PRODUCER’S PERSPECTIVE Ken Davenport, Broadway Producer, Off-Broadway, Theater

How To Get Your Show Off The Ground - The Seminar!

I get a lot of emails from people with a lot of the same questions about shows that they are writing, shows that they are producing, shows that they are planning, and so on.  Everyone wants to know what it takes to get their show off the ground!  

I can totally relate to where you're all coming from.  Several of my shows were originally just thoughts in my head.  I had to figure out how to get these thoughts out of my head, onto paper and then onto the stage (you wouldn't even believe how hard it was to breathe life into the Altar Boyz). 

Unfortunately, I can't answer all of the emails as extensively as I'd like.  And when I do, I usually end up thinking, "Boy, I bet there are a whole bunch of other people that would be interested in this answer as well."

So, for all of these reasons, I've decided to go off-line and hold a seminar, entitled:

GET YOUR SHOW OFF THE GROUND!

On January 23rd, from 10a - 6p, I'm inviting only 20 people to join me at Theatre Row for an intensive and individualized seminar designed to help you get to the next level with your project.

Topics that I'm sure we'll discuss:

- How to find funding and investors
- How to market with no money
- How to pick a performance space
- How to find a director, composer, etc.
- How to create a budget

Here's the cool part.  This is not going to be one of those lame-ass boring seminars where I just talk all day.  I've limited it to only twenty people to insure that everyone gets personal attention.  Here's how it will work:  

Each attendee will get a minimum of 15-20 minutes of time to ask questions and discuss their project with me.  You can ask whatever you want, about whatever stage your project is in.  Together we'll come up with ways to get you to the next step.

Everyone else gets to listen to this discussion, giving us all an opportunity to learn from everyone else's issues.  

It'll be an exclusive think tank of creative producers, writers, etc. who are dedicated to their show and the process of what we do.  

And without a doubt, I guarantee that all attendees will be in a better place with your projects after the seminar. 

Here are the details:

GET YOUR SHOW OFF THE GROUND
Saturday, January 23rd.
10 AM - 6 PM (1 hour break for lunch)
Theatre Row
410 West 42nd St., NYC.  
Cost $350/person.

To reserve your spot, click the Pay Pal button below.
 

Oh, and I mean it when I used the word "guarantee."  Not happy?  I'll give you your money back with no questions asked.  

FYI, I'm announcing this on my blog before I announce it anywhere else, because I want all of my readers to get this opportunity first.  In order to make sure that everyone gets the individual attention that makes this seminar special, I had to limit it to only 20 people.  The spots will go fast.  A press release goes out 24 hours after this blog gets posted, so reserve today!

See you at the seminar!  It's going to be fun.  

-----

Only 2 days until The 2nd Annual Producers Perspective Social!

Free drink!  Door prizes include tickets, merch, and a Kindle!

RSVP Today!

Click here for details.(please note, due to overwhelming demand the Social will now at be Hurley's Saloon)

