Overview

The producer is ultimately responsible for all non-artistic show decisions. S/he selects a production staff, facilitates all logistical matters, and runs all production meetings. If a production team member becomes unable to complete their position, the producer must either replace them or complete the position him/herself. The producer is also the final authority on the production. If something makes the producer uncomfortable for safety or other reasons, s/he may veto it. Additionally, the producer is responsible for handling interpersonal conflicts. It is important that the producer be organized, accounting for all miscellaneous tasks involved in the show. The producer must frequently take initiative and be extremely adaptive. Be prepared to do a lot of work.

Pre-Production

You should always actively go out and rope people into auditioning, particularly if they are on the fence. Assist the SM team and the director with the audition process. Create and go over actor contracts with all auditionees. Ensure that auditions adhere to the Casting Guidelines stipulated in the Constitution.

Before Auditions

1. Set up Callboard (and update embedded spreadsheet)
2. Set up a Google Drive (templates can be found here)
3. Schedule Designer Run and Costume Parade
4. Contact The Tech and Technique early for a review and photos

Director Prepping

1. Review casting policy
2. Review time maximums (15 hours per week)
3. Make sure the director understands that casting an actor with a lot of conflicts in a lead role makes for stressful rehearsal scheduling
4. Performance Space Constraints
5. Other Policies

Setting Up Auditions

1. Schedule auditions with the director, SM, and Ensemble.
2. Finalize audition forms and make sure all dates/requirements are correct.
3. Ensure that a readthrough has been scheduled, and that the same room can be used for a prod meeting, if necessary
4. Set up the online audition form as soon as possible. See webmaster for details.

Running Auditions

1. Be at auditions. You sit in the room with the director and help him or her keep track of people and make decisions.
2. Help the director decide a cast after auditions/callbacks. In addition to raw ability, you will want to take into account reliability, availability and whether said actor is an Ensemble member.
3. Call people once you've decided on a cast. Do this strategically in case people reject roles.
4. When you call people...
   1. You can offer them time to decide, offer them half-an-hour unless they seem to want more, remember the more you offer, the longer you will be stuck there waiting for them to call you back.
   2. Once they accept, tell them when readthrough is, and to not share their role on social media until a final cast list is sent out.
   3. Double-check that they don't have conflicts with show dates (especially first day of spring break, for the spring show).

Actor Management

1. At readthrough, remind actors about tech week and strike, and get them to check for conflicts.
2. Get actors out of any show conflicts (tests during tech week).
3. Replace actors should they decline their parts.

Production Staff

Finding a good production staff is the most important thing you will do as Producer. Email town-crier, then spam campus. Think very carefully about your decisions. If you want advice, speak to the officers. A good production staff makes a stress-free show. When working with new dartes, you may will either need to assign them as assistants or give them a full position with a mentor. If they show motivation and willingness, you should definitely give them the full position. Meet with all production staff - be sure they understand the calendar and what is expected of them. Go over the contract with all members of the production team at the first meeting.

Finding Staff

1. Find an SM by auditions
2. TD, SD, and ASMs are high priority
3. Lights, Costumes, Sound, Props, Publicity are all important
   1. Having Co-Designers can be a good idea if nobody is willing to commit to the entire job. However, make sure that the two Co-Designers know each other well and are willing to spend a lot of time working together.
   2. You should treat Publicity Manager and Publicity Designer like a Co-Designer team in terms of selection process.
4. In some cases, you may need to design audition posters, yourself

Especially in the spring, try to finalize prod positions as soon as possible to give staff as much time to work as possible. This is especially true for SD and publicity.

Contracts

Old production staff and audition contracts can be found in the ensemble locker: /mit/ensemble/Private/Contracts/Current. They can be edited using basic LaTeX (files in locker). Edit names, dates, and contact info.

Deadlines

It is a good idea to try to make designers stick to their deadlines, it makes for smoother sailing.
Things to keep in mind include:

• Dates of Designer Runs and Costume and Props parade should be decided upon early
• Lights final deadline should be after both Sets final deadline and the Designer Run
• Costumes and Props final deadline should be near Costume and Props parade
• Publicity should be done relatively early, especially in the spring. Teaser posters should be put up at least a week before put-in. Final posters should appear on campus starting at put-in.

