Raconteur Theatre Company

Our next show, Ghosts, deals with long held secrets, family legacies, and how people either accept or try to change the circumstances of their life. It also happens that the opening weekend of Ghosts coincides with the Columbus Walk For Autism, which is put on by Autism Speaks.

Raconteur Theatre has dedicated itself to being not just a “community theatre” but being a theatre that is part of the community. To this end, we are going to try to assist Autism Speaks in their mission. At all performances of Ghosts, we will have a donation jar at the box office and concession stand, with 100% of all donations going to Autism Speaks. Additionally, you can make a donation to Autism Speaks through the following donation site. (It doesn’t matter which name you click to make the donation through.)

This marks only the first step in Raconteur’s giving back to the community. All future productions will have a tip jar available, with the proceeds going to charity. The charity will be determined by the Board of Directors on a per-show basis, but we will make every effort to keep our audiences well-informed.

Excited to be able to give back to the community,
Aaron

(In the interests of full disclosure, we have a personal stake in this charity. One of my children has autism, which is what drew me to this particular charity.)

Just a quick shout to those of you who are reading this who weren’t currently aware - but we’re getting ready to cast our next show.

We’re putting up Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts, translation done by Lanford Wilson, directed by none other than our own Tricia Jones.

(She directed the Roulette half of After the Afterglow, ya know.)

Now, if you’re reading this blog, I know you want to be a part of this production. So, you’re probably saying “Tell me the details.”

Gladly!

Auditions are Sunday, August 3 from 3-5 and Monday, August 4 from 7-9 at the Main Library’s auditorium. (96 S. Grant Avenue)
The show dates are from October 2-18, Thursdays through Saturdays at 8:00 p.m., with Sunday matinees at 2:00 p.m. the first two weeks of the run.

You want to know more? Of course you do! And fortunately, you can find out more at our website.

Now, we want to see all of you there with bells on. (Bells optional).
-Aaron

I have a hard time talking about our last show without talking about the Board who brought everyone together. I came into this experience not really knowing what to expect. I only knew half the group of the founding members when we first got together. It was a strange place to be, this past November, when the eight of us met at Cup O’ Joe’s to discuss what was to become Raconteur Theatre – just as another theatre company many of us were a part of was closing its doors. I was incredibly sad to lose Bison and yet incredibly hopeful with what this new company would bring, not only to me but to the rest of the Board and Columbus Theatre. We wanted a company that would last – we didn’t want to go through the incredible sadness that comes with seeing yet another Columbus Theatre have to fold for any of the number of reasons that many Columbus Theatres do. And yet goodbyes are inevitable regardless. Whether they are the closing of a theatre or the closing of a show, the goodbyes give a little tug at your heartstrings. And yet at the same time, that is the nature of the business.

But our debut show was about hello’s. Our company was incredibly lucky to have 8 very different artists, whose talents run the gamut of the sphere of talents it takes to make a production possible - directors, actors, writers, techies, stage managers and businessmen. We spent several months working up to our first show and it was an incredible feeling seeing everyone’s hard work brought together. We were blessed with a fantastic cast and crew who came on board knowing that things were going to be a little bumpy on our first show, and they embraced it.

In terms of my own personal experience on the production, I would say stage managing this show was probably more demanding than most shows I’ve worked on in the past. The Flex Series was set up as 2 one-act plays that offered flexibility to the audience who could see one or both of the one-acts. The plays worked together as a whole and yet also demanded the attention as if they were independent beings. I was always trying to find a balance between the two shows, figuring what I should approach independently and what I should look at as a whole. I had worked with one-acts before, but not in the same way that these two came together. Both shows had very similar themes and yet were very different technically – Roulette had 7 scene changes where Aster had none. Roulette was about an hour and fifteen minutes while Aster was almost half that. Roulette had a film feel to it while Aster was very black box theatre. The theme united them and yet these two pieces came together in the end to offer two very different theatre experiences. Another challenge was working in a non-theatre space. Kafe Kerouac is an awesome coffee shop on High Street near OSU campus with a side room stage where poetry readings often take place on Wednesday nights. It’s not typically a theatre space and yet with the guidance of our Set Designer and Tech crew, we managed to convert that room into a theatre space and make it work. It took a little bit of time and patience, but the final transformation was a pretty cool to see. It goes to show that you don’t need an actual theatre space to do theatre.

