There are three steps on the ladder of New York theater. This first is of course, Broadway. This is where you will see large commercial productions that cost and hopefully bring in millions and millions of dollars. Next in line is off-Broadway. At this level, plays are produced for anywhere from a little less to a lot less money than Broadway. Off-Broadway the plays are just that, not always in the Broadway area. There are also often less commercial or more edgy or risky. The last rung is Off-off Broadway where the plays are quite cheaply produced running form almost pennies to maybe in the tens of thousands of dollars. For the first time producer, Off-off Broadway is probably the place to be. It is certainly not the place to make money no your first outing unless you are very lucky, but it is a good starting place.
The first step is deciding on which play you want to do. You may have an original script but if you don’t, you need to read and read and read. Libraries and book stores are good places to get this done. However, if you work full time, I find that ebook readers can be very useful. You can do your research wherever you are, at work, at home or on the go.
New York is covered in Off-off Broadway theaters. You need to find a place to house your play so you need to think about a few things. What do you want to pay or how much can you pay? Where do you want to be, Brooklyn, uptown, downtown, midtown or elsewhere? How much audience you plan to bring in and how big the cast and the production is will also influence the size of the theater you need.
Now you are ready for the audition process. You can hire union or non-union actors. If you hire union, you are getting experience and talent for sure but you are raising your budget quite a bit. You then need a union stage manager, director. Lighting designer and more. You have to pay into union benefits and other costs.
Setting the stage is the next step. This means not only stage props and set but lights, sounds and all other elements of production. This can be done high quality on a low budget as well. For one play I produced, we were able to purchase hundreds of pieces of crystal jewelry wholesale we needed for one scene and saved a lot of money. We were also lucky to get donations from actor’s families.
The final piece to the puzzle is getting an audience. You have a few options here. You can hire a PR person to build an advertising and publicity campaign. It is also their job to bring in reviewers. Or you can put ads in the paper yourself and write your own press release. Also make sure to list your play in the local papers – this is often free or very low cost. For one play, I actually got in audience by advertising a raffle where we gave away an Ibanez electric guitar that was donated to the production.
In the end, producing a play off-off Broadway is definitely doable because the cost is within reason and, if you have the spare money or friends with money, who want to help you, it doesn’t take much and it can be very rewarding. Don’t think your first outing will be a success financially, because that is unlikely, but it may be a critical success and that can lead to more productions that may bring in money.
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