Clients sometimes wonder what I need to do my job well for their company, their show. The quick answer is I will take any info you have to share as more is better than less. The companies I’ve worked with in the past few months have helped shape this list by being amazingly nimble, quick to permit and helpful – there was a genuine sense of teamwork on getting the word out about their show. It wasn’t just my job, or just their job, it was our job.
The longer list form is, as a starter:
- your show description. In all forms, including what you said about the project in your funding proposal. Yes, I know that it’s written in grant-speak. I am fluent in that.
- names of everyone involved. Cast, crew, creative, designers, administrators. And at least one thing that makes them awesome. They must be – you’ve hired them.
- photos/images. any and all. Headshots, phone pics of rehearsals, production stills, the poster image, the outtakes of the poster image shoot – all of them as soon as possible. Bios as well please. This is the start of my collateral.
- your social media. Not necessarily the keys to the car, but I need to know how often you post things and where. It also gives me a sense of your posting aesthetic. We can talk about permissions at another time.
- a contact list, including your box office person, and your point person wherever you are rehearsing and performing
- to be on the distribution list for the dailies. To be able to stop by rehearsals.
- discussion about posters and postcards and shelter ads and print ads and program ads and who and where and what they’ll be. and then a discussion about what else we’re going to do in addition to those things
- decisions and quick turnarounds on approvals. Someone once said you either need to have a lot of time or a lot of money to do things, and odds are good we don’t have a lot of either.
- commitment to the schedule. Many folks are still under the misguided impression that social media is all whenever you feel like it whimsy. Sure it is. Those are the filler posts. What you’re not seeing is a finely tuned editorial calendar that is set to coincide with posts and tweets and e-newsletters and shares and hashtags and reviews and events and pull quotes and reciprocals and cross promos and interviews and video. It’s all intertwined. And very much planned.
- in case that one was a bit scary, I’ll add to it a sense of fun. Willingness to go a bit further than you expected. And willingness to trust. We’re all in this together.
I might come back and add this to this post at a later time when I think of more things. I’m tired today having spent spent my evening searching for clues and maps, getting and sending texts from and to mysterious organizations, meeting an equally mysterious man in an alley way and participating in a supernatural ritual. It was an excellent night overall, made some new friends and went to bed – after I washed the blood out of my hair.
This is all to say that when Visitations remounts you need to go and see it. Rather, you need to go experience it and be prepared to play. Great work from the folks at Mission Business. I hope more folks start doing theatre like this if for no other reason than people who are not in our industry attend it. They’ve gotten a new audience. Well done. Thanks for the experience.
Photo from Mission Business Facebook Page