Broadway Grosses w/e 12/6/09

Show Name	GrossGross	TotalAttn	%Cap	AvgPdAdm
A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC	$789,409	6,230	95.60%	$126.71
A STEADY RAIN	$1,292,210	8,670	101.19%	$149.04
AFTER MISS JULIE	$280,046	5,255	88.77%	$53.29
BILLY ELLIOT: THE MUSICAL	$1,426,947	11,107	97.70%	$128.47
BURN THE FLOOR	$305,958	4,802	57.50%	$63.71
BYE BYE BIRDIE	$574,456	7,115	86.68%	$80.74
CHICAGO	$533,651	6,603	76.42%	$80.82
FELA!	$414,992	5,727	79.43%	$72.46
FINIAN'S RAINBOW	$589,167	8,945	65.73%	$65.87
GOD OF CARNAGE	$557,531	5,939	68.87%	$93.88
HAIR	$662,516	7,257	64.24%	$91.29
HAMLET	$1,001,280	9,052	96.38%	$110.61
IN THE HEIGHTS	$569,442	6,901	63.20%	$82.52
IN THE NEXT ROOM OR THE VIBRATOR PLAY	$226,704	4,135	57.49%	$54.83
IRVING BERLIN'S WHITE CHRISTMAS	$1,101,858	9,853	76.26%	$111.83
JERSEY BOYS	$1,226,872	9,872	100.98%	$124.28
MAMMA MIA!	$950,139	10,044	83.81%	$94.60
MARY POPPINS	$808,624	9,997	69.54%	$80.89
MEMPHIS	$650,579	8,447	71.83%	$77.02
NEXT TO NORMAL	$340,204	4,471	72.39%	$76.09
OLEANNA	$163,737	3,284	51.06%	$49.86
RACE	$495,519	7,387	87.28%	$67.08
RAGTIME	$480,290	6,475	57.04%	$74.18
ROCK OF AGES	$593,113	6,175	77.42%	$96.05
SHREK THE MUSICAL	$765,464	9,556	68.93%	$80.10
SOUTH PACIFIC	$712,430	6,707	80.54%	$106.22
SUPERIOR DONUTS	$226,785	3,824	48.23%	$59.31
THE 39 STEPS	$179,841	2,820	59.85%	$63.77
THE LION KING	$1,356,260	12,586	95.12%	$107.76
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA	$712,935	8,282	64.10%	$86.08
THE ROYAL FAMILY	$148,120	3,508	67.46%	$42.22
WEST SIDE STORY	$949,646	9,916	73.04%	$95.77
WICKED	$1,535,600	13,698	94.65%	$112.10
WISHFUL DRINKING	$358,435	5,762	71.74%	$62.21
TOTAL	$22,980,756	250,402	75.60%	$85.93

Advice from an Expert: Vol. XIV. The original Producer of Finian's Rainbow speaks from beyond the rainbow.

My assistant, Melissa, who has been super busy processing all the Social RSVPs, stumbled upon a Finian's Rainbow souvenir program from the original production at a flea market last week.  She snatched it up for $10 and brought it in for show-and-tell.

She found a pot 'o gold on the last page, left to her by that lucky leprechaun, Lee Sabinson, the original producer.

Lee wrote an article on the last page which he titled, "So You Want To Be A Producer."

Lee passed away in 1991, but his legacy lives on, with the production of Finian's currently on Broadway, and with this witty and still relevant article on Producing, which we've transcribed for you below.

SO YOU WANT TO BE A PRODUCER

By Lee Sabinson

It looks so easy to be a Broadway producer that almost everyone who ever heard the word Theatre wants to be one.  I don’t blame them.  They don’t know that producing is a certain path to ulcers, baldness, gout – if you’re lucky, for that’s a rich man’s disease – and other innumerable disasters that will not be listed.

After all what does a producer have to do?  Very little!  Find a play, raise the money, cast the play, raise the money, check the production, raise the money, find a theatre and raise more money!

Now you’re on your way.  Finding a play is a simple thing.  One little note in a newspaper that you’ve opened producing offices and you’re swamped with such items as “Bertha” a sequel to “The Sewing Machine Girl,” “Icecast,” a melodrama with four people and one set that takes place in the Antarctic during winter – you can save on your electrical equipment this way.

I started as a producer because I couldn’t get a thirty-five dollar a week job reading scripts for an established producer.  I tried to find a play only to find that the well known authors were submitting plays to well known producers.  I had to turn to novels – “Counterattack” and “Trio” were the results of reading galley proofs.  “Home of the Brave” reached my partner Bill Katzell and myself only after a great many, more established producers turned it down.  So finding a play presents no problem.

