Staff Spotlight: Eric Emch, Marketing Associate

Staff Profile:

Staff Name:Eric Emch
Position: Marketing Associate
Years with Roundabout: < 1

Q&A:

Q: Give us a brief background of your career leading up to Roundabout?

A: Before I was lucky enough to land a full-time position at Roundabout, I worked at Vineyard Theatre in Union Square and The Flea Theater downtown in TriBeCa. For both companies I worked in marketing and graphic design, with a little bit of development in there too. When I first moved to New York, I actually interned here at Roundabout in the marketing department!

Q: How was the intern experience at Roundabout, and how did it help you in your transition into the professional world?

A: My intern experience at Roundabout was absolutely invaluable. Not only did the experience teach me the core aspects of marketing for a theatre company, but it also gave me the connections to propel my career here in New York. The whole reason I got the Marketing and Development Associate position at The Vineyard was thanks to a professional relationship I had built during my internship (thanks, Rachel!).

Q: How involved is the marketing department in the development of the key art used for each production?

A: Long before each Roundabout production hits the stage, the marketing department gets together with our amazing advertising agency, SpotCo, and brainstorms about the designs. From there, SpotCo creates beautiful options that our department has a large hand in narrowing down and finessing. Being a part of this process is one of my favorite elements of the job!

Q: Do you have a favorite design for a Roundabout production – past or present?

A: I just can’t get enough of the artwork for our upcoming production of Anything Goes. That Sutton Foster just couldn’t look better. I also really love the artwork for Les Liaisons Dangereuses from our 2007-2008 season.

Q: When you’re not working you…

A: Read the Roundabout blog. Always. And sometimes I fit in some theatre-going, swimming, eating and seeing movies while eating popcorn. I’ll see anything (pan to me watching Country Strong. Not proud of it.).

Q: If you could choose a different career for one day, what would it be?

A: I would want to run a paint-your-own pottery studio. I am a member of one near my apartment. It’s always a bunch of six year-olds and me, but it’s one of my favorite things to do.

Q: Random: Name 3 “guilty pleasure” songs on your iPod?

A: Virtual Insanity by Jamiroquai, Mercy by Duffy and A Song to Sing by Hanson (I know. But they’re so much better now! I’m serious. Look them up.).

Q: What’s the most exciting aspect of your job and working for Roundabout?

A: I get to design marketing materials that are seen by thousands of people, and that to me is extremely exciting. It never gets old to walk into a Broadway theatre and see something that I designed either on the screens or on the wall. Either that or the blog.