Theatre

  • Is It Working?

    The costumes are stunning. The set is beautifully built. The lighting is just right. And for a few minutes, it all works. But then… something seems a little off. It’s not obvious. Nothing is wrong, exactly. The lines are there. The movement is there. The scene keeps going. But it doesn’t quite land. A moment…

  • Trust the Plan

    There’s a moment, or several, in every rehearsal process when the plan starts to feel heavy. The schedule looked reasonable on day one. The pacing made sense. The breaks were in the right places. Everyone could see how it would all come together by opening night. And then somewhere in the middle – when energy…

  • Seeing Your Audience

    Small numbers can feel smaller online – because we can’t see the people. A view is just a number. So is a registration count. So is a little heart or a quiet click. On a screen, they can flatten quickly, stripped of context, easy to dismiss. “Only nine views.”“Only thirty people.”“Only fifty showed up.” Somewhere…

  • The Road to OFTS

    Outrageous Fortune isn’t the usual name for a tech company. But then again, this hasn’t been the usual road. The name comes from Shakespeare’s Hamlet: “Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them.” To…

  • Don’t Quit in Act 2

    Generally speaking, in theatre, most stories follow a three-act structure or format. There’s usually a beginning, a middle, and an end. Boy meets girl. Boy loses girl. Boy gets girl back – or maybe girl moves to New York without him. The finale is what gets the fanfare and applause. But there’s a lot of…

  • Business Tech Week

    For those of you who haven’t lived through it, one of the most intense phases in the life of a theatre production is the dreaded tech week. Once a show is selected and the team’s mostly aligned on design decisions, everyone splits off to work on their part: Throughout it all, the director and stage…

  • Just Do the Thing

    I was talking with a friend the other day, and she was telling me that she had submitted something she had written for publication but was a little disappointed that it had been respectfully declined. She is also a theatre person and we immediately agreed it was good she had submitted because you just never…

  • Bobblehead Will

    When working on websites, the importance of good pictures and artwork can’t be emphasized enough. It’s one of the first things I talk about with new clients – stock photos are ok, but originals are such a great opportunity to show style and personality. Anyway, when the time came to update my own website, I…