Getting “Finian’s Rainbow” was no problem.  The authors were almost unknown.  E.Y. Harburg did the lyrics for such shows as “Bloomer Girl,” “Life Begins at 8:40,” “Walk A Little Faster” and for such movies as “The Wizard of Oz,” “Song of Russia,” “Cabin in the Sky.”  Fred Saidy, who collaborated with him on the book, co-authored “Bloomer Girl” and has screen credit for innumerable pictures.  But these boys are novices, there would be no competition.  The man who wrote the delightful music for the show, Burton Lane, wrote the score for “Hold on to Your Hats,” and one of the Olsen and Johnson musicals.  So he wouldn’t be difficult since he was unknown.

The day after I read the book I landed in California where the three – author, lyricist and composer were whiling their time away in the sunshine and earning a measly couple of thousand a week.  I offered them the opportunity of a Broadway production and they immediately left their spot on the beach, their beautiful homes and hopped a train for Broadway.  You see all the producer need do is mention that glamorous word Broadway and the world is his.

Came the problem of finding a director.  I knew Bretaigne Windust, who had staged “Trio” for me.  Windy presented no problem.  No one wanted the services of the director responsible for such hits as “Arsenic and Old Lace,” “Life With Father” and “State of the Union.”  That is no one but Warner Brothers to whom he is under contract, and seventeen other producers.  But Windy wanted to come back to New York so that he and his wife and youngsters could move from hotel to hotel every five days.  There’s nothing like the excitement of finding a hotel to live in in New York.  These prospects so enchanted Mr. Windust that he decided to direct “Finian’s Rainbow.”

We next proceeded to raise the money.  Investing in musicals is a certain way to double your money.  So all you do is call up people with money who rush to your office immediately, their pockets bulging with United States currency and kill each other trying to put it on your desk.  The backers are now cast.

By now your job is jelling.  The show is in rehearsal.  All you have to do is find a theatre.  Do you know how hard it is to find an apartment?  Well there are nine hundred thousand apartments to every legitimate theatre available in New York.  But suppose you find a theatre are you through with the wonderful, easy job of being a producer?  You’re not!  You’re just starting out!  There are the critics out of town and in New York to get by.  If your reviews are good out of town you wonder if the New York critics are going to come waiting to see the arrival of a new Messiah.  If they’re bad you’re afraid the critics will come in bored or something.

But “Finian’s Rainbow” got rave reviews on its tryout and rave reviews when it opened.  So you think the job is done?  Now you sit and worry about how you can cast your road company as perfectly as that on Broadway.  And when you’re through worrying about that you have one or two other worries.  The show is a hit.  But you’ve got to do another show.  Where are you going to get the next play?  And so it starts in all over again.

If there are any prospective producers among the readers of this piece who let my words discourage them…they were not prospective producers at all.  For truth to tell, with all the headaches and heart aches, you feel you want to be a producer.  Well, I’ll tell you a secret, so do I.

-----

Only 3 days until The 2nd Annual Producers Perspective Social!

Free drink!  Door prizes include tickets, merch, and a Kindle!

RSVP Today!

Click here for details.(please note, due to overwhelming demand the Social will now at be Hurley's Saloon)

All GREAT must things must come to an end. Altar Boyz will close Jan. 10th.

It is with great sadness that my partner, Robyn Goodman, and I officially announce that Altar Boyz, the longest running Off-Broadway musical to open in more than a decade, will play its final performance at New World Stages on Sunday, January 10th at 7:30 PM.

While this is a difficult day for everyone involved in the show, we couldn't be more proud of what our Boyz have accomplished. 

For the past several years, people have been ringing the death knell for commercial Off-Broadway theater.  Altar Boyz has proven that a fantastic show and a passionate group of people behind it can overcome any odds.

Robyn and I owe an incredible debt of gratitude to the throngs of passionate people behind Altar Boyz, including our Co-Producers, Ruth Hendel, Walt Grossman, Sharon Karmazin, Matt Murphy, Mark Shacket, and Stephen Kocis, our Press Agent, David Gersten, and our Associate General Manager, Ryan Lympus.

