In my last post I noted that the good thing about being only a few weeks away from opening night is that rehearsals are now more fun than work. The bad thing is that I now have to think a lot more about finding ways to promote the show. It’s time to start aggressively selling it – and if there’s one thing I hate, it’s selling.
This is the aspect of cabaret about which one rarely hears about, despite the fact that it can help to make or break a show. A sold-out house energizes performer and audience alike while a small one tends to be dispiriting.
Most of us doing cabaret don’t have the deep pockets that are necessary to buy mass media advertising and getting free coverage – an interview or feature segment on a high-profile TV or radio outlet, for example – is difficult without the right connections. I’ve been trying to form some of those via social networking web sites like LinkedIn and Facebook as well as by schmoozing at other performers’ shows, but the jury is still out on how effective all of that will be. Whatever name recognition I have as a result of decades of exposure as an actor and critic locally will hopefully come into play here but there, too, I really don’t know how much impact there will be.
Basically, you do what you can and hope for the best.
That said, I’m finding that for the producer/performer on a limited budget, there are options that promise a reasonable bang for the buck. Advertising in the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis’s Studio Series programs, for example, turns out to be remarkably affordable, as is underwriting at public radio stations KDHX (where I’m on the volunteer staff) and KWMU. I haven’t yet investigated ads in the programs of other small professional companies, but am now giving it serious consideration.
Ultimately, I’m facing the classic artist’s dilemma: you want to do art for art’s sake, but if you don’t devote enough attention to the business side of the equation, you won’t get to do the art. Where’s an Emperor Franz Josef when you need one?
[Image manipulation by photofunia.com.]
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