All role cheat sheets
Cheat sheet: producer
Your first week as producer
Rights, money, contracts and rooms, locked before anyone spends.
What the job is, in the glossaryIf you're new
If you're a pro
- The order that keeps a production solvent: rights, budget, contracts, then spending.Pull-Tight
- Contingency guidance below, plus the community theatre traps around paying some volunteers and not others.Pull-Tight
Talk to these people first
- The licensing agency. Confirm the show is available, get the royalty quote, order scripts and sign before any announcement.Pull-Tight
- The director and production manager. Match the vision to a real budget, the venue and a calendar worked back from opening.Pull-Tight
- The venue and your treasurer. Read every line of the venue contract: hire fee or box office split, fines, deadlines. Get keys and tax-exempt paperwork.Pull-Tight
- Department heads and the stage manager. Budget estimates before auditions, plus keys, supplies and how reimbursement works.Pull-TightLangham Court
Do
- Sign the licence and pay royalties before advertising auditions. Follow its billing, no-recording and no-changes rules to the letter.AACT
- Build a line-item budget before money moves, with a contingency of 5 to 20 percent.Pull-Tight
- Put agreements, waivers and any special consent forms in writing, and explain purchase approval before anyone shops.Pull-Tight
- Book rehearsal and performance space, check what scenery can be reused, and set the marketing and box office dates.Pull-TightADC Cambridge
Don't
- Never publicise a title before the rights are confirmed in writing. Shows get cancelled over this.AACT
- Do not treat "I emailed them" as a confirmation. Spend nothing on a venue or crew that has not said yes in writing.
- Do not produce and direct the same show unless you have done both before.
- Do not reimburse purchases nobody approved, and do not pay one volunteer while others stay unpaid.Pull-Tight
What to bring
- A legal folder: the signed licence, venue contract, agreements and waivers.Pull-Tight
- A money kit: the approved budget, past budgets, expense forms and tax-exempt certificates.Pull-Tight
- The master calendar, keys, welcome packets, scripts and the first contact list.Pull-TightLangham Court
Other roles
How-tos for the same show
Tech week, hour by hourPaper tech to previews: who comes, what gets done, how long, and when to move on.Build a prompt bookWhat goes in the book, in what order, and how it runs tech and every show.School, community, pro and UK theatreWho calls the show, what the rules are and what everything is called, side by side.
Sources
Written in my own words from handbooks, guides and rulebooks I read for this suite. Tags beside each point show where it comes from.