekly nut and begin to repay the investors for their original backing. The reason people put their money into a production is because they hope to make their money back and also make a profit. If a personnel problem arises during rehearsals or performances, the producer becomes involved in resolving those problems. Artists can sometimes be temperamental, and actors certainly can be temperamental. The producer is the one who must deal with those problems and find a solution. Elizabeth McCann, one of the leading Broadway producers, phrases it quite succinctly when she says, "The producer's major task is to worry - to worry about everything." Rocco Landen, another leading Broadway producer, has two passions: horse racing and producing Broadway theater. He sees them as entirely compatible passions. Each one is a major gamble and each one has about the same result - winning is achieved about 15 percent of the time. The time, so just as in 15 percent of the time, Lanzamine is going to get paid off for horse racing gambling in horse racing. Then the same thing is also true for Broadway productions. But sometimes when one wins, the win can be big. Sometimes the wins in the theater are artistic ones, they are not necessarily always financial ones, although the hope always is that they're weak, that they will be financial. But there are some times in which producers go into a production knowing that the gamble is probably not going to pay off, they are not going to recoup the cost. Landsman was this way in his association with Tony Kushner's Angels in America. This was a play which he felt was so important and needed so much to be done that he was willing to take the gamble. In this case, even to gamble with the fact that he almost was sure he could not win. But he wanted to do it so badly because he felt this particular production was needed in the first place. Once the full production was up and running, it was going to take two full evenings to see the whole work. It was going to take, therefore, more rehearsal time than one is usually than one can usually give to a play, and so therefore, is going to be more costly in rehearsal than it usually is. And in the end, it did indeed pay off artistically. The play won all kinds of prizes, both part one and part two, won all kinds of prizes and awards, almost universal praise. And while it did indeed recoup a good amount of money at the box office, it never completely paid off its investment. And it certainly never paid off anything beyond the original amount here. But the fact that his name and his organization were associated with the production of this particular play, this, he felt, was enough to make him glad that he had produced it, that he was a part of making it possible for this major epic about America in the 1980s. This had its own reward in being a part of this association and being a producer for this particular production. He and his organization and the Nederlander organization were, indeed, in this particular case a patron of the arts. It is exactly this philanthropic idea or ideal that allows regional and resident theaters to exist across the country. Yes, regional and resident theaters must make money. Yes, they must sell tickets, they must have their box office. But most of them, the standard figure pretty much is that for most of the somewhere neighborhood of maybe 300 or so major resident regional theaters that are across the country, about 60% of the total operating expenses of the theater for the year are going to be met through the box office. The rest of it must come through that organization seeking donations, donations from foundations, from corporations, and from individuals. So this then is in this particular case the producer here is also very much in charge of fundraising as well as the artistic director. These two work hand in hand in seeking donations and seeking the philanthropic donation in order to make their organization possible. The producer then in the regional and resident theater is much more of a business manager and a marketing individual and doesn't have quite the same kind of problems as the commercial producer has, especially in the New York theater. Because many of the overall artistic decisions for which the producer is responsible in the other theater, many of these artistic decisions are now made within. The overall institution and almost no regional resident theater in the country has what is called an open-ended run. Instead, they all present seasons of a certain number of productions, and those productions are scheduled for a certain number of weeks. In most cases, that is it. In a few cases, if they have a production which seems to be enormously successful at the box office, they may be able to retain it for maybe one more week, but frequently not even that. Because they also have all of their artists who have signed their contracts, and in most cases, their contracts have specified the amount of time for rehearsals followed by the amount of time for the production. So therefore, the producer, in this case, the regional resident theater, has different kinds of considerations that he or she must bring to bear. However, the producer or the business manager, as the person is sometimes called, or sometimes the executive, sometimes called the executive production director, number of different titles here, but they all are still the same function. And that is this person controls the purse strings. This person is the individual who is to see to it that the product, the performance, the production is marketed, that it is sold, that somehow or the other, they take in as high an income as possible at the box office to help defray the expenses of the total organization. The producer is one that does little that is an actual part of the production. The producer doesn't act, the producer doesn't direct, the producer doesn't design. But the producer is the individual who makes it all possible. It is the person who brings all of these things together, who finds or who seeks the funds to make it possible. This then is the reward that the producer gets. What follows now will be a series of interviews with individuals who produce and market theater events. It is their business to get the product up and to get you to the show, to get you to the box