A special ABz shout-out to our incredible partner and honorary 6th member of the Boyz (even though she's a girl), Beverley D. MacKeen at New World Stages, whose belief in Altar Boyz and Off-Broadway is one of the reasons that I didn't have to write this notice years ago.  

We must also thank our incredibly talented and committed creative team, led by our director Stafford Arima, who helped shape our show from the very beginning into what is is today, and Chris Gatelli, our divine choreographer.

To our wildly talented authors . . . Producing is so much easier when you have a great show to work with.  Thank you Gary Adler, Kevin Del Aguila and Michael Patrick Walker.  Whatta ya say . . . Altar Boyz II - The Resurrection?

To my co-conceiver and friend Marc Kessler, who first uttered the words "Catholic Boy Band," thank you for sharing your inspiration.

In addition to all of these individuals, I must also profess my incredible gratitude to those vendors and various other partners on the show who throughout the past 5 years recognized that Off-Broadway shows like Altar Boyz need experimental treatments in order to survive.  Thank you for listening, and for adaptating with us to the ever-changing landscape.  Those of you who helped are the reason that commercial Off-Broadway can and will have a future.  

To the many Boyz that "crossed" our stage, from our originals, Scott Porter, Tyler Maynard, Andy Karl, Ryan Duncan and David Josefsberg, and swings Kevin Kern and Daniel Torres (and let's not forget our NYMF Matthew, Cheyenne Jackson), to what will be our closing company, Michael Kadin Craig, Travis Nesbitt, Lee Markham, Mauricio Perez and Ravi Roth, and swings Mitch Dean, Joey Khoury and Tommaso Antico, and all the Boyz in between, we thank you.  Your boundless energy put so many smiles on so many faces.  You truly have been the most talented boy band on the planet.  I'd like to see 'N Sync do Altar Boyz 8 times a week!

Lastly, a huge thank you to the Altarholics, the fans who helped spread the "word" so much louder than we ever could have on our own.

We are so thrilled to have made it this far.  Our final show on January 10th is gonna be one "H-E-Double Hockey Sticks" of a celebration.

And now, we challenge all you other Off-Broadway shows coming down the pike to beat us.  Come on, you can do it.  We're counting on you.  

There are only 5 weeks and 3 days left to see Altar Boyz.  If you haven't seen it, go.  You'll regret it if you don't.  Get your tickets here today.

An official press release is below.

- - - - -

GOD HAS LEFT THE BUILDING . . . 

ALTAR BOYZ to Close January 10th After 2032 Performances 

ALTAR BOYZ announced today that it would be closing Sunday January 10th after playing 2032 performances, making it the 9th longest running Off-Broadway musical ever!

Altar Boyz is also the longest running musical comedy to open in New York in years! Full of sharp parody, sinfully spectacular dancing, and irreverent humor, this spoof about a heavenly guy-group is adored by audiences and critics alike. With an extraordinary mix of side-splitting songs “convincing enough to be played on MTV,” uncontrollable laughs and lighthearted fun, this award-winning and totally original new musical is “90 minutes of pure delight” that's suitable for all ages and will have “the whole family laughing and singing along.”

Critics are spreading the word coast-to-coast: 

“Finally, an Off-Broadway musical that actually works!” (Zinoman, The New York Times); 

“Sly and funny subversion, terrific voices, soothing harmonies, and deliciously funny numbers. It sends you home with a smile! Made up of five potential Teen People cover boys.” (Isherwood, The New York Times);

“Thank Heaven for Altar Boyz! It keeps you laughing all evening long. If laughter is a form of salvation, my soul is clean!” (Daily News);  

“Hilarious! This sweet and sassy, witty and completely unpretentious show sends everybody out on a cloud of mirth - and we mean everybody!” (Journal News); 

“Ninety minutes of heavenly hilarity!” (The Boston Globe);

“You’ll laugh your socks off!” (Chicago Tribune); 

“Hallelujah brothers and sisters! Altar Boyz is in town. Funny song-and-dance numbers that never stop and a talented cast of five handsome men. It's top-notch musical theater!” (Miami Herald).