Despite these challenges it was probably one of the coolest shows I have ever put on. We didn’t have the comforts of home that established companies have and yet we made it work. I learned so much about what it takes to make theatre possible, how to accept the challenges that arise and how do the best we can with what we have to work with. And even after our afterglow ends, there’s still another show on the other side waiting for us to embrace it. And I look forward to it.

-Suellen

Being the resident “business guy,” I look at After the Afterglow from a little bit of a different angle than the rest of the board. I don’t know how common it is in the theatre industry for an upstart, new theatre company to make money on its very first show, but Raconteur did it! Even after all expenses for the show were paid, including royalties, set, marketing (lots of marketing), paying for the use of the space, etc., etc., the company made nearly $1000 in net profit. We’re certainly not rolling in the dough, but that kind of money isn’t a pittance, either. Especially considering we were only charging $8 a ticket ($5 if you only saw one show).

Now, I’m not really a financial guy. I have an MBA in entrepreneurship, so I know the basics of an income statement (and the other important financial documents, like the balance statement and cash flow statement), but finance is really not my cup of tea - but I get strapped with it because I have an MBA. And I’m okay with that.

Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, though, I want to tell you that the best part of Raconteur Theatre Company’s premier show - for me - was watching the results of all the business planning and preparation we did to prepare for the show. We did things that the big theatre companies in Columbus, Ohio (and elsewhere) do, but that the small, little, community-theatre upstarts (including those companies that members of our board previously worked with) in Columbus never have - and most likely still won’t, even after our proof of success with them.

We sent letters of introduction to all the other theatres in Columbus, Ohio that we had (or could find) contact information for. We submitted our audition notice to all of the papers we thought might carry it. We submitted show times, dates, prices, and show synopses. We wrote press releases about both the show, and “Raconteur - Columbus’s Newest Theatre,” - the company in general. This last bit is one that most theatre companies - especially in Columbus - fail at. Press releases are rarely done, in my opinion - perhaps because people don’t know how to write one, perhaps because people are too lazy to do it (or learn it) - but ours scored us a review in Columbus’s most-read alternative paper, The Other Paper. The reviewer came out to our opening night - Raconteur’s first show ever - and gave us a great review. Press releases also scored us a small blurb the following week in The Other Paper’s Arts section, as well as a mention in The Other Paper’s “Cheap and Free” section - information about what you can do over the weekend for free, or nearly so. We also had two online reviews. The only thing better would have been for the Dispatch to come out and review us, but alas it wasn’t to be. I guess we’ll have to settle for nearly sold out crowds every night and a HUGE profit for a small house and way-too-cheap ticket prices. Bummer. </saracasm> We also sold advertising (email ads [AT] raconteurtheatre [DOT] com) in our program, which is not uncommon, but helps the profit margin go up.

All of this is in addition to the fundraising we did at the inception of the company (and that we continue to do). We have so far raised more than $4000 in support from family, friends, and businesses. I’m not even counting any of that money in the profit of the show… that’s for future shows and planning and scheming and company growth and fabulous future shows!

Anyway, to cut it short - if it’s not already too late for that - what was very satisfying for me to learn was that starting a theatre is just like starting any other business. Our product is entertainment and art. So long as we continue to provide quality art and entertainment, Raconteur Theatre Company will be Columbus’s next, newest indie art success story!

It’s amazing to see something emerge from what was previously nothing. I still remember my amazement during our first rehearsal for Roulette. We were in Jill & Andrew’s living room (generously made available to us for the duration of the rehearsal process) but instead of “just talking” about starting a theatre company, we were audaciously being a theatre company. Actors stood with scripts in hand, our stage manager sat ready to take notes and I was giving direction. We were all diving in with complete faith that our efforts in this improvised rehearsal space would evolve into a finished piece of theatre that would be worthy of an audience, legitimate enough to charge for tickets and meaningful enough to truly speak to people.

It’s true that nothing comes from nothing. In this case, Raconteur Theatre and its debut production came from the sustained outpouring of heart, soul and really hard work. I was exhausted by directing, co-producing, marketing, selling ads, writing to donors, telephoning theatre critics and doing a million other things required to start a theatre company. But it was worth it. I was SO PROUD of After the Afterglow. I felt like we lived up to our vision of producing the best show possible. My feelings were confirmed by the countless positive comments I received from friends, family and strangers who came to see the show.