office, to get you to buy tickets, so that you then have a part in the production which they have produced. The producer is the business person of the production, and this is something that should not be forgotten. That is that this is a business, and I think that is something we don't frequently think of. But that it is a business that we are indeed selling something. Now, while 90 in 98 of the cases the production is achieved through the artistic ideals of the creative team, it is that result that they get from their work, then that is to be sold. And who's to be sold needs to be underscored. And that is, there needs to be an audience found who will buy the tickets, who will come to the box office, whether it be theater or whether it be the movie house. That this audience will come and will pay down lay down money and say, "I want to pay to go to see this." So therefore, there needs to be a person who is in charge of helping find that particular audience. Or, in the case of it may be finding an audience who will look at commercial television and, following that, watching television or want to go out and buy the products that have been advertised in some way or another. Or finding an audience who may be willing to pay a premium price in order to get certain cables, certain channels on cable television that they may not have otherwise secured. But what they are buying then, in every case, or indicating that they are accepting by the products they buy. That they are buying then the artistic product, but somewhere in there, the producer is going to always be involved in being the person who first has been the business person. And by the way, in this case, this producer may take multiple individuals, but the function of the producer is going to be the person who has been responsible for the business end of seeing that the budget is maintained, that the money is due judiciously spent in some way or the other. And then in turn, the producer is going to turn over to the marketing people who are going to work under him or her, for them to sell the product. Now the thing I think that we frequently don't realize is this product is expensive. That is, expensive to create or to make. One of the things that maybe you should have begun to realize, or certainly we hope by the end of the semester, you will realize, is that it takes a team. A team of many people. I was reading not too long ago about a recent musical, a touring production of a rather favorite musical, which is going around the country. There were a total of 84 people making up the complete company. Out of that 84, only 32 of them were on stage. So, therefore, the other 50 plus that we are talking about in the company itself are the people you never see, but the people who are absolutely essential to the production. And that is all of the backstage people or, in the case of a touring production, the people who drive the truck, the loaders who are going to load the show out of the trucks onto the stage, who helped put it up. But all of these people are going to be involved, and of course, all of them expect to be paid for what it is that they are doing. Now, in addition to this, before this production ever went out on the road, the production had to go through the whole rehearsal building process. And by that being that there had to be, of course, a director and the visual designers. And since it was a musical, a choreographer, a musical director of some kind. Then there are still going to be people who are going to have to build the scenery, people who are going to have to construct the costumes. Then, they're going to have to be the marketing people who are going to build the marketing campaign that it takes in order as that production moves from town to town. Therefore, to help whoever the presenters are in that individual town or city, they're going to give them the marketing tools, give them marketing materials that they need in order to help them sell that product in some way or the other. Now the producer is the person who must oversee the budget. Must, in fact, first construct a budget, who must then oversee the budget and be sure that there is the money to pay the people who have been involved, to pay them for their talents, to pay them for their skills. This is what then the producer is doing. And he is the businessperson here. It is nothing unusual for a Broadway production to open having spent 2 million, 5 million, 12 million, and especially if it's a musical, 12 or 15 million before it even opens. That is before the first audience ever arrives in the theater to see this particular product. There is already going to have been 12 million, 15 million, whatever it is that we're talking about. For a film to open and before you ever see it, it is nothing unusual for 10, 20, 50 or 100 million, and in some cases more than 100 million, to have been spent before it ever gets to the screen in your hometown and before you ever see it. And now the question, where did this money come from to cover? This particular budget theater and films don't get made on speculative money. The money must be there upfront. Investors must be brought in, investors must be convinced. You give us your money and we are going to make something which is going to be successful. The investors, in turn, then hope and believe that they are going to get their investment back plus some kind of profit that they have invested here. Next time you go to watch a movie or you watch television, watch those television credits as they roll. Sometimes in television, some of them appear at the beginning of the program and then there's another long list at the end. But read through those credits, look at that long list of names and titles. In television and movies, you will also see there are assistant producers, associate producers, producers, and executive producers. All of these individuals are there to see that the money, somehow or the other, is spent judiciously and to see to it that a quality product will, in some way, result from what is coming. There is a quality which, in some way or the other, a product which will, in some way or the other, sell tickets. Now, how a work of art ever results from this is a mystery. If there were a formula and somebody could sit down and figure it out, that person would