Planning For Your Success Part 1

Planning For Your Success Part 1

by | Nov 19, 2018 | Inspiration

We’ve all heard the phrase “Failing to plan is planning to fail.”

What does that mean for us as we begin to think ahead for 2019?

I am a spring/summer person. Born in May, spring not only gives us flowers, warmth, sunlight and new life, but brings along the promise of summer. Summer is fun, vacation, endless sunny days with warm weather spent on the beach or on the back porch with a good book. It means barbeques and volleyball and picnics and time spent enjoying yourself with friends and family.

Then there’s fall…..

Fall is glorious, but it’s the last rallying of nature before the final cycle of winter sets in. It’s taken me many years to appreciate the gifts of winter, and I admit I’m still not totally there. If only life could be an endless summer (without moving to FL or CA)! But since I’m speaking metaphorically, winter is part of our life cycle experience. Like sleep, it’s meant for the renewal of life in order to move forward.

I can appreciate that, and incorporate winter’s lessons to rally my own internal resources. I’ve learned to grow as an artist and as a person in the beautiful respite from the daily hustle called “winter break.”

You know what I mean; it’s when everyone seems to shut down regular life to turn their attention to what really matters. The holidays, close friends, family, introspection. Meditation. Winter’s darkness encourages quiet evenings at home in pursuit of comfort, reading, and taking care of ourselves and our loved ones.

 

What Gifts Are You Giving to Yourself?

 

Amidst the holiday bustle is a parallel intention of showing and giving love to those we love the most.

Are you on your own love list? What gift can you give to yourself this season to show love to yourself? Do you think about that? For many years I was last on my own list, if I even made the list at all.

My love for my family and friends is so strong that I struggle with what to give them. I never have had the resources to truly give the gifts that would help the most: payment for a year of college, a decent car to drive, a clean bill of health from their doctor. Instead I try to create a beautiful family memory of love and connection, and give what I can to surprise and delight them within my budget.

What “dream gift” could you offer yourself this year? What gift given to yourself could surprise and delight you the most? You have the capacity to envision an amazing year for yourself right now, so that this time next year you can acknowledge the gift with gratitude and love. You have the power to give yourself an amazing 2019!

 

The Power of Pre-Paving

 

What if you had the magical ability to write out a scene – and poof! – it would actually happen?

You have that power. Creatively envisioning your future, or scripting out your experience, isn’t exactly magic, but comes darn close.

if you were a character in a play, what would you write for your 2019?

Let’s get to work here and take action.

It may take some time, so I’ve built this series over four blog posts to digest at your leisure over the holidays week by week.

 

Step 1: Your Stasis

 

As every writer knows, the “world of the play” needs to be established first in order for the audience to understand the setting, time period, the main characters in the play and their basic motivations at the beginning. We need to see onstage where the characters live and breathe and see their place in their world.

So, where are you right now?

YOU are the main character in your own play. You know where you live, the culture and times within which you live. You understand how you live and breathe and “have your being” within your own world, and understand your basic motivations and needs. You need to live, have a purpose, make money somehow, be connected to a community or family, etc.

BUT your main character (you) also needs a BIG DREAM to propel themselves into the future (and the rest of the story).

What is your big dream?

What is your super-objective that is big enough to overcome tremendous obstacles and give you the internal power to go the distance? What does “go the distance” even mean to you?

Let’s get to work.

This is going to require some homework from you. Most of my script coaching clients love it when I give them homework and deadlines – it keeps them honest to themselves, to do the thing that may not be done if they didn’t need to hand it in to me! So stay true to yourself and actually do the work, not just “think” the work.

Step 1 is to find an hour a day, preferably at the very beginning or very end of the day, to sit with yourself and give yourself a priceless gift – the delivery of your own dream.

 

Your homework for the week is to understand your hero.

Understand that you are the Hero in your own play.

  • What does your hero look like?
  • How does he or she dress? (I’ll use the feminine going forward since I identify female, but guys, feel free to substitute!)
  • What does their home look like? Where do they work?
  • Do they live alone, or with people? Who are they? What are they like?
  • What do they wake up and do every day?
  • What do they eat on a regular basis?
  • What is their primary emotional experience?
  • Did your hero make certain decisions to arrive where they are at the beginning of the play (now)?
  • Is your Hero living her own life, or a life centered around others?
  • Does your hero experience any pain on a regular basis?
  • When your hero looks into the mirror, is she happy with what she sees? What is her internal dialogue?

