cc >> Jeanan Yasiri Moe: This is
Entrepreneurship in Society.
through the University of ItWisconsin School of Humaned
Ecology. I'm Jeanan Yasiri Moe.
As we begin today, I'd like to
producing this course, the UW eOffice of Corporate Relations,n
the UW College of Engineering for their technical support, and
financial support that is provided from the Ewing Marion
Kauffman Foundation based out of Kansas City, Missouri.
Today I also want to thank our
Television and their University mPlace crew for taping today'sic
lecture. We're very pleased to introduce
a special guest today, Jennifer Uphoff Gray, artistic director
of Forward Theater Company based
Forward is a new enterprise to Madison, very popular as
Jen will tell us, and they have performances that are based in
Overture Center. The
2009. Jen recently directed
"A Thousand Words," "The
"Moonlight in Magnolias ," "In the Next Room,"
and "Why Torture is Wrong," as well as
the "People Who Love Them"
Her other credits include working with the national tour
of Copenhagen, associate
"Cabaret," "The Blue Room" director of "Copenhagen,"
and "The Life on Broadway ." Her off-Broadway work
includes productions in both
Jen holds a degree in dramatic New York City and South Korea.
from Harvard College, and she joins us today to talk about the
intersection between artistic endeavor and entrepreneurship.
Please join me in welcoming Jennifer Uphoff Gray.
[APPLAUSE]
Jennifer Uphoff Gray: Thank you so much.
Everyone can hear me? Good.
Well, I am going to talk to you a little bit today about Forward
Theater Company and our founding
and a little bit about the here in Madison three years ago
and strategizing that went advanced planning and thinking
company and our into bsubsequent growth.of our
I will start by saying that it
mine to start a theater company. had never been a career plan of
and went off to college, I loved theater as an adolescent
school and become Wisconsin's howefirst female senator.o law
So I thank goodness every day for my parents who did not freak
out when I called them from Harvard to say I'm not going to
law school, I'm going to pursue a career in the theater.
I'm sure some of you can imagine
they were great. And I how that might have gone, but
a dozen years directing in New went, after school, spent
here in 2005 with my family and beginning a freelance directing
career here. If you'll
little theatrical metaphor, I'm going to set the scene for the
conditions here in Madison in 2009, actually, March of 2009,
almost exactly three years
So Madison Repertory Theatre, agwhich was Madison's onlyd.
professional theater company, closed in the middle of its 40th
anniversary season for a variety
six months leading up to that, of reasons, and in the previous
companies in southern Wisconsin twhad also closed: Milwaukeeer
Shakespeare Company in Milwaukee
Beloit. And, as I'm and tsure you're aware,re in
that was when the economy was really going in the tank
quickly. And arts groups all over were
struggling, and a group of
in southern Wisconsin gathered, tliterally, around the kitchene
table and said what can we do?
somebody doesn't do something, If we don't do something, if
theater professionals in there's going to be no work for
everyone's going to have to leave or give up the field.
And that was certainly what we
So this group that gathered, we wwere playwrights, directors,
actors, technicians, designers, and we were trying to pool our
histories in the theater, both
nationally, and our experience in southern Wisconsin and
had worked and what had not worked to see if there wasn't at
way that we could create a
would be uniquely suited to this company here in Madison that
that we've learned in places community but tap the lessons
And by the time we all got up from the table, Forward Theater
Company had been born. We'd named ourselves, we'd come
up with an initial plan for the first few months, and we'd
developed a mission statement.
straightforward. It's to And our mission was pretty
for Wisconsin theater professionals that expands and
enhances the cultural and economic life of the greater
Madison area. So
Basically three welements to that.n?
The first is this idea of creating and artistic home.
So what do we mean by that? Well, step one was to build on
the assets that we already
There's a vibrant community of have here in the region.
chosen to make their homes in thand around the Madison area.e
There's actors, designers,
in Spring Green at American Players Theatre half the year.
