How To Produce And Off-Off Broadway Play

New York theater can be a daunting place for a new producer. But, if you understand a few things, you can do quite well. Broadway is the place of the million-dollar commercial production. Off-Broadway is where you can produce a slightly cheaper play but not too cheap. Plus, Off-Broadway plays usually are less commercial, having an edge or being experimental. Off-off Broadway, however, is friendly to new producers in that plays can be put up quite on the cheap. This can mean pennies on the dollar up to ten of thousands of dollars. There are many factors to consider. You probably won't make money at this level but if you are starting out, this may be the place you want to be.

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.

Next, you should pick a location for your play. Off-off Broadway theaters are located all over New York. The factors you should consider are price, location and size. Price obviously depend son your budget, location depends on the audience you want to attract, uptown, downtown, Brooklyn, etc. And size depends on how much publicity you can do to bring in audience or the scope of the play itself.

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.

Now you have to dress the stage. This doesn't just mean on the stage but above it with lights and around it with sounds, etc. If you are innovative, you can find inexpensive ways to do this. I produced a play where we acquired crystal jewelry wholesale in large quantities for props. We got a great deal.

You don't have a play without an audience. To get one, you can place ads, call radio stations and get listed in the paper - often for free. Or you can hire a professional who will create and ad campaign, contact reviewers to attend the production and get the word out to bring an audience in. For one play I produced, an actor donated an Ibanez electric guitar that we raffled off and that gimick brought in some more audience.

So, if you or your friends or your family have a little extra money to lose, you too can put up a play in New York Off-off Broadway. Don't think you will make any money the first time out because you probably won't. But, if you get people in the seats and they like it, especially critics, you can be on your way to becoming a big time Broadway producer some day.

Tags: off-broadway play, producing