Flagship or Dreadnought: Regional Theaters in America
With the recent blog by Annah Feinberg currently making the circuit, it seems a good time to chronicle the regional theater “movement.”
1910-1930s: The “Little Theatre Movement.” Few paid artists, but it reflected a community need. Killed by the Depression/WWII.
1947: Dallas – Margo Jones founded Theatre ’47.
1950: Washington, D.C. – Zelda Fichandler founded Arena Stage.
1959: Tyrone Guthrie placed an ad in The New York Times. Asked if any communities wanted to sponsor a resident theatre. 1963 – Guthrie Theatre opens in Minneapolis.
But this did not become a “movement” until the late ’60s when some plays moved from regionals to Broadway, turning many regional theater companies into minor-league baseball clubs.
People outside New York want to experience great plays relevant to their lives.
Unwieldy regionals often gauge success in the form of plays transferring to Broadway.
Irony or disconnect?
Neither artists nor nonprofit arts organizations are entitled, they just act that way sometimes
Every kid wins trophies.
There are two possible takeaways from this fact:
a) Trophies don’t mean much; or
b) Every kid deserves trophies.
Or both.
If a), then the result is that external recognition must be useless. Which means:
1) We reward mediocrity.
2) We foster cynicism to greatness.
If b), then the result is that external recognition must be unrelenting. Which means:
3) We reward everything.
4) We foster entitlement to greatness.
I have rarely seen folks as entitled as those in the performing arts today, at least here in Seattle, the epicenter of externally-based self-esteem. I’ve known dozens of actors who have insisted that they’re too talented to audition. Dozens more of nonprofit arts organizations feeling too holy to follow a mission.
Consider: Oscar Isaac had to audition for the role of Llewyn Davis. It wasn’t handed to him.
This. Happened.
Years ago, I dined with a board member/lawyer who’d given $100,000 of unrestricted funding for four consecutive years. Ninety miles from home. Nice restaurant. Just us two.
Asked for this year’s gift.
Silence.
Then, he said, “Now, why do you do all these plays for the n**g**s? They’re uneducated, unsophisticated, they don’t like us, and you’re just rubbing our noses in it?”
I wanted simultaneously to vomit, slug, and flee, none of which are socially acceptable responses.
Dad once said that using the bathroom is the most socially acceptable way to buy ten minutes. I bought ten minutes.
“It’s not my money. It’s not my money,” I chanted to myself for about ten minutes. “It’s for the company. It’s unrestricted. We can spend it any way we see fit.”
Came back.
What would you say and do?
“That Happened to Me!” – Can nonprofit arts organizations figure out a way to quantify personal meaning?
I wrote a strange and pretty bad play.
One scene took place at the World Trade Center in the wee hours of September 11, 2001. A financial analyst for Cantor Fitzgerald berates a brown-skinned file clerk. The scene was meant to be darkly humorous and uncomfortable.
After one public reading, a woman screamed about that scene.
Tearfully, she raged, “That happened to me! The World Trade Center happened to me!”
I asked, “Oh, were you in New York?”
“No. Baltimore.”
While social impact nonprofits exhibit myriad ways to show purpose beyond basic human needs, arts organizations struggle to show any measurable societal value. However, if we can quantify personal meaning with specific results and stories of value, then we can become successful charitable organizations.
For in every “That happened to me,” the impact is genuinely meaningful.
Positive Signs in the Nonprofit Arts Community
Some nonprofit arts organizations are making new, better choices – and it’s working.
One theater company, eschewing the managing director template (part operations director, part fundraiser, part CPA), has chosen to split the duties. They’ve brought on a strategy director to handle outside duties (fundraising, speaking, lobbying) and strategic plan piloting. The operations and financial duties lie with the general manager.
One children’s arts company, eschewing the arts-revenue template (part production house, part arts education academy), produces in the same facility as several social service agencies. They incorporate the other nonprofits into everything they do, produce a specific style of performance art that speaks to the values of their ethnically, linguistically diverse neighborhood, and gauge success by how well all the nonprofits are bettering the lives of their constituents.
New prototypes. New measurements. New realizations. Excellent work.
