First Time Producers In New York City

There is a certain hierarchy of theater in New York City. You have the large commercial productions on Broadway that cost millions and bring in millions in ticket sales. Then, there is the middle ground - off-Broadway. These are plays that can be produced for a lot less money than Broadway plays or can come quite close to costing the same. The only difference is they are not necessarily located on or near the Broadway area and are often less mainstream oriented. Finally, you have various levels of off-off Broadway. These productions can run from next to nothing up into the tens of thousands of dollars depending on a number of factors. If you are intent of producing a play for the first time, off-off Broadway may be the place to start. You may not make your money back at this level but, you won't lose much either.

Many people stumble at the start because they don't know what to produce. Others have a play in mind or wrote on themselves. If you need a play, just hit the racks at your local library or bookstore and start reading. I find, if you don't have time to get to the library or bookstore, ebook readers are great. They can be taken anywhere and you can read and read at work, at play and at rest until you find the perfect play to produce.

Deciding where to put up the play is your next step. There are small and large Off-off Broadway theaters all over New York City. You must thing about what you want to pay, which depends on your budget. You need to consider where you want the play to take place, uptown, downtown, Brooklyn, etc. Finally, how large of a theater do you need? This depends on the scope of the play and the audience you are anticipating.

Actors are next in line. Stage actors have a union, Actor's Equity and, if you do an Equity play, you have to do it all the way, stage manager, lighting, director, etc. Your budget will include their health and benefits funds payments and the union fee to do the play. This is a much more pricey way to go but you are pretty much guaranteed talent.

Setting the stage is the next step. This means not only stage props and set but lights, sounds and all other elements of production. This can be done high quality on a low budget as well. For one play I produced, we were able to purchase hundreds of pieces of crystal jewelry wholesale we needed for one scene and saved a lot of money. We were also lucky to get donations from actor's families.

The final piece to the puzzle is getting an audience. You have a few options here. You can hire a PR person to build an advertising and publicity campaign. It is also their job to bring in reviewers. Or you can put ads in the paper yourself and write your own press release. Also make sure to list your play in the local papers - this is often free or very low cost. For one play, I actually got in audience by advertising a raffle where we gave away an Ibanez electric guitar that was donated to the production.

The price of producing an Off-off Broadway play can definitely be reasonable, especially for someone with a little money burning a whole in their pocket. It is also within reason to ask friends and relatives without causing them to use their life savings. The play probably won't bring back what you put in money-wise. But, it will definitely be rewarding and if it's good and gets reviews can lead to much bigger things.

Tags: off-broadway play, producing