At the start of this process we decided as company that we were going to focus on theatre that is visually pleasing to the audience. Taking influences from similar companies like Kneehigh. From here Retold Theatre Company was born.
At our first initial meeting we decided the company roles. I was elected and happy to take on the role of producer. As a producer I ensured we had a space to rehearse in, create schedules that were appropriate for everyone. Taking into account what the director wanted, who was available when and making sure the space was ready for the rehearsal to take place on time. This wasn’t an easy task as we are all final year degree students with other modules, not everyone was available all of the time. So the director (Alicia Ravensdale) and myself would decide what was the best way was to use the time. Time management is key within my role, ensuring that everyone attended that was required. If an actor or technical member couldn’t attend a rehearsal, I would chase them up and inform them on what has happened within the rehearsal. Therefore they are kept up to date with any important changes.
“The producer shoulders the economic and managerial problems involved in putting on a production. He (most producers are men) will choose the play, rent the theatre, engage the director and cast, and be responsible for paying all the bills – from the rent, rates and insurance to the salaries of the staff. The producer has to raise money to put on the production and, if the box office takings fall, decide when to close it” (Richardson, 1998).
As Richardson explains as the role of producer I would have had to make sure that the theatre rent was paid or organised away in which we could come to an agreement with the theatre. An example that is most frequently used on a production and new companies like Retold Theatre would be a box office split. This way the company doesn’t have to pay out a large amount of money and agree on a percentage of the takings, which is better as they may not make back a lot of profit when performing something challenging or different to the audience the theatre already brings in. Also I didn’t have to worry about getting insurances and public liability for the company as this was covered through our university. However in the past I have had to deal with this and the insurance companies for theatre related cover is NODA insurance. We did a small element of fund raising for our production as with our budget we did manage to cope with it. However it is always better to have the bit more that could go towards the contingency fund. So we decided to do a quiz night in the LPAC (Lincoln Performing Arts Centre). I also had to organise the right with Samuel French Ltd, and complete all paperwork to make sure we were legal. However this became irrelevant as we decided that Grimm Tales wasn’t right for our company, as I will discuss in a later blog.
Works Cited
Richardson, Jean Careers In The Theatre, Kogan Page London (1998).