Write It Out

Script out your character’s internal dialogue this week, all week, for at least a half an hour each day. Try to keep to the hour as a daily discipline.

  • If you’ve ever tried this exercise you know how much you’ll discover about your characters. Here we’re doing a modified version of the mirror exercise and automated writing techniques in order to get at your Hero’s core.
  • If you resist – and you may – just use this time for quiet meditation (which I swear by myself, since daily meditation has changed my life).
  • At a certain point during the week you’ll switch gears and begin to envision your Hero with her dreams for the future. This is good! You are getting to her DDD (deep driving desires) that will propel her action forward into the rest of the play.

That’s it!

As you explore the external world of your Hero (your own outside world), at some point you’ll click into her own deepest desires. You’ll learn what excites her, what revs up her engines in life and what doesn’t. You’ll see things that she resists, that exhaust her, and that she just doesn’t want to do any more.

Then stop.

Exist in this exercise all week, observing your main character’s world and her participation in it. Get to know her internal world as she looks into the mirror. See what she sees.

Write it down without editing anything out. That’s important – you want your character to be honest with you. Write it all down, the good, the bad and everything in between.

Have fun with this, be disciplined in meeting yourself every day for an hour, and get set for Part 2 next Thursday.

Have a great week!

The Fine Art of Collaboration

The Fine Art of Collaboration

by | Nov 7, 2018 | Dramaturgy, Producing, Theater

What are the steps to finding and maintaining a great creative team?

 

Putting together a collaborative creative team is more of an art than most people realize, especially for a musical.

After having experienced both good and not so good collaborations, it all boils down to a commitment to the process and an inherent respect for the other’s contributions.

 

Ask for Referrals

 

First, look for someone who is not only experienced but also capable, knowledgeable and dependable. Many experienced people are so overbooked with projects that they don’t always have as much time and energy to contribute to yours as they would like.

I strongly suggest that you first seek word of mouth recommendations from people you know and trust. (Putting out a request for referrals on Facebook is fine). You can also check out resources from professional associations, do an internet search, or use other available sources like those found on MusicalWriters.com or Theater Resources Unlimited.

 

Do Your Research

 

Before you contact anyone, make sure you do your own research.

Ask yourself questions like:

  • Has this person worked on shows similar to mine in the past? Do your own due diligence and find out all you can about their experience. Ask others in the industry about them if possible, or check their contacts on LinkedIn.
  • Does this person have a network that may be interested in and may help my show’s progress? Do they work with key level producing organizations or directors that may be interested in my work? They may be willing to introduce you.
  • Do I believe they have the level of experience that I could trust to help me move my show forward?

 

Schedule an Interview

 

Narrow your possibilities down and start communicating by email, and set up an interview in person or over Skype or Zoom.

Always trust your instincts. Some things to discover:

  • Does this person have passion for your project?
  • Do they listen to your ideas eagerly, or politely?
  • Do they offer what they believe is a “better” idea, or jump on board with your ideas?
  • Are they prepared for the interview, and bring in their visions or ideas to you?

 

Twice when interviewing a potential director, candidates came in with a book of images and other printed material to show us that excited them. This preparation got them the job, and they were terrific.

Finally, remember to make this first step a short “coffee date,” not a LTR. Have the goal to collaborate with them for a specific reading, workshop, etc., not the goal to get to Broadway together. That’s too huge a commitment! Start first with the intention of, “I like you pretty well, let’s see how it goes.”

Take it step by step.

 

Be Part of a Community

 

Theater is all about community and relationships, and authentic friendships sometimes create wonderful collaborations. Keep networking online here at CreateTheater, go to theater conferences and galas, join your regional Dramatist Guild chapter or participate in local theater events near you. Meet people and talk about your work.

In the end, it’s all about the work. Remember the improvisation mantra, “Yes, and…..?” Always respect each other’s creative ideas, get excited about adding in your own and stay focused.

The art of the theatre is all about creative collaboration.

What Do Producers Look For in a Script?

What Do Producers Look For in a Script?

by | Nov 18, 2017 | Broadway, Theater

What Do Producers Look For in a Script?

From Page to …

You’ve finished writing your script, held a few readings and incorporated the feedback, and worked with a dramaturg. Maybe you’ve even had a showcase production of your show and have a website up with clips to prove it.