There's a very dynamic theater
Milwaukee, Beloit as well, and professional community in
Madison either affiliated with the university or not.
And there's an incredibly avid
in Madison. And folks audiencsupport a broadter here
spectrum of theater from
touring companies, APT, commcampus theater, etc.onal
There's a world-class facility
Madison at the Overture Center, for including the beautifule in
Playhouse theater which was home to the Madison Repertory
Theatre, a 335 seat thrust
state-of-the-art technology. configuration space with really
professional training programs in this area through
the UW-Madison's Department of
MATC, the Bolz Center here on campus for arts administration.
So there's a lot of new professional theater talent
that's being educated right here in town as well.
So we wanted to be a home base
build a life here in the Madison for those artists who wanted to
here in the Madison area and to continue their careers in thee
theater as well. That's the home base part.
The next part is expanding the
area. So there's a cultural life of the Madison
Overture Center, community lot going on here.
music, opera, dance, theaters, educational theaters,
And all of those things are very well represented in this
community. I think
high amount of art that happens for a city this size, but there
was no local professional theater once the Rep was gone,
and that was a pretty gaping
the professionals who wanted to do that kind of work, but, more
importantly, for the audience that would be interested in
seeing that kind of work. So if you look for theater
companies outside of Overture and outside the professional
realm, there was plenty, but
that wasn't available. So thewhen we were first meetingng
around that table, we were
professional, locally focusiproduced theater.g link,
And different people could
but we defined it as theater define that in different ways,
people who've dedicated their professional lives to the craft,
who've built the experience and the credentials working in the
theater. It's theater with a very high
caliber of physical production
the sets, the costumes, the ilighting, things that you cans,
really tell the difference
production. And it in a professionally staged
Madison audiences to the great also means access for
New York, on and off Broadway, new plays that are coming out of
plays that wouldn't be available out of Chicago, out of Seattle,
produce for a number of years but that are part of the current
cultural conversation in the country.
So looking at what Madison
they couldn't find, we set a audiences could find and what
year. One was that couple of goals for that first
present a broad spectrum of work we were going to
as the only professional that would reflect our position
We didn't want to overly limit company in town.
type of theater. We oualso set very pragmaticfic
financial goals to start that first season with a full
production, a couple of special one-night events, and to grow
very carefully and responsibly
we could be around for in our fiscal planning so that
And then our third goal was to more than one season.
sustain a dialog with our community and with the audience,
and to make sure that we were constantly checking in to be
sure that we're serving a need
over time and we need to be continually listening to make
sure that we remain responsive
to see our work. So we've and odone that in a coupleo come
of ways. We started that very first year
with an open forum that we
libraries, and we basically said hosted at one of the public
ask us questions or hear from us about what we've been doing,
show up and talk to us, and it can be about the plays we
choose, it can be about the ticket prices, when and where we
do our performances,
And we've been doing one what have you.
We do talk backs after of those every year.
We do pre-show lectures. every performance.
outreach events in order to make We do all kinds of other
talking to the audience. And sure that we're continually
city. I love this community.
The engagement, the level of engagement in those
conversations has been just incredibly high, and sometimes
two-thirds of the audience will stick around for the talk backs
after the show, and it really gives us a wonderful opportunity
to hear directly from the audience how they're responding
to the work that we're creating.
expanding the cultural life, the So creating a home base,
the economic life of the greater other part of that was expanding
important to understand that Madison area, and it's really
concrete ways. There was the arts do that in very, very
couple of years ago that said there are about two million
Americans who will list their profession as artists, and there
were a couple of other
that report. Compared interto other US workers,from
American artists tend to be better educated and more
entrepreneurial. American artists have learned to
be creative not merely in their chosen fields but also in how
they manage their lives.
investments, the new American economy depends on imagination,
innovation, and creativity. Those are the skills that
artists develop and nurture and promote.