Altar Boyz features Michael Kadin Craig, Lee Markham, Travis Nesbitt, Mauricio Perez, and Ravi Roth, and is directed by Stafford Arima and choreographed by Christopher Gattelli. Altar Boyz has music & lyrics by Gary Adler and Michael Patrick Walker with book by Kevin Del Aguila, based on a concept by Marc Kessler and Ken Davenport.  

Remaining performances are Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 8 pm, Saturday at 4pm & 8pm, and Sunday at 3pm & 7:30pm.  New World Stages is located at 340 West 50th Street, just west of Eighth Avenue. For more information, please visit www.altarboyz.com or call 1 -877-ABOYZ-411.  For all the gossip, visit www.altarholics.com.

Where do you find information when you're on vacation?

I was in a strange land at a strange hotel for a few days last week, looking to do not-so-strange things like play a round of golf and eat at a good Italian restaurant. 

Where would a stranger find out the best places to do these things?

Two places, actually.

1 - I asked the "regulars and locals" and listened as word-of-mouth directly affected my decision-making for what I chose to do, where I chose to do it, and who got my cash for it.

2 - I went straight to my concierge.

Every time I tried to talk to my C-man, there was a line about 5 people deep (which is actually where I got the most word-of-mouth action, because we were all talking about what we wanted to do, what we had done, and who got our cash for it).

When I got to the front of the line and asked my question-du-jour, I felt like I was talking to an Authority figure, an expert on entertainment, and listened intently.

And I took his advice every time.

If your business is 65% tourists (like ours), you better have a strategy on how to get the hundreds of concierges on your side.

Because they have the keys to the customer's castle . . . and their wallets, too.  

-----

Only 7 days until The 2nd Annual Producers Perspective Social!

Free drink!  Door prizes include tickets, merch, and a Kindle!

RSVP Today!

Click here  for details.

Thanks a slot.

I was in a casino the other day.  The main floor was a sea of slot machines of all different shapes and sizes.

There were even a few digital slots that featured no spinning wheels, and no old-fashioned pull lever, just video game-like graphics on a mini screen inside a big slot-like box.

I played a few coins at the digi-slots, got bored pretty quickly, and then went back to the machines where I could watch the wheels turn, just waiting for those Lucky 7s to line up and pay me the progressive jackpot (it will happen, it will happen).

I looked back over at the digi-slots, which were mostly without players, and got to thinking.

There are some things that are so inherently exciting that they don't need the most revolutionary technological advancements.  In fact, if you go too far, you end up taking the fun out of the experience.

Live performance is one of those things.

-----

Only 8 days until The 2nd Annual Producers Perspective Social!

Free drink!  Door prizes include tickets, merch, and a Kindle!

RSVP Today!

Click here for details.

What Tiger Woods needs to learn about press.

El Tigre may know how to swing a club, but he's pretty handicapped when it comes to knowing how to spin a story.

By now, the world is abuzz with what really caused the Tiger Woods 2:25 AM car crash outside his Floridian mansion.  Was he drunk?  Was he on drugs?  Was he on his way to meet another woman?  Did his wife beat the sand trap out of him for a prior affair?

Why all these questions?  

Because he didn't come out in front of the story.  

Whether we like it or not, refusing to talk, pleading the fifth, or hiding behind an agent makes it look like you having something to hide, whether you do or not.

The moment that Tiger refused to talk to the police, the rumor mill went into overdrive, and the story started to spin out of control.  The second time?  The third?  Tiger has missed so many news cycles that whatever really happened is now going to get even more attention.

