MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: The Mission Theatre Closes (Even The Best Productions Can Go Under) - Part I

Uhhhh...what happened?

Recently I listened to this WGN segment discussing how TJ & Dave's "theatre inside a theatre" The Mission was closing at the end of the month.  I was sad to see that another performance space dedicated to the artforms I love close, but at the same time I thought, "Wow.  It took this long for it to  happen?"

Let me explain.

iO Chicago Expansion Doubts

When iO Chicago lost its well-worn space in Wrigleyville (the tourist magnet of a neighborhood located around Chicago's beloved Wrigley Field), I was very dubious about its future.  I had heard owner Charna Halpern had plans to go even bigger with her theatre beyond the two theatres that operated in the old space with 4 stages, a huge bar, and a lounge that tied it all together.  With the economy on a rebound and the fact that Chicago's popular comedy scene has been beyond a saturation point where everyone was struggling to draw audiences, the thought of having a new sprawling comed-o-plex seemed to me to be the wrong thing at the time.

Then I heard about having a seperate theatre called The Mission located inside the iO building. My first reaction was, "Uhm, sooooo, basically it's a stage where TJ & Dave decide what productions go on it?  Is it really a separate theatre or is it just an extension of iO with TJ & Dave programming it."  I thought it was a horrible idea.  The Mission was going to use the same ticketing system/box office iO, was located at iO, and surrounded by iO community.  Sooooo, how isn't this an iO endeavor?

TJ & Dave themselves are household demi-gods of the improv community and are respected actors in their own right but other than the frequent Sonic commercials showcasing their talents, who outside of our make-em-ups bubble knew these guys by name?  The TJ & Dave lore would be enough to draw those of us in-the-know but actors alone cannot keep a theatre running.  I found this arrangement really odd and unnatural.

Believe it or not, I was actually rooting for iO and The Mission to be successful.  Having more opportunities to produce original work was good for everyone in the scene and even though there were doubts on my side, I obviously am not operating at a theatre-owner level (yet) so there are probably economics and politics beyond my purview that could contribute to its success. 

I Was Proven Wrong - For The Most Part... 

Everything iO had planned for pretty much came true.  The space was gorgeous, the bar/lounge was incredibly comfortable and inviting, and the stages were superb.  The place was alive with activity both from a training and production perspective.  People really liked being there and loved calling it home.  However, one area never seemed to get a buzz was The Mission. I never heard anyone else talk about The Mission.  With everything else going on in that building, I had no reason/want to go check out a Mission show.  My feeling was that either it was doing so well that a non-disclosure Fight Club-like rule had been implemented or people had yet to really discover it. My curiosity never got the best of me to go check it out.  I couldn't even tell you what the mission of The Mission was.  I just chalked it up as "TJ & Dave's theatre".

After listening to excellent and very candid interview,  it looks like The Mission suffered from the same problems many improv/sketch-related productions:

• Lack of cohesive marketing/confusing brand identity.
• Trying something "new" in an over-saturated market.
• Not having the buy-in from the non-actor community.

It was refreshing to hear discussion regarding the business side of theatre for a change.   This painful but needed part of the industry is an often looked over aspect of many black-box productions.  In Part II, we'll delve into each of these issues affecting all of us starting from The Mission's vantage point.

Asking Questions In Improv

DO NOT ASK QUESTIONS!

That axiom was drilled into my head during my training a billion times.  It was a "rule of improv" that I worked REALLY HARD on following.  The spirit behind the rule was that basically questions in a scene require additional effort to work and most of us are not well equipped to handle that additional thought expenditure on the fly; thus, the scene goes downhill quickly.  Questions also put into jeopardy the reality that has been established in the scene depending on the line of questioning.  Again, if you don't have the skill in playing with questions, the scene will go downhill as actors get confused and  waste time on stage trying to figure out what's going on.

A popular improv game called "Questions Only" forces participants to speak their dialogue using questions only.  It's very popular on "Whose Line Is It Anyway?"  Two teams of people send up a player to begin a scene based on a location provided by the audience.  As the scene progresses, the first one to make a statement (vs. a question), ask a question that doesn't make sense, or do nothing at all loses.  The winning team's player stays on stage continuing as the character they were playing before and the losing team sends up a new player and establish a new scene.  The new scene exists in the same world created through out the game.  Easy enough, right?

Wrong.

