The Return

I have returned from my long absence. So much to catch up and so many thought! First off the Tony Awards are coming up and I have only seen one show! American Idiot and I loved it. Apparently people think it won’t get the Tony for Best Musical and I think they may be right. It was such a great show though and I really hopes it wins. Go see it!

I am really going to get better about blogging. It won’t be every day and probably won’t be as long of posts but it is back.

Tomorrow there is so much on the Capital Fringe Festival and my show, The Diary of a Dancer.

I am back!

It has been so long since I have blogged I feel a little weird getting back into it. Since I have been gone, I have been working on two projects. One is a Fringe Show and the other a real live commercial project for next Christmas. Although the Christmas project hit a big bump today I hope it will pan out.

I don’t even know where to start.

Hmm. I think I will just share the “Obama musical” with you first and really pick up some hot topics tomorrow. (Please watch it all so you can hear how catchy “Yes We Can” is.)

New Year’s Resolution / Tomorrow

I hope you all had a great holiday and happy New Year’s. Mine was exciting to say the least. Many life lessons learned that night that will be shared in later posts.

I have been slacking with the blog this last month so my first resolution for the new year is to be better about writing and writing in advance.

Other resolutions are to read more, (the classic) go to the gym more, volunteer more and produce something. I will update you on the progress throughout the year.

Tomorrow is an exciting day for me. I will be meeting (briefly) with NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman. As I have said before I write letters to people when I know they are new to the DC area. That is how I got a meeting with Broadway Producer and new Managing Director of Arena Stage, Edgar Dobie. But I also write them to any employee that I know to be new hoping to always expand my network and build relationships. Not long after Chairman Landesman moved to DC I wrote him a letter welcoming him to the area and let him know how excited I was for him to be in DC. After thinking I wouldn’t hear from him, which is what I expected, I got a call from his office. Well, tomorrow I am having that meeting. I have no idea what we will discuss but I look forward to it. Some people look up to basketball stars, I look up to Broadway Producers.

Networking Paying Off

There is a director in DC who is a good friend of mine and I have watched over the last couple of years make strategic moves in networking. He always reaches out to Artistic Directors and makes a point email them, take them to dinner and meet them when they attend shows he’s involved in.

I think he is a very talented director but I have no doubt that he has gotten as far as he did by the networking he has done with all the Artistic Directors. He is my age and about to direct a main stage production for one of the hottest theatres in Washington DC.

Just another example of how good networking pays off.

Twitter Week Part 2

Now that you have your account and can tweet there are a couple of simple things you should know to help you through the process.

First, this will seem very foreign at first and you will have trouble finding the right people to follow. It took me a well over a month to find the right mix of people to follow and I am constantly tweaking who I follow. I started following news organizations and found that to be too much. They tweet everything including much news I didn’t care about in an hour I would get over 20 tweets from some of them. That was just too much for me but maybe that’s just what you want. There is no right or wrong way to pick who to follow. I have a mix of friends, businesses, and celebrities.

The next thing you need to know is how to link in the Twitter world. You can put a # in front of a word or series of words and then anyone who sees that can click that word and it will show them everyone that used that same # and word combination. It would be like searching for a word.

The other is the @ sign. That will link you to other users. So if you wanted to talk about me you could say @JaredNeff and then someone could click on that and it would take them to me or people that write to me. Again the symbol makes that word that follows a link.

The last tip is with web links. Because you may only use 140 characters typing in a long ink will take up too much of your characters. So I recommend using a link shortening site like bit.ly. This site will shorten the link for you and let you know how many people click on it.

More tips to follow later in the week. Leave comments or your twitter tips in the comments section.

Twitter Week Begins

Over the last couple of months more than a few people have asked me about Twitter and how to use it, so I am going to dedicate, for the most part, this week to Twitter. Someone said to me recently that Twitter gets more hype than actual users. That may be true, but only time will tell. I think the same was said about Facebook in its first couple of years, and as a business person you would think being connected to your audience, whoever they are, will be important. Having another way of reaching them is also important.

First, you have to set up an actual account. It is easy and takes little to no time. Just go to Twitter.com and get started. They just ask for your name, a user name and email, and you are on your way. I always think being straightforward is the best approach. So you can follow me @JaredNeff and see a picture of me.

