2008 Woodie Awards
What goes into a show production
Von Lewis
Issue date: 10/2/08 Section: Features
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Did Leo Bloom know what he was getting himself into? Does he really know what it means to be a producer? Did he know how much work it would take to put on a show?
Luckily for Bloom, and anyone who desires to be the driving force in a production, being a producer doesn't mean that you are alone in the process.
At the ECU School of Theatre and Dance, handling the job of a producer is a group effort.
"There are a lot of different inputs into producing a show and they all have to do with our mission," said John Shearin, director of the School of Theatre and Dance. "We have a very clearly stated mission for the school, which is to provide the highest quality of programming and production, taken from the world's dramatic literature repertoire."
One of the important jobs of a producer is to choose season, meaning to select the shows to put on during the year. Different variables involved in and around the prospective time of producing each show are examined and decisions are made based on the variables for which shows will be selected.
This rings true for the first show produced this semester, "Of Thee I Sing."
"This year is an election year, and I knew of an enormous musical by George and Ira Gershwin that won a Pulitzer Prize back in the 1930s, about presidential politics," Shearin said. "It just so happens that we have the right people for that show this year, and in other election years, I haven't been able to do this show."
Along with selecting a season, another crucial deciding factor in preparation of a production is budgeting.
"One of the advantages of having done this [producing] for a while is that you have previous shows and budgets to look at," said Jeffery Woodruff, the managing director for the School of Theatre and Dance. "We can look at a certain type of show and know about how much it is going to cost us based on that previous production."
While selecting and budgeting are two main facets that go into producing a show, a producer must be ready to deal with the worst-case scenario. Anything can go wrong, especially late in the process, but when things get difficult, a producer must act quickly to remedy the situation.
"It's sort of like being a juggler, throwing a hundred different balls up in the air and trying not to drop any on the way down," Woodruff said. "Producing a show is a tremendous amount of work, but it is really enjoyable work. Of course the worst part of producing a show is to do all of this work and to just see it fail and bomb."
Shearin and Woodruff both enjoy working with the theatre and dance department at ECU, and want the rest of the community to love it just as much as they do.
"Something that I think would surprise people is to realize just how labor-intensive this business can be," Woodruff said.
Shearin agrees.
"We have a minimum 150 people, students and faculty, working their behinds off to make this show ['Of Thee I Sing'] a success," Shearin said. "However, it's what I do. It's the thing I enjoy doing more than anything else in the world."
For more information on this year's season and ticketing information contact the school of theatre and dance box office at 328-6829. For general questions concerning the school, contact Karen Jarman at 328-6390.
This writer can be contacted at features@theeastcarolinian.com.
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