Management

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The issue of business—also known as survival. How do you manage your career, your theater company, your board of directors, your marketing, your calendar? How do you use development and marketing to make more and better art? How do handle all the nuts and the bolts—and the "nuts"? See if we can manage to cover this topic without boring you.

Administrative artists

by Kathleen Spehar-Hansen • Dec. 22

Management

Theater is collaborative, but the economy is competitive. Kathleen Spehar-Hansen tries to find balance in service to the community.

Space for rent

by MinnesotaPlaylist • Nov. 3

Management

Specs and contact information for twenty good rehearsal spaces.

$hiny object$

by Matthew Foster • Dec. 21

Audience | Management

Before they’ll buy a ticket, your audience wants to see that you’re competent. Welcome to graphic design.

Surviving in Minnesota

by Rick Shiomi • Jan. 7

Management

How has Minnesota welcomed Asian-American artists? How does Mu Performing Arts intend to survive and prosper in this crisis?

The good, the bad, and the ugly

by Kathy Graves • Jan. 18

Management

Our industry is better able than most to think outside the box. That will serve us well.

Direction home

by David Mann • Jan. 18

Management

Go to Hollywood to be a movie star. Go to New York for a Broadway smash. But if you want to develop your craft, stay here.

Script work

by Polly Carl • Jan. 18

Management | Vision

In a nonprofit world that has adopted too many Wall Street values, all this exciting new work out there gets squeezed off the stage.

Surviving the crisis

by Rick Shiomi • Jan. 22

Management

How does Mu Performing Arts plan to stay the course during this financial crisis?

The plan

by Scott Mayer • Jan. 18

Management

Ivey Award founder Scott Mayer won’t let the economic crisis get him down. How and where does he see a chance we all want to seize?

Interview with Dominique Serrand

by MinnesotaPlaylist • Jan. 21

Management | Vision

From religion to Minnesota's Legacy Amendment to health care reform, one of the forces behind Jeune Lune speaks.

Just wondering

by Camille LeFevre • Jan. 25

Management

Long-time dance critic Camille LeFevre shares what she wonders about the coming year in dance. Questions, questions, questions.

System error

by Leah Cooper • Jan. 29

Management

The board president's moping. The actor's angry. The audience is harassed, and the managing director's thinking of hitting someone with an auction clipboard.

The press release

by Alan M. Berks • Feb. 2

Criticism | Management

Don't give reporters reason to curse you. Make sure your press release spreads word of your show, easy and smooth.

The follow-up

by Alan M. Berks • Feb. 8

Criticism | Management

Some journalists will tell you that they haven't got time to answer their phones. Call them anyway.

Using the tubes

by Matthew Foster • Feb. 22

Criticism | Management

Two rules for online media: If you build it, they won't come, and everything will take more labor than you think. Scared? Don't worry. There are options.

360 degrees

by Steve Antenucci • Mar. 5

Management | Process

Theatre in the Round's Steve Antenucci describes how to grudge, kick and scream your way to a season.

Multi-theater complex

by Tom Hoch • Mar. 11

Management

Three historic theaters to program, 5800 seats to fill, and a city to please. Find out why you can see Wicked one night and Gordon Lightfoot the next.

Subscriber basics

by Michael-jon Pease • Mar. 15

Management

The nonprofit theater subscriber has been around since the regional theater movement began. Can they survive in a new economy? Should they? Why and why not?

Mom, I got news for you...

by Victoria Stewart • Nov. 3

Innovation | Management

No wacky playwright, living on absinthe and cobwebs, is Victoria Stewart. No regular paycheck or stability has she either.

Mission speaks

by Jack Reuler • May. 20

Innovation | Management

The conventional wisdom says that new work is too hard to produce successfully. Mixed Blood's Artistic Director Jack Reuler begs to differ.

Pay my rent

by Alan M. Berks • Jun. 28

Management | Vision

It's never going to work as long as landlords get more grant money than artists.

Small theaters everywhere

by MinnesotaPlaylist • Jul. 20

Management

By the mid-90s, the Twin Cities suddenly appeared to be crawling with scrappy, spunky, young, and tiny independent new theaters. Carolyn Pool dove right in.

