We're so sorry, he's from Barcelona*

So I've been working on The State of PHIT 2008 this week (save the date: December 2, 2008 @ 8pm, The Shubin) after deciding to hold another meeting this year and feeling very good about it.

Originally I hadn't thought to hold a meeting this year - time is kind of precious for me at the moment, since I've just started a new job - but few different circumstances convinced me it was needed and could be fun.

First, I'd had a nagging feeling for several months that some people felt like PHIT wasn't giving them a fair shake. I couldn't put my finger on exactly where some of the dissatisfaction was coming from until Meg Favreau pointed it out to me at a lunch we had a few weeks ago: the people who weren't quite as happy did not come to The State of PHIT last year. Meg said that her and Rob attending had made them understand where the theater was going and what the goals were for 2008 - so they understood why certain decisions were made the way they were. Hopefully we'll be able to get out all the people who just started getting involved this year so they can see what the theater has accomplished in 2008 and where we want to go for 2009 and feel more invested in (or at least better understand our approach to) what we're trying to do.

The second reason I came around to having the meeting is that it turns out we've got a lot of stuff to talk about. Rest assured, very little of the meeting is going to be PHIT bragging about what we've done (a little, to be sure, at the start). It's been a good year, but we want next year to be great. So we're going to talk about how we can start benefitting performers more directly for being on stage, and what Alexis is planning artistically. We may have more surprise announcements, several different irons on the fire there.

I'll probably write more about some of this stuff as I keep working over the next several weeks, but I'm interested in input here as well - WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO HEAR DISCUSSED DURING THE STATE OF PHIT?


*I am again awarding a point to the person that recognizes this first. Come on folks, where's it from? The comments section awaits!

What's the deal with PHIT?*

Hey everyone,

Look at me following through on a promise to post! So PHIT had another exciting staff meeting this week, and as always it was not boring when Alexis and I got together.

The theater is growing very rapidly right now and it feels like we constantly have to balance the pace people want to move at with what is achievable from two people who are working other jobs full time. That's tricky. For instance, we really want to finish the initial building up of our house teams - specifically 1) getting the videos we shot and production photos we took last weekend polished off, 2) getting headshots for cast who need them, 3) getting group publicity photos, 4) creating websites, 5) creating press kits, 6) creating generic team postcards/flyers. All this stuff done will give us really good looking press packs to begin applying to festivals with.

At the same time we've got lots of great groups we don't want to ignore who have been doing festival stuff already - Rare Bird Show, Makeout Clinic, Illegal Refill, Industrial, etc. - and we want to find ways to bring these groups into the theater more and offer them more support. Then we've got offshoot sort of shows - Comic vs. Audience Comedy Show, Kent Haines' Why Am I Not Famous ?!?, and Bedtime Stories. These shows are doing great stuff and helping connect the various communities that all fall under "alternate comedy" in the city.

Above all though, I want to try looking beyond the little tight-knit group of people who know each other fairly well and run around producing and putting on shows. PHIT needs to start reaching out to the general populace and impressing them. Which is why I am spending a lot of my time for PHIT right now focused on larger picture stuff - namely our own independent branding (the website changes, new signs for the windows, posters, flyers, postcards - all designed by Jon Billett, our awesome graphic designer). I'm also trying to get mechanisms in place to make issuing press releases and getting listings for the shows EVERYWHERE a much simpler process. It's slow moving work, but it is starting to come together.

Parallel with this I am working very hard to try and improve/simplfy tech at our shows. We had a bunch of people step forward and volunteer to help with tech at shows last May - but what we found after the initial training was that we made things too complicated. So we're beefing up the tech software in the booth and automating more things - like having voiceover recorded announcements instead of live ones. That stuff should start to really be in place starting next month. We have had people helping out in the booth (big shout out to Tim Callahan who has volunteered EVERY month since we started), but sometimes they haven't had enough guidance or have shown up while I've been trying to finish up the tech cues and I inevitably make a mistake. This new setup should reduce some of that. Hopefully it will make the shows seem just a bit slicker and more produced.

So that's where my focus lies these days: 1) improve publicity, 2) improve tech/production values.

I realize now that this wasn't so much about what the theater is up to, but what the heck - I can post more about that later!

Greg


*no bonus points for telling me what this is a reference to.