This week was the final Future Producer masterclass session and we went out with a bang with presentations from three brilliant producers Matthew Austin from MAYK, Katherine Jewkes from National Theatre Wales and independent producer Sarah Warden.
Matthew shared a great blog post from Deborah Pearson, who is one of the Artistic Directors of Forest Fringe in Edinburgh. When asked what a producer does she says….
Back in December 2006 I had a meeting with the now artistic director of a theatre in the UK. I told them that I had been invited to curate a series of events at the Forest Café in August of 2007, that I was considering taking it on as my Practical Dissertation for the Master’s I was doing, but that I was terrified by the idea of producing. I had no idea what I was doing. They looked at me for a moment, leaned forward, and said, “Debbie, let me let you in on a secret. Nobody knows what they’re doing. 90% of Producing is Blagging it.”
To do list – August 23rd, 2011
– Speak on a panel for Fuel – try to answer the question “What does a producer do?”
– Speak on a panel for Central about “Making the case for Innovation.” Try to make the case.
– Pay STK Airport Invoice
– Deposit donations
– Update Budget and check on running totals
– Check-in on Total Theatre bookings for Tania’s piece.
– Move chairs.
– Pick up rubbish and keep lounge/office tidy
– Upload videos for “Save the Forest Campaign” and post them on youtube
– Proof read “Save the Forest” press release and send back to Ryan Van Winkle
– Count chairs and consider seating configuration for Daniel Kitson benefit
– Respond to emails
– Help Lucy with her installations
– Chase Gary about invoicing me.
– Check on Ira and Andy.
– Check on myself.
I became a producer because I wanted to see an alternative to the way that work was presented at the Edinburgh Festival, and I was given an opportunity to help create that alternative. Aside from this Artistic Director’s early advice, nobody told me how. My only perspective was the perspective of an artist. And this is where my advice comes from. Dare to imagine the best possible context and circumstances in which to present your work. Imagine the person who would facilitate this project. What traits would they have? Would they be warm and supportive, hardlined and organized, flexible but structured? Once you’ve answered these questions, go out and try to create that context, try to be that person. Here’s a guarantee – you will fuck up a bit. You won’t always succeed. You will probably put more things than you can complete on daily to-do lists. Focus on those individual tasks deliberately, one thing at a time. And then just keep going until somebody notices what you’re up to. Do this for long enough and eventually you will be asked to be on a producer’s panel. And you’ll know what a producer does. Just about.
Matthew then went on to share his own list of pointers, which I think brilliantly sums up what we have tried to shared through this summer programme of masterclasses and workshops. All that is now left to do if for our Future Producers to get on with the business of producing….watch this space!
Matthew’s top tips:
- Be an enthusiast – see as much as you can, get involved in things, don’t just restrict yourself to the artform in which you work
- Always admit when you don’t know the answer to something – it’s much better than trying to fudge your way through something
- Don’t panic about money. It’s only numbers on a spreadsheet.
- Make sure you have time to think
- Say yes to everything for a few months
- If you smell a rat, stay away. If a project or a job doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t
- Ask the big people – you’d be surprised who agrees to meet you for a coffee
- Never think you can do everything
- Surround yourself with friends and collaborators who can do the things you can’t do
- Don’t ever get seduced by the comfort of administrating or organising the thing you’re supposed to be doing.
- Try and compartmentalise. If one aspect of a project is going wrong, don’t let it take over. Acknowledge there’s a problem and find a way to solve it, but don’t let it drag the rest of the project into a vortex of panic
- Know your audience
- Always try and think of a different way of doing something
- Always ask why
- Be brave
- Be open to ideas
- Be a good listener
- Be a good collaborator
- Get good at spotting an opportunity and taking advantage of it
- Be willing to play the long game
- Be willing to muck in
- Be nice
- Have a sense of humour