The Producer's Perspective Podcast with Ken Davenport

Latest Episodes:

146 - Sheryl Kaller Jan 21, 2018

Show notes

Sheryl Kaller is a theatrical director.She has Broadway credits that include Mothers and Sons and Next Fall by Geoffrey Nauffts, for which she was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Director. She has directed at many theatres including Roundabout Theatre Company, Lincoln Center Theater, The New Group, Pasadena Playhouse, Primary Stages, Williamstown Theatre Festival, American Conservatory Theater, New York Stage and Film, Geffen Playhouse, Philadelphia Theatre Company, and Naked Angels.

She told me her story and gave me her perspective on all things including:

What Bob Fosse “fought for” in his direction, and how that inspired her.
How she never felt like a female Director while she was in school . . . but only when she got into the business, and how that has changed (or not) since then.
The day she got scolded by an Actor for being too prepared. And how that has affected her style since.
How she got back into the business after deciding to take time off to raise her family (and how that made her a better and more successful Director).
The process of pitching herself for a job . . . what she says to playwrights and Producers in order to earn their trust.

Keep up with me: @KenDavenportBway

www.theproducersperspective.com

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145 - Jonathan Lomma Jan 14, 2018

Show notes

Jonathan Lomma is a literary agent with William Morris Endeavor and former child actor. He represents authors, directors, lyricists, writers, and choreographers such as Terrence McNally, Arthur Laurents, and Edward Albee.

We talked about what it was like working with such major writers like the triple-play above, as well as:

What made him go to law school even though he was a child actor.
Jonathan’s theory of how musicals changed after 2001.
How an emerging writer gets on his radar.
His favorite quote about working closely with people on the “other side” of the table.
And more.

Keep up with me: @KenDavenportBway

www.theproducersperspective.com

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144 - Pam MacKinnon Jan 07, 2018

Show notes

Pam MacKinnon is a theatre director. She has directed for the stage Off-Broadway, on Broadway and in regional theatre. She won the Obie Award for Directing and received a Tony Award nomination, Best Director, for her work on Clybourne Park. In 2013 she received the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play for a revival of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? She directed multiple shows for Edward Albee including Peter and Jerry, Occupant, A Delicate Balance, and The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? Other shows she has directed include Amélie, and The Parisian Woman.

Here’s a statistical truth bomb for you: women direct only about 17% of the shows on Broadway.

How do I know that? Pam MacKinnon has been keeping track.

Pam is already one of the few female A-list directors that make up that unbalanced percentage, having directed as many shows on Broadway as any woman out there (only Stroman has her beat). But that doesn’t mean she’s not determined to help others get to where she is today.

During our podcast, we talked about what we can all do to even the playing stage, as well as . . .

How she went from pursuing a Ph.D. in Political Science to a career in directing.
Why a Director often has to act like a Producer (hear the story of how she had to negotiate Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf into existence).
Why Broadway shows not slated for Broadway that end up there have an advantage.
How she developed her own style, which is different than everyone else’s and why yours should be different too.
Her method for approaching classic material and making it her own.

Keep up with me: @KenDavenportBway

www.theproducersperspective.com

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143 - Catherine Zuber Dec 17, 2017

Show notes

Catherine Zuber is a costume designer for the Broadway theater and opera, among other venues. She is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama, and has been referred to as "one of theater's most sought-after costume designers on both coasts." Her Broadway credits include How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (Tony nomination), Born Yesterday (Tony nomination), Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Cry-Baby, Dracula, Frozen, Twelfth Night (Tony and Drama Desk nominations), Ivanov, Triumph of Love (Drama Desk nomination), The Sound of Music and The Red Shoes among others. She has designed costumes for some 57 Off-Broadway plays and musicals including The Cherry Orchard (2009), The Winter's Tale (2009), As You Like It (2010), The Tempest (2010) and Richard III (2012).

During our Saturday morning chat, Catherine and I did NOT talk about threading needles, but we did talk about:

How she was terrible at sewing when she started . . . and that did NOT impact her ability to design.
Why her favorite costumes aren’t the most beautiful.
Technology’s impact on costume design . . . for better, but also for worse!
Why costumes for the theater are so much different than costumes for film.
How 21st-century playwrights are changing how designers must create clothes.

