Reginald Nelson - How to Start Your Own Theater Company

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Nelson, Reginald.

How to start your own theater company / Reginald Nelson.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-55652-813-2

1. Theater managementUnited States. 2. TheaterProduction and directionUnited States. 3. Congo Square Theatre Company (Chicago, IL)

I. Title.

PN2291.N45 2010

792.023dc22 2009042271

Cover design: TG Design

Cover artwork: Antoine Savolainen, Images.com/Corbis

Interior design: Pamela Jurez

2010 by Reginald Nelson

Al rights reserved

Published by Chicago Review Press, Incorporated

814 North Franklin Street

Chicago, Ilinois 60610

ISBN 978-1-55652-813-2

Printed in the United States of America

5 4 3 2 1

For Mama

I can take any empty space and cal it a bare stage. A man walks across this empty space whilst someone else is watching him, and

this is al that is needed for an act of theatre to be engaged.

Peter Brook

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

I n 1988, upon graduating from Northwestern University, seven other former students and I started the Lookingglass Theatre Company in

Chicago. We had acted with and directed one another while at school and had come to share a common process and an aesthetic that we loved.

We wished to continue to develop this vision, longed to be able to support ourselves through our work, hoped to be celebrated, dreamed of

having our own theater, and were determined to be the Next Big Thing. We pooled our life savings, begged and borrowed, and began what was

to be the greatest chalenge of our artistic and professional lives: launching (and, more important, sustaining) a not-for-profit ensemble theater

company in arguably the most competitive city in the country.

In 2009 Lookingglass celebrated its 20th season, and its stil going strong. Weve created more than 50 original plays, al world premieres; toured

productions across the country; expanded our ensemble to more than 20 actors, writers, directors, and designers; and maintained a stable of

diverse artistic associates. Weve built a permanent home, a completely flexible, state-of-the-art black box theater in a historic building on

Michigan Avenue; grown our annual operating budget to more than $3 milion; cultivated a dedicated staff, a generous and passionate board of

directors, and an army of interns; and launched an outreach and education program that currently reaches and teaches 15,000 students a year.

I am proud of what we, as a company, have accomplishedbut I must confess that it was against unbelievable odds. The stories of financial crisis,

loss of faith, bitter disagreements, devastating reviews, horrific audience attendance, emergency room visits, and brink-of-disaster saves are too

numerous to detail. I cant tel you how many wonderful companies with untold potential we admired over the yearsthen watched as they

suddenly imploded or slowly dissolved, forced to fold, never to be heard from again. If only they (and we!) had had Reginald Nelsons terrific

guide to start off on the right foot.

This excelent how-to is a necessity for anyone out there crazy and brave enough to start a theater company. Its an essential, practical, candid,

inspiring, informative, and thoroughly entertaining manual.

I had the privilege of directing Reg in our companys production of Studs Terkels book Race: How Blacks and Whites Think and Feel About

the American Obsession, and let me just say hes one of the finest actors Ive ever known. Whats fantastic about Reg (and you can feel it in his

writing) is his confidence, tenacity, passion, generosity, talent, and inteligenceeach of which is absolutely essential to the success of a theater

company. If you possess these same attributes, then this bookand a little luckare al you need.

D AVID S CHWIMMER

INTRODUCTION

W hy open a theater company? Simple: so you can work. Every year, thousands of young people receive bachelor of arts or bachelor of fine

arts degrees in acting from more than 200 American coleges and universities. Theres even been an increase in young actors moving on to receive

their master of fine arts degrees from graduate theater programs as wel. I have a BFA from Howard University in Washington, D.C., and an MFA

from the University of Ilinois at Urbana-Champaign. By the time an actor leaves a program and attempts to gain employment at an established

theater, he or she has to wait behind a long list of alumni of that particular theater and pray that he or she serves the companys casting needs.

Trust me, nothings worse than salivating year after year over the hope that, at some point in its season, the Public, Guthrie, Goodman, Old Globe,

or Steppenwolf produces a play that you might be right for. If steady, inspiring work is what youre looking for, your best bet is to round up a

posse of peers and do work that speaks to you (and, more important, to an audience). For those of you who want to live your dream of being on

the stage, opening your own company is the way to go.

Thats exactly what I and a group of friends from undergraduate and graduate school did when we launched Congo Square Theatre Company in

the great city of Chicago in the fal of 2000. I was fortunate enough to have attended school with some very talented people, and it seemed natural

for al of us to continue working together. The best thing a young artist can do is create his or her own aesthetic, and established organizations have

little patience for green actors who are stil trying to find themselves. Major theaters spend big money on their productions, and they have a very

limited margin of error to waste on an inexperienced actor. If youre going to fal on your face in the beginning of your career, its best to do it in

front of 60 seats instead of 600.

I wrote this book to give you a shot at living your dream of becoming a professional performer. As the founding board president and former

managing director of Congo Square, I know firsthand what it takes to lift a theater company off the ground. The book is a business plan for actors

by an actor; its intended to give you the play-by-play on how to attack your theater endeavor with vision, integrity, and passion. In these pages

youl find advice on which jobs offer the most flexibility and how to set up a corporation, develop a board of directors, and choose a mission

statement. Finaly, youl learn what its like to manage an organization as I take you through the highs and lows of the first three seasons of Congo

Square, including a high-profile colaboration with the renowned Steppenwolf Theatre Company.

In the five years I was there running the company, we went from a $15,000-a-year organization to a $200,000-a-year operationcomplete with

two ful-time staff members, two part-time assistants, and a large, permanent, fuly equipped office. From the outset, those were my goals as a

founder: to raise enough funds to sustain the theater, to provide paid positions, and to create community awareness of the company in a short

period of time so I would no longer have to work as an administrator but could focus solely on acting instead. In other words, my goal was to

establish a stable, professional company and work within it.

The most common reasons that new theater companies fold are a lack of serious artistic focus and fiscal mismanagement. This book discusses