Running Theaters, Second Edition


Book Description

Advice Culled from Interviews with More Than One Hundred Experts in the Field In Running Theaters, management consultant and author Duncan M. Webb reveals the best practices that consistently lead to successful theater operations. Culled from surveys and interviews with theater managers and experts in crucial functional areas, this guide provides important tips for all people who work or want to work in regional, campus, and community-based theaters. Updated to reflect changes in the field, this second edition includes information on recent programming trends, marketing in the digital age, and the evolving role of theaters in economic and community development. Chapters discuss topics such as: Front- and back-of-house operations Managing nonprofit and commercial renters Building and managing a board of directors The financial management of theaters The necessary skills and attributes of a successful theater manager The unique opportunities and challenges of operating historic, outdoor, and campus-based theaters. Every theater manager needs this invaluable guide filled with the proven strategies of managers, staff, and volunteer leaders covering virtually every aspect of running a theater—from drawing audiences and fundraising to facility development and community involvement.




Running Theaters


Book Description

The best practices that consistently lead to successful theater operation are now revealed in this comprehensive resource. Culled from surveys and interviews with theater managers and experts in crucial functional areas, this guide provides important tips for all people who work or want to work in regional, campus and community-based theaters. Proven strategies from managers, staff, and volunteer leaders cover virtually every aspect of running a theater - from audience development and fundraising to facility development and community involvement. • Advice culled from interviews with more than 100 experts in the field Allworth Press, an imprint of Skyhorse Publishing, publishes a broad range of books on the visual and performing arts, with emphasis on the business of art. Our titles cover subjects such as graphic design, theater, branding, fine art, photography, interior design, writing, acting, film, how to start careers, business and legal forms, business practices, and more. While we don't aspire to publish a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are deeply committed to quality books that help creative professionals succeed and thrive. We often publish in areas overlooked by other publishers and welcome the author whose expertise can help our audience of readers.




Oldest Chicago, Second Edition


Book Description

Chicago has thrived for almost two hundred years, growing from a backwoods swamp, to a rail and manufacturing hub, to a light of the new Millennium. While many great structures have been lost or demolished, much of this history still lives on. Within the pages of Oldest Chicago, get to know the history of the Windy City's most iconic buildings and the stories that bring their walls to life. Included are some of the businesses and buildings from the city's inception through the turn of the twentieth century that are examples of Chicago's living history like The First United Methodist Church (1831); The Old Water Tower (1859); and Wrigley Field (1916). Amazingly, many others are still run by the same family members whose dedication has made them not only enduring businesses but living landmarks. These include The Jaeger Funeral Home (1858); Anderson's Books (1875); and The Italian Village Restaurant (1927) among many others. Local historian David Anthony Witter brings his love of the city to this veritable guidebook of the city's buildings, neighborhoods, restaurants, businesses and bars. Learn the personal stories of the faces behind the places that continue to give the "City of Big Shoulders" its historical, ethnic, and entrepreneurial identity.less




Something Wonderful Right Away


Book Description

Discover the behind-the-scenes story of how The Second City theater created a generation of world class great actors, directors, and writers. In the late Fifties and Sixties, iconoclastic young rebels in Chicago opened two tiny theaters—The Compass and The Second City—where they satirized politics, religion, and sex. Building scenes by improvising based on audience suggestions turned out to be a fine way to develop great actors, directors, and writers. Alumni went on to create such groundbreaking works as The Graduate, Groundhog Day, and Don’t Look Up. Many of them also became stars on Saturday Night Live. Something Wonderful Right Away features the pioneers of the empire that transformed American comedy. This new edition tells even more of the story. Included for the first time is an interview with Viola Spolin, the genius who invented theater games that were the foundation of improvisational theater. Also included are dozens of follow-up stories about Mike Nichols, Barbara Harris, Del Close, Joan Rivers, Alan Arkin, and Gilda Radner, plus “You Only Shoot the Ones You Love,” the story of how this book’s author, playwright Jeffrey Sweet, became so involved in the community he covered that he was captured by it.




Explorer's Guide West Virginia (Second Edition) (Explorer's Complete)


Book Description

More than half of the country's population lives within a day's drive of West Virginia, and savvy travelers have known that it is the playground of the East. Whether you’d like to visit historic sites; take scenic drives or walking tours; go hiking, biking, whitewater rafting, or fishing; or take in museums small and large, author Leonard Adkins steers you to the best that West Virginia has to offer. The locals know where to find hidden swimmin’ holes, waterfalls, and the best barbecue joints, and now you will too! Features detailed, opinionated reviews of dining and lodging places as well as tools to help you plan and make the most of your trip.




