Start your OWN Theatre Company

Several years ago, armed with very little money and a whole lot of drive and determination, I started a small theatre company that actually became quite successful.

Yes I not only covered my costs and people actually got paid, but I made money doing this.

Now here in this Blog, I am going to share with you, the secrets of success that I learned. How to develop your concept and make it work for you. With my help I prepared to give you, for absolutely nothing, that chance to become a success. Everything I know about the Theatre Business I will share in this blog to you.

Theatre and experiencing theatre and that special moment when everything goes according to plan is an incredibly amazing and wonderful experience. In fact I know that there is no better way to make a living than in theatre.

Being a success in the theatre business is possible. But it is still not a guarantee. It is not just about work, but love for what you know you want to do. It has to come from YOUR heart.

I was continually being told before I started my theatre company how difficult it would be and how I would fail miserable.

Why do people do that? 

Yes it is difficult to make theatre work and yes a lot of people fail. But wouldn't it be better to receive a  little praise from people instead of a lot of negativism.

So if you are reading this, you do have that spark needed to be successful.

I cannot say that just the idea of wanting to do this is enough. It isn't enough at all. To be a success in theatre will take a lot of dedication from you.

You want to do this so lets begin and I want you to be successful....so without all these words, what is actually involved in starting your own theatre company?

You have the desire, but desire alone it not enough. You will need to form a concept of what your theatre is all about and what type of theatre you want to do. Will it be drama, or comedy, or tragedy, or involve mime or dance or music?

You will need to get a name for your theatre and register that name so know one else can use it. Think of a catchy name that will reflect what your theatre company represents to your ideals and to your audience.

Then you need to get that venue. A venue could be in a park setting, a restaurant, a pub, a church, a school, a barn, a community centre, a theatre even.

Having a theatre is not so much about the space you will be using, but more about how you will  use that space you will acquire.Yes it would be nice to operate your theatre in a nice theatre space. A space with proper seating for your audience, a great lighting and sound system, space for rehearsals, auditions, that wardrobe department, make up area, carpentry shop, painting booth, prop shop.

It would be wonderful to have all of this, but in actuality when you first start out you will most likely have none of this. What you will have though is a space somewhere. A space to rehearse and to perform it. You may only have that space to perform in and you may have to improvise as to where you will rehearse your production.

Marketing and sales is so important from now on.

Any great idea is just another idea, without that audience that you will need to make your theatre a success.

There will be a cast and a director and technical staff to acquire.

Then there are sets, props, costumes, lighting, to be rented, borrowed or purchased.

It will not be an easy path and will involve lots of hard dedicated work on your part.
There will be times when you wonder why you are doing it at all. 

The thing is though just having that dream to have your own theatre company is so important a thing to have. It is that dream that you will need to make it all happen.

I did it and so can you.

I did it and so can you.  I did it on a shoe string. I did with nothing to start with. I had no props, no sets, no stage, no lights, no actors, no director, no technical help, nothing. 

What I had was an idea. A dream to make it happen. I literally went out to areas where theatre on a professional level did not exist. I cold called, I phoned, I sent our countless letters. 

Then I found a venue that wanted to try it out. I was asked when I could do a show for them. I said two months, "we can do a show with you in two months." Right there it got very serious. Right there I was committed. I had two months to make it all work. I had nothing and just sold a venue an idea, alone. I had to take that idea and make it into a workable and successful show. I had to make my theatre company happen. 

I did make it happen and it became very successful. It became so successful that I no longer had to look for places to perform. People came to me. The word was out and across the prairies we were known as a theatre company that delivered top quality professional theatrical shows that people wanted to see.

It worked! It worked and now I am going to explore with you how that happened.