That goes to the next point. There a couple of design features that can make your Twitter page unique. The most important is your picture. This will be next to every comment you make. Because it is so small, make sure it easy to see. If you are small in the picture to begin with, you will be hard to see. I also recommend using the same photo for all your profiles, so if you have a good photo on Facebook, go ahead and use it. There are also background pictures and color changing options, but most people access their accounts from their phones and will just see your picture, so that is the most important.

Once you have your account set up you can start to follow people and have them follow you. I will get more into this tomorrow, but you have the basics, and tomorrow we will go into the details of tweeting.

Christmas Cards

It is that time of year. Christmas cards (or now more likely holiday cards) will be flying around soon and probably landing in your mailbox. I actually think the idea is wonderful and a great way to remind people that you appreciate them and their business.

The expense is maybe just too great, though. Looking at all the budgets that are tightening, I wonder if emailing a personal note of some kind my have just as much affect. I have about 125 people in my small department alone that I want to receive cards, but I think the money could be put to better use.

I am going to think about this and poll a couple of people and get back to you. But please write a comment about what you think of Christmas cards. Not from Grandma, but from the business perspective.

Brief Yourself

In today’s age of the internet, it surprises me how little we know about people and companies, and even the day’s events, before we go into a meeting or social setting. You no longer need an assistant to debrief you of everything, although I love the thought of that. You can do it yourself. I am probably giving something away here and making myself seem less smart by admitting this, but I think it is better than not doing it all.

Before I meet with someone I “google” him and see what I can find out about him first. I do that for everyone who I know will be present whom I don’t know. If nothing else, I will at least be able to put a face with the name. This is really helpful for people who are as bad at remembering names as I am. Then I will “google” the company, project or related projects and read up on them. This will save you time and make them feel like you know enough about them to care. How impressive does it make them feel when you know the last show they did or the last project they worked on? It makes everyone feel good, and only takes a little bit of effort.

If you know me, you know I often get lost in classical plays. So before I go, I read a synopsis, and now that we have Wikipedia, I can not only read the synopsis, but I can also get background about performances, learn the origin of the play and read what scholars thought about the show. In 5 minutes of reading, I have enough information to talk to anyone about the play that I might have gotten from just watching.

Take the time and brief yourself before you go see these shows or go into these meetings. It will make a marginal difference in how your evening or day plays out.

Happy Turkey Day!

Thanksgiving

Tomorrow we will have a great guest blog from Jamie, who is following up with her first guest posting about Capital Fringe. She will be doing a recap about things that did and didn’t work for her.

And since Thursday is Thanksgiving, there will be no postings on Thursday and Friday.

As for the things I am thankful for: I am thankful to all of you who read this blog and share it with your friends and colleagues. The traffic to the blog has really picked up and the thank you notes and emails I get are really motivating.

I want to thank my Dad for creating the “top ten” logo. I want to thank Dave Inman for all the great photos he took of me and how fabulous he made me look. I want to thank Brianna for helping out with editing every now and then, and I want to thank my guest bloggers for really helping make this blog special by bringing your expertise and opinions to the blog. And I want to thank Ken Davenport for posting on his blog a challenge to 'create your own blog,' which actually gave me the push to start writing.

Last but certainly not least I want to thank Clayton Smith, my brilliant editor. Clayton edits the blog everyday without pay and really guides me when I need help with anything to do with social media and websites. He is so smart and after he finishes grad school he will make a excellent manager in some arts organization.

Thank you and have a great Thanksgiving and wonderful weekend.

Plan Ahead and Save Time

Each Thursday or Friday I look ahead at the next week’s calendar and try to plan out the best use of my time for that week. With the holidays approaching, I thought it would be a good time to remind you how important calendar management is.

If you wait until Monday to plan your calendar, then you are already probably swamped with emails and phone calls to return by the time you walk in the door. If you plan ahead, it will give you a true chance to prioritize you needs. I have reoccurring appointments in my calendar that prompt me to set the calendar for the next week. I suggest looking at the projects ahead and actually schedule those projects into your calendar.

