I have been reading with quite a bit of interest about the Broadway rendition of Spiderman.  As I am sure you are all aware this show suffered another set back this past week when during a preview performance an actor fell nearly 30 feet into the orchestra pit.   This combined with sprains and concussions can’t help but make me wonder if the producers are trying to garner attention that no amount of money could buy?   I don’t believe there was a major television network that hasn’t carried these stories. 60 Minutes did a piece on the $60 million (now rumored to be $65 million) production that featured the director Julie Taymor and Bono the music composer.  In that 60 minutes piece they had indicated that it will take $1 million a week to stage the production.  I can’t help but wonder how long it will take for the producers to recoup their investment while still covering all of the weekly costs.

Now I don’t know the inner workings of Broadway productions, but I can only assume there are additional revenue streams beyond tickets sales.   The simplest form of these may be things like show concession and souvenir sales to what I would imagine are the more lucrative like product marketing .

So here is the question… If you know you have to recoup your investor’s money and that in order to do this you’ve got to create a massive hype around the show but you can’t spend any more money doing it… How can you accomplish this?   I contend that you create delays that are filled with major drama…  The theatre going public not only gets to experience the drama of the production off the stage but you create so much hype and curiosity that you sell them a ticket to see the drama on the stage (and perhaps a new broken body part as a bonus).

Call me the cynical curmudgeon.

The AACT (American Association of Community Theatre) holds a biennial festival where community theatre groups participate in state, regional, and ultimately a national competition of one of their productions.  There are some strict rules and guidelines that are followed and you can find the details on the website link above.

Some of the guidelines include:

The production can be no longer that 60 minutes in length.  For “Cuckoo’s Nest” this required that the play be shortened.  An interesting thing in doing this revision is that the lines can not be changed they need to be removed.  This meant that the original “F’enheimer” and “GDs”, as director Yvonne A.K. Johnson referred to them, were reintroduced after being removed from the mainstage production.  The actual performance time turned out to be close to 57 minutes after the script revision.  Timing starts at the first sound cue.

The entire set, props, etc.. must fit into a 10′ square.  For me this was the most intriguing part.  When we entered the theatre there was a “box” on the stage.  It wasn’t really a box, but all of the backdrops, folded into a square. 

The cast has 10 minutes to setup and tear down the entire set.  For this production that 10′ “box” opened up and there was everything from the gurney, table and chairs to the TV and the ward overhead lights.  When they are prepared to begin all of the cast and crew were on the stage and they all had to be touching the box.  Once they were instructed to begin, the stage came to life, and in a matter of about 7 minutes we had a fully operational and tested set ready for the actors.  The teardown went even faster.  I think someone in the audience said it was something like 4 minutes to put the entire set back into the 10′ square.

It was a very enjoyable experience and it was evident that everyone really worked hard and took pride in the accomplishment.

So how did they do?  Of the 11 groups in the competition only 2 were are chosen to compete in the regional competition coming up in Coeur d’Alene.  Spokane was not one of the two… Those distinctions go to the Bremerton Community Theatre for the production of Overtones, and the Driftwood Players of Edmonds for their production of Minnesota Moon. 

The Spokane Civic came away from the festival with the following accolades:

• Stage Manager’s Award for Technical Excellence – Costume Crew
• Outstanding Achievement in Set and Lights

Congratulations on those achievements!!  You can see the complete list of awards on the WSCTA website.

I would encourage you all to get involved with your local community theatre.  You don’t have to be an actor, or even a volunteer.  Your attendance at the productions supports the continued efforts of your theatre groups.   If you happen to be in Spokane I would encourage you to check out the website for the Civic.