“Here we go, Rembrandt, here we go!” – Fans (who cheer) or audiences (who hear)?
“HOLD THAT NOTE! HOLD THAT NOTE!”
“PUSH ‘EM BACK! PUSH ‘EM BACK! NOW STEP, TOUCH, JETÉ AND HOLD!”
“S-C-E-N-E, SCEE-EEENE, SCEE-EEENE!”
Years ago, I sat in the third-to-top row of an NFL stadium with an artistic director friend. First game of the season. Even people behind us were screaming their heads off and waving their foam fingers. And the experience was more personally meaningful to them than many arts experiences I’ve loved.
Sports fans no more control the action of a game than arts fans do a play or concert. But they’re encouraged to be blitheringly engaged. And all too often, arts fans are encouraged to sit back and relax. Or shut up and listen. Like a lecture at school.
We wondered, can arts organizations find ways to encourage blithering? Or are we too clubby for that?
Cue the heavenly chorus…your nonprofit arts organization will never be hungry again!
Acting is not about performing; nor is painting about artistry; nor is music is about musicianship; nor is dancing about prowess.
Similarly, nonprofit arts organizations cannot be about exhibitions/performances.
The impact of the arts can be quantified. There are myriad studies. But the impact of any individual arts organization is not an equivalent discussion. Each organization must provide specific impact, or better, impact2.
Impact2 is the impact’s impact. As a food bank provides positive impact to a concrete number of families, its impact2 may be the number of households that escaped poverty from having had the gift of food in its worst times.
Many nonprofit arts organizations often define themselves by the quality of production. No surprise, then, that so many struggle to reach new donors. Quantify the impact2 of your nonprofit, and you’ll find your Grail.
April 10, 1957. St. Louis, Mo.
“The clock of destiny is ticking out…. We are not fighting for ourselves alone, we are fighting for this nation…. I just wish this evening that somebody would take a fast plane over to Washington… and say …that the civil rights issue is not some ephemeral, evanescent domestic issue that can be kicked around by reactionary and hypocritical politicians. But it is an eternal moral issue which may well determine the destiny of our nation.… The destiny of our nation is involved. We can’t afford to slow up. The motor is now cranked up. We are moving up the highway of freedom toward the city of equality, and we can’t afford to slow up because our nation has a date with destiny. We’ve got to keep moving. We’ve got to keep moving.”
— Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Nonprofit Arts Lingo Ready for Expunging…and Words to Use Instead
Subscription Season Tickets, Packages [“Subscription” = “Newspaper” = “Dying Industry”]
Audience Fans, Partners [Audiences hear, fans root, partners invest]
Watch Participate, Enjoy, Love [See “Audience”]
Us, we It, the [“We” requires “They”]
“Play a part” [Any non-cutesy non-cliche]
Spectacular, incredible, fabulous, gifted, talented, great, wonderful, delightful, fantastic, poignant, moving [Overused and does not describe the event – unless literally (big 3-ring circuses, for example, are spectacular); it also insults readers by dictating how they should feel]
Witty Funny, hilarious [“Witty” makes some feel as though the work is above their intellectual pay grade]
“Lost Ticket Insurance” [No one cares]
Engage, enlighten, educate Brighten, connect, involve [see “Witty”]
“Something for Everyone” [Never use this phrase. What your organization does is NOT for everyone; therefore, it’s a lie. It also implies that your organization is profit-seeking. Who would donate to McDonald’s?]
Where’s a good Medici when you need one? Oh, right. They’re still here.
Art for art’s sake? Not so much. Want to be paid? Then there had better be a good story behind it. Or you’re famous. Or you’re dead.
Artistry is everywhere we look… in everything we touch. Look at your desk right now. Find something with no art.
You can’t. Even paper clips have shape, color, and light.
But is a paper clip for its own sake? No. It clips paper. But it is no less artistic.
In 2014, art for art’s sake is aesthetic dogma meant to encourage artists to focus on their own thoughts, as though purity of thought is equivalent to purity of meaning – and, therefore, audiences are irrelevant to art.
Quasi-utopian Codswallop.