So artists will gravitate to
have employment possibilities tfrom cultural institutions andt
who have creative industries, and it becomes this snowballing
effect. You attract artists, they help
build the economy that helps
artists. And the city create of Madison and itsor the
surrounding communities have
importance of the creative class been, I think, very aware of the
So they've been supportive in inmany forms ranging from thet.
establishment of the Overture Center and through local
granting and long-term
So we've got this great physical municipal planning.
in town, but now the city is plant with the facilities here
nurture the infrastructure looking a little more at how to
employment, arts opportunities. So, in terms of what we've been
doing with Forward and our
economy, it's really pretty inspiring for us to think about
because, of course, this buy
much about applies just as much with your entertainment dollars
as it does with anything else.
season when we did that one full And even just in our very first
think 70 local artists or service people or craftspeople
to work on our shows, and about $75,000 went directly back into
the local economy because of our
using local businesses to provide the goods that we needed
in our productions. Now,
significantly since thathe first year.own
We're in the middle of our third
$400,000 that's going into the season now, and it's about
the direct contribution. It doesn't factor in things like
the city of Madison collecting
State Street businesses collecting from people dining
out before or after the show. So we're really committed to
continuing to think of what our role is here in the city and the
ways in which we can help the local economy to grow because
that makes our job easier.
fund raise and find audience It makes it easier for us to
So one thing that I would love members that we can identify.
in terms of our planning and how to tell you a little bit about
idea of when we started the company learning from things
that we'd seen in other theaters
nation. And what had and arts groups around the
where had we seen companies get into trouble.
And, inevitably, when there was trouble it stemmed from two kind
of interrelated problems. First is that age old issue
where communication breaks down.
breaks down between the artistic And in the arts it's when it
management of a company. And management and the financial
problem that we'd seen over and over again is the problems that
arise when the artistic goals and the financial
responsibilities get
We were a pretty pragmatic group out of balance.
kitchen table, and we all felt getting together around that
ignore the financial realities really strongly that if you
creating your art, you aren't going to be creating that are
for very long. But we also felt that if you
focus only on the bottom line and don't think about doing
exciting, bold, challenging,
isn't going to care so much crabout what you're doing.ce
And so we didn't want to see
seen in many other companies happening with Forward what we'd
get out of whack, and then, whinevitably, it leads to theds
downfall of the company itself. And we thought, well, is there
something we could
You can say, well, we won't let that happen to us, but that
doesn't tend to be a very effective strategy in the long
run, and what we ultimately came up with is an operating
structure that we think is
know of anybody else pretty unique, at least we don't
And our company has a three-legged governance
structure that we're really very
It's been working very well. proud of here in season three.
think we're sort of modeled on And in a lot of ways I like to
checks and balances. So you've got your staff, headede
by myself, currently, as the
sort of the executive branch. We're responsible for the day to
day operations, the day to day
And we have our board of decision making of the company.
our legislative branch. diThey have the power of theof
purse. They're
long-term fiscal and legal responsible for the
making sure that we have the oversight of our company and
sure that we're making decisions resources that we need, making
And then we have this third branch that's the sort of unique
part of Forward. And we call it our advisory
company. And that company is made up
mostly of the people who were around that table that first
night. It's professional theater
artists that live in and
And they are like the arojudicial branch.y.
They're responsible for artistic
making sure that Forward doesn't oversight of the company and
I want to see on stage because become a group that's just what
community, not one we're trying to serve a broader
And we'd seen companies where you can get an artistic director
and saying I want to do an
maybe that is a good idea for your community and maybe it's
not. And we thought you really need
to have more voices involved, particularly in a community like
this one where there's going
company. If you're to be only one professional
there's 35 professional theater companies, yes you want to
narrow your niche a little
But for Madison it really seemed bit more than that.
broader spectrum of thartistic taste and input.ch
So in addition to having those
different paths of three branches we've mandated
A member of the board of communications between them.
