 At the booking group Steven got sick Texted me this morning and said I'm in bed sick, but I'll come if you make me So I said, okay, who could I call to help me in an emergency so Kendra is excuse me Kara is here with us So please give her a special round of applause Thank you, thank you Colleen and in addition to that Kara and I were both co-chairs of the Broadway League 25th anniversary national conference, and so I know she can do anything in a pinch From hanging out with Neil Patrick Harris to making sure the trains run on time So one of the one of the reasons we have the title we have is Paul Lippman who had been the chair of The Broadway League and all three of us are members of the Broadway League and it is similar to the Association of Performing Arts presenters It is our trade show our trade association and our service association and Paul was our chair And in one of his speeches he said, you know Broadway isn't just from 41st Street to 55th and then down to the Lincoln Center It's actually the longest road in America because there are hundreds of theaters across the country who present Broadway Now one of the things that we were asked by arts presenters to do this session is to talk about the notion of Broadway First of all, how many people in this room present Broadway? Okay, so this is like it's a good turnout one of the things we wanted to talk about is people either tend to think of Broadway as commercial and commerce or That it is not accessible in terms of our missions and our goals and it's one of the things that we find That all three of us spend a great deal of time in terms of presenting and working with presenters I'm going to ask That Kara begin and really talk about the booking of Broadway What that relationship is to presenters and how it actually functions Kara. Thanks Colleen Well, I work for the booking group. We are a theatrical booking agency and we represent tours all across North America I've been at the agency since 1999 and we book Musicals as well as straight plays when the market permits us to We negotiate on behalf of the Broadway producers with presenters on the road One of the things that we do when we start out with any kind of show is Either we already have a relationship with the producer on the show and therefore we we get to book it Which is really great And we start those conversations sometimes early even before the show may open on Broadway if we have that kind of relationship with the producer or sometimes a Producer will ask for a bunch of agencies to go in and pitch for a show And we go in and pitch for the show and tell them about our agency and the services that we provide and see if that kind Of relationship is the one that they're looking for and then a producer will hire us to represent their show on the road After we've established that relationship we begin working with the producer and the general manager of the show on Setting a price for the show overall that we can then bring to presenters And start talking to our buyers in North America The price is determined by a lot of different things and it changes from year to year exactly what those things are Sometimes it's what's going on in the economy might push prices down or what's going on might push them up a little bit And also the demand for the title on the road after we've talked to our presenters And sometimes the demand is readily apparent from how well the show is already doing on Broadway After the price and the overall deal for the show is established Then we go out to each of our markets that do full week titles. Those are the ones that I work on To gauge their interest and see if we can put together and marry the interest of the markets in the cities across America With the availability of the dates on the tour and then there's a particular magic that my boss Meredith Blair has where she is able to route them one next to the other in week-long engagements where they travel They play a market from Tuesday to Sunday and then travel on the Monday to the next market One of the things that we have to be very cognizant of is that shows generally cannot travel beyond 750 miles from one market to another so all of the markets have to be in some close proximity Geographically to go from one place to another or else we have to do special performance schedules in markets and People don't tend to like that. So the rooting is particularly important And it takes a very special talent and skill in my opinion So that's something that we work on and then we kind of get into the overall deal negotiation the setting of ticket prices Advertising We share a technical rider which gives the presenter an idea of what the local labor will be in the market and then as time goes on we come to a contract and Work with the advertising agency to make sure the advertising plan meets both the producer's Expectation as well as the presenters and then when we get in market, especially these days are close to it We work on demand or dynamic pricing together Which could be the raising or the lowering of ticket prices depending on the market's demand for that particular title So in a very kind of five-second soundbite clip that is the function of a booking agency in my view a booking agency is really kind of the center or Meeting point for the producer the general manager the marketing team as well as the presenter and all of the people Who work for the presenter on the road that is the central place kind of where all of those people meet up? And we are responsible for disseminating information to all of those parties Can you talk about the general manager and what that general manager's responsibility is sure? Many times after we've secured a title for the most part we will deal with a general manager directly on a title and The general manager oversees all of the financial obligations for the show they approve all of the schedules that I talked about and the Mileage jumps from one city to another so in a way they are another very big Connecting piece because after a certain point We deal more directly with the general manager and they go back to the producer as needed for approval on special terms or things like that and they are also the the The connector who runs interference for us with their tech team To see if we can fit into certain venues what accommodations may need to be made and if we can make different jumps Because they also deal directly with the trucking company Kerry can you also talk about there are other People who will interact with a presenter for instance the press agent and can you talk about that role? Yes So the press agent usually hand-in-hand with the marketing company Will do a series of advanced calls and sometimes even advanced trips on behalf of the producer and the production to various markets Sometimes They're able to even bring cast members to do advanced press for a particular engagement if but the market sometimes a press agent or a marketing Person will go and give you a list of all of the available opportunities for a show Sometimes it even includes educational opportunities or master classes or things like that And then the presenter comes back and is responsible for saying what he or she thinks will work best in that Marketplace for their particular audience and works best with their mission for their venue What would be the fuck? What would be the five things that you would expect from a presenter and your relationship? I Would expect always that they would book that they would book for their market based on Product meaning the quality of the show that's available to them And thankfully I feel like we represent a lot of high-quality product And I really feel like the presenters appreciate that and book on that basis I Would expect that they also book based on title after they've done a certain amount of research with their marketing teams It's really important to know that your marketing team has a vision and says they're going to be able to sell The title that you're bringing to you know for them to sell Financially it also has to make sense for your market So I know that sometimes people book based on a deal that's appropriate for them when you're setting up your season usually usually many times You might have a blockbuster show To kind of mid-range musicals a lower level less expensive musical or a play to balance out your overall Subscription season so that when you're putting a price in front of us a potential subscriber It's not completely through the roof because if you had all blockbusters the price would be You'd price yourself out of your own market no matter how great those shows were I also would probably think of Does it fit with your overall