Production Staff Issues

It is important to check in regularly with production staff to make sure that everyone is doing their jobs. If anyone is not on top of things, consider monitoring them more closely. If they are unorganized, help them get organized. If they are unsure how to something should be done, explain it to them or have them talk to a more experienced ensemble member. If they are slacking, meet them in person and create a more stringent work schedule. If they are unresponsive to email, call them. If they are unresponsive to calls, try reaching them through one of their friends. If all else fails, pay them a personal visit. Not everyone responds to email regularly: it is your job to adapt to their preferred means of communication, not vise versa.

Play by ear. Each production staff member will respond differently - some may like more guidance, others may be annoyed by prodding. Stay friendly but firm - lend a helping hand while making sure things still get done.

Production Meetings

It is usually helpful to have a pre-first production meeting (middle of August in the Fall; IAP in the spring) with as many prod staff members as possible. Not everyone will be able to make it, but it's a good time to hear the Director's Vision and let designers start working before classes get underway.

The following key words should feature prominently in the first production meeting of the semester: contracts, calendar, deadlines, budget, schedule, read-through, designer run, prod hours, parade, put-in, paper-tech, q2q, tech week, vision. Collect contact info (phone, email) for call-board.

It helps to have production meetings scheduled at a regular time (Sundays after rehearsal, for example). The first and last prod meetings are typically 60 minutes long and include the full prod staff. All other meetings can be split in two by departments (see prod contract). Prod staff members (except the Producer, TD, and SM) are only required when their department is called.

Rehearsal Period

First Readthrough (IMPORTANT!)

At the first readthrough, you should make several announcements, including

• Introduce Producer, SMs, Officers (+ Phone Numbers)
• Review Performance Dates
• Upcoming Events, Office Access
• Callboard
• Key Dates (Off Book, Designer Run)
• 15 Hour Policy
• Conflicts: Alert SMs, Test Conflicts
• No Lateness, No Unexcused Absences
• Requirements: build hours, booth hours, put-in, strike
• Make clear that designers are in charge of things getting done, they should not be doing everything themselves
• Schedule Overview, Tech Week
• Group Introductions
• Director Vision

If an actor leaves after casting

If an actor decides to leave the show during the rehearsal process, email him/her once to ask "are you absolutely sure?", noting in the message that if so, you will immediately begin working to re-cast the part, and the actor will not be allowed to change his/her mind again. Remember that actors who leave shows during the rehearsal period are often under extreme stress — be as gentle and helpful as possible, while still being firm in your intent.

Post-prod meeting

Scheduling

Try to schedule it before Thanksgiving for the Fall show and on the week back from Spring break for the Spring show.

People that should be there, in order of importance

• Director
• Producer
• New designers
• Officers
• Old designers
• Actors

What to talk about

With the director in the room

• Traditional questions:
  • What went badly
    • What could we have done to solve that issue
  • What was the most unexpected thing
  • What did you think of the way we do:
    • interviews
    • prod meetings
    • rehearsals
    • tech week
    • anything else new that you tried for this show
• Ask the director for more general feedback to the Ensemble
• Ask actors/designers to give the director feedback

Then ask the director to leave (there might be excessive hugging)

Without the director in the room

• Any issues that arose
• Ask new designers how it went, what they wish we'd told them before they started...
• Any suggestions for future years
  • Some cool/crazy ideas might come from this - let it flow, some of them have panned out into something great!

Things that you need to do

Not in actual order

• Schedule Production meetings
• Make sure the Set Designer and TD meet with Chris Nayler
• Register the Show with SAO and with the city of Cambridge (this can be done as early as you want)*
• Make sure theArts@MIT have your show on their calendar
• Make sure ticket reservations open around the time of the first posters appearing on campus
• Order tickets (see Box Office Manager page for how to)
• With assistance from publicity, contact Technique and the Tech about photographers coming to final dress, and the Tech about a reviewer coming during the first weekend.
  • You may have to be persistent on this one to get confirmation from The Tech.
• Recruit:
  • Board ops as needed
  • Run crew as needed
  • Ushers, one per night
  • Box office manager + assistant(s)
  • Someone to film the show (coordinate with Memory Master)
• Make sure the pre-show announcement exists (it can be pre-recorded or given by one of the actors). It should contain:
  • Duration, and intermission duration
  • Emergency exits
  • No flash photography
  • No smoking
  • Strobe warning if applicable
• Schedule runtime jobs (or get the SM or TD to do it)
• Buy director gift, buy cast&crew gifts and come up with cast&crew awards
• Help schedule/run
  • papertech
  • cue-to-cue
• Come up with a plan (with your box office manager) with respect to selling out, if you think this is likely to happen
• Make sure one of the Tech or Technique takes a group picture
• Schedule
  • Alumni reception
  • Brush-up
  • Cast Parties
  • Post-prod
• Ensure all borrowed items are returned

Just generally be around and help with anything that needs help.