become immensely rich. Because unfortunately, when you arrive at the end, it just doesn't happen sometimes. It just doesn't come out the way it was intended. It does not turn out to be an artistic product and sometimes, unfortunately, it doesn't even turn out to be a product that you can sell very well. And this is the reason then something opens at the box office and does not click. People do not buy tickets and the next thing you know, if it's live theater, that production closes and it's gone forever. If it's a movie, at that point it usually goes then to cable, and then to the rental market, and finally to DVDs. They hope that at least somehow or the other, some people will buy and take it from that way. The commercial television people are very much aware that the product that they are trying to put together, while it's free to you, the viewer, the television people are aware that what they're trying to do then is to entertain you in such a fashion that you will watch the commercials that are shown while the product is being viewed. And that in some way or the other, you will go out and buy that particular, whatever it is, that was being advertised there. As one television executive remarked, "We program for advertisers and viewers notice what came first. We advertise for, we program for advertisers." Stephen Bochco, who has been one of the most successful television producers to create quality television, has once said, "I've always said television, and by this, he usually means commercial television. I've always said television ain't medicine. You're not going to get people to watch it because it's good for them." And it's exactly that particular attitude which commercial television has to take because they have to have people to watch it. In fact, it is in television that we have begun to find the most interesting positions and interesting kinds of things to happen in terms and developments of what the producer does. Stephen Bochco is a good example of a particular kind of development that has happened. In especially commercial television and well, basically the last 20 years or so, it is Bochco who produced and created such acclaimed and highly viewed series as Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, and NYPD Blue. Of course, he has also been responsible for several other series that failed, as well as pilots of one kind or another that were never picked up. One of his most interesting failures was a very short-term series, maybe no more than eight episodes total, but a very interesting failure called Cop Rock. It was a police series, alright, but at various times during the episodes, the cops burst into song. Now, that just got to be a little too artsy for vast audiences, and very quickly, as I said, I think maybe in a total of eight episodes, the series went into oblivion, only to be seen maybe every once in a while on some cable channel that picks up shows that might not otherwise be interesting and will view them. Bochco's career is very interesting because he started as a writer on several different television series that were already being made, and he was brought in and wrote episodes for that particular series. He very early on, however, realized that certainly his power as a writer was nil, and so he began realizing that the power lay in, first, the ability to create a series, that is, to have an idea which could then be sold, and that once that idea was in the works, he would write the particular episodes, and usually the first several he would write, and then that it was necessary for him to become not only the writer but to move into the position of executive producer. It was by being then the executive producer of a series that he knew that he could protect and try to produce the quality of a series that he had not done before. To allow him to protect his writing as a writer, no power. As the creator, a little more power, but still the protection that he wanted. What he needed then as the executive producer was to be the chief writer for the series, the creator for the series, the chief writer for the series, write those early episodes, get them to the level of quality that he wanted them to get, and most of all, protect this material from television executives who might feel that no, this is not something we can sell. He could fend off the executives, lead the fight, and in fact, frequently necessary, lead the fight to keep the integrity of the artistic vision. So Bochco very early learned that he had to become not only in his various artistic or creative positions but also to be an executive producer. What is even more interesting these days is that we have now begun to arrive at two-tiered levels of television. That is, commercial television and then the television which is a part of cable channels, and most of all, the premium cables, series of one kind or another. That is, those premiums of HBO and Showtime. And they have become and begun to be the producers of their own television series. And thus, by being able to do daring material and to do material of such a nature that commercial television can't accept it, they are now attracting a whole series of creators, writers, directors. And producers who want to create material of a specific high quality. Such series as Sex and the City, Queer as Folk, and The Sopranos are examples of what commercial television could never achieve. These shows are now attracting producers who want to collaborate with high-quality artists and produce television that would not be possible otherwise. The producer here is both the artist and the catalyst, creating a product that will sell to viewers seeking a particular level or quality of television. The producer's role is often unseen by the audience. They don't act, direct, or design. However, the producer is the individual who makes it all possible and works to engage the audience to show up at the box office or tune in to a particular channel and watch a specific show. The producer cannot be easily labeled as their contribution lies in the quality of the show you have just viewed, regardless of the means through which you saw it. Ultimately, the producer takes a large part, if not the majority, of the responsibility for ensuring that the artistic vision created could be realized in an affordable manner.