Great Monologues


Book Description

A must-have resource for aspiring actors: both monologues to audition with and a step-by-step guide on the best monologue audition preparation! Great Monologues: And How to Give Winning Auditions is primarily for actors looking for excellent acting monologues for their monologue auditions. There are original monologues written specifically for auditions, as well as monologues from award-winning playwright Glenn Alterman’s plays. There are comedic, dramatic, and serio-comedic monologues for all audition calls. Great Monologues also offers a step-by-step process to prepare for all monologue auditions. The monologues offered run from one minute to five minutes, thus covering all audition times. There are also a number of in-depth interviews with major casting directors, directors, and theatre company artistic directors. If you are an aspiring actor in need of an audition monologue, or want the best advice on how to properly audition with a monologue, Great Monologues: And How to Give Winning Auditions is a must-have in your collection! Allworth Press, an imprint of Skyhorse Publishing, publishes a broad range of books on the visual and performing arts, with emphasis on the business of art. Our titles cover subjects such as graphic design, theater, branding, fine art, photography, interior design, writing, acting, film, how to start careers, business and legal forms, business practices, and more. While we don't aspire to publish a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are deeply committed to quality books that help creative professionals succeed and thrive. We often publish in areas overlooked by other publishers and welcome the author whose expertise can help our audience of readers.




Creative Producing


Book Description

Go behind the scenes with the producer of Father of the Bride to learn all the skills necessary to be a top Hollywood producer As former co-president of Dolly Parton's production company, Sandollar, and as a successful independent producer, Carol Baum is an expert in the art of film production. Creative Producing provides a crash course in the frequently misunderstood producer's role and the many skills needed to survive and thrive in Hollywood. Readers receive a master class in production––from pitching, script development, and packaging, to working with stars, directors, and difficult executives. Enhanced with behind-the-scenes stories from Baum's illustrious career, Creative Producing offers an intimate look behind the Hollywood curtain to give film students, cinephiles, aspiring executives, and industry insiders a must-have guide to understanding film development from successful pitch to hit picture.




The Health & Safety Guide for Film, TV & Theater, Second Edition


Book Description

This second edition has been expanded and updated to address new hazards, unique health and safety problems, and particular regulations that threaten anyone working in the entertainment industries today. Artists’ advocate Monona Rossol exposes the hazards of theatrical paints, theatrical makeup, pigments, dyes, plastics, solvents, woodworking, welding, asbestos, fog, and offers practical solutions to these dangers. No one working in the performing arts can afford to skip this handbook packed with life-or-death health and safety information.




How to Run a Theater


Book Description

How to Run a Theatre is a unique, dynamic, and savvy guide to building an arts institution that works. Drawing on more than 30 years of experience, here is practical advice on a variety of management skills: Financial; Personnel; Fundraising; Board of Trustees Communications; and Marketing and Audience Development.




Building the Successful Theater Company


Book Description

What makes a theater company successful? Lisa Mulcahy poses the question to leaders from nineteen of the country’s most diverse and vital theater companies from the recent past and present, and offers answers in Building the Successful Theater Company. Producers, stage managers, directors—anyone dreaming of running a theater troupe—will benefit from the practical guidance, amusing anecdotes, and sincere advice in this peek behind the curtains of the often difficult, always seductive, profession of theater. With five additional companies profiled in this fully revised third edition, Building a Successful Theater Company features: •The LABrynth Theater Company •New Paradise Laboratories •National Theatre of the Deaf •Shotgun Players •Asian-American Theatre Company •Steppenwolf Theater Company •The Pasadena Playhouse •La Jolla Playhouse •Chicago City Limits •Berkeley Repertory Theatre •Arena Stage’s The Living Stage Theatre Company •Mixed Blood Theatre Company •Horizons Theatre •Wheelock Family Theatre •L.A. Theatre Works •A Traveling Jewish Theatre •Jean Cocteau Repertory •Bailiwick Repertory •New Repertory Theatre New chapters cover funding and financial aspects, maximizing a company's potential through powerful social media use, and creating successful partnerships by teaming up with corporate sponsors and establishing artistic collaborations. Stage veterans reveal advice on everything from locating performance space, to developing a business plan, to and rehearsing and publicizing productions in this invaluable guide to creating or growing a theater company. Allworth Press, an imprint of Skyhorse Publishing, publishes a broad range of books on the visual and performing arts, with emphasis on the business of art. Our titles cover subjects such as graphic design, theater, branding, fine art, photography, interior design, writing, acting, film, how to start careers, business and legal forms, business practices, and more. While we don't aspire to publish a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are deeply committed to quality books that help creative professionals succeed and thrive. We often publish in areas overlooked by other publishers and welcome the author whose expertise can help our audience of readers.