mission of what you're trying to accomplish in your venue is One of the things that you're looking for to bring in new audiences Is diversity part of your mission? Are you looking for an educational aspect to what you present? Are you looking to have a long-term relationship with your audience? And if so Is the product that you're bringing in is it helping you create that kind of relationship with your patrons? We will come back as as you are sitting there, please if you have questions We're all three of us will engage in questions when we are finished with our presentation Can you also care to talk with us about the relationship with roundabout because that's a little bit different sure so We're really fortunate because Our agency represents tours that the roundabout theater Produces and they're a very special producer for us because they are a non-profit theater And they have their own subscription season here in New York City So a lot of the things that I hear that issues that some of my presenters are dealing with the roundabout Deals with them here in New York just differently for their own audience So they are terrific producers for the road an Education program is apparent in all of their shows that they do because that's part of their mission here So when we send a roundabout show on the road there is an educational component Absolutely built in and it's ready to go in the first market because they've already done it for their subscribers and their patrons here in New York City The other thing is the roundabout is part of their mission. They want to expand their brand. So Hopefully one day if a subscriber in your market sees a show that has roundabout above the title I'm we're all hoping that they'll think oh the roundabout. I know them. This is gonna be good This is of quality So that's important to them because hopefully those people will come here to New York City also and buy a ticket to one Of their shows here They're great folks there and it really means a lot for them to be able to share Their shows and their product with your theaters across the country because they feel like brothers and sisters Theaters with you because they're in it as well Great and before we go on to Kendra. Would you just go over your roster with us? So we have an idea of this the breath and scope and look I happen to have it on my phone Well, I can tell you a little bit Similar to the way that you may book your own seasons where you try to have a variety of shows that are out there We try to represent a variety of shows so that we have something for all of our markets that may appeal to them The current tours that we're working on are the roundabouts cabaret, which will go out next season We're working on Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella which appeals to a family audience and is doing very well on the road right now We're also working on Motown the musical which is in Philadelphia this week and we can't keep people out the doors, which is great We're next year. We'll do the bridges of Madison County tour, which is opening in Des Moines, Iowa Where they have the actual bridges of Madison County And the beautiful Jason Robert Brown store scores so we couldn't be prouder of that We're working on Pippin, which is just amazing and I don't know if you saw the piece on CBS Sunday morning last week But Lucy Arnaz is in it right now. She's just killing it every night. We could not be more proud Our tour of white Christmas just wrapped up this past season. It's Irving Berlin show We did some amazing business our friends in Cleveland. They just blew it out the doors Couldn't find a seed was a sold-out engagement a really truly sold-out engagement where there are no seats left And you don't hear that very often We booked two tours of the book of Mormon We booked Joseph and the amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and also Andrew Light Webber's Wizard of Oz. Great. Thank you. Thank you Kendra one of the things that really Makes Broadway ingrained in our community is how you work with the company in terms of educational services Could you take us through that, please? I'm gonna go step up to my microphone We've been really fortunate to Have great relationships with Cares company and many of the other Broadway agents For the shows that we both and it's been a great relationship Not only on the community engagement programs that I'm going to talk to you about today But also pretty much every Broadway show that comes through our market has done some sort of education element Primarily in support of a program that we do is like a Tony awards program for high schools Are a Nebraska high school theater awards project so we've been really fortunate and one of the things we were talking about before This session started was there's sometimes a misconception. I think with presenters that Broadway shows are not going to be as receptive to working With you for education and community engagement Projects or programs and that's absolutely a myth We've had great success and A lot of flexibility from the show. So I'm just going to talk through A few of the success stories that we've had and also some of the benefits as you can see here for The presenter and for the show The the first one is it really is a great opportunity for for the presenter to develop new And diverse community members as patrons and also as community partners The two projects that I'm going to talk to you about did a great job with that introduced us to Relationships that we absolutely did not have before and it was truly due to the show's commitment to the project Education engagement or community engagement and education tool as I said all of our shows Contribute some sort of educational or community engagement element some contribute more than one And some have been on a pretty large scale Promotion vehicle All of these projects have also helped us to develop new audience members So a lot of times when a Participant is working with us on a community engagement supplemental program for a show They're talking the show up. It's a natural promotion tool for them to talk the show up to To their constituents many of whom are often not current Broadway attendees And the best thing that all of our our press reps love to hear is it's free and compelling publicity The two projects i'm going to talk to you about they in one case It was a third time the show was in the market So the the education and community engagement component was a real shot in the arm from a publicity standpoint for our media partners to Have another reason to to visit with us about the show So two two big projects. I want to discuss a few methods which the booking group was Representing at one point and um still representing still yeah, and uh, this was a great partnership Uh that we developed in conjunction with the show We did this in 2013 when we presented the show It was a basically a diversity forum that sparked discussion about prejudice tolerance and diversity within our community of oma and using themes of memphis to tie that together for our committee members so Diversity forum happened actually at the holland center Which is one of the two venues that oma performing arts manages But the show happened at the orpheum theater where all of our broadway productions occur Format was all of our participants attended The first night performance the two-day night performance of memphis musical They then participated the next day in an all day forum So we had workshops and panel discussions a lot of great um Pretty serious conversations about diversity Prejudice in our own community and how the themes of the show Really can connect to our 2013 situation And then the probably one of the most special components of this after the participants had seen the show I think we had 80 of the participants had never been to a broadway show before this project um The cast Came to the end of the day and did a very special hour-long discussion with the participants and it was it was really exciting people were truly star struck by That the leads of the show spending time with us on a two-show day by the way Which was really pretty exciting We had a pretty a strong community partner inclusive communities They are a local social justice organization in oma that deals with issues of discrimination and intolerance and prejudice skin the oma community um, and they had a great network of People again that we don't really have a regular connection to uh, particularly for a broadway performance So they connected us with the urban league and the boys and girls club a lot of social service organizations lbg lbgt support organizations That brought a completely diverse and new