Listen in to Ms. Zuber school me on costume design, and I promise, no matter where costume design ranks on your list of “Theater Things You Know,” it’ll go up after this thirty-five minute Tony winner’s master class.

Keep up with me: @KenDavenportBway

www.theproducersperspective.com

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142 - Jerry Zaks Dec 10, 2017

Show notes

Jerry Zaks is a stage and television director, and actor. He won the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play and Drama Desk Award for directing The House of Blue Leaves, Lend Me a Tenor, and Six Degrees of Separation and the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical and Drama Desk Award for Guys and Dolls. He made his Broadway acting debut in the original production of Grease and made his directing debut with the off-Broadway production of Beyond Therapy. He has also directed many other productions such as Girl Crazy, Stairway to Paradise, 101 Dalmatians Musical, and the Broadway production of Sister Act. His screen credits include Outrageous Fortune, and Husbands and Wives. He received the George Abbott Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theater in 1994.

He’s the go-to guy if you’ve got a musical that’s supposed to make people laugh. And we talked about what it takes to make people slap their knees, as well as . . .

How he agreed to direct a show even though he didn’t know what directing really was.
The best advice he ever got, which made him change his attitude overnight.
Why his rehearsal rooms are CLOSED to everyone but the actors.
How (and why) Guys and Dolls wasn’t working and what he and his choreographer did to fix it.
What a show has to do within its first ten minutes, or it’s sunk.

Once on This Island, Winner of the 2018 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical,is the sweeping, universal tale of Ti Moune, a fearless peasant girl in search of her place in the world, and ready to risk it all for love. Check it out here: onceonthisisland.com

Keep up with me: @KenDavenportBway

www.theproducersperspective.com

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141 - Doug Hughes Dec 03, 2017

Show notes

Douglas Hughes is an American theatre director. He has directed both Off-Broadway and on Broadway. Hughes worked for 12 years as the associate artistic director of Seattle Repertory Theatre, from 1984 to 1996. As a Resident Director of the Roundabout Theatre, he has directed many plays for the Roundabout, including The Big Knife and Mrs. Warren's Profession. He directed Doubt: A Parable Off-Broadway and on Broadway, for which he won the 2005 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Play, and the 2005 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play. Other directing credits include Death Takes a Holiday, Inherit the Wind, Outside Mullingar, The Father, and Junk: The Golden Age of Debt.

What surprised me about this podcast, was how Doug didn’t start off wanting to be a Director or even in the theater at all (despite the theatrical heritage he comes from) . . . and how coming about his career as a last resort helped him develop even greater skills than studying it from birth.

Listen in to this podcast to hear Doug talk about that, as well as:

Why his research for plays gets him a lot of frequent flyer miles.
How directing a play is like a lawyer trying a case.
What his biggest responsibility is when working with Actors.
How he gets feedback, and what he does with it, including sometimes ignoring it.
How being a scientist is like being a Director.

The War of Art is a terrific book by Steven Pressfield. It’s about overcoming resistance, and getting down to your business, which is the business of art. One of Steven’s key points was how you should become a “pro.” The difference between an amateur and a pro is all about the attitude of the professional, and it made me think of our own site, The Producer's Perspective Pro, which we just revamped. Check it out at theproducersperspectivepro.com and make sure you read The War of Art.

Keep up with me: @KenDavenportBway

www.theproducersperspective.com

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140 - Mark Hoebee Nov 26, 2017

Show notes

Mark Hoebee is a producing artistic director at the Paper Mill Playhouse and has been since 2000. Under his leadership, Paper Mill was presented with the Regional Theatre Tony Award in 2016 and in recent years launched such noteworthy projects as the world premieres of Newsies, Honeymoon in Vegas, Ever After, Bandstand, A Bronx Tale, The Honeymooners, My Very Own British Invasion, and The Sting, as well as the American premieres of the 25th Anniversary Production of Les Misérables, and Stephen Schwartz’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and the national tour of The Bodyguard. He has directed national tours of Victor/Victoria, Dreamgirls, Company, and An Evening of Lerner and Loewe. His directing credits at Paper Mill include West Side Story; Beauty and the Beast; Annie; Mary Poppins; Dreamgirls; Hello, Dolly!; The King and I; Miss Saigon; Smokey Joe’s Cafe; Oliver!; Damn Yankees; Thoroughly Modern Millie; Curtains; and The Full Monty.