Now you need someone to help you take it to the next level!

Where’s a producer when you need one?

The Writer-Producer Relationship: First Steps

 

The writer-producer relationship is a special marriage of business savvy, creative vision and aesthetic resonance. Somehow your play must powerfully connect in some way to the producer’s psyche, to his “mission” as a producer, in order for him (or her) to go out and raise the kind of money that is needed for production. A producer must BELIEVE in your work and in your voice as a writer.

How do you as a playwright connect with producers?

  • Get to know producer’s tastes by studying what s/he has already produced and email them a synopsis of your script
  • Study regional theaters to find out the personality of the artistic director, and look for patterns that emerge when you compare their past seasons
  • Network through local theaters, the Dramatist Guild, Fringe Festivals, theater meetups, and CreateTheater masterminds, courses and Facebook Live groups.
  • Attend readings and workshops as much as possible, then stay and talk to people. Their connections can become your connections.

What Are Producers Looking For?

All producers are different and look for different things. I’ve asked a few of my friends what they look for in a new script.

Patrick Blake, Off-Broadway producer (The Exonerated, In The Continuum, Play Dead, 39 Steps) and Founding Artistic Director of Rhymes Over Beats Theater Collective

There are only so many stories, and they have been told dozens if not hundreds of times. What I look for is how fresh or stylistically interesting they are.

Daryl Sledge, Off-Broadway producer (Fried Chicken and Latkes, My Father’s Daughter)

 

What attracts me about a script is how well-written and how “produceable” it can be. For instance, what I look for are projects that have very few actors, very few settings and costume changes. That way you can keep your budget down … and it should be commercial. It should have acting opportunities for superb actors. I’m looking for things that challenge us, that set the mark for today, that say something about the type of society that we live in today. I’m looking forward to producing scripts from new writers that we’ve never heard from before that challenge us – that challenge us to be better people, better Americans, better citizens of the world. I’m looking for projects that really resonate with people today that will also bring in a new audience.

 

Jeremy Handleman, Tony Award-nominated Broadway (On The Town) and Off-Broadway producer (Fking Up Everything, White’s Lies)

 

The first thing that’s important to me is that I have to be emotionally affected by the material. That sounds rather basic, but not every script is going to move me and maybe something that doesn’t move me is going to move somebody else. So it has to be the right fit between the material and the producer. I also have a couple of other initial filters that are specific for me, which is that I tend to be drawn to character-driven work. Since I am a commercial producer, there has to be some gut level feeling that I have that there is a commercial path to this even if I don’t quite know what it is at this point. My third filter is whether the writer or the writing team a person or a group of people who I feel good about the possibility of working with, because possibly this is a relationship that could go on for years and years and years, so that relationship has to be strong.

 

Michael Alden, Tony Award winning Broadway (Come From Away, Disgraced, Grey Gardens, Bridge and Tunnel) and Off-Broadway producer (Not That Jewish, Becoming Dr. Ruth, Bat Boy, The Last Session)

 

First of all you want to find good writing, but the thing that intrigues me the most is stories about misunderstood outsiders. People that are having a hard time either finding themselves in their own community or being understood by their community. So the shows that I’ve done in the past speak to either about a child or the child inside of you that’s seemingly isn’t being connected with what’s going on around you, or not being understood by what’s going on around you. So that’s why I like Grey Gardens or Bat Boy the Musical. That’s what speaks to me.

 

Cate Cammarata, Off-Broadway producer (The Assignment) and Associate Artistic Director of Rhymes Over Beats Theater Collective

 

As a producer I’m looking for a script with a strong female protagonist that challenges an audience and inspires them and gives them some kind of a fresh idea, a new thought that maybe they never had before.

 

CreateTheater is about Connections

 

Join our email list and start making connections with producers, general managers, playwrights and other theater industry professionals. We need to hear YOUR voice.

Comment in the section below and contact us on Facebook and Twitter.

Come network online with us – and CREATE THEATER.

Welcome to CreateTheater

Welcome to CreateTheater

by | Nov 5, 2017 | Theater

Connection is the Currency of the 21st Century!

I am so excited to launch CreateTheater, the online community for theater professionals.

What would it be like to be able to meet other working theater artists online? To take classes, join in industry seminars and network like you know you should, and to find your creative “tribe”?