group of people to our project They also provided trained facilitators who could lead these workshops in these difficult discussions and we forced participants to Be in groups with people that they didn't know so there was a real Diverse group in each Session and then the one of the other strong components was they assisted us with the promotion of the project and of the show So the show was very helpful to us in getting some deeply discounted tickets for the participants And honestly in turn some of the participants actually came back a second time and brought family members later in the week That wasn't the norm, but it was definitely a spreading of the word of the show through this project our participants were About 200 adults and students in this first project. We actually Mixed adults and students we learned some lessons from this and you'll see these two pictures here. These are examples of some of the diversity workshops and the tolerance training that that Slide on the bottom And again completely new and diverse relationships Uh, and it was really it was really a great great project This was our first kind of real community engagement project that Allowed us to engage with the show in a social context outside of just an education Our next project, uh, which was super successful was our partnership with wicked and whenever I tell this story To to folks. They're always like wow you were able to do this huge project with a ginormous show like wicked Has had some education elements, but not always On this scale and they had started an anti-bullying project in New york along with the new york show and we have heard about I think it was through the broadway league Conference they had also seen a presentation that Omaha performing arts have done in Junction with Memphis and were really really wonderful and open to us in developing this anti-bullying summit on the road so This project happened in may it was on It wasn't the opening day opening concert, but it was the second. It was in the first week. It was early in the run The format again somewhat similar to Memphis, but we learned some lessons from the Memphis forum Participants did workshops in the venue early So we did a half a day on the day before the art the day of the show There were two tracks. So we heard from our Memphis participants that they really preferred for The students and the adults to be separated so that they can have a little bit more frank conversation about the issues that relate to to each constituent and then an incredible keynote By wicked cast member in our case. We were able to get fiero One of the leads and show Again on the two show day do Talk to our students, which was very inspirational and we also had a non arts person Highest metrophy winner from Omaha Eric Crouch Who is big supporter of anti-bullying initiatives in Omaha to speak on the same stage with artists to the artist and the And the football player completely different groups of people talking about the same issues really really great All the participants saw the show that afternoon and then once again We were very fortunate to get an exclusive talk back with the cast. You can see here in this picture The woman on top was His alphaba and the current tour and she just I mean did a really moving Talk about her own experiences with bullying. I mean the kids were just completely Taken with with her discussion Community partner in this case was one that many of you have in your communities Anti-definitionally we partnered with our regional office of the anti-definitionally. They had currently have a program called no place for hate which is a anti-bullying program for schools So they have a lot of experience with this They're a local social justice organization and wicked was particularly interested in this organization because they have a national reputation They provided the training facilitators They also once again assisted us with promotion and community To the community of the schools and they also helped us have access to The height of the trophy winner that we would in other cases not have a relationship with Participants were Nearly three hundred two seventy five is actually a little bit lower than our actual participation We had to turn people away. It was people were so excited to participate in this Um student teachers student leaders. We had teachers. We had student teachers. We had sports coaches youth group leaders from boys and girls club Big brothers big sisters basically all walks of life that deal with kids and kid groups Who could experience bullying in their organizations and then? The amazing thing 44 different schools over The community organizations over 120 miles So we had people driving two or three hours leaving at five in the morning to get here for this day and spend the day with us It's really it's very special Project So in both of these cases, I think that the the major reasons why it worked Really the show the producer in the case of memphis sufrase the producer actually came to Omaha I mean that is some true commitment Because she really believed in the mission of the show and the themes of the show and being able to To preach the word of tolerance and acceptance I will say the producers of memphis were really exceptional and and education for them was important from day one And um sufrase is one of those people that walks the walk and talks the talk She was there with that show every step of the way and while the program in Omaha in particular was exceptional She did many many talks throughout the tour because this was important to them Not only to get the show out there, but the mission of the show was just as important to them to to reach the maximum number of people Absolutely, and the press reps in a year in advance They were really uh, it's really important to get and talk about your vision for your idea of what you'd like to do And then kind of continue to have the conversation over the course of the season Rather than two weeks before the show saying hey, we'd like to do this thing seems really neat So in addition, um, my organization, you're very fortunate to have great leadership Sit up in the front here and um really supports internally Kind of going outside of the box and really thinking big on these projects So when when I go to to the boss and say, you know, this is something we we should do I don't even have to she just says yes, and it's pretty great and I know Colleen's the exact same way In in her organization often bringing us ideas to the programming and education department Community partner, this is critical In both of these cases we had to I really with my staff had to go meet people completely outside of our art circle in the social justice and social service Circles and it's made we have made such great friends. I can't tell you how many Additional relationships and partnerships and as we do look at Motown And other shows that are coming down with like people are calling me saying, hey, when are we going to do another one of those things? Same with the anti defamation league in wicked. So That has really been a great Opportunity for us, but it was also critical to the success of the program And then this subject matter both in the case of Memphis and wicked, you know, we were really thoughtful about What are we going to be presenting within the course of a season? And what are the opportunities in these shows in the case of Memphis? There was such a great opportunity to preach tolerance and acceptance and Civil rights and connected to what exactly is happening in all of our communities right now All of these shows have some sort of connection to your community if you can find it and ponder it and really build an interesting concept out of it And in the case of wicked this last point you need a way to approach the show Show story and introduce people to the show for the first time in the case of wicked we had wicked This was our third time and I think one of the reasons The show was so helpful for us is it as I told you earlier gave us an opportunity to Go to the media with the new twist on the wicked story So yes, you've seen the wicked story again, but here we are relating into a social issue that's happening Very relevant in our communities Today and we got a lot of great press out of both of those projects, but particularly the wicked project And none of these things could happen without our donors and corporate sponsorship And to a certain extent show sponsorship. They were very generous with tickets and with the Help of giving us discounts for our participants, which in turn I think also helped promote the show A couple things that were issued planning in advance as I mentioned we