Miscellaneous

*Registering Event with the City of Cambridge

(MIT is transferring to an online process for event registration, so this section may need to be updated soon.)

It is the job of the producer to register the show with the city of Cambridge. Instructions are here: institute-events/events/reg.html 

An example of a filled out MIT form and the two entertainment licenses needed for 6 shows over 2 weekends is in the locker:
/mit/ensemble/Private/Contracts/Entertainment Licenses.pdf

Interpersonal Stuff

From conflicts between designers to angry actors to broken up couples to the inevitable conflagration between the SM and the director, you need to get the parties back into a state where they can work together and fulfill their responsibilities. Remember, especially as the show approaches, everyone is hosed, everyone is tired, everyone is looking for an excuse to start screaming, and much of the time squabbles are born more of general frustration than of real interpersonal problems.Try to remain calm and be understanding of the situation. Hugs are also good. 

You should make it very clear to the actors, prod staff, and director at read through/the first prod meeting/routinely throughout the production that you are there to be a shoulder to cry on, to mediate, and to make sure no one dies or kills anyone until after strike.

Mailing lists to update

ensemble-current

ensemble-tickets

Buying/Renting Weapons

For Romeo and Juliet in Spring 2011 we required the use of Rapiers. The ensemble owns both bastard swords and foil-type swords, neither of which was perfect. We therefore rented rapiers from [[http://www.weaponsofchoicetheatrical.com/|Weapons of Choice]]. If they are no longer around, contacting either MIT theatre arts or perhaps Ted Eaton (our R&J director) to find another place. Prices can get expensive - it's probably around $30 to $40 for each weapon for the run of the show, but that have a quite good selection. For R&J our director found a contact who gave us money to pay for the renting, but if we were willing to skimp on other areas we should be able to rent 2 or 3 ourselves. Shipping will take about 5 days, so rent them a bit before you want them to show up.

A couple general notes about renting weapons:
Keep the packing material around so you can pack them up neatly for the return trip.
Take care of them. They aren't ours and we don't want to be on the hook if they break.
Keep them safe. Make sure they stay in the office and people don't play with them. This can't be emphasised enough.
Make sure to rent one more than you need. Weapons do have a way of breaking we you least want them to.
If you're renting them for spring semester, the buffer for returning them can creep up fast. Either do it before leaving for spring break or right after you get back.

Organization

Organization is good. Keep a calendar of all deadlines. Email out upcoming deadlines before every prod meeting, and keep in touch with designers regarding progress and likelihood of missing deadlines. If designers are behind, help them create action plans for getting the job done, or point them toward mentors/obi-wans/Rinaldi/assistance. Request and update a spreadsheet that has at minimum the following information for each scene: each actor in it and who they are playing, props needed, set, time/day, and any special effects (projection, blood). This helps figure out where quickchanges, set changes, or other technical elements may become problematic. An idea is to do this as a Google Spreadsheet that only the producer can edit, shared with the cast and crew by a link from Callboard.

Things You Should Make Sure Happen

1. Auditions
2. Read Through
3. Designer Run(s)
4. Costume and Props Parade
5. Papertech (SM)
6. Q2Q (SM)
7. Put-in and Strike (TD)

To Co-Produce or Not Co-Produce

Producing can be a lot of work, so in certain cases, it might be reasonable to split the job between two co-producers. However, co-producing requires a lot of coordination and organization. Be prepared to see your co-producer a lot. A good pair of co-producers will typically:

• Have similar work habits
• Both be willing to take initiative and responsible for tasks
• Communicate well with each other
• Will remain on good terms even in times of crisis

If you decide to co-produce, it is useful to have a Google spreadsheet shared between the two co-producers of all the producer tasks. Assign a co-producer to make sure it gets done; when it is, check it off on the spreadsheet so both co-producers know. To make sure both co-producers are kept in the loop, create an email list with both co-producers and make sure that prod staff/actors use this email list.

It can also be fun to make a couples' name for the co-producers. 

Other Tips

1. Take care of yourself. Be positive. Keep calm and produce on.
2. Keep Interactions with the Director Positive
3. If Transitions are difficult, have a Transition Call.
4. If you find yourself stuck on unsure of what to do, ask the Officers for help. You can also call on former producers for advice.