The "Culture Wars" explained, finally

by MinnesotaPlaylist • Nov. 3

Management

From the birth of the NEA to the battle fields in Minnesota, Patrick Scully explains the "Culture Wars" coherently, vividly, and quickly.

More than cabaret

by MinnesotaPlaylist • Jul. 23

Innovation | Management

How do you put politics into dance? Or build a queer-identified space where straights feel welcome? Why do it at all? Patrick Scully answers

The Matchmaker

by Casey Greig • Nov. 2

Management | Vision

Is the solution to an actor’s career woes found in an old system? Casey Greig calls it patronage but you might think it's another old word that starts with 'p.'

Always difficult

by Wendy Knox • Nov. 2

Management | Vision

Artistic survival is always a challenge. How much harder does it become when your entire mission is to agitate against what comes too easily?

In case of emergency

by MinnesotaPlaylist • Nov. 9

Management

Don't panic. Organizations and programs exist to help performing artists survive difficult times. Use this brief reference guide in case of emergency.

You are here

by Idris Goodwin • Nov. 9

Management | Vision

Do you need to be in a "good theater town" to make good theater? An award-winning playwright tries to build his career in more remote locations.

Fantasy job

by Tim Uren • Nov. 16

Management

How do are you supposed to play this game? When will you know if you win? Sometimes you earn points in the most unexpected places.

Letter to a young actor in Minnesota

by Karen Landry Mulkey • Feb. 7

Management | Training

Want to be more involved in the film world? Read this letter from actress Karen Landry Mulkey with invaluable advice on making the move to Los Angeles.

What I learned from Bab's Casting

by Alan M. Berks • Feb. 10

Management | Training

What does a performing artist need to know about the casting process for commercial work? What has changed or not changed in the last 21 years?

Playing conference rooms for fun and profit

by David Mann • Apr. 13

Management | Social Service

David Mann has been able to make a living in the corporate world. By actually teaching them how to be more like the theater people.

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Performance programs: Keep, toss or archive?

by Camille LeFevre • Mar. 6

Management

Camille LeFevre on the Performing Arts Archives at the U, which is where her performance programs should be.

The perils and promises of social media

by Sarah Rattanavong-Wash • Apr. 3

Management

Sarah Rattanavong-Wash investigates whether social media really builds audiences.

The Ins and Outs of a Two-Actor, Two-Child Household; Or, We Stand Alone Together

by Caleb and Katy McEwen • Jun. 13

Management

Katy & Caleb McEwen admit how they balance family and work life.

“Everybody” is not the audience: Marketing as creative work

by Kathy Graves • Jun. 24

Management

Artists develop lasting connections with audiences and donors by authentically representing themselves

To be or not to be... Paid, that is.

by Beth Chaplin • Jun. 28

Management

How do we price our worth – our work, time, talent, experience and expertise?

Occupied!

by John Middleton • Oct. 16

Management

Wall Street, politics and a word for our sponsors.

Suggestion box

by Alan M. Berks • Jan. 2

Criticism | Innovation | Management

We're considering a major redesign of the website in the coming months. Now is your chance to send us your suggestions.

Amateurs, academics, and money

by Alan M. Berks • Feb. 6

Management

In the first essay in a series, we take a look at how economics effects artistic output.

Markets making art ill

by Alan M. Berks • Mar. 26

Management | Vision

You should blame mediocre theater on economics. But not for the reasons you think.

Running with swords

by Jena Young • Jun. 3

Management | Production

A comic/dancer/director/actor/improvisor/fight choreographer/mother explains how her performer hyphens improve her parenting

Looks like you made it?

by Tom Lommel • Jul. 1

Management | Vision

Actor/writer Tom Lommel talks about 'making it' in LA

Five tax mistakes actors make

by Mark Bradley • Feb. 24

Management

Actor, author and accounting expert Mark Bradley wants to help his fellow thespians avoid audits and maybe even get a few bucks back this tax season.

Life after Mu

by Rick Shiomi • May. 8

Management

Our look at transitions in local theater continues as outgoing Mu Performing Arts Artistic Director Rick Shiomi looks to his freelance future.