talked to the press agents a year out So as we're looking at confirming shows now will announce our season in March pretty much Week after that we start scheduling our meetings with press agents Who are representing the shows and talking about some of the ideas we wanted to do And the Broadway League conference is also a great opportunity for us to do that They have a day where the education folks and the press reps are in the same room for a whole day And it makes it a lot easier for us to communicate Funding is definitely an issue and none of these projects could have happened without external funding sources, which were actually fairly easy to come by because of the content support from our community partners And then finally what's next in 2015? We're looking to do a project for once a songwriting program ASU also did a great songwriting commissioning program We're gonna once again steal it stealing. Let's go One of their their projects. So we're looking to do that this season And just a couple little things for those of you who are booking Broadway As I said get to know the show press reps. They're super helpful They often Give you ideas if you don't have ideas to start if you even just make that initial conversation Now our education manager actually has the conversations directly with our press reps in conjunction with our PR manager So she has a relationship with them Plan ahead crucial critical Develop new partners again as we've said numerous times the community partners are key and think big, you know When we initially thought of this Memphis project Again, there's always this oh The show is never going to read that the show is never going to read that if you get everything organized in advance And you really talk through your vision and the benefits to both you as a presenter and also the show Pretty much anything is possible. I mean, I think the shows have been incredibly supportive So I know we'll take questions a little later Colleen I'm going to give it back to you. Great. She has some great programs that she's been doing again I think some of which Omaha Performing Arts is trying to copy. Yes, and I think that's That's why people are here to to copy those. So I turn it back to you and I'll put thank you your video up. Thank you At asu gamut we have a 3000 seat house. So it's a pretty large house We do roughly seven one week titles in our Broadway season and what we call specials three specials which are Larger shows like phantom The wickets and the lay misses which may run anywhere from three weeks to nine weeks depending on it We have Worked very closely with our community On the work that we have we carefully curate that work. It isn't just you Put the season together and say, oh great. They'll come we think about in terms of our mission connecting communities How will each of these shows connect to our communities? There's a series of three questions. We ask any company. We're going to work with And and we're fortunate enough. I'm a tony voter I have the opportunity to meet with a lot of the creative teams as they are working on projects And we ask what do you want? What do I want and what do we want together? And it seems like really simple questions, but it's really good to know everything That the company wants everything they want out of this and it isn't just as carrot and as Kendra both said it's not just about finances It's really about leaving the legacy of Broadway in the community There are only four art forms that are american art forms. There are only four Rock and roll modern dance jazz and blues And musical theater So it's one of our true american legacies So every company that comes in every actor that comes in into our community is very much interested in leaving that afterburn So what do you want? What do I want? And then we work on what we want together The other thing that we have somewhere between 12 and 14,000 subscribers And as kira said we do demand pricing like everyone else and sometimes it's higher and sometimes it's lower We actually reached a high ones of 18,000 subscribers And we found out we didn't want that as crazy as that may sound because what it didn't leave us for Was any room to introduce new people Into the work and when you live in arizona two people move in To the state one person moves out. So you're constantly reeducating a community And while we're also located on a college campus at asu gamut We receive no financial support for the work that we do. So it's a 19 million dollar organization and we Rely on our own financing, you know If we don't do our jobs people don't get to pay their mortgage and send their kids to college So it's a critical thing one of the things that's very exciting about our program over the past six years We have contributed over 350 million dollars into our community's economic Impact So that includes we had a national study done through the broadway league and that includes not the tickets But it includes I came to town. I ate in a restaurant. I bought gas I spent the night in a hotel. We paid the babysitter. I bought a new dress. And so those kinds of things also make Business leaders in your community want to support this work In fact, one of the things each of our governors. We've been through several some managed not to go to jail So that's like a good thing. Okay No, I wish it was but it wasn't but but each one of our governors has said one of the most important programs in our state in both bringing people in And in terms of our the communities we represent is our broadway series So it's very important now one of the things we think is important Is what's left when the show leaves So we also look at the demographics are in our changing demographics in our country And we want to know that we're making an impact Not just for today, but for the future So the first program i'm going to talk about is the at-pam league diversity initiative I actually we're not going to play it yet But but i actually sit on the board of directors of the broadway league and i'm on the executive committee And this is one of the efforts that my that myself and a number of other people are forwarding because How many of you have diversity in your backstage on your cruise? Don't be shy Good How many of you have diversity in your front office and your administrative team? Okay, not enough hands So one of the things we know is if broadway is going to live and survive if theater is going to live and survive in this country With highly changing demographics in this country We need to have Individuals who are reflective of the of the communities that we live in and we serve the at-pam which stands for these the I always had to look at it the association of theatrical Thank you who's going to help me press agents and managers at-pam who was helping me out there Eric Thank you, Eric. I can't see that far And it's a union and it's a guild and it's a guild where people learn the craft Of both being a press agent and being a theater manager a company manager We have created a program through the broadway league where we take young people who are interested primarily college students Who are interested in learning the business of our business? How many of you have people who come to your offices and say I want to know how you do what you do? I want to have that job everybody's hands should go up because a day doesn't go by where a student doesn't walk in going How do I get this job? How do I learn how to do this? Well, this program is designed for all of the companies that tour across the country to take on an intern And an intern who comes in with the case of our intern Jeremy Gillette who you will just see he not only spent time with the company He spent time with all of us ahead of time to know and understand each of the roles In the theater whether it's the box office the marketing office the technical staff the programming staff to learn those roles And so when a company comes into town, they take this individual underneath their wing and teach them The rigors of being a company manager. So i'm going to have you hit that To get a show on the road keep a show on the road and have a successful My position is i'm an intern um the first national intern for the broadway league And at pamm and at pamm stands for the association of theatrical press agents and managers And so what i'm doing here is i i'm learning the business end of what it takes to get a show on the road Keep the show on the road and have a successful show We are so excited about the at pamm league diversity initiative First and foremost, this is a brainchild child that came out of a gathering of every union in new york city We're starting this week here at Arizona