danscape for Solo Performers and Artists
Robert Townsend at The Marsh Berkeley
I’ve worked in theater administration in six different states. Each region has had their own way of doing things and their own flavors and trends. In all those areas, I’ve never worked so closely with those in the solo performance realm as I am now in the San Francisco market. This place is a different animal with its unique challenges and hurdles that I hadn’t faced before.
With traditional theater, you often start with a script from a traditional publisher. You purchase the rights to produce a play, promise to adhere closely to the script and then you begin the production. The director, choreographer, set designer, music director, propmaster, sound engineer, and lighting designer have sway over their territories. Then, the theater’s marketing team comes up with their voodoo (or at least what is allowed by the publisher) and creates content for the promos based on their original ideas or tried and true imagery from past productions of that same show. Boom! You’ve got a show.
Solo Theater? Not so much. More times than not, the writer, performer, director, marketing team, propmaster, accountant, media relations, and producer are all the same person. While having such a narrow channel of power can give the artist near-total control over their art, it also makes for an incredible burden.
In addition to the emotional weight of crafting a piece that comes from deep inside your soul, you must also be the pragmatist that makes that piece of art marketable in the wider world. That solo artist is the one and only person that is responsible for fanning the embers of the piece when it’s new so that the flames grow and the smoke spreads to the public. As I’ve found, more often than not, the marketing end of a solo piece is the part that is the most lacking.
It’s 2020. At this point in our societal evolution, we have a ridiculous wealth of entertainment options to enjoy in the cocoon of our homes; Netflix, Hulu, Disney +, NBC Peacock, Amazon Prime, HBO, Starz, CBS All Access, YouTube Red, and Showtime to name a few. Throw in all the sports networks, Youtube, and Vimeo and you’ve got dozens of other options. Now, with Marquee TV, and Broadway HD, you can watch high-quality theater productions at home. And keep in mind that most of these options are less than $10 a month.
Throw in plans for smartphones that offer unlimited data and you’re hard pressed to get anyone to leave their homes or look up from their screens long enough to take notice of your performance. Why should they go to your show?
Despite those obstacles (and the many, many others), solo theater and storytelling are still thriving. Most of the popularity of storytelling comes from the behemoth known as The Moth and its awesome Radio Hour and live performances. In San Francisco, The Marsh has been in the game for over 30 years and other cool theaters like Brava and Stagewerx have vibrant programs dedicated to the craft, too.
Success as a solo performer is possible but it’s a slog under the best circumstance. It takes LOTS of work just to get the piece to come to life. Then … there’s the marketing aspect.
As wonderful and heartfelt as your performance piece may be, what can you do to make it stand out of the crowd of the other thousands of performers. Yes, thousands of solo artists want their art and story to be experienced. What make potential patrons want to see yours more than theirs? What makes a potential customer choose one flavor of toothpaste or diet soda over any others? Marketing!
That simple word encapsulates so very much but to the solo artist (theater or otherwise) it means good website design, a strong social media game, a gallery of high-quality images, a library of media reviews, and a personal administration that allows you to respond and react to any type of inquiry or promotional opportunity. As a marketing manager in this field, may I politely say that very few of the artists I’ve seen have any semblance of this.
This is where I come in. This is how danscape can help.
Website Design
Social Media Management
Poster/Postcard Design
Environmental Portraits
Website Design
Honestly, you don’t need much. You want a central place to hold information about you and your art, your upcoming events, links to Social Media and Youtube, an image gallery, lists of reviews, and a contact page. Pretty simple but you must must must get the nerdy stuff such as SEO, tags, and categories correct so that your site if easily findable and searchable.
I’m a big fan of Squarespace and Wix as they have a wide variety of tools yet are quite simple to manage on your own … once I set it up for you.
Social Media Management
The big three, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, are absolute MUSTs. You need Facebook for friends and family (to begin with), Twitter for the larger media landscape, business, other artists, and venues, and Instagram to help share your flavor, themes, or color. All are fantastic tools and all need to be managed on an almost daily basis, each with their own type of content and engagement. That can be tedious but remember … you are not just a person, you’re a brand and a business so it must be done.
Youtube is a stupendously awesome tool but requires a lot more work. Fortunately, the smartphone you carry with you can be your mobile video studio with some effort.
Poster/Postcard Design
Hand to God, I have zero data that tells me how valuable these are to the success of your show’s marketing plan. In other markets, I’ve seldom used them but in the Bay Area, they seem to be a requirement. I know that the large 20x30 or 24x36 posters are essential out in front of the building. Our theater has 1000s of people walking past us every day and those eyeballs are valuable.
Despite the lack of evidence of their worth, there’s no excuse to make bad graphic art for your show. If a potential patron sees a show represented poorly in its promotional art, what will prompt them to continue on to see that show?
On my Pinterest, I’ve created a growing collection of poster graphics that I think are great. Also, there’s a board for what, in my opinion, should be avoided.
Do I need to explain this one? Yes, I love my iPhone and am impressed with what I can get out of it but the average person will not be able to take decent imagery with these. You need to knuckle under and get a professional headshot now and then. I don’t just mean a friend with a camera. I mean the professional behind it. Get me the best stove in the world and I still couldn’t be a chef. Having a great camera doesn’t make for good photos. The capture of the image is just the beginning. Editing is key as is the proper storage and metadata management of the file. Don’t get me started on some of the images folks have submitted to me.
What does your show look like? What can people expect to see?
These images are usually taken during a full dress and tech rehearsal so that you can capture the look and feel of your show and movements. It’s a difficult skill and it’s easy to do poorly. For many years, it had been my bread and butter in addition to being my favorite part of theater.
See more Archive Imagery HERE!
Environmental Portraits
Basically, it’s imagery of you out in the wild. A casual walk through town or a chat at a cafe table with a friend. Simply, yet high-quality imagery intended to capture your mood, your look, your walk, and maybe even your attitude. These types of images get incredible amounts of play in the media. Reviewers love them if they’re done well.
Yes, I can handle a great amount of your marketing needs and can do great at it. But, let’s face the truth here. It’s a rare artist that has a budget to allow this type of service all at once. On top of that, the going rates for these services in San Francisco are more expensive than I’ve seen anywhere I’ve been. It’s astounding, really.
Let me put it this way … You know that these skills have immense value to you and the business of your art and I know that few have the budget to invest as much is needed.
So … we’ll work it out. My rates are flexible for artists so I’m confident we can figure out a sensible middle ground.
Daniel