Obviously something serious is going on in the life of the world's greatest golfer, and for that I'm very sorry.  But if Bill Clinton, Britney Spears, Alec Baldwin and the rest of the celebs in this world have taught us anything it's that you can f-up and can be forgiven.

The best way to handle a press crisis of this nature for a celebrity or for a show is to come out in front of the story, and come out first.  

As a producer, you want to own the story.  You want to control the story.  Hide from it, and the story will become bigger than it deserves to be.  

Unless of course, you actually want the press.   

-----

Only 9 days until The 2nd Annual Producers Perspective Social!

Free drink!  Door prizes include tickets, merch, and a Kindle!

RSVP Today!

Click here for details.

Broadway Grosses w/e 11/29/09

Show Name	GrossGross	TotalAttn	%Cap	AvgPdAdm
A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC	$754,236	5,859	89.90%	$128.73
A STEADY RAIN	$1,199,574	8,666	101.14%	$138.42
AFTER MISS JULIE	$211,997	4,490	75.84%	$47.22
BILLY ELLIOT: THE MUSICAL	$1,574,502	11,368	100.00%	$138.50
BURN THE FLOOR	$311,317	4,317	51.69%	$72.11
BYE BYE BIRDIE	$796,620	8,000	97.47%	$99.58
CHICAGO	$576,139	6,699	77.53%	$86.00
FELA!	$510,371	7,114	86.33%	$71.74
FINIAN'S RAINBOW	$573,110	7,337	53.92%	$78.11
GOD OF CARNAGE	$506,133	5,243	60.80%	$96.53
HAIR	$888,940	8,965	79.36%	$99.16
HAMLET	$947,424	8,849	94.22%	$107.07
IN THE HEIGHTS	$741,437	7,426	68.00%	$99.84
IN THE NEXT ROOM OR THE VIBRATOR PLAY	$150,727	3,430	47.69%	$43.94
IRVING BERLIN'S WHITE CHRISTMAS	$753,035	7,777	53.51%	$96.83
JERSEY BOYS	$1,323,745	9,830	100.55%	$134.66
MAMMA MIA!	$972,818	9,862	82.29%	$98.64
MARY POPPINS	$1,068,271	11,666	81.15%	$91.57
MEMPHIS	$613,940	7,468	63.50%	$82.21
NEXT TO NORMAL	$375,858	4,676	75.71%	$80.38
OLEANNA	$129,778	2,060	32.03%	$63.00
RACE	$448,415	5,696	67.30%	$78.72
RAGTIME	$555,314	6,351	55.95%	$87.44
ROCK OF AGES	$640,634	6,392	80.14%	$100.22
SHREK THE MUSICAL	$1,025,635	10,551	76.10%	$97.21
SOUTH PACIFIC	$805,444	7,580	91.02%	$106.26
SUPERIOR DONUTS	$215,339	3,352	42.28%	$64.24
THE 39 STEPS	$184,861	2,543	53.97%	$72.69
THE LION KING	$1,693,074	13,239	100.05%	$127.89
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA	$1,017,013	10,934	84.63%	$93.01
THE ROYAL FAMILY	$161,070	3,456	66.46%	$46.61
WEST SIDE STORY	$1,206,235	11,334	83.49%	$106.43
WICKED	$2,086,135	14,472	100.00%	$144.15
WISHFUL DRINKING	$293,221	5,726	71.29%	$51.21
TOTAL	$25,312,358	252,728	74.86%	$92.07

The 2nd Annual Producer’s Perspective Social!

Last year, I invited all of my readers to mingle offline at our first PP social, and we had a blast.  So, we’re doing it again!

On Thursday, December 10th, I’m inviting all of you to come join me in celebrating the holidays, and the theater in general, at The 2nd Annual Producer’s Perspective Social.

Just like last year, I’m buying the first round for each of you.  And we’ll have door prizes, including free tickets to Broadway shows like Mamma Mia, Memphis, Finian’s Rainbow as well as Broadway merch from my friends at The Broadway Store and Sh-K Boom/Ghostlight Records.

