Safe is Risky

Today I was watching TED, and Seth Godin, a marketing genius, said, "Safe is risky." One of his books, The Purple Cow, discusses how to make businesses stand out, how to do something different. We need to do this in theatre, too. We need to come up with some outside of the box ideas to market our shows (and maybe even to use to create our shows).

One of my crazy ideas is to do a show with monkeys. Yes, you read that correctly, a show with monkeys. You are thinking "WTF," right? Well, here is the idea. You take a straight play and train (or block) monkeys to walk around in costumes. Have people do the voice overs and watch a play performed. Now you are thinking, "How did he get here?" Well, I was thinking of some really untraditional casting. I thought, "How far could I go?" Then I went there. Monkeys.

Now you are starting to imagine plays being performed by monkeys. Yes, you are buying into the idea. Now for the title of the play . . . Inherit the Wind. Yes, I realize all the legal problems with doing this, but think of the potential. You get families that just want to see monkeys and some people who just want to see it for the sake of classical art.

I am sure there were a lot of people scared about the Muny in St. Louis using a real helicopter in Miss Saigon, but by doing that they did something risky and got a lot of attention, and I still talk about the performance of Miss Saigon I saw with a real helicopter.

The point is to think outside the box. Don’t be afraid to go too far. Your friends and colleagues can always bring you back in. But push yourself and see where you land.