Whether commissions are contracted or in the open market, successful art requires patronage in the form of a sponsor, buyer, or audience.
How to Hire Great People (or, Don’t Buy a Dog and then Bark, Too)
A school of thought says you should hire people who are not as talented as you, want to be in the same job five years hence, and are cheap and green.
Nonsense. Don’t be an idiot.
Know your limitations. Hire to your weaknesses.
Hire smart, talented, overqualified people. Yes, overqualified. Pick those who can do your job. Or your boss’s job. They likely want the job because the essential tasks make them happy. If paid fairly and treated well, they will stay forever (lowering your HR costs) and constantly exceed your expectations.
After the hire, assist them in their work, not the other way around.
Empower them to make big honking mistakes. Mistakes aren’t fatal; covering them up is.
Embrace their joys. Embrace yours.
Convince them to go home. The planet spins, no matter what. Always has.
The Correlation Between Snowflakes and Nonprofits
What is the purpose of a snowflake? Just a type of precipitation, one of four phases of the water cycle?
What is the purpose of a nonprofit? To change the environment so that a heretofore unrelenting bad thing gets better or goes away?
One snowflake is different from all other snowflakes. An unprovable, but accepted theory. Akin to “no two fingerprints are exactly alike.”
Your nonprofit is different from all other nonprofits. A provably unacceptable theory. Akin to “if you build it, they will come.”
Differentiation is crucial for nonprofits to thrive. But if trivial differentiation exists among two or more, then collaborate. Or merge. Or close, if that disentangles the knotty societal issue. Survival of any nonprofit is irrelevant if the issue isn’t solved.
Finally, snowflakes are fun to catch on the tongue. Nonprofits really aren’t.
Hiring 101: Post. Respond. Inform. Interview. Inform. Interview. Inform. Hire. Inform. (PS: No Taleo necessary)
From O’Reilly/Pfeffer’s “Hidden Value:”
Hiring based solely on job skills can be short-sighted and expensive.
If someone doesn’t fit the culture, either the culture will change or the person will leave.
If your company’s hiring practices are “industry standard” (by definition, middling), then its values are equally unimportant, no matter what greatness your company ostensibly performs. “One chance at a first impression” and all that.
- Post job.
- IMMEDIATELY upon receipt, respond to email applicants with receipt; (mail or in-person applicants with postcard).
- Managers: Compile three categories (Yes/No/Maybe).
Move “Maybe” into “No.”
Inform “Nos” of status. - Interview “Yeses.”
Inform “Nos” of status. - Final interviews.
Hire.
Inform “Nos” of status. - Hire qualified (better: overqualified) and creative, not skillful and capable.
Look for values, not education.
Hire to fit, not proficiency.
And whenever possible: hire someone better than you.
2014. A year of art awaits you. Predictions for the year to come…
A company you’ve never heard of will produce something special.
A famous company everyone knows will close down.
A play will shake your long-held beliefs.
A concert will move you to tears.
You’ll stop short and get lost in a painting.
You’ll attend an amazing performance that can’t be pigeonholed as theatre, dance, comedy, or music.
Another new study will come out proving that kids with in-school arts education will enjoy great test scores, not join gangs, and will have a tendency to be drug-free. Their community participation will be more extensive, and they’ll be likelier to enter college.
Despite that, in-school arts education will disappear.
Great arts nonprofits will find universally-accepted ways to quantify impact and will receive all the funding they require.
I wish you love, luck, and success in 2014. Oh yes, and art.
‘Twas the week before Christmas and all o’er the glade, the galleries, ballets, and playhouse got paid… And the board chair exclaimed, ere he took his tax break, “Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good take.”
Ebenezer Scrooge and George Bailey…
Langston Hughes and the Four Plaids…
Handel and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir…
Christmas in Wales and Christmas in Macy*s…
The Mouse King and the Sugar Plum Fairy…
Your local carolers, buskers, jazz artists, ornament craft-makers, and pageant participants know what it’s about. Joy, family, charity, peace, and goodwill toward mankind.
And a boatload of cash. The Holiday-Cash-Cow sings, “Moo-moo-moo, moo-moo-moo, moo-moo-moo-moo-moo.”