Top Ten List

Well, in case you missed it, I put together a list of the 10 Most Powerful People in DCTheatre . Which, by the way, has resulted in a lot of new readers to the blog. The day the list was released I got about 20 calls and emails with comments and questions, so I thought I would address them here. And next time, please leave the comments in the comments section. That’s what it's for, and it will start a discussion.

First off, I did not create the list. Well, I did, but I did through a fair amount of votes from many DC insiders. Secondly, I didn’t want to sway the votes. People thought the Helen Hayes Awards were over represented. Well, maybe they and the people behind them have more pull than we think. But in any case, I did not want to combine any of the names. No one did on their votes, and I didn’t see it as my job to sway them by making that decision.

I think the most interesting part of this list will come next year. Who will be named? Will the Helen Hayes be combined? Who will fill those gaps? Will there be more votes for people who weren’t named just because they weren’t? Will Eric still be in the top three?

Welcome to all the new readers, and I look forward to your comments as the year goes on.

FELA

Remember The Color Purple on Broadway? It wasn’t the great reviews that kept that show alive but the lead producer behind it. Oprah. Need I say more? She has so much power and capital behind her that the reviews, which were good, didn’t really matter. The show was actually selling because her name was above the title. There were other producers, and I am sure she didn’t have a huge hands-on producing role, but her name was the only producer's name that was printed every time the title was printed. Stars can bring a lot to a show just by attaching their names.

Yesterday it happened again. The New York Times and Playbill both reported that Jay-Z, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith have all joined the producing team of Fela! Now the show opens next week, so I would take a guess that their roles will be more in marketing and capital. When tourists who don’t normally go to theatre see Jay-Z and the Smiths' names on that poster, they may be inclined to attend.

I personally think this is a great way to get a new audience into the theatre. Maybe if they like the show they will become repeat costumers and start to build a new audience in a time when our core audience is maybe trying to save more money and see less theatre. My hat is off to the person that made that deal happen. Watch for all the publicity Broadway will get in other markets as we lead up to and after opening night of Fela!

Musicians have been “Locked Out”

It has been reported by the New York Times blog and Playbill.com that the Off-Broadway production of Tony ‘N Tina’s Wedding has stopped using live musicians and moved to recorded music while breaking the musicians' union’s contract with the company. This will be something to watch. So far only local 802, the musicians' union, is making statements. The production has recently changed producers. The agreement with the musicians' union, however, says that they will employee union musicians until 2011, even if the production changes producers. When the musicians returned to work, they were locked out and replaced by recorded music.

The unions have constantly increased their costs and have won some major battles in work rules. This led to the Broadway stage hands strike in 2007 and the 2003 Broadway musicians' union strike.

I am all for paying equal wages and having fair work rules, but it is really out of hand and makes it hard to put up good productions by the shear cost of having union stage hands and union musicians. I won’t go into great detail just yet about the strikes, but I think it is something I will discuss later. On this incident I think the producers should have not locked out the musicians because of the standing contract, but right now we are only hearing the side of the union.

Twitter Lives On

This week if you “tweet” you have probably seen the LORT Twitter list that was posted by Yale MFA Student Devon Smith. Theatres that did well on the list are tweeting about how they did and I am sure the lower ranking ones are waking up and taking a real hard look at how they are doing not only with Twitter but social media in general. In the past month, four very smart people from the leaderships of various companies have come to me and said show me how to use twitter. I am not the best tweeter but I understand the basics and frankly once you practice it just isn’t that hard.

Number four on the “LORT Twitter Index” was Arena Stage. I think they are probably the best in the DC area about social media. They have a blog that is constantly updated and contains exciting stuff. They have YouTube channel that has great videos and is very well branded. They have a great Twitter account according to the list and most importantly they interact with their audience through these forms of media.

In a week they will be having a scavenger hunt that will be organized through Twitter and Facebook. It will take people on a journey through DC and I would imagine to the Lincoln Theatre where their production of The Fantasticks will be playing. The prize is actually a great one too, four tickets to opening night of The Fantasticks and a restaurant gift certificate for four.

Social media is more than just having a Twitter account and Facebook page but knowing how to take those tools and use them to interact with your audience.