advisory company and vice versa, directors sits ex officio on our
specific responsibilities. The and we've put in some very
in favor of the proposed advisory company has to vote
They also, the board can't season each year.
advisory company about it. fire me without talking to the
they want to, but they have to Ultimately, they can do it if
what the artistic ramifications of those big decisions might be
before they can take action. So that's something that's been,
I think, a very progressive idea
seemed to suit this community thvery well, and I think theit
responses to the programing choices that we've made has born
that out, and that's definitely been as a result of the
conversations we've had between the three branches of our
company. Another thing
really hard on since our we've been working
partnerships with other organizations around Madison and
around the state. This
we've done has been as a season so far everything
We opened with Farnsworth Invention in the fall, and that
was a partnership with the
here on campus. We just Departclosed in February aDrama
production of a world premiere
called "A Thousand Words," and script by a Madison playwright
with Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, and the production was developed
here, ran here for three weeks
ran as part of their season. and then moved to Milwaukee and
share our costs and also bring That was a great way for us to
audience. And just last theweekend we had theder
first part of this season's new play development series which
was a new script about the
campus that was created by bombing of Sterling Hall on
And so doing those kinds of partnerships has been another
way that we've been trying to tap the other creative voices
and the other established institutions here in our
community both to reach a broader audience, to piggyback
onto established structures that
We're still very brand new in thterms of our infrastructure.d.
So that's been a great way for
that's feasible for us. So one us to get our work up in a way
know, professional theater thing that's important to
It costs a lot of imoney to put on..
And one reason that we've been
success we've had so far is that able to have the level of
investment in what we're trying to do, and not just from the
very generous granting
donors and corporate sponsors who've been incredibly helpful
in getting us up off the ground,
who have all been working for less money than they would make
somewhere else, some place more established, because they're
invested in this idea of
in Madison. So we've creating an artistic home here
to paying everybody a little committed on our end
paying rates that are comparable to other companies,
but there's no question that
personal commitment from the without the investment and
the people doing the design peowork and the staff of our and
organization we wouldn't
So one quote that I do want to be able to do any of this.
influential for us when we were first getting started was from a
writer named Chris Jones who
wrote a piece in the Chicago
Tribune about six months
after the economy started to really
plummet. And he wrote,
see the transience of crisis, remove you to more pleasant
spots, help you believe that
And they get you all fired everything will be all right.
And the arts that matter most in up and ready to take a risk.
live in the Midwest. the Midwest are the arts that
education, enlightenment, and, They are our sources of
pride in our hometowns. For pethe arts that live in yourl,
town don't just invite passive
intoxicating blend of listening, consumption, they demand an
And that was something that we participating, conversing."
There was no end of the number felt really strongly about.
were insane for trying to start a non-profit arts group in the
midst of the worst recession in decades, but I think because
that was the context, I think that's the reason that we've had
such a successful first three years that we have.
I think people have recognized
need thoughtful, provoking, thatchallenging arts to get they
everybody thinking and to get everybody engaged and fired up.
So I think it's, in some ways,
getting going servduring a recession.were
What I would really love to do
your questions because that's isthe sort of overview of whato
we're doing, and I'd really love
I give you to what you to tailor any other information
The students know that I would like to know.
to whoever raises their hand and has a question.
I'm going to start by asking
I might, Jen. You talked the first one, as I suggested
genesis of Forward Theater about kind of the
at a kitchen table and such, and Company and folks getting around
developing the mission of the thorganization and the keyed
components associated with that,
of developing the mission, how important was that process
points, to helping you achieve coming to consensus on those
deliver in the end? >> what you really intended to
Well, it was very important. That's a great question.
been rewritten in our three Oyears of existence, which It
think is not that typical because we really tried to get
it exactly right. But because we kept the mission
sort of tight and not overly--
but we tried to be specific about our big goals but not,
about lots of little goals
be able to get out and listen uto the community and see whato
people needed, but by focusing
improving the cultural options on being an artistic home,
to the economy in our community we thought, well we all agreed
on that fairly quickly. We
at that very first table wrote our mission statement
since then, but it has been the guiding principle in everything
we've done and every decision we've made since then.