“But we pay for the stuff no one wants to see all year with this one production of ‘A Christmas Carol!” said a board president pal of mine.
And as one managing director famously said, “We do the mission all year long. Except Christmas. That’s where we try to make money.”
Last I checked, one of the morals of “A Christmas Carol” had something to do with, what was it again…?
If I ignore you, then you don’t exist! Hey! Why are you still there, existing???
Recent impressions from an interview for a development director position at a well-known theatre.
Managing director picks me up at airport. Interviews me in car. First impression… he drives, in more ways than one.
Dinner for eight. Laughs, rowdiness, and Malbec. Second impression…an uninhibited group.
The play. Well-performed one-man show. Third impression…no money.
The interview marathon. 6½ hours, no breaks. Fourth impression: disorganized thinkers.
Complete silence. For over two months, despite leaving message for managing director on his cell. Fifth impression: brutal place to work.
Sent email taking myself out of the search. Direct quote from board president: “I don’t know the protocol in the nonprofit world. In the engineering world, where [we] are both from, you don’t hear anything unless you are hired.” Final impression: they’re horrible at human relations…must be why they have no money.
No contact necessary! Never have to talk again! But wait…there’s much, much less!
As an ED, I hired many talented people who, surprisingly (given the industry – nonprofit arts organizations), did not care for interaction. One told me, “I communicate best through email. You should email me.” Her desk was thirty feet from mine.
It is the custom among many to jump to the latest innovation, a practice that is not in itself innovative. Operating technology is no less clubby than ordering at Starbucks. If a customer is unaware of the script, the club members become twitchy.
Cyber-innovation, however, offers addictive isolation as an objective. Solely to rely on it to do person-to-person activities for a nonprofit organization – especially one in the arts – is tantamount to reading directions on how to build IKEA furniture and assume that the building process will be complete without physically interaction with the tools and materials.
How to raise first time gifts (or any meaningful donations)
Step One: be a good person.
Gather information.
Discuss prospects.
Research history.
Decide who.
Decide whose.
Get introduction.
Meet prospect.
Discuss organization.
Change perspective.
Make friend.
Seek advice.
Send news.
Continue contact.
Explore potential.
Seek advice.
Send news.
Continue contact.
Select target.
Add 20%
Seek advice.
Discover favorites.
Send news.
Continue contact.
Select when.
Select who.
Select where.
Select why.
Schedule meeting.
Inform purpose.
Rehearse meeting.
Rehearse ask.
Refine ask.
Attend meeting.
Renew relationships.
Discuss challenges.
Embrace confidence.
Ask.
Hush.
Wait.
Listen.
Respect decision.
Accept donation.
Accept non-donation.
Thank donor.
Close meeting.
Conduct postmortem.
Discuss ramifications.
Contact donor.
Seek advice.
Send news.
Continue friendship.
Thank again.
Get referrals.
Repeat often.
People give to people – not buildings, causes, or database programs. First time gifts require relationship development. For best results on how to develop relationships, see Step One.
Which core is the real core?
Nonprofits are all experiments of arrogance. None are finished products, nor should they be.
Championing a cause is an onion-peeling exercise of conceit, intended to solve hard problems.
Conceits share a common trait. When closely-held, personally-motivated core values are involved, arrogances can serve as both driver and hindrance. And they can save or kill your nonprofit.
Let’s say that you have a colleague who believes that the intention of a program speaks to the heart of the mission. But the program is costly, inefficient, and glorifies the colleague more than the nonprofit.
Your colleague’s investment is in a program that isn’t serving the mission. But your colleague is a charismatic leader who believes that the program just needs more of the organization’s limited resources to work.
Attack the program (and your colleague’s values) or let it be?
Just putting it out there…
I’ve been working with nonprofit arts organizations (mostly theaters) for most of the last twenty-six years. Executive/Managing Director for ten. Marketing and Development Director, too. Consultant for nineteen, the last two full-time.
Raised several million dollars (not by myself, of course!). Increased attendance by hundreds of thousands, mostly by engaging young people.
I’m now looking to regroup. Enhance one brilliant mission. Make life better.