Most of us who improvise suck at this game because of our training to avoid questions like ebola.  The true goal of the game is to actually lead the conversation somewhere with questions.  Questions must be specific and have a direction.  Asking things like "Who are you? What do you want?" don't really  push the scene along because they require the actors to first agree to what the reality the scene is going to exist in and then determine wants, needs, & relationships.  That's a lot of valuable time as a viewer to suffer through.  Instead, just like in our standard statement-driven scenes, if the actors start out pretending they already know each other and know what they want, the reality is cemented quickly and the game of questions can truly be heightened.  For example, if the location is a train and we're watching two actors:

Conductor: "May I see your ticket?" (establishes "who" - one is a train official, the other a passenger)
Passenger: "Oh, I need one to ride the train?" (<--establishes "where")
Conductor: "Didn't you read the terms and conditions when you bought it?" (<-- establishes "what")
Passenger: "Where were they posted?"
Conductor: "How the heck did you get on this train?!" (<-- establishes "why")
Passenger: "Did you know how lax your security measures are?"
Conductor: "Do I look like the NSA., buddy?"

Passenger: (in fear, starts looking around): "WHERE'S THE NSA?!!!"

...

Even though there were a lot of questions, the scene breaks down as follows:
Who - Conductor and Passenger
What - Conductor is confronting a stowaway

Where - On a Train

Why - Conductor is doing his job

Notice in this scene, we didn't ask where we were or what the scene was about.  We implied what it was in our questions.

This game is VERY hard and requires a lot of practice.  I have people in my groups who have worked years in improv and still suck at it. it definitely requires a lot of reps.

So, don't be scared of asking questions in your scenes.  Do your best to have those questions go somewhere and you won't be considered a pariah on stage ;-)

Show 'Em What You're Workin' Wit'!

I was at a show recently to take in the finer points of classic theatre.  There was a pretty decent crowd in the seats and a lot of buzz going on about how good the show was.  It got a couple of good reviews, had a large cast, and been adapted for modern sensibilities.  The lights dropped and the play began.  As the play went on, I noticed nobody recording nor snapping action shots from the show.   I then pulled out my trusty smartphone and started snapping away (I'm cursorily involved in their promotional efforts).

This scenario is VERY common in theatre shows.  It shouldn't.  Here's one of my philosophies:

"You must ALWAYS be doing something even if you're doing nothing."

Document Your Journey

I was part of a theatre company that for a number of years had only done 2 runs a year.  Now, that doesn't sound too bad until you realize that out of 365 days of opportunities, we only showed the public our hard work only 8-12 times.  I would meet up with friend and colleagues at different times and would hear things like:

"Oh, you guys are still around?"

"What are you guys doing?"

"When's your next show?"

"I couldn't tell you the last time I saw one of your shows."

This feedback got me thinking, "Cot damn it! We've been working hard all year! Our efforts are summed to people only by our shows.  People think we're sitting idly by until we have a show.  Let's take them along for the ride!"

I began taking and posting pictures of every single thing we were doing: rehearsals, meetings, phone calls (yes, phone calls), prop shopping, etc.  I encouraged my colleagues to do the same (hardly anyone did it).  My ensemble started questioning my motives behind such an influx of media coming out.  Was it to satisfy my narcissism?  Was I getting paid to do so?  Was I more interested in promotion than working?  No (well, mostly no).  I instinctively knew that if the theatre company didn't do that, we might as well not exist in the public eye.  We had to show them that even if we weren't performing, i.e. "doing nothing", we still needed to show them the prep work behind our outings, i.e. "We actually *are* doing something!"

Generate A Buzz

Another item that I too often see groups miss out on is having media when press asks for it.  I see requests for:

• Group photo
• Action shots
• Logos
• Video clips

By documenting your process, you can knock out all of these items pretty easily when asked for it, because you have been doing it the entire time!

Hire A Pro (If Possible)

We're all capable of whipping out our phones and snapping a ton of blurry pictures to share with the world.  If your team has access to a professional videographer and photographer, hire them!  In a best case scenario:

• You get someone who knows what they're doing and will be able to get your quality shots of your work.
• It frees up your cast & crew from having to worry about this.
  
  Note: I would STILL encourage them to snap a few pictures here and there just to supplement what the pro would be giving the group.  It's a way of tiding the people over with some instant gratification until the pro media is posted up.

Offer to pay these people *something* for their effort.  Pass the hat around and collect a few bucks from everyone in the cast and crew.  Offer them free tickets to the current or future shows.  Bake them cookies.  Detail their car.  Take care of your media people as they can help make your production seem even more professional just by doing their job.

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You work hard for your art.  Show everyone what you're working on.  If you've got additional ideas as to how to keep interest in your art, comment down below!

