AIC Production

deroosisonfire · Post by **deroosisonfire** » February 6th, 2007, 7:33 pm

It is time to have a discussion about whether the AIC is a support body, a production body or both. Let's do that here.

If votable proposals come out of this discussion I will put them on the agenda for March. If not we'll continue this discussion, and I'll make a list of questions we want to answer, based on the issues that come up here.

kbadr · Post by **kbadr** » February 6th, 2007, 8:01 pm

My 2 cents is that the AIC should be a support body, in that it promotes austin improv in general, and also austin improv shows.

I think the individual theatres should be in charge of production, in that they have the final say over what plays and what happens with their spaces.

It's my opinion that the AIC hasn't really produced many shows, with the exception of maybe the Cagematch. All the high-maintenance shows have been under the wing of individual troupes, or "Heroes of Comedy"

shando · Post by **shando** » February 6th, 2007, 8:16 pm

kbadr wrote:My 2 cents is that the AIC should be a support body, in that it promotes austin improv in general, and also austin improv shows.

I think the individual theatres should be in charge of production, in that they have the final say over what plays and what happens with their spaces.

It's my opinion that the AIC hasn't really produced many shows, with the exception of maybe the Cagematch. All the high-maintenance shows have been under the wing of individual troupes, or "Heroes of Comedy"

I'm down with this. Although I would say yes to "under the wing of individual troupes" if by under the the wing you mean Dave Buckman and all the other hard working schedulers he kept shows going at the Hideout on a volunteer basis.

kbadr · Post by **kbadr** » February 6th, 2007, 8:20 pm

shando wrote:I'm down with this. Although I would say yes to "under the wing of individual troupes" if by under the the wing you mean Dave Buckman and all the other hard working schedulers he kept shows going at the Hideout on a volunteer basis.

I forgot about TNA, too. That's certainly a production.

I wasn't trying to negate the work of the schedulers, but I don't think we consider scheduling the Friday night shows "producing", do we? Maybe my understanding of the term isn't right. I wasn't considering that producing the shows, because the schedulers generally don't have control (or dont' ask to control) the individual content of the shows, the way the majority of the mainstage runs are closely monitored and run by the Heroes (weekly rehearsal schedules, show concepts, etc.)

ratliff · Post by **ratliff** » February 6th, 2007, 8:22 pm

support

kbadr · Post by **kbadr** » February 6th, 2007, 8:28 pm

shando wrote:I'm down with this. Although I would say yes to "under the wing of individual troupes" if by under the the wing you mean Dave Buckman and all the other hard working schedulers he kept shows going at the Hideout on a volunteer basis.

This is a good point, though. A consequence of what I'm saying is that the AIC says "ok Hideout, schedule yer own damn shows...." and I'm not entirely sure that's what I want. It's rather moot, since I know someone would just step up and do it on a volunteer basis.

Perhaps a clarification of what we mean by "show production" would help me trip over my words better.

arclight · Post by **arclight** » February 6th, 2007, 9:31 pm

kbadr wrote:A consequence of what I'm saying is that the AIC says "ok Hideout, schedule yer own damn shows...." and I'm not entirely sure that's what I want. It's rather moot, since I know someone would just step up and do it on a volunteer basis.

Do people want the alternative where new troupes get scheduled under the "Blow Charna" model (i.e. pay-to-play, my-way-or-the-highway, suck up to the venue/scheduler/etc.)?

I did that for a few years. It sucks. Bad.

No offense.

Perhaps a clarification of what we mean by "show production" would help me trip over my words better.

Aye.

ratliff · Post by **ratliff** » February 6th, 2007, 9:36 pm

are those really the only two alternatives?

arclight · Post by **arclight** » February 6th, 2007, 9:59 pm

At present, the choices are essentially 1) do it yourself (cut a deal with a venue, market your show, etc.), 2) get scheduled on a venue's rotating show (if any), 3) have the AIC handle scheduling, some promotions, and venue relations for a rotating show in exchange for a cut of the door.

3-4 years ago the options were 1) and Micetro. I very much don't want to see a return to that.

2) occurs at the whim of a venue or not at all, 1) is just fine if you're an established troupe but is cost- and effort-prohibitive for a new troupe.

What is the perceived problem with 3)?

kbadr · Post by **kbadr** » February 7th, 2007, 12:17 am

I don't think there is a problem with 3. I'm just not sure if that's what we mean by the AIC "producing" shows.

sara farr · Post by **sara farr** » February 7th, 2007, 3:01 am

AIC of yester-year...

Two years ago, when we bonded together to become the AIC, there were two improv shows in town on Saturday -- the Hero's "Mainstage" and "Micetro" shows. Fridays at 11pm was "No Shame Theatre" produced by Shannon & SVT. Downstairs there were runs of "real" plays or movie screenings. The rest of the time the Hideout was blacked out - except for a couple of Hero's classes (levels 1, 2, & 3).

Summer 2005, rather than leave the Hideout blacked out on Friday nights, the AIC decided to start adding shows and doing a door split with the Hideout. The first was the "Austin Improv Co-Op show" on Fridays @ 9pm. That morphed into the "Friday Twofer". "Lyrix" had a run for a while - and it got extended a couple of times.