state university as the uh for this test pilot um because Colleen Jennings Rogansock uh is spearheading this program and uh with uh with the broadway league And at pamm and so we're very happy to be here and call this our first stop on this initiative Well, we are backstage at Memphis oftentimes actors don't get to get the chance to work with someone very savvy in the business And that's someone in my regard is eric when i'm with eric It's almost as if it's it's the regular day for him But it's a lot of information that he's giving me and it's a lot of useful and valuable information as i move forward in my career Jeremy's fire is already already very high highly ignited in terms of the world of theater and of broadway Eric is giving Jeremy an inside look of what it takes to keep the road going to keep the road functioning Okay, we want to reach out to the african-american population the hispanic population the asian population the middle eastern population America's growing diversity and we want to be able to reflect that within our own um membership You know you need people who understand the business so these people can display their talents Here we're doing this on this wonderful great Wonderful tour of Memphis. It's the story of how um the um the music of black beale street Got onto the right airwaves Because of radio bj who fell in love with music and at the same time fell in love with the girl It's um not only so about the music, but it's also a love story and an interracial love story You stand on the shoulders of those who come before you these shoulders are here So jeremy can stand on my shoulders So the next generation can stand on his shoulders and so forth and so on nobody gets here by themselves Oftentimes people say we believe in you, but they don't invest here And they have invested in you Whether he ever does in this direction or not There's no way he gets to see the whole picture of the theater business and this is just one more aspect of that picture I'm just thank for everybody who made this theme happen. We're about challenges And it goes out of state university solving those challenges solutions. And this is one of them So it was wonderful about This program we now have five interns this year And in fact, one of them is our app ham diversity interns One of them is with us here at the conference as an arts presenters intern erica more Is that a student can come in? They work around the company works around a student's schedule And they have this incredible experience jeremy's actually graduated. He's actually working on the west coast He's actually working in the theater business Which is really truly exciting for that to happen and then that word spreads out to their friends For those of you who aren't on university campuses Probably in every community in this room There's a college a university or community college where you can access those students And what we have found from the faculty members is they are thrilled In fact, I have um the head of the theater department said I wish you could take 12 students You know with every every year and and be able to do this So it's a wonderful way to engage the students engage the community. Also this this Piece of video footage was shot by a news crew Which wound up putting it on television and and again telling our story for ourselves As both Kara and Kendra said sufrost is fabulous So working with her and being able to do that work was really easy She really wanted to do it what we have found through the Broadway league is all producers want to be able to do this It isn't that we get pushback. It's that how do you do this? We had A meeting here walk of the wind of color in the arts and there's a young woman Lindsay robbers who was out with the porgy and best Performance and she while she was with us We have a program called kaleidoscope and we take 10 teachers 10 students 10 schools And we bring them to a Broadway show they get curriculum ahead of time So the teachers can teach and then it always happens on a turnaround day, which is Amazing that the actors will do this but between a matinee and an evening performance They come and they see the show and then they have a early supper with the cast And and I don't mean pizza and styrofoam cups. I mean china silver hot food The cast is thrilled because they're like wow a good meal with hot food and the kids And this is what's interesting about this particular program kaleidoscope These are not your a and b students these are specifically when I met with the superintendents of the schools and our program is Lou I think going into its 18th year now I said I want those kids who can't figure out how to come to school two weeks in a row I want that kid who had a d and made it a c I want those kids who can't figure out where they want to go in life And then when we sit down and we have the meal in between we serve it on our promenade Is the actors talk about education? They talk about their education and how they got their education And I will tell you to a person most most of those actors are happy to do it Thrill to do it and want to know why it isn't happening in every Broadway house on the road So for those of you who are thinking about those things In addition, we have a school to work program And it's a program that teaches the business of our business and we work with a Broadway show And then we have three high schools and they have to be committed to us for a semester And all of my staff then become the faculty of that program So they spend time with and it's a day. It's just a day program But they spend time with the tech people the marketing people the development people The operations people and they learn how to select a show Get the show in the house and how to market the show and they and that's their assignment throughout the day And they spend the day doing that and then that evening They come back to the show and they come on to the stage and they spend time with the cast So it's another one of those programs high visibility for television We have more schools than we have the ability to fill to have this program happen So kaleidoscope is another one of those programs I'm now going to ask you to play this this video in just one second We have a program that's called family first nights military family first nights And this is probably one of my most heartfelt programs. It's very near and dear to my heart You will see in this video. It is a program that is supported by the arizona lottery The we are the only arts organization that the lottery has made a multi-year Commitment to financial commitment to and let's just hit it and then I'll talk a little bit more about it. Thank you I My husband was deployed in october of 2009 with the arizona national guard I'm not sure how long my dad's been in the national guard, but I've heard my mom say he's been in it for 19 years When he first left the hardest thing was just trying to figure out a new routine It's emotionally draining. You just really just focus on the day-to-day tasks And when you do have free time, you kind of just want to sit and be by yourself Well, my life was pretty good before you left, but then like after you left everything just felt like it was saved Made when my dad was deployed and really have a fun experience here Just didn't really like life at the time A military family There isn't a lot of extra And I think a lot of people don't realize this that many of our Men and women who are working in the armed forces sometimes take on second jobs too just to keep their families going So things like the arts really aren't extra here at asu damage the program That we are most proud of Is our military family first lights program? It enables us to bring 100 to 200 military dependents to three broadway shows And he was over in iraq when I found out about the family first program And I was really excited because I really like going to plays and haven't had the opportunity to take my kids And so my husband's from from his deployment and I just thought this was a good opportunity for us I was pretty excited because I haven't seen like a broadway show any things I went to game edge at a dream. I saw white christmas and it was pretty cool. Well, gailin's excited. She's um You know, she dances so it was really it's really neat for her to get to go and see people perform on another level She's used to the other thing that's really wonderful about this is every cast every broadway cast We have work with considerate and honor To meet with this military families because this is our way of saying thank you. Thank you for keeping us safe Thank you for making the sacrifice. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, and we can never say thank you enough I also for a great I didn't even know we were going to meet the actors at the end of the play So I guess I was kind of surprised for me and uh, they were actually a really nice cast and Very fantastic. I kind of felt special the Arizona lottery It is such a great organization What it really does is all of those funds that come back in Go back out into our communities and support our arts groups our education groups Our families and because of those funds The Arizona lottery enables 200 military dependents to come to the theater three times a year That's pretty extraordinary And it is such a great program and it is the kind of program that businesses in your community go attach our name to that also Those military families at this past year, and I want to say both with Memphis and white christmas Those are companies that kara are from kara's office and organization And so you you'll see a running theme that the booking group helps us a great deal In making these things happen This past year last year we did wizard of oz And we have a program in the military first night and it's called there's no place like home and senator mccain and Mrs. Cindy mccain and I hosted 300 military families because there's no place like both Cindy mccain and our both military brats So it's like really a perfect Hosting of them and and every one of those military families went Thank you so much for doing this for us and we're like We can't do enough for you and it was such an amazing night for again 300 families to come And businesses in our community paid for those tickets Which was just great In addition, we have another program that's called heroes night and on heroes night We honor heroes in the military. We worked with the Broadway show warhorse and that night we honored military active duty military who work with service animals And we had all of those individuals we have the dog that found ben laden I mean he was like the star of the evening And that was just great and and we were able to bring them up on stage to thank them We worked with our local rotc to present the colors and we had our army Band play the star spangled banner before the show and I had audience members come up afterwards and say they have never been so moved And they actually thought patriotism was dead till they came to gamut And so our heroes night program this year We will be doing joseph and the amazing technicolor dream coat another one of carers shows And we will be talking about going through arduous times together along with the theme of joseph But this year we're doing two hero nights programs and the second night will be motown another one of carers programs And we will be I know it's usually a running theme here And we will make it military date night So active duty military can come the husband and wife can come out for a date night And we always do dinner and we always do that opportunity for them to get together We have another ongoing program Which is a vet tix program and I think in many of your communities You must have veterans programs where they reach out and you're able to provide them with tickets and be able to build a relationship there Okay, we're almost ready for this every thursday night of any run and if we're doing a nine week run of phantom Or we're doing oh one week run of joseph is talk back thursday And myself if i'm in town and a local radio personality have the cast come out And they do a talk back with the audience and you would think after a long day of work And then people come our season runs from our weekly program runs to stay through sunday with two shows on the Matinees on the weekends afterwards people stay for talk back We had in the heights And we had over a thousand people stay for talk back To just hear what the artist had to say and in that particular week run lin manuel Miranda who won the tony for the show and the creator of the show actually conducted the talk back And then what we find is there's additional Advertising and promotion you get by having a local radio person or television person Be your co-host in doing this and again the cast are overwhelmingly happy to do it We also have a program with the girl scouts where they can earn their theater badge by coming And sometimes they actually learn how to do the front of the housework taking tickets and those kinds of things And then they come to and we have a scout night with the companies And here's here's a secret Here's a secret On tuesday night every night we open a show we throw a party And it's a dinner party for the cast now you're probably thinking oh my god that must cost a lot of money We have a relationship with every restaurant in our downtown area And they fight over these opening night parties the cast comes They do food We take the liquor bill. I'll be at the short end of the stick But the cast comes and has a great time and they and they say we go all we travel all over and nobody does this for us But we do it. So we say thank you. Welcome to our community. We have our donors come So we do some photo op opportunities and lucy arnez was fabulous She was after and john roth fabulous with um pippin And it gives them a sense that they're welcomed into a community It gives them a sense that you really want them there They get to see your faces and your staff's faces So I highly recommend going to the restaurants and the restaurant association was so thrilled and as more restaurants open up They go, okay, when is our night to have cast night also when cast members are in town? Where do they go back to dinner? Or they had cast night, which is great One of the other things I just want to talk about briefly and then we're going to open it up for questions is There are other opportunities in the programs that you do To work with cast members before they actually come to town Kara mentioned briefly a public announced programs and we do two season public announces one in the spring And then we do one in the summer and the spring is for our subscribers only and we bring in Cast members from the cast that are going to be coming and they do short songs and dances We have a local company provide food And then everyone gets to ask questions and they get to have a q and a and I show a long film In the summer we do the same thing, but then we recognize a rising star of Broadway And this will be our just our third year fourth year of recognizing an arizona Who's come to new york and made it big or is on a tour and it's just A fantastic way of recognizing your own community and an also a way of doing other public things One of the special things we're going to do with Motown is we are we have a huge Recognition ceremony of dr. King's birthday And there's a breakfast and there are about 500 people who come to the breakfast And they're kindergartners through 12 year olds who talk about what it means to be a servant leader It's all the local leaders and I will tell you legislators love this stuff For our hero nights program both the mayor and the governor do proclamations And they love to talk and so two members of the motown cast company the cast will come and perform three songs in the process of our mlk Celebration and everyone is so excited and there's already a lot of press just about that So what we'd like to do now is open it up We have about 30 minutes to do q and a and discussions And I will also ask if there are any things that either you have not said yet that has come to mind And you'd like to say I was just going to say as I said earlier in Omaha We mimic a lot of what Our other colleagues are doing in the in the Broadway world So we actually spoke with Colleen's staff about Instituting a hero's night in Omaha. We just did our first one this year wildly successful We're going to do make this an annual event one of the shows that they did in the past That I can't talk about right now that might be represented by somebody at this table Right We will be doing a hero's night with that show as well and Mimicking a lot of the things that you have already done the at-pam diversity initiative Colleen introduced Omaha to that program which we started to do and We've been fortunate to help other organizations that are also looking to do things we do so I think one of the takeaways is Definitely connect with your colleagues about what they're doing even just hopping on their website to see I mean a lot of these things are on your website and A lot of times my staff will just kind of troll a lot of the other Broadway presenters websites to see what kind of education and community engagement work is already happening You don't have to reinvent the wheel. There's a lot of great stuff out