So you revisit it pretty
We do. We were doing regularly as a team.
planning over this past year. We finally have enough capacity
to start to talk about what our capacity might be.
And so we always go back to that
of our bylaws as sort big mof our constitution.think
If we're going to continue the
bylaws are the constitution telling us how we're going to
operate, and what we've been
six months or so is refining starting to focus on the last
I'm calling it our Bill of our values a little bit more.
these are the things we believe Rthat overly tie our hands in
long-term planning in a way that doesn't allow us to be
responsive to the community but that lays down some sort of
fundamental principles of why we do what we do and how we're
going to serve our community. >> Hi, I'm Matt.
Hi. >> Thank you for being here.
My pleasure. >> So I'm
matters abroad, and I know very interested in all
in South Korea, the Chuncheon International Film Festival.
I was hoping you could talk a little bit about that
experience, what you liked, disliked, what work you had in
it. >> Sure.
Cultural juxtapositions.
Were you understood. >> Sure.
Actually, it was a
This was in the mid-'90s. I was a few years out of
college, and the government in
new performing arts Southcomplex in Chuncheon. huge
And they wanted to celebrate
theater festival, and they that by having an international
different countries all over sought out representatives from
representing their communities the world to bring theater
I had directed a production that was invited to be the US
representative at that
We were there for a week. I felt like I almost never left
the convention center because I was just seeing everybody's
show. We were very
Americans there, so a lot of the conspicuous as the
show and see a few others and then go out and sightsee, but we
all felt like somehow we were the big dogs, being the American
company, and our absence would
So we saw everything. be misAnd it was great. there.
I was really wild to see. Most
English. It was a of great experience forin
me, just as an artist, to get to see Japanese theater,
Russian theater, German theater, African theater.
It was pretty cool. It was pretty cool.
Hi, Jennifer. I'm Darian.
Thanks for being here. So my
non-profit, what are some ways question is that, being a
and do you guys do any creative tstrategies for getting those
donors? Do you do fundraising events?
And, also, since there are some other non-profits within the
community, do you find that you're ending up sharing some of
those donors across those boundaries?
Great question about where
We get our resources from a variety of different sources.
Obviously, the biggest one is ticket sales, and we're about
40% of our revenues come from ticket sales which is actually
pretty good in this industry. It's a number we're really proud
of in season three
We get some money from to be hitting 40%.
organizations, and as we get to be an older company we actually
become more eligible for other
great because our budgets soare going to keep going up.is
We do have special events. We have one sort of signature
event that we started in our
well received, and so we're continuing that and having that
be our big bang event every fall
it's a sort of unique kind of wevent that people have gottennd
very excited about. And then, yeah, it comes to
individual donors. We do
things. We have a a lplace when peopleonal
subscribe and fill out their
there's a place where they can season ticket order form,
top of that, and a really healthy number of folks do that.
We send letters to single ticket
one of our shows asking if buyers after they come and see
contribution. And then they would be interested in a
of donor cultivation events and have a lot of opportunities for
people who are potentially able to contribute very significantly
on an individual level, and we'll have opportunities for
them to come and watch a
backstage tour with me or someone else from the company
afterward and trying to kind of come up with fun and interesting
ways for people to get to know
And as far as competing, us and get to know what we do.
I think that Madison's a small yes and no.
of people who are ephilanthropically involved iner
the arts isn't enormous. And
them do give to a variety of different institutions.
I don't think of it so much as competing.