People to Know - Joseph Papp

Here is a producer after my own heart. Joseph Papp was born in 1921 in Brooklyn to Jewish immigrants. He went on to be one of the most well known and respected producers in history. Papp had a true passion for Shakespeare and tried promoting his idea that there should be free Shakespeare in New York for years when he finally produced and directed Taming of the Shew on the Lower East Side in 1956. He was praised by Brooks Atkinson with a great review in the New York Times, and then his idea took off. And so the New York Shakespeare Festival began. He later moved the festival to Central Park at the Delacorte Theatre, where they still perform today.

After his success with the Shakespeare Festival he wanted to find a home where he could produce year round. In 1967 he created the Public Theatre to produce new and lesser know plays. His first big Broadway transfer was Hair, and because he did stay on as producer of Hair he received no financial benefits. This lesson learned, he went on to produce A Chorus Line and used the money to help fund his other theatres and even help start and run some Off-Broadway Theatres. He also helped produce The Pirates of Penzance, which I discovered has been produced on Broadway 26 times.

He also lead the way in non-traditional casting by using people of all colors in his plays and got involved in gay rights when Congress imposed conservative provisions on the National Endowment for the Arts and produced The Normal Heart, which discussed homophobia and the neglect of the AIDS crisis.

As a producer he brought so much talent, both directorial and in casting, that the lists could go on and on. I wish more producers would take interest in non-profits they way he did. He was able to accomplish so much with the funds from his few Broadway hits, it makes me wonder who will be the next producer to not only produce hits on Broadway, but get really involved in producing lots of theatre and lots of affordable theatre. Someone said Merrick was probably my hero, but I think so far I would have to say Joseph Papp is my hero.

My 23 Hour Day

I have done many exciting shows in my life. The most exciting are actually not theatre but more in the concert or speaking category. I have worked on concerts like Maria Carey, Pearl Jam, and even David Copperfield (oh, the stories there). Last week I worked on my biggest event here at the Harman Center with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. I worked for two jam-packed days to get ready for their speech on Global Health. If you have the time you should watch the speech.

The first day I ended up working 23 hours in a day. I had many questions about why, and I thought I would share the insight to why I made that decision. Looking back I don’t know that there is anything that I would have done differently.

The day was scheduled to start at 3:30am with the arrival of catering. At about 4:30am the Technical Director for the event company arrived. I felt that it was extremely important that I be there in the beginning of the day to meet the senior staff from the Gates Foundation and make sure things were off to a good start. Luckily for me, they were. The plan was that my assistant would come in to work part of the day with me and then go and run the other event in our second theatre. We would both be ending about the same time (midnight), and he would take the morning shift the second day so I could be well rested for the actual event, which we would both work. Then I could stay for the strike, as I was coming in at noon. Sounded like a great plan, right? Well it was, but no one counted on the video not being ready. With 6 high powered projectors, overlapping the alignment of the projectors was crucial. The projection team had to stay to get everything ready so that we did not cut into the tech / rehearsal time of day two. So I decided to stay with them, knowing I could sleep in the second day.

Would I have done anything different to not work a 23 hour day? Maybe not booked the second event at the other theatre so my assistant could have been in my place. The show must go on, as they say, and the projectors had to get aligned to not take up the second day tech time. There's not much that could have been done. When you are managing things, you sometimes have to work extra to get the project done. All good managers will work until the job is done. And to balance my work life schedule, I will be taking this Friday off to make up for all the extra hours.

Entertainment Review: This Is It

This is the first review I have done because it can get a little touchy reviewing local theatre when I have the job I have. However, there is something I think you should see, and so I will share my thoughts.

This Is It, the new Michael Jackson concert documentary, is great. I have overheard people say it is not really him or that it is bad. Both are false. Because this footage was not meant to be seen by the public, director Kenny Ortega has to piece together several days to get different shots. There are no great camera shots by movie standards, but it gives you an up close and personal look at the brilliance that Michael Jackson has as a performer. Whatever you may think about his personal life, after seeing this movie you will have no doubt about the artistic genius and leadership he takes on in his concerts. You can see him work over and over until he gets everything right. He settles for nothing but perfection.

There are some cheesy moments where I think Ortega wanted you to see all his hard pre-filming work for the concert that was not necessary. But overall, this is a must-see movie.

There is only a little over a week of this film left, and I have to recommend that you go and see this in theatres where the sound and size of the show are as close as we will ever get to see the concert.