there. That's already it's already going on. So The only thing that I would add is that all of these programs are phenomenal and they all came from a germ of an idea That somebody at the venues had and then that idea had to be Communicated through the booking agent and through the marketing team And to be approved by the general managers and the producers so The only thing I have to say is please ask and try to communicate your ideas clearly as possible because There's a certain part where it's a little bit like a game of telephone where the booking agent is then responsible for Communicating exactly what you want to do to the other person and you want to make sure the person on the other side Here is clearly and concisely what you're trying to do And I would say nine times out of ten. We are so fortunate We work with so many great people the response is usually yes And and they wind up adding on to the idea to really make it something that's special for both your audience And for the show itself All right, we'd open it for questions and we have two microphones here Don't be shy Yes, please Good Mike richman from the AT&T center Hey, marina For AT&T performing arts center in dallas. We are in the process of investigating in partnership with the local girl scouts organization Some stem and steam oriented programs Um And uh, it's such a hot topic and you know this whole tradition They can actually earn badges with real content Attach some curious if you guys have ever explored anything of that nature Anybody in the room that may have because we're starting from scratch Um, I know that a number of the shows have patches. I know wicked was a big one for us And there's other shows that do have patches And I I think can you also ask a show if they will create a patch? Because we also have a pretty strong relationship with girl scouts And that's another opportunity the shows are really great. They understand that relationship with girl scouts And are usually willing to offer some sort of talk back or Added value aspect In addition to the group sale That really makes it worth their while so if the show doesn't have a patch I would ask if they could yeah, absolutely make one And and we've had that same experience where we've gone to a show and said, you know, can we have a patch? Can we utilize the image that you have in that situation? And I've never been told no And then I I don't know to the extent of your program with the scouts So this was an education for me So a patch you get just for attending The badge is the thing that you do where there's an activity and an education element to it and we're trying to create some Deeper dive type programming around that experience of coming to the show and then there's an activity and We just haven't We're in the process of formulating it now and it doesn't seem to be any history in the industry of that so Well, and I know one of the things that our cultural participation's department does and um, Melissa Bulacic is our cultural participation's manager Is she works with the scouting communities? Again provides curriculum for them And often someone from the staff will go and meet with the company about the program about the history of the program We had a great time And I see Meredith Blair in the audience so she'll think this is very funny But we have a program that's that we bring in camp Broadway And it's a new york based program And we bring it in every year and the first time camp Broadway ever came and it's a week long Broadway audition experiences for campers for our campers are ages 10 to 18 So when we have our camp Broadway week We always try to do something that's like newsies or like You know a good disney show or something. It's really fun. And so, um, Meredith and Cara came and said, you know, we got this routing and we really need to do porgy and best then and I was like Porgy and best during camp Broadway. Oh my god, the parents are going to kill me And I loved it. Let me tell you first of all a we did it Be it was wonderful. See it gave us the opportunity to talk to all of the parents ahead of time about that Because there is a scene how many of you saw porgy and best on the road or in Broadway, which was fabulous But there's this moment of it, you know with crown and it looks like it was like a rape scene, right? And I said, you know on wednesday night, could we just like tone it down a bit? But what we were able to do was to meet with All of our parents and talk about the history of Broadway of musical theater and that Porgy and best was the first musical to integrate theaters in this country That porgy and best actually was the first musical to tour internationally and that there was a historic importance and actually when the Company manager came both he and I did that did that talk together with the parents But we gave the parents the option of saying if you think it's going to be like too tough You can opt out of it and a couple of parents did but most of the others went Oh, it was great and we went when we do camp Broadway The students in the campers get a ticket, but parents are able to buy a ticket So often you have a student who comes on wednesday night and then the campers come on wednesday night Also, just a little bit about camp Broadway We try to commit a third to half of our 94 96 students as full-ride scholarship students So it's another program that we raise monies for but we're able to broaden the scope of our students who come I'll just do this little story and Yeah, we still have time We were having our scholarship dinner and so students have to do a writing Exercise and then we evaluate their blind Uh lea evaluate their writing and then we choose the scholarship students. They come and they have a special dinner They get a tour of the theater and I was sitting with a table And this this young woman and she was like young she was like 12. Okay, this little girl She needs over and she said my grandfather built damage And I said what your grandfather built damage So I went over and I I talked to her grandparents who were her legal guardians and I said did you build damage? He said yes, I was on the construction crew And I'd never been in damage So I said why don't you come with me and you and your wife and let's You know take your granddaughter and I put her up on stage I had my crew put all the lights on because we do our dinner in the lobby on the stage And I said sing something and she sang god bless america and we sobbed We sobbed but here you think about someone this building would not have been here for this individual And they'd never been in the building and so one of the great things about all of these programs It's a way of welcoming all facets of your community into your building Another question. Yes, sir. Yes No, it's not In relationship not only to these programs because I imagine the possibilities are very similar But in planning your season Finding a play believing a play can be sold As opposed to Okay, I want to say you said the p word And I have in my vision. I am committed to always having a play on the season Always always always it sometimes is not successful We've even been known to book a play on the season and then the tour falls apart and we don't have a play I think it's critical and when you you know 20 new shows are going to open on Broadway this spring They're not all going to be musicals to make sure an audience understands that and I'll give you an example when we did 12 angry men We wanted to be able to engage the community and we worked with a series of law firms And so every night we had a discussion led by lawyers with the cast As part of our our evening's performance people stayed people loved it Richard thomas who is like one of the most amazing famous wonderful people in the world I would come backstage and he'd say hey I was out having dinner and I met this group and I'm going to go talk to a class Hey, I was out and dinner. I met the Rotarians. I'm going to go have lunch with them on Friday He is so fabulous and so committed to the play being on the road And I and it's a very hard thing because plays how many weeks does it take care for for a show to go out? As many weeks as it takes No, I mean it truly it takes as many weeks as it takes depending on what the play is if you're talking about a play That has a huge physical production like august osage county That's a different twist than another play that might be one person or two people with no set But our company is very committed and putting out plays is very important to us We worked on the tour of 12 angry men on august osage county on proof And have done so over the years and and it has to be the right play for the right title