Education @ Roundabout: Setting the Stage

Roundabout's school partner, Bronx Theatre High School, a school which Roundabout co-founded in 2003, has started a new Theatre Business/Production Management class to support the 11^th grade productions at their school. In 11^th grade the students collaborate on a full-scale production in their black box theatre; this year's production being Dracula.

In order to prepare for their respective roles in the production, students are offered classes in performance, costume design, set design, and, this year, a theatre business/production management class where students are responsible for all marketing of the show, overseeing the lighting, sound, stage management, props and the overall coordination of the production through general management. As part of our school partnership program, Roundabout offers its resources to enhance the educational experience of the students. These resources include tickets, visits from artists, design sketches and, now, Roundabout staff!

The class met with Rachel Ayers, General Manager of the Laura Pels Theatre and the Black Box Theatre. "We covered the basics of my job. What does a General Manager do?" says Rachel of the information covered in the meeting. The students asked specifics about the job and its duties but were also interested in how she was able to obtain the position she is in today. "I stressed that it took a lot of hard work and dedication and – most importantly – always asking for more responsibility when I felt I was ready to move up… and then living up to the responsibility I was given" says Ayers.

 

Students then met with Shannon Marcotte, Senior Marketing Manager, to hear about the various marketing efforts they used for Brief Encounter. The students saw the production a week prior to meeting with Shannon and were able to contribute to the conversation by connecting the artwork with themes in the show. "We walked through the process of developing artwork – from initial conversations with the artistic team to weeding out the various concepts and landing on a strong image for our audience. We also talked about how you can change the 'take-away' by with good tag lines and copy, as well as defining clear objectives for sales." says Marcotte.

"Regardless if they choose to pursue a career in arts management (which I hope they do – we could use more young people like them in the field) or not, they are learning skills that can be transferred into any career. They each have a job in the class and even with just spending an hour with them, it was very clear that they are working together very well and are supporting their classmates in their efforts."

The students, led by their teacher Serafina Rotondi, left Roundabout's offices with many ideas and strategies for their production of Dracula that they will perform at their school February 1 – 4.

For more information about Education @ Roundabut, please click here.