I’m currently based in Seattle, so the I-5 corridor from greater Portland-BC would be optimal. Additionally, I’m very interested in relocating – but to the right place: Chicago, San Diego, Eastern Michigan, NY/NJ/PA, or DC would be fantastic (personal networks in those regions).
I don’t come cheap. But I’ve proven that I’m worth it.
All I need is a company looking for greatness; more than the sum of its programming.
Interested? Click here.
Technology, isolation, live theater, community, hope, and Vin Scully
Technology is not new. Nor is its ability to isolate. Man’s choice is to buy it and do so.
On a 1960s-era transistor radio, while there was an earphone jack, few used it. Sandy Koufax’ 1965 perfect game was accompanied by the hum of 29,139 transistors all tuned to Vin Scully, as if he were sitting in the adjacent seat.
Many people buy into that latest-thingamabob fervor and complain that they can’t meet people. And when they do, the people they meet seem incapable of a simple conversation. IMHO, peeps b txtg 511 & CBB w/PLU.
Live theaters have the wonderful capacity to bring people together. To share a purpose. To provide the capacity for strangers to personally interact. Not merely to entertain us, but to foment optimism. Do they? Or do they just put on plays?
Fair/Right/Just/Honest/Unbiased/Reasonable – Things Life Isn’t
I have a friend. Her name isn’t Penny. And no, it’s not me.
Penny ran a nonprofit. In fact, she has run a few, all successfully. She’s good at what she does. She has been responsible for a lot of success.
A single judgment error cost Penny her job. She didn’t steal, she didn’t kill anyone, nor did she have any negative board issues. She fell in love with a man who fell in love with her. Unfortunately, he worked for her. And the story made Page One.
Penny and Lincoln have been together for years. No wrongdoing was ever found, and, in fact, the organization exonerated her and paid her a healthy settlement. That made Page Thirty-Seven.
Penny hasn’t worked in years. Search firms steer clear. Search engines find front page news, not page Thirty-Seven news.
One size fits one.
I recently worked with a nonprofit theater company to find ways to increase its revenue. The assignment was through a parent volunteer organization. There were a slew of rules dictated by that organization, mostly leading to lots of pre-printed worksheets.
This is a longstanding theatrical outfit that’s doing fine, but outside the current audience and tiny board, there is little chatter. That was the issue.
Even the mission statement only described their activities. It did not define their goals.
The best project would have been to aim higher, enhance internal branding, and take steps to build a fan base (instead of audience). But that advice wasn’t allowed.
It’s too bad. Each nonprofit is unique. Leaders are too often drawn to uninspired project management tools because they’re easy, and obviously worked at some time for some company somewhere.
Really bad ideas for nonprofit arts boards!
- Be the “idea” person. Provide valuable insight. Have employees carry out those ideas in addition to their jobs. Give continual feedback at every board meeting.
- Eschew fundraising. It’s begging for money. You don’t beg.
- Make sure that your annual gala is the organization’s primary activity… above all else.
- Play “Pick Your Favorite Line Item” at the board meeting where the budget is approved. Spend forty-five minutes on depreciation, for example.
- Bring in consultants. Find ones with a single patented technique that works for every organization.
- Build a hierarchy. Successful corporations build hierarchies.
- Do not read anything sent to you before attending meetings. You’re there as the “idea” person, remember?
- Ensure that the company’s activities define the mission, not the other way around. Make sure that the mission contains the words, “fiscal responsibility.”
For success, do the opposite.
Related articles
When HR was H
If you’ve applied for a job in the last eight years or so, you’ve sent your resume to a bot. The bot sends you a disingenuous message thanking you for your interest, scans your resume for certain keywords, and decides in a blink of an eye whether to advance your candidacy.
Then, silence.
Often, you’ll never hear from that potential employer. Or you’ll hear something months later, after the job has been awarded (even if you were never in the running). As a final insult, you may even receive a happy letter exclaiming the virtues of the person that the company hired.
HR used to be “Personnel” and was only part of large corporations. Then it became an industry. Now, people are overwhelmed with responses. Hence the bot.
It’s not that hard to be human.
Is it?
