Ask My Friends - Company Management

So I remember being in college and not really understanding what a Company Manager and General Manager did. I would see their names and knew they were important by the placement but what did they do. Company Managers vary by what they are working on but I asked my friend Rachel Swan to tell me what a company manager in regional theatre did. I hired Rachel almost three years ago for Arena Stage and she jumped right in and was a great addition to the Arena Production Office. Since then she has grown to be a close friend.

"Hi. My name is Rachel, and I'm a Company Manager. Yups, I'm startingmy guest blog entry like I'm attending an AA meeting, but instead ofneeding a bottle of booze to get through my days, I'm addicted todetails, logistics & waiting for a pipe to burst. But they don't have meetings for that.

Alright, let me try to start at the beginning. In the grand theatricalscheme of things, the Company Manager assists the General Manager withcontracts (generally, doing the negotiations-in consultation with theGM, and definitely doing the paperwork), budgets, travel, housing, andpayroll. The Company Manager is also at the theater for eachperformance, checking in with the acting company and the sales office andbeing the person on the front lines for the producer(s).

In my current position as Company Manager for Arena Stage, I do some ofthose things and a great deal of others! I like to describe my job asmaking folks' contracts, then making sure each aspect is lived upto!

So, for an actor, director, or designer, it works something like this:My boss negotiates their contract with them (or their agent). I take myboss's notes and draft up a contract. That contract is sent via email orfax to the actor/their agent for approval. Once everyone agrees with allthe details, I create a contract packet, which includes partially executedcontracts (signed by my boss), and send it off. The actor countersignsthe contract and mails back copies (keeping one for themselves,hopefully...or I just mail one back!).

The first thing I address in their contract is travel andhousing. If they're local to D.C., I don't do anything because they'realready here and know how to get around (hopefully)! If they're from somewhere else,about a month before the first rehearsal, I'll contact them to make travelarrangements. The mode is specified in their contracts (train - regional orexpress, plane - coach or business, or driving - which means I have toarrange parking at their housing, the rehearsal hall, and the theater).

Next, I arrange for somewhere for them to live! Arena guests typicallystay at an apartment in a high-rise housing complex in which we rent anumber of units. They're spread throughout the complex, so folks can have theirprivacy. We rent out units on yearly leases, rent furniture, providehousewares (sheets to colanders and everything in between, per theAEA-LORT agreement), and arrange a cleaning service to go through betweeneach guest. So, I've got to coordinate who's in which apartment andwhat time, keys, laundry cards, get general info about the housing toguests (folks need to know their addresses to order take out!), etc.

While a person is in town for Arena, if they have any issue with their housing(broken toilet, gas smell, anything...you name it!), they come to me!I'm also in charge of paychecks (getting them to wherever folks are via mail or hand delivery) and billing (double checking that things are spelled correctly, listed in the correct order, orare in the program at all!!)."

Google Analytics

I send reports to my guest bloggers if they request them so they can see who is reading their blog entries and how many hits they get. When I shared this report with Jamie, she asked how I got such a report, so I thought I would share.

Google Analytics is a FREE way to track websites. If you have a website, go to the Google Analytics site and follow the easy steps to track your website or blog, and within 24 hours you will have all kinds of data.

To give you an idea of the data you can collect, I thought I would give you some data from this blog. I started tracking the date on April 30th. I have had 1,658 visits. My highest spike in hits by day were the posts about my friend David Twomey, and second was the post about the Tonys. If you look at individual page hits, though, it would be David first, and then the post about working for the St. Louis Rep.

I average 21 hits per day and average 31 hits on weekdays. Most people that visit my site are from the U.S., but I get visitors from other countries as well, including the United Kingdom, Japan, Russia, Sweden, and the Philippines, just to name a few. I receive the highest number of hits from D.C., Missouri, Virginia, Maryland, and New York, in that order.

So go! Start tracking your website and learn who is looking at it. It could help you in marketing, or at least give you some fun facts to share when talking about your blog.

Theatre Rental Collaborative

When I came into the position of Booking Manager at Harman Center for the Arts, I really didn’t know much about what I would be doing. I knew I would act like a theatre owner and book the space as often as possible and try to Production Manage the events and productions that I book.

To learn more, I started emailing someone in a similar position at another local theatre, and we kept trying to meet up. Then I decided to try to get a bunch of us together so that we could share, discuss, and learn from each other. We could each talk about what was working and what wasn’t. I have talked a little bit about this group before, but now we are going to make it a little more official and give it a name: Theatre Rental Collaborative.

I have a lot of goals with this group, but the two most important are to learn from each other and share clients. I thought about all the calls I get that I can’t fulfill for one reason or another. Maybe we are too large or we don’t have the dates they need. We used to just tell them we are sorry, we can’t help them. But my new goal is to try to connect them with one of my fellow collaborators. Hopefully we can get all the theatres doing this and helping each other out in this way. Our next meeting is on the 27th of this month, so I will let you know what exciting news comes from that meeting. Think about your position and what collaboration you can do to help benefit your organization and help grow your network.

Project Fringe 10 – Part 3 – 7.10.09

Since I am going to produce a show for Fringe next year I figured I should start promoting them in the hopes that you will go see a show this year and come back next year to see my show. If you have read the blog about producing at Fringe, then you know at least one show you should see. I know I am buying tickets.

As a producer, part of our job is research. I will be seeing several shows this year to get a feel for how the festival is run. I will also be talking to many producers, like my friends Jamie and Cory, who are producing at this year's Capital Fringe.

I am mostly curious about budgets. How much they spent, how much they raised, and how did they do it. Part of my research will be to talk to people really involved in Fringe. One of my new Facebook friends is helping them with marketing and PR, and hopefully we will have lunch next week so I can pick his brain about how it is all going.

My last update with Project Fringe is that there is a late entry. I got a call yesterday from a young writer in NYC who has a new musical I am interested in. He seems very smart, and he pitched the idea yesterday and sent me some things to read. So now we have 3 good shows in the running.

Project Fringe 10 – Part 2 – 7.9.09

Time to update you on where we are with this project. With everything happening the last couple of weeks, I have been behind in this, and I need to try and stay more focused. So far, two ideas have really moved to the forefront.

This first is by two writers that I have never met, but I know them through friends, and I still am not sure how our paths never crossed. They are working on a musical adaption of Animal Farm. They really stepped up and came up with an outline and several demo songs for me. I have to say I am really impressed with the work they have put into this project, and it leads me to believe they will continue this work ethic all the way through, which is very exciting. I like the piece, and the songs are really cute. I can totally see myself doing this piece.

The second option is a new idea from friend of mine who is WONDERFUL writer and with whom I really want to work. His idea is less flushed out, and he would need to team up with someone to write the music, which I believe he has already started pursuing. I love the idea he has, but I am not sure how fast he can work to get the script and idea done. Although I don’t need a script now, the idea of the other option is totally flushed out.

I promised to let you know where I was, so there you have it. I will post more as details come. Who knows! Maybe I will make this really challenging and try and produce two shows! Crazy, I know. Stay tuned . . . .