Term 3- Day 1- September 9th

 

After a month-long break to work on their scripts, the members return for the third and the final term of the lab which focuses on different aspects of creative production. 

Activities:

1. For today, we were joined by Vivek Madan, the executive producer of Indian Ensemble, in an interactive, informal class that included an introduction to the third term, setting up the expectations and clarifying doubts that the members might have on the ideas of production. 
2. Some handy tips that just organically emerged out of the discussion on pitching one’s work to a producer:

• Selling the idea works best as opposed to selling the work. It is the idea that’s bigger than all of us and that is what the audience takes away after the play, not the play itself. 
• Talking to new people, not just from the theatre community but from different disciplines, is always helpful. Who knows, an architect might be interested in making sets for your play!!
• Being honest while pitching (telling them which stage of the work are you in, what are the expectations, the financial planning, etc) is always better than bluffing. It is not just about the ethics of speaking the truth, but even as a producing strategy, bluffing does not work. 

1. Clarifying the roles of the production manager and the stage manager, the essential difference between them. While production manager takes care of more external things (emails, booking venues, managing the production, balancing the budget), the stage manager is responsible for things happening on stage (running of the show, handling the properties, dealing with the backstage crew, etc). 

Questions:

1. In the conversation, a debate ensued on this issue: should one form one’s own company at this stage, or should one make work individually? 

The question was approached from both sides. There are perks in having one’s own company-  it simplifies the process of applying for certain grants, for taking your play to festivals and for division of labour as the roles are clearly divided in a company. On the other hand, there are risks involved. One can get too caught up in forming and developing the company that the work itself is not given enough attention. It also, at times, becomes something of an identity-creator and an ego-booster. 

While there are no right or wrong answers, one needs cautiousness and one needs to tread carefully if one is forming one’s own company.