One of my core beliefs is that connection is the currency of the 21st century. 

And those connections can be made online. 

I’m Cate Cammarata, a producer, director and dramaturg, and I know this: the internet was developed for one main purpose, to make connections. Connections with ideas, connections to new resources, and connections between people. But as a theater artist, I often find that traditional ways to make connections are difficult, online or off. Yet we all understand the necessity of networking, of finding a community of people you know and trust, where you feel like you belong. That sense of home, of belonging, is usually what got us into the theater in the first place.

But where are all of these people? And where can I meet them?

Your Social Network: Beyond LinkedIn

If you’re a playwright, even with a social connection or an introduction, it’s hard to get people to read your scripts. How do you meet producers? How do you know what they want?

If you’re a producer or director, where’s that next play that resonates with you? Where’s that new voice that needs to be developed? And where’s the theater willing to join you in that development?

CreateTheater is a way of getting out there and meeting other theater artists – right from your own home. It’s a place to find your creative community, for collaboration, for spreading ideas, learning and meeting other theater people online. It’s a way to connect playwrights with producers, directors and artistic directors, librettists with composers and music directors, in order to make theater happen. It’s your online space for networking with other working theater artists.

It’s Not What You Know, But Who You Know

This truth certainly predates the internet. It holds a lot of truth, though. Statistics show that people rate their personal connections, both professional and personal, as the most effective means of finding jobs. And we’re told that we are an average of the five people we spend the most time with.

You know you need to be a self-starter. You have to be out there. Finding ways to meet the “right” people, to drum up interest in you and your work, is necessary so that your script doesn’t arrive “unsolicited” on a producer’s desk. You have to create your own opportunities.  You have to introduce yourself to the right people. You need to network.

Your social network is the web of connections you have with the people you know, and the people they know, and so on. Social networking is the effort you make to create and maintain relationships within that social network, to move you ahead in your career.

But deeper bonds are forged in true community. Community is formed when a group of people share the same beliefs and have the same goals. Community offers us a home, where we are accepted unconditionally for being who we are. It offers us a sense of belonging, of safety, of being truly “home.” 

Connections Form Community

Today around seven in ten Americans use social media to connect with one another, to engage in news content, to share information and entertain themselves. People hold meetings and classes online, collaborate over apps and search for their soulmates on their cell phones. Let’s use that power of the internet to create theater.

Join us in making this theater community come alive. We’re producers, general managers, playwrights, directors, artistic directors, entertainment attorneys and other industry experts who are passionate about this art and moving it forward into the 21st century.

Let’s translate this social currency into creating theater! Sign up for our emails and join in the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Post your comments below.

I look forward to meeting you and hearing more about your work!

Denial is not just a river….

Denial is not just a river….

by | Feb 8, 2016 | Theater

Money.  There.  I said it.

As much as I try to avoid it, everything comes back to one thing: money.

As artists that’s a dirty word.  Our art, our mission, is what’s important.  It’s our life’s work, our passion, what means more to us than anything in the world.  And we’re right – our art IS the most important thing that gives meaning to our lives.

But we are composed not just of spirit, but body.  And that body needs to eat, to be warm, to be refreshed, just as much as any stock broker, engineer, or doctor.  No value judgements on what we each contribute (which is significant, speaking as an artist).  The plain bare bones facts are that artists can’t starve – they have to eat too.

Just as important – artists have to sell their art to create the significance both their body and spirit need.  Engaging an audience and getting our message through to them is at the heart of our art.  But it’s a constant struggle.

Rule of Engagement

The truth is, there are no rules to find the money you need to get your art, your show, out there.  And if someone tells you there is, a quick google search will prove them wrong.  Ingenuity trumps all rules every time.  But the reality is, if you don’t make the effort your play will wither on your hard drive or your heart and be buried faster than my car in this current blizzard.

Since this topic is at the top of my pre-frontal cortex now as a creative producer, artist, and as human being, I think it’s a topic worth exploring.  The mission of this blog is to Create Theater, and raising money is a major challenge to that in the current economy.

Raising Money for Theater is necessary.  Nobody likes it!

The next few posts will delve into raising money both as a non-profit, for a commercial venture, and as a mixed hybrid of both.  So stay tuned, and let me know your thoughts.  This isn’t meant to be a monologue, but an dialogue – or maybe an improvisation!