Tune in to this week’s podcast to hear what it’s like to run one of the most powerful regional theaters within kick-ball-change distance of Broadway as well as . . .

What Broadway had to do with the Paper Mill’s recession.
How he looked at himself as an audience member, not an Artistic Director, in order to program his seasons.
Working with commercial producers on out-of-town tryouts.
Why Cameron Mackintosh started stumping for Paper Mill.
The difference between the relationship with the consumer on Broadway versus the consumer at a Regional Theater, and how we can learn from each other.

Keep up with me: @KenDavenportBway

www.theproducersperspective.com

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139 - Mike Rafael Nov 19, 2017

Show notes

Mike Rafael is a ticket analyst and owner of NEXUS, a ticketing solutions company that helps “Broadway sell the right ticket to the right person at the right time”. He works with Broadway and theatrical productions on ticket inventory management, pricing strategies, developing new sales channels and marketing/promotions. His clients include Wicked, War Paint, Gettin’ the Band Back Together.

Listen in to today’s podcast for Mike’s expert advice on how to price your shows as well as:

Why he learned what he knows from working Off-Broadway.
How the price of your ticket tells a story about your show.
The very first thing he does when he takes on a client.
What he thinks about papering during previews.
His idea of how we should work with the secondary market.

Keep up with me: @KenDavenportBway

www.theproducersperspective.com

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138 - Kwame Kwei-Armah Nov 12, 2017

Show notes

Kwame Kwei-Armah is a British actor, playwright, director, singer and broadcaster. In 2005 he became the second black Briton to have a play staged in the West End of London. Kwei-Armah's award-winning piece Elmina's Kitchen transferred to the Garrick Theatre in 2005. He became the chancellor of the University of the Arts in London on 7 March 2011. He has been the Artistic Director of the Baltimore Center Stage Theatre since 2011. His other works include voicing Mtambo in The Lorax, Fix Up, Blues Brother Soul Sister, Statement of Regret, Let There Be Love, Seize the Day, Beneatha's Place, and One Love: The Bob Marley Musical.

Listen in to hear Kwame chat about his experience in Baltimore, his upcoming gig, as well as . . .

Why a lack of jobs for him and his actor friends made him pick up a pen and write, even though he had never written a play before.
How a mentor helped give him his start . . . and why we ALL need a mentor!
Why he doubled down on studying and mastering writing AFTER he had a hit . . . (Most people would sit back and surf on their early success, but not Kwame.)
How a political point influences all his writing . . . and then why he hides it.
What the @#$% can we ALL do about diversity.

Keep up with me: @KenDavenportBway

www.theproducersperspective.com

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137 - Trip Cullman Nov 05, 2017

Show notes

Trip Cullman is a theatrical director who graduated from the Yale School of Drama. His Broadway credits include Six Degrees of Separation, and Significant Other. Other credits include Swimming in the Shallows, Bachelorette, Some Men, Bad Jazz, Arabian Night, Smashing, Dog Sees God, Dark Matters, The Last Sunday in June, and The Wooden Breeks. Regional credits include the World Premiere of Lloyd Suh's American Hwangap, the World Premiere of Richard Greenberg's The Injured Party at South Coast Rep, Keith Huff's A Steady Rain, and Lauren Weedman's Rash.

Trip and I talked about how he got to the major leagues as well as . . .

Why the first thing he does when he takes a job is make a mixtape!
The super-secret, age-old blocking technique that you’ve got to try.
What shocked him about directing on Broadway.
Who he likes working with the most when he develops a new work (it’s not who you think).
Why he reads reviews but doesn’t read chat boards.

The Tony Award-winning director of Urinetown returns to Broadway with Gettin’ The Band Back Together, a musical about a recently fired 40 year old man who wants to make it big with his band. Check it out here: gettinthebandbacktogether.com

Keep up with me: @KenDavenportBway

www.theproducersperspective.com

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