And the right title that people are responding to to be able to sell it Yeah, and I would say from an education standpoint I think the plays sometimes work even harder to prep education materials and I know when we presented war horse, they came to our market I want to say was it a year out? It was eight months It was far in advance to really give us a sense of how we could promote the show What some of the tactics and angles that have been successful in other markets and just incredibly generous with their time Um for education and community engagement work. They did One of our most popular Nebraska high school musical theater awards workshops was the acting workshop that the cast from war horse led we actually had to um Turn people away for that because we were at such capacity And the show was very generous with making sure students were able to see the show On the wednesday night of the run So I think in a lot of ways they're great opportunities from an education standpoint to really Maximize the usage of the cast and the themes of the show Meredith, do you want to say something because I know the american play is incredibly important to you? Do you have anything else to The president of the booking group office Truly Feel that their audiences want musicals. I don't know that they're right, but that's And that's who we sell to we sell to the presenter we depend on the presenter to sell to the audience And getting past that barrier, right is very difficult. There's a perception that they that their Audiences don't want to see that and then the rare exception when they do bring in a play there's They often get comments from their why don't you do this more often? All right, right cycle comes around we try and sell play and it's tough Usually the answer to your question is usually a minimum of 30 weeks Right, and we're always just about Last couple of years we've always been about five sort of back Yeah, right, and I I would also say as you're beginning to curate your Broadway seasons the demand to play Demand to play that you can get behind and I know when we did peter and the star catcher We had a house full of young people. We had never seen before I don't know if you have seen the play it's such a great imaginative play And we found young people truly related to the play and we also worked with we have a lort theater and some lort b theaters in town And we also worked with them and did workshops with them And it was it was just great, but we have merit is right We have to make the demand and we have to take the risk and we also have to say Broadway is a wide breadth of things You know for instance Currently, I don't know if illusionist is still opening a stone Broadway or not, but there was a magician You know touring magicians I mean, there's a wide array of things and if we are only feeding our people big blockbuster musicals That's the only thing that they're going to know And I think they really and sometimes you have to take a couple of little beatings and go. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I didn't like that I I won't say the name of the play, but I was in the bathroom and this woman said I just don't like this Colleen. It's not a musical. I said, but it won the Tony She goes. I don't care about the Tony. I want my musical I went, wow, it's one show in nine titles, you know, so Good question other questions Yes, ma'am Would you like to take that? I think I can I can answer it. Yeah, I think there's still opportunities If you just talk to the press rep really the press rep is like the conduit to to all things education It's really helpful. Um, and I know that there are presenters doing something on a split week I mean even Saturdays are difficult with the two show days typically but and Friday's the load in But it's it talk to the press rep and just see what's what the options are again If there's a PR opportunity around it Sometimes there's also a better opportunity to Get a cast member to do something for a lot of our master classes We invite media to the master classes. We get all of our teachers and students to Allow us to do that through waivers and whatnot But that is a nice little added bonus for the show too to say. Well, this is a it's an education thing, but we're also Doing it as a media push And I was just going to say one of the things that Kendra mentioned earlier Which I think is also sound advice for really anyone is to get ahead of it very early on And also if you're a split week market Sometimes the show might be coming from another location that's geographically close to you So it's not necessarily the case that their jump is huge and they're not going to be there till the last minute or whatever So get in front of it with the press agent early There might be time in the schedule to be able to do some kind of active community involvement And just really get ahead of it. That is the best advice And I will tell you the press reps also do something else for us We ask for a sheet and ask where every actor is from Every crew member is from where the music musical director is from and we are Probably nine times out of ten someone is from Arizona And if not from our town, they're from somewhere in Arizona And then what we do is we contact their relatives who are still there and they say oh, so is those coming that would be great And we can't we contact them and they go. I would love to whatever it is I would love to do it and sometimes they'll call us and say Um, I just want to let you know I'm going back to my high school to talk to them And like we and we had like no idea so it's really good to find out Where those performers are from and especially if they're from your hometown They want where are you from? There are people from Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I used to live in Rapid City. There are people from yes media loves those stories too So if you have a cast member that's from Sioux Falls That's doing a workshop with your kids. That is an incredible Press opportunity or anywhere in South Dakota Like anywhere in South Dakota. That's great And also not only that but to know what colleges they went to Just really helpful. We had one cast show up and there were six Cast members from Arizona State University and then the lead I know was so odd and then the lead said But my brother went here can I and we did really special things with them We highlighted them. We had them do interviews because the rest of cast is going well Well, how about me? How about like what are you going to do with me? So I think that's one way to deal with split weeks and doing that other questions Are other people doing other things that things we've not talked about that you'd like to share I know you are Yes All right, Eric, thank you So we're starting off-roadway in the goal I'm 70. I hope by 75 being a roadway house 30 weeks a year with the great masterworks that every young person should have a chance to see Between ninth grade and age 25 Low ticket prices always multiracial multi-ethnic casting We begin in a 200-seat off-roadway theater this May with glass majeure Felicia Rashad may be our amanda Wow, I spoke with her. I suggested if she knew something we wanted to play her daughter in the play She said you mean like my daughter. I said, well, look good idea. We never thought of that And then we're doing good summer nights green in june. We may have lay at malaria as our bottom. Wow So the reason I bring it up because I'm very interested in young people education the road plays Masterworks when I was 15. I saw king lear in strafford, Connecticut City empty for its 25th year of strafford, Connecticut And that really changed my life So if anybody's interested in thinking about or hearing more about or somehow In a year or two booking or participating in the masterworks theater company. It's great simple productions Not major sets Hopefully named people who might allow for five weeks or eight weeks, but not 30 weeks Anyway, that's the vision. That's great. Let's do that's terrific. It's terrific Like you'll find that other questions people might have other thoughts Well, we have about 10 minutes So we will stay here and then you can talk to us one on one I think this has I want to first of all Absolutely think Kara who came in and saved my skin And if you have any questions at all We're in the book Kara and the booking office is in the book So feel free to give us a call Because I think all the we are as Diane Paulus the great director said we're all in this together And whether it's the masterworks theater company that you're starting Broadway The road we're all in this together. Broadway is indeed the longest road in america. Thank you