Our philosophy all along has
beboats. It seems to be true.ll
We've been doing very well in terms of individual donations,
and it doesn't appear to me that
town are losing an the other arts organizations in
And we've actually been really equivalent amount of money.
help collaborate in fundraising. strategizing ways that we can
we were just named a resident company at Overture Center about
two weeks ago which is a
And we've been working with Overture to say, hey, maybe
there are ways we could do a
health is good for us and our health is good for you, and we
should talk to our donors about the fact that it's great to
support both Overture and Forward, that we're not
competing for dollars, we're
So hopefully that coanswers your question.s.
I'm going to ask a question about the advisory committee
that you mentioned. We've had different folks come
in, other entrepreneurs, and
of advisers and people they've talked about their board
Can you describe, not necessarily a name unless you
choose to, but what kinds of
what backgrounds that your board points of intelligence or value,
to guess it's not necessarily is mjust a board of artists.ing
Maybe not? >> Well, the advisory company is
a board of artists. So
directors, and that's coming we have our board of
We have people from from athe university.pects.
We have people from the local hospital.
We've got folks from local
government, law firms, banks. We've got a really nice diverse
board of directors from all aspects of the industries here
in Madison which is great.
for theater and for what we're They're united by their passion
Our advisory company is all tartists, although differenty.
fields. We've got a director.
We've got a dramaturge. We've got a couple of designers.
We've got some actors,
So we really do have this nice a playwright.
scripts in different ways. Since mix of people who look at
to advise me, and whoever is their primary function is
artistically both in script iselection and in other ways.
Is this play going to resonate with Madison?
Do we think it's a good play? Hey, here's a director whose
work I just saw, we should
direct something. Or here's conthis actor I saw in an to
little shop production in Milwaukee, you should really
take a look at them. And so we wanted that to be all
artists who are advising me on the art.
But from very different perspectives.
And some of them really like
them are really classiinto avant-garde.ome of
We try to have a really broad range of tastes.
I'm going to bring
I see we have a student who has a question, but while I'm
walking, can you describe again,
because you and I talked about Jen, in the earliest days,
how many staff there were and it how well they were paid.ed,
Sure. Well, our first meeting,
everybody pitched in a couple of
post office box because we bucks so that we could open a
before you can start the process figured you have to do that
501(c)(3) non-profit status. of registering for your
dollars, and we had $56. And So we all kicked in a couple
account with $56. Our budget for next season is
over half a million dollars in three years.
So that's been a little dizzying, and sometimes we all
still hyperventilate a little when we look at the budget
because those are very big
In the first year, we paid all numbers for us to be looking at.
that worked on our shows. oWe're a professional theaters
company, that's what it means,
We pay all of our artists, and I think, to be professionals.
artists belong to. But we work with the unions that the
volunteer the first year, and it our entire staff was
sort of managing was just three of us, myself as
person, and a directmarketing director.ind of
And we all just kind of pitched in and, with a lot of support
from our board and our advisory company, just did what had to be
done that first year for free because it was all we could do
to raise the $100,000 we needed to pay for that first season.
The second year we had a staff
getting a part-time salary, stand if you worked full-timeas
equivalence, we were
between the three of us. sharing 1.0 salary
1.8, with a staff of This current year we're at
sort of intern staff members. And in our fourth year, which
will start July 1st, we're
seven part-time staff members, going to go to 3.2 and
about that, just having a little which we're all giddy
and to become more sustainable more help to keep things going
not actually sustainable because the first three years is
All of us saw it in the long run.
We're kind of creating our dream as an investment.
we can't all continue to work time-and-a-half for quarter-time
or third-time pay. And so we're getting closer to
actually paying people for the
that's very helpful. >> So work that they're doing, and
piggybacks off of Jeanan's my second question kind of
staff. So you have previous question about the
directors, and an advisory committee.
Yeah. >> Can you
more about what your staff talk a little bit
does andSure. Sure. role is?
So our current staff of, like I said, we have four, plus
two volunteer staff members.
artistic director. And, Soreally, if you're lookinghe
at other job descriptions, I'm
director. So I have kindthe leadership of theistic
company. I oversee
pieces, marketing, development, all the artistic decision
making, and sort of the management of the staff.
