Mondayits Cabaret: Secret Lives - Lessons Learnt

In the lead up to August 13th and my first Mondayitis show as Production Manager.   I thought I would put together a little lessons learnt for future reference.  I'm sure I will have more to say on the subject on Tuesday!

So when producing a cabaret/variety night.

DO -

• Set a theme, it makes pulling together performaces and programming the night that much easier.
• Get all your paperwork ready well in advance, this will save anxiety later.  It includes but is not limited performer information, photography rights/model release forms.
• Go to the venue beforehand.  Soundchecks, orientation etc are much better done well before show day when you will have a million other things on your mind.
• Engage professional photographers for the show, their photographs will be a million times better than you think!
• Figure out what licences you need early, some licences take up to eight weeks to process!
• Get yourself a good team, stage and technical crew will be your lifeline if something goes wrong, it pays to have people in that box you trust!
• Make sure you know what your venue capacity is!  This is a fire and safety concern, if you overload your venue there's a good chance they won't have you back.
• Cultivate a good relationship with your venue after all without them you'd be holding your show in your loungeroom, much less exciting.
• Make sure your costume is sorted out well in advance if you are planning to perform, satying up till 3am the night before sewing on sequins isn't good for anyone's complexion.

DON'T -

• Make your theme to narrow, it make getting performances to fit difficult.
• Expect that everyone will be as keen to do their paperwork as you are, we all have busy lives and you may need to exercise your production klout to get it done.
• Get upset if people can't make orientaiton/soundcheck etc, life gets in the way, the show will go on.
• Just assume the venue will be happy for you to do things, for example many venues have 'no glitter' policies (it's a nightmare to clean up).
• Forget you crew need a break too, try and make sure no-one has to work too long at any one thing, this is meant to be fun.
• Forget to deduct you perfromers/reviewers/complimentary ticket holders from the amount of tickets you can sell!  Just because they haven't paid doesn't mean they don't count towards capacity!

As I said I'm sure there will be more to add come Tuesday but right now I'm just really looking forward Monday night, It should be a great show, I'll share some of the photographs on here as well.