Being a Producer (The Ulitmate Background Job)

In putting on my first full length play, Dating by the Book, I decided to direct and produce it in order to get the full flavour of what it's like to actually 'put on a play'. And boy am I getting that flavour. In fact it's all I get these days. I go to sleep with it's heady taste on my mind and wake up with it still tickling my brain. As a full time job goes, this one is all consuming.

Of all the tasks, production seems to be the most time absorbent. Writing was all about free flowing creativity, directing is about bringing that work (sometimes kicking and screaming) to life, but production is somewhere in between. It's like the guy in a ship that keeps the engine Fueled-Up and ticking over, and it's someone who's not often noticed unless the engine starts to stall...

I've lost track of how many hours I've logged trying to research this or that small detail of the play, and by small I mean earth shatteringly important if I can't figure it out. For example, as the idealistic writer it seemed quite fun to describe one prop 'The Wooden Spatula of Shame' (a sort of Raspberries award for a badly written cook book) as a Wooden Spatula mounted on a Large Golden Potato. However, as a realistic producer I need to deal with emails from the prop creator saying "seriously? Does it really need to be a potato? Can't it just be a normal plinth?" To which of course the answer to questions like this should generally be "Yes".

Okay, okay. If I had a budget of thousands and a time span of months rather than weeks, then yes I might hold out for the Large Gold Potato. Not sure though it would add anything to the play, but it would at least be a nod of appreciation towards the writer, even though in this case that's me. But in the grand scheme of things, getting something done can often be better than see it fail for want of idealistic perfection.

Production is like that. It's about finding ways to make things actually happen, or rather finding people who might be able to make them happen, then finding ways to enable them towards completion. There's a lot of nodding involved, and quite a bit of "that's a great idea, but what if we did this..." going on, but ultimately it's about the end result.

If compromise is a dirty word in your world, being a producer is probably not a job you'd want to consider.

There's also a fair bit of donkey work to be done. I've just received 500 A5 flyers to publicise the play. They're going to need to be put through letterboxes in and around the venue. Guess who gets to do that? You got it, the producer. Glamours this job ain't. Once I've run the gauntlet of small dogs and cat shit covered paths, I'm back in the office to create the sound effects needed in the play. Once that's done, I'm off to a furniture shop to see what I can scrounge for the play. Then of course there is the endless search for a plastic wine bottle (please let me know if you have any idea where I can buy these) and the worries over costumes...



That's the life of a Producer. It's hard graft, but satisfying in a way only truly a eclectic job can be.

27 days to the opening night!!!!!



Paul