And because I'm a director, that's my personal background, I
direct two of the three main
season, artistically, and, stage shows that we do each
hiring. We have a communications
director. She's in
and also our development, so the charge of our marketing
the strategies along with the grboard for raising our funds.th
We have a general manger who
elements. She hires othe production staff,n
makes sure that we come in on or, ideally, under budget with
all of our shows. She does the bookkeeping and
works with me on creating the budget and those sorts of
things. And then we have a director of
audience development, and she is focused right now mostly on
audience services, processing subscription orders, dealing
with audience members who may need assistance in some way, but
doing some focus, and next year when we have a little more staff
she's going to be able to focus more on developing new audiences
and bringing in new people to the theater and creating more
complementary programing
experience. And then to enhance our audience's
have an artistic associate our two volunteers, I
auditions and reading scripts and that sort of thing, and then
we've had a volunteer house manager who helps with the front
of house things at
My name is Amelia, and I was the theater. >> Hi.
you're very involved with the business side of it, how do you
not lose that artistic
iThat is an excellent question.?
Well, check in with me in a few years.
Right now it's still
I'm an artist. That's what my background is so
for me, personally, it's not
forefront because that's why I'm hard to keep that at the
create theater that engages and challenges and entertains
audiences in our community. It's been a wonderful learning
curve. I've always
and practical bent which has had a very organized
company, but I've certainly learned a lot of new things that
I have not had to dabble in before.
But as a company as a whole,
there makes sure that we don't having the advisory company
purpose of it is to make sure. lose sight, and that's the whole
artists because you can get in a You don't want to have just the
if you're not respectful of whreality in that way, but wele
wanted to have that advisory
mandated in the bylaws voice in ceverything that we do to makend
sure that we don't just start to
lot of tickets, we should just go, oh, well, this will sell a
balanced. But we're do thonly three years in.ep it
So far it's working very well and hopefully it will continue.
You mentioned it's three years
talked with us about your budget in and you've kind of also
obviously a lot more investors, anbe them individual ticketd,
members or companies, how unusual is the success of
Forward Theater Company in the
this, not even necessarily scheme of other groups like
country? >> I can't here speak to that reallyd the
specifically because one thing
about a start-up is you have that I'm sure you all understand
outside of what you're doing almost no capacity to look
But all of our sense, both from our own experience and from the
responses that we get from the
incredibly unusual that we would communities, is that this is
We're at 1800-plus subscribers have started three years ago.
tickets for the first show of our season and over 3,000 for
the second. To me,
most strongly to how suited what that speaks, I think,
it is to this we're specific community. doing
Doing this three-legged structure, working so much to
build partnerships, thinking
choices of what we do in our so strongly about making our
think the response to what we're programming to suit Madison, I
Like I said, the fact that half to two-thirds of the audience
stays for talk backs
That's crazy. That after every performance.
But I think that the selections we've made and the way we've
gone about things has been
community because everybody who created the company makes theirs
home here and wanted to create
So I think it's pretty unusual. some>> You mentioned, Jen,son.
collaborative efforts that
described a specific group in Milwaukee that you were kind of
sharing talent and intelligence and all other things with, and
it's such an important theme
really being pushed to work with because so many non-profits are
they can produce at least as other non-profits now so that
cost effectively. Are mucthere other collaborativemore
relationships beyond other
would potentially consider? >> artistic non-profits that you
in terms of things that we would Yeah, we're pretty wide open
one thing that's happening now consider, and I do think that
are able to finally get a little that we're in year three is we
collaborations we say yes to. The first year was definitely if
someone asks us to come speak somewhere or if someone asks us
to perform some place, say yes
getting out into the community because it was all about just
actually heard of and havForward Theater.h, I've
And so now we can be a little bit more choosey to make sure
we're doing things we have the
help bring us exposure capacity to do well and that
What we've been doing a lot of is partnering with other
non-profits in ways that either enhance their mission or ours.
