Project Fringe 10 – Part 1 – 6.26.09

A good friend of mine is really sick today. So I just want to post it and let him and his family know I thinking about him. My friend's name is David and he was rushed to the hospital Friday night and they found out it was H1N1. I would appreciate all the thoughts and prayers you can give him as he has been in ICU all weekend. Thanks. . . its a good thing these are written in advance.

Okay, I announced earlier this week that I was going to dive into producing a Fringe Show. I got a lot of great ideas and a lot of people interested. I was actually surprised at the number of responses I received from all over the US, and some from people I didn’t even know. It was a huge boost.

Now to move forward. I am going to go over the ideas (few actually had a finished show) and move forward from there. There is a lot to consider when moving forward. First off, if you know anything about me, then you know I want to produce musicals more than plays. I am open to plays, but my passion lies in musical theatre; therefore, I am hoping to find a really good musical. Secondly, I want something that is going to be good. (Great Story and Great Music) I mean really good. I don’t want to put up a show that I am not proud of. The third thing I am looking at is people. Who will I want to work with over the next year to develop this show? They say producing is like marriage. You are together for a long time, so make sure it is someone you can really live with. I want the show to have a life beyond the festival, so the relationship could be for more than a year. Broadway producers of musicals that were written and closed 20 years ago still have to deal with the writers when it comes to subsidiary rights, so I will take picking the writers very seriously.

I am going to try and lay out all the ideas and writers and come up with the best options. Once I narrow down the choices, I will post my top three and move from there. Stay tuned to see what happens with Project Fringe.

Surround Yourself with the Best

We are in a collaborative business. We work with lots of various people on one project. There are actors, directors, designers, stage managers, marketers, and many other people.

By surrounding yourself with the best you share knowledge and become even smarter. At a previous job I got the opportunity to hire someone that could, in part, assist me with budgeting. It was an obvious choice for me. I had an intern two years earlier who was a wiz with budgets and excel. By having her in my office things got done faster and there was more time to do other projects that I had been putting off.

Another example is Pride and Prejudice, a show I am helping produce. The lead producer wanted to know more about social media and how it could help spread the word and raise money for her show. Right away I knew two people that she should talk to. In a couple of emails a conference call was set and she got to listen to valuable information about what was going on in social media and how it could be used to help her. One of those people has a small empire of followers on Twitter and Facebook. The other has yet to make a website to reference, but he is a very smart grad student that is looking at how producers can fund a show with a lot of small investors as appose to a few large investors.

A friend once told me I was the most important person in his network. That was one of the best complements I could have gotten. We are good friends and I and I know we would be friends no matter what, but we both love to get together and brainstorm. Some exciting ideas come from those sessions that we both use.

So surround yourself with the smartest people and bring as many ideas to the table as you can get. Who knows what may come?