i am the president of a newly formed theatre group. can you all please tell me how your groups go about picking which plays to do? by committee? do the directors submit the shows they want to do?
also, what are your seasons like? how many shows per year? how many of each type of show?

mike? can you tell me about your home theatre? what part of the country? city? or rural? how big of an audience can you accomodate? do you have a fly space? what shows have worked well for you?

Our group started three years ago. I agree with Mike - start with something you can handle and go for quality, quality, quality. That is what we built our reputation on and it still carries us.

The "big" theater in our city asks directors to propose plays and they choose the play and director as a package. The play selection process is not truly open and the same insiders get the same slots each year. Over the past three or four years they only receive proposals from the same few people and the theater is losing audience - down over 40% - the quality is not there - quality scripts, quality directing and quality acting.

Our group also relies on directors proposing their plays. We are very picky when it comes to selecting directors and plays and we are growing fairly rapidly.

I lean towards comedy/dramas. Here are our recent offerings: To Gillian on her 37th Birthday, Arsenic and Old Lace, Female version of The Odd Couple and Chapter Two. We do mostly Readers Theater and there are several I can recommend that would also make great full productions: The Gin Game (for older audiences), Three Viewings (it really is a WONDERFUL play), Over The River and Through The Woods (another great, great play). Here are some plays on my future list: Tribute, Visiting Mr. Green, On Golden Pond, Saint Joan, Same Time, Another Year (sequel to Same Time, Next Year), Love, Sex and the IRS (or almost any of the Milmore/Van Zandt farces) and The Rainmaker.

There is a lot to be said for name recognition - either the author or the play. If people have heard of them, it helps a lot.

There are several other threads on this Bulletin Board on play selection - lots of good ideas.

One of the things I have learned is that much of what makes a play work comes from outside the script and that takes creativity. I know directors who only know what is in the script - you know - the stand here and face this way and say the line this way type. The script sets the words and the story but what makes a play good or bad comes from the actors and the directors interpretation. Just for example, a while back, I saw a performance of Crimes of the Heart. I have seen a lot of actors playing Babe cut the article of her shooting her husband out of the paper but this one actor was at least 100 times as good at doing it as anyone else. I can't really explain it, you had to see it but take my word for it, it was special. Things like that made that production superb.

I think Mike Polo said here a while back that it takes four great productions to wipe out the stigma of one bad production. If you are a new group it is even more important - a good or bad production can spell the difference between being successful and going out of business.

Another piece of advise: The capabilities of your theater is a minor issue. We still do not have a permanent home and we move many of our shows to a different venue each night. It is the quality of your production that counts. Some of the best productions I have seen use very little in the way of sets, lighting and special effects.

Good luck.

Doug