For example, our first year we
AIDS Network's annual gala, and it was their 25th anniversarye
and we created a piece about
of a retrospective of scenes AIDS in American theater, sort
frwith AIDS. We've done piecesg
with A Fund for Women. We have worked with other arts
groups. The play "A Thousand Words" that
we premiered in January/February
Walker Evans, the depression era was about art and was about
quilters and different photographer and it was about
And so we reached out to kinds of artists.
put together a curated exhibit different arts groups and helped
play that was in the gallery of work that was inspired by the
So we're constantly looking for new ways that we can reach
people who might not normally come into the theater and bring
them in. We're going
very politically themed shows in the fall leading up to the
presidential election. I
opportunity to reach out to some new groups on partnerships
there. Yeah, we're
pretty open mind with that. >> trying to keep a
not really on the business side of it, but as a director, what
are some of the experiences you learned along the way to getting
to be a director that you hold close to serving all the
responsibilities you
What does that entail with the have as a director?
also the creative side of it and communications side of it but
makineverything. >> Sure.over
Well, the thing that sort of
mentioned when I started, I wasn't planning on a career in
the theater when I started
graduated I had a degree in theater and moved to New York
City and started directing and
couple of jobs as the associate director on some Broadway shows.
And after a couple of years I thought maybe I should go get my
MFA and go to graduate
And I interviewed at a number of school for directing.
working on this musical, "The coLife," on Broadway at thewas
same time I was doing my
I had the head of one of the interviews for grad school, and
when our students graduate programs talked with me and said
that you have. If you thwant to teach, you shouldig
come and get your MFA, but
professionally as a director, that's a lot of time and money
that you're going to spend on that.
There are better ways to spend
yourself out in front of the your time and money to get
So that resonated with me, and I people who could hire you.
to take a small amount of the money that I would have spent on
tuition going to grad school and
a small off-Broadway theater I produced myself a showcase at
of the people who'd gotten to thknow my work as an assistantll
director, as an associate director, and let them see
something I'd created myself. And I figured now I can bring in
agents and producers and other
the power to hire me people, artistic directors with
And so that experience of actually producing that show in
addition to directing it and
actors, dealing with the actors crunion restrictions, was veryhe
formative for me for sure in
for what we're doing terms of laying the groundwork
I'm going to ask one final now with Forward.
because we have a statewide audience with our university
channel audience that's joining us today, and I suspect that the
story of Forward Theater Company
think, well, why will inspire some folks to
I hope so. >> Wouldn't don't we do that.
What recommendations would you that be great?
by this talk to get started? have for those that are inspired
things that we did that have >> Well, I think a couple of
community is different and every served us very well, and every
started from a place of knowing athat there was a hole that was
not being filled in the arts community.
There was no locally produced professional theater here.
In another community it could be
musicals or there's no that there is no company to do
But we knew that what we could company to do new work.
and so that makes it a lot do nobody else here was doing,
versus coming in to compete eagainst already establishedap
groups. That was
I would love to see companies coming up all over the country
that are very focused on
I think of theater as sera community service.es.
There's no question that we're all artists.
We're trying to serve our artistic inspirations, but I
think the performing arts, the
most important part presence of what we do.e is the
And it can be easy for artists
heads and say I'm doing this for to kind of get inside their own
I think our focus at Forward my own artistic fulfillment, and
that's going to really is very much on what can we do
And it doesn't mean dumbing it down at all.
You read off the list that
They've been really challenging, shows what we've done so far.
thought would engage and be binspiring to our community and
then taking it from there. And
structure that we did to sort of force us to always be in
collaboration with the community
the things that we started with, and in communication, those are
would transfer to any andcommunity. >> Excellent.ose
I know the students join me in
thaMy pleasure. Thank you.ray.
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