The Rule of Two

Some of my beginner improv students recently saw a 3 team improv show at a well-known Chicago blackbox theatre.  I asked them what they liked/didn't like about it.  The best comment I heard was:

"Well, it was kinda weird being, you know, one of 4 people in the place that weren't performing."

Play For Something!

When you're playing in a theatre, you want butts in seats.  Not only do you want them there for financial reasons but also to give the actors on stage something to play for.  Some additional comments were:

• "It must be hard to play your best when you don't have the audiences' energy to feed from."
• "Actors broke character when they'd look out into the crowd and see nobody there.  They didn't take it as seriously as they would've with a full house."
• "The only one laughing at anything was me because, well, I felt like I had to."

These are all fantastic observations.  I've seen (and been in) shows where practically nobody shows up and they are the *BEST* shows of a given run, but those shows are few and far between.  The odds are against you pulling off those types of "miracle shows", because we as artists draw the vibes from our audiences. When people walk into a nearly empty theatre, their first thoughts are,

"Oh my.  Nobody's here.  This show is probably gonna suck."

I'm not saying they're right; I'm just saying that's a popular thought. Many of us are susceptible to half-assing our efforts on stage and not playing well for small houses because,

"Well, why should I give them everything if nobody's here to watch it?"

How do you combat this?

The Rule of Two

How do you know you have a good house?  The most quoted rule of thumb I've heard is:

"As long as you have more people in the audience than on stage, then you've got a good house."  

I disagree.  My rule is

"As long as you have twice as many people in the audience than on stage, then you've got a good house".  

Here's why.

If you have 30 people in your cast and you have 31 paying patrons in the audience, you've satisfied the generally accepted minimum of attendees but the audience is going to say "Man, they sure do have a lot of actors in this thing. I would think more people would be here to see it."  An 80 seat blackbox theatre with 31 people in it for a 30 person production is going to look a bit pathetic.

However, if each actor had least 2 people to come out each night to see them, then the audience is going to look proportional for the amount of talent on stage.  Back to our example.  If you have 30 people in your cast with 60+ paying patrons in an 80 seat theatre, you're increased the probability of having a very fun, entertaining show.
 
So, when you invite people out to see your show, work a tiny bit harder to get ensure you've got your minimum 2 people come out.  Give yourself (and your team) something to play for.

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P.S.    I do realize I am ignoring some factors such as seating capacity and extreme numbers of cast members in the production (1 or 2).  A one-man show having 2 people in the audience in an 80 person venue isn't exactly a success to most.   My rule is for productions that have 5-20 actors on stage in totality.

Hey D*ckhead - Be Grateful

I recently got the chance to march with ComedySportz Chicago (CSz) in the Chicago PrideFest 2014 parade.  Having never been on the other side of the parade partition, I was stoked to be a part of a Chicago staple.  I also was stoked to just be part of the CSz inner family for a little while.  Lots of love was shown by all involved.  It got me so gooey on the inside by the experience that I started realizing just how many more people were truly involved in me being there:

• CPF people for organizing the event.
• The businesses who paid/got invited to be in pride
• The media covering the story to make it even bigger and better by having people come out.
• The City of Chicago workers who approved the permits, arranged the emergency personnel to be on standby, provided logistical paths on the busy streets of Chicago for the parade, etc.
• CSz people who organized our contribution donated their time, money, effort, and vehicles for the cause.
• The people who stood by on the parade path and yelled, screamed, and acted nuts in support of Pride.

...and a litany of  others I'm probably not aware of.  I was so grateful I thanked as many of the police officers standing along the parade route for the job they were doing.  It was cool to watch their bored, hardened faces light up at a simple "thank you".  It made me wonder how often they truly hear that in their daily lives.  My guess would be not a whole lot.

Thank Your Everyone In Your Production

Just like my experience above, the same rule applies to your theatre productions.  There is no *ONE* person that makes or breaks a production.  It truly is a team effort.  Thank each and everyone one of the people you encounter along the way.  Even if that person did something relatively trivial like standing around a door to make sure nobody came backstage, thank them anyway.

Producing is a very thankless job when it should be considered just as important as the ultra-talented actor on stage singing her "I Wish" number downstage.  There are people who handle contracts, fundraising, costumes, props, transportation, set design, lighting, sound, musical duties, stage management, audio & video recording/editing, marketing, directing, and multiple other things that aren't outright noticeable when watching the show on stage.  However, without those people, those actors on stage wouldn't be where they are soaking up the limelight.

So, don't be a d*ckhead when you're part of a show.  Thank your cast & crew top to bottom the whole way there.  Support your success by recognizing and appreciating those who helped make it possible.