And for the grand prize, I’m giving away my newest favorite toy . . . The Kindle!

So come on down to Hurley's Saloon the Time Out Lounge at New World Stages on Thursday, December 10th at 6:30.  Say hello to me and to your fellow readers, who include Producers, Writers, Designers, Actors, Union reps and more.  We’ll talk shop and network and share stories from the past year and talk about the exciting stuff that is in store for all of us in 2010. 

Here are the deets:

Thursday, December 10th.
6:30 – 8:00 PM

UPDATE: Due to the overwhelming response, we've moved the event to a larger venue!  

Hurley's Saloon-2nd floor

232 West 48th Street (betw. Broadway and 8th)
Time Out Lounge at New World Stages
340 West 50th St. (betw. 8th and 9th aves)

To RSVP, email my assistant Melissa at melissa@davenporttheatrical.com.  She’ll need your full name.  

Feel free to spread the word to your friends but they will have to RSVP on their own.  No plus ones.  

FYI, space is limited so RSVPs are essential.  We had a terrific response last year and we did have to stop taking RSVPs so if you’re coming, RSVP today.

See you there!

10 Great gifts for the Producer in your life.

 Happy Black Friday! 

People are in line and online today, looking for great holiday gift ideas for their family and friends.  But what to you get for that odd bird in your nest that is or wants to be a Producer?

Here is a list of 10 gift ideas for those folks with shows on the boards, or for the Producers-to-be out there. 

And if you are a Producer, just email this list to your family and friends and tell them that it's their civic responsibility to do their part in stimulating the economy . . . by buying you everything on it. 

1.  The Abominable Showman:  The Unauthorized David Merrick Biography

David Merrick is to Broadway shows as Henry Ford is to automobiles.  Read all about how Merrick became the powerhouse that he was.  This bio is like a training manual of both what to do and what not to do.

2.  A subscription to Variety

Newspapers may be dead, but the weekly Variety is still a treat for Broadway Producers.  They may put us in the back of the mag, but anyone that titles the theater section "Legit" is worth a subscription in my book.

3.  The Kindle

Here's the bigger ticket item on the list that's worth 100x its weight.  In addition to reading more books, I'm now reading more scripts, thanks to the awesome PDF feature on my Kindle.  I took 8 scripts with me on a recent weekend away, all stored in my kindle.  If I had taken them by themselves, I would have had to check an extra bag (in a crazy way, the Kindle is already paying for itself!). 

4.  The CTI 3-Day Intensive

The 3-Day intensive taught by the Commercial Theatre Institute is a great primer for those looking to get a taste of what it means to be Producer.  CTI is the equivalent of teaching a man to fish.

5.  A Telecharge Gift Card

Yep!  You heard it right!  Telecharge finally has gift cards!  Woo-woo!  Celebrate by picking one up for your mini-Merrick.  My biggest regret as a Producer is that I didn't see enough shows as I was coming up.  It's expensive, as we all know, so help defray some of the costs with some good old fashioned tickets. 

6.  A subscription to the NY Lottery

Win the lotto and you could actually produce Spider Man all by yourself!  Hey, someone wins, right?  Why not you? And we all like to gamble, right?  Why else would we be in this biz.

7. A Donation to TDF's Open Doors program

This great program subsidizes high schools kids coming to the theater.  R&H told us that you have to be carefully taught, and TDF teaches better than anyone.

8. The Wii

We all need a little distraction, right?  

9.  A Domain Name

The key to web marketing is to start early.  Start your producer early with a GoDaddy starter kit.

10.  The iPhone

No list of mine is ever complete without the iPhone.  Sure, AT&T sucks more than Moose Murders, but carrying music demos of shows in a killer web phone that has an app-game where you can produce We Will Rock You is something I'm telling Santa that I want.