The Jam on Tuesdays also started using the greenroom (& upstairs stage when not in use) on Tuesdays on the contingency that those that went to the Jam would also go see Micetro & bring in audiences for that show. The Jam on Tuesdays was also run by (the same) "AIC volunteers".

Then more troupes came out and wanted performance time. There was: Polite Society Presents, GGG. Foolish Mortals, Get Up, Tight, Wooden Nickel, Comedic Aeomeba (You Me & Greg), Gigglepants, and every once in a while a troupe from out of town would come in - Massive Creativity, Oxymorons, The Venue, Available Cupholders. So the AIC decided to "produce" an earlier "Friday Threefer", bump the 9pm "Twofer" show to 10, and add a the "Late Night Jam" show -- which bumped "No Shame Theater" out of the Hideout (Hm.)

At this point the AIC was getting exclusive use of the Hideout's upstairs theatre and the greenroom on Fridays for the 3 shows by promising a "doorsplit" from the shows. We were also staffing & promoting the shows with help of volunteer AIC members.

Then Coldtowne Heroes relocated to Austin. Then P...graph was born; followed by The Leading Brands; and close behind them, Improv For Evil.

The scheduling committee started assigning "Host Troupes" to help manage the Friday Night shows.

The "Late Night Jam" waned and became the "Cagematch". People started shifting around and mixing it up in the Cagematch and several new troupes came out of that. It was The Great Austin Melting Pot of improv.

"Thursday Night Awesome" was born.

Now the Cagematch is waning, there is a new theatre - Coldtowne - and more people ARE doing improv, but most of the old AIC volunteers & troupes are now involved with personal projects, extended runs, and other things that are spreading our volunteers thin.

The AIC (specifically Dave Buckman & Andrea Young in scheduling) has done a marvelous job of getting more improv into Austin. And in inventing new shows where new troupes can develop. And in keeping the Hideout NOT blacked out on Thursday & Friday nights.

I think the role of the AIC HAS BEEN PRODUCING shows - through the time, money, and effort of its volunteer base.

However, we now have some kind of a budget and should continue to do the same - decide which shows should stay or go, staff the shows, schedule the shows, promote the shows. That is "producing". Without that, there would be NO SHOWS at the Hideout on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday nights. The Hideout would go down from "7 shows a week!" back to just 2 shows a week.

Jessica · Post by **Jessica** » February 7th, 2007, 2:15 pm

It seems like right now we really need AIC to be a production body. At least to the level that it is currently producing. Could we eventually have two wings of the AIC, one producing and one supporting?

nadine · Post by **nadine** » February 7th, 2007, 2:17 pm

support

Jules · Post by **Jules** » February 7th, 2007, 2:33 pm

kbadr wrote:I don't think there is a problem with 3. I'm just not sure if that's what we mean by the AIC "producing" shows.

I think some common language is needed:
Does producing mean the "owner" of a space casting, booking, managing the entire run of a show? Is it managing the entirety of the event-rehearsals, lighting, box, etc or is it just scheduling shows and having troupes fill the roles of the producing body on an interim basis.
I feel like we are doing the latter. We have a space which is run by one person who does booking but we also have another person who books sometimes. But all the troupes take turns managing the non-stage components of each others shows.
Whereas at Zach for example, you'd have a group dedicated to the production aspects (lighting, sound, stage management).

Support means something different entirely to me. If AIC is a supporting body, what we would do would be raising money to support training and travel, getting educational and community exposure and connecting people with troupes/nurturing their growth.

I think most of us are doing all of those things one way or another so the dividing line can seem unclear.

beardedlamb · Post by **beardedlamb** » February 7th, 2007, 2:47 pm

perhaps instead of going to either extreme (pulling out of production altogether or keeping up our current blood pressures) we scale back in production. the people who want to do support can do support and other long term things like grants, in-schools stuff, festivals and the remaining folks can continue on with production. maybe the AIC should just officially produce the friday 8 and 10 show or maybe just one of those. i know my projects would absolutely jump at the chance to produce our own full length run in an 8 or 10 spot at the hideout. te hideout will not remain dark on a friday night. not with it's current stance in the community. those slots, with some focused marketing and consistently awesome shows could do just as well as the saturday 10 or saturday 8.

i've always like the luxuries that the AIC provides in production, what with trained folks on lights, box, and hosting. and the free marketing, albeit minimal up to this point is a huge bonus, too. not having to deal with any money between the venue and the producer which would be YOU is always nice, as well. although when all things are considered, i have better audiences, longer timeslots, and care more about the marketing when i'm producing my own shows. and so i won't be sad if AIC steps out of production except that it means the little guy has to work as hard as i did in the beginning days, and those sucked because i had to figure out how to produce.

for people who've never produced, do not take it for granted when it is just being handed to you.

so i guess i'm torn on the issue which i s why i think we should scale back but not drop all the way out. selfishly speaking i want the hideout to be open for me to schedule runs of shows. virtuously speaking, it's important for the community that new groups have the chance to focus on their craft and not have to stress about refocusing lights or whatever other production problem is going on with their show.

beard