If you have seen the movie please leave your comments below because I am interested in what others have thought.

Be Proud

Yesterday I had an great dinner with one of the smartest people I know. She was a professor of mine at Webster University. In such a ego driven and competitive business it is often that we as students fill like failures if we don’t win the Tony or if we God-forbid get out of theatre and do something else with our lives.

Even I am guilty of constantly worrying about what people think of me. I have gotten better but it still plays a role in my life. When I was laid off last year I felt like a huge failure. It took me a week to get the nerve to call my mentor and tell him what had happened. I don’t why but I thought he would be disappointed or whatever but instead he was encouraging and supportive. We often build up these things in our heads that simply are not true.

At dinner last night Dottie said we just want you to be healthy and happy. We don’t care if you stay in theatre as long as you’re happy and a productive citizen. I just wanted to share that nugget of wisdom to everyone who worries as much as I do. Be proud of who you are and what you are doing.

Ask My Friends - Organizing Your Tax Portfolio

It is Ask My Friends again, and today is a great post. Something we should ALL pay attention too. I am the worst about this, and I think I could be missing out on saving money. Gary Castaneda and I worked together at Cedar Point several years ago, and he is one of the sweetest guys I know. He was asked back to teach workshops at Cedar Point, and one of his workshops when I was there was about Taxes. Gary has performed on cruise lines and toured the country with several productions (one of them Miss Saigon). With the year coming to an end soon, it is almost tax time and I thought it would be great to get tips on taxes so we as artist could save money. So I simply asked Gary to give us some tax tips.

"Doing taxes every year is about as much fun as having a colonoscopy. You can put it off as long as you can - but in the end you just have suck it up and get it where the sun doesn’t shine and move on to bigger and better things. Procrastination is a serious disease that can lead to the destruction of your economic health. I encourage you to face these tax fears & phobias head-on and get organized little by little. This is the key to make your April 15th Tax Day Deadline less painful so you can get out there and have more fun (or actually get a colonoscopy).

1. Invest in an Accordion File: This is a Tax-Time office supply staple. You can make fun decorative tabs where you can separate your receipts by category and include: Travel, Food, Make-up/Hair, Promotional Materials, Classes/Lessons, Equipment, Office Supplies, and Postage to name a few tab headings. Don’t go super-detailed or crazy. At the end of the year, add up the total, write it on an envelope and throw the receipts inside. This will prepare your line-item deductions for your tax preparer and they won’t kill you for handing them a shoebox full of random receipts.

2. Keep a Date Book/Journal: This is where you can list auditions attended, meetings with agents, casting directors, etc. You should be able to recall the circumstances for all your appointments to justify why you spent $40.00 to take out your vocal coach for drinks to get the inside scoop on an upcoming audition. You can also keep track of your mileage, out-of-town auditions & miscellaneous business expenses in this space as well. Furthermore, this “mini-scrapbook” is a great way to look back on your year to see your progress within your craft or to find out where you need more work.

3. Keep a File of Pay Stubs & Tax Forms from Employers: Most performers have several jobs within a year and keeping track of them is a task in itself. Hold on to all your Pay Stubs and use this as a checklist to ensure you have every tax form (W-2, 1099, etc.) from all your employers at the end of the year.

4. Find a Tax Preparer Experienced with the Arts: Theatre performers have special needs and it is essential to have a tax preparer you can trust and who can answer your questions in plain English. Asking friends for referrals or inquiring whom they employ to process their taxes is a great way to find a good candidate.

5. Safeguard your Information: Keep filed tax returns in a safe place for several years. It will help to have your last year’s tax return on hand to help with filing the following year’s paperwork (why invent the wheel twice). However, when you do decide to purge your mountain of paperwork (after the tax people say its okay) you should opt to shred the materials utilizing a paper shredder to safeguard your identity. It would really suck to find an identity bandit living it up in Mexico City on your dime.

Money is the easiest way to obtain the essential things in life: like food, shelter and tickets to see Patty Lupone in concert. Keeping it all straight and organized is one way to continue on the path of making it in a business where skins are tough, competition is high and the odds are never in your favor. However, keeping your eyes on some of the business essentials of money and finances will help extend your long and healthy performing arts careers. I wish you many “broken-legs” in your future!"