Better Lemons And Theatre West Present 'Show Me The Money' Producers Panel

On Saturday, July 13, from 10 am until 12 noon, Better Lemons and Theatre West will be hosting the Producers Panel "Show Me the Money!" with some of LA's premiere theatrical producers sharing their fundraising success stories and secrets. This panel discussion will provide a great opportunity for LA's vast theatrical community to ask questions on what it takes to produce a show in Los Angeles.
The "Show Me the Money!" event will be a panel discussion and a conversation with the audience to address specific situations and opportunities. All of the panelists are producers with a diverse background of fundraising experience, from attracting wealthy benefactors to leveraging public funds.

A full spectrum of strategies will be discussed from funding a production, finding sponsors, and securing advertisers, to creating membership campaigns, finding grants and hosting fundraising gala events, for questions like:

"Whose job is it to raise the money?
"What are some long-term strategies for establishing funding for an entire season?"
"Are there individuals or organizations that are motivated to support local theatre and how do we find them?"
"How do we get support from the local community, from the city, from the county, from the state?"

All are encouraged to bring their questions and a coffee mug for some fresh brew from Theatre West!

Please RSVP at https://better-lemons.com/show-me-the-money-saturday-july-13th

Previous panels produced by Better Lemons include "Meet the Critics," "Meet the Critics II," and "Meet the Publicists."

Listen to them at:

SoundCloud.com/betterlemons/meet-the-critics-panel-june-2018
SoundCloud.com/betterlemons/meet-the-critics-ii-panel-october-2018.

Confirmed Producers on the Panel:

Andrew Carlberg - Named by Variety as one of "Hollywood?s New Leaders," Carlberg is an Academy Award-winning film, television, new media, Broadway and Los Angeles stage producer. His extensive credits include, but aren't limited to, ABC's "Castle," DirecTV's "Full Circle," Broadway's "Romeo and Juliet" and "Side Show," the Neil LaBute penned feature films "Some Girl(s)" and "Dirty Weekend," actress Jennifer Morrison's feature directorial debut "Sun Dogs" (Netflix 2018), the 2018 Official Sundance Selection "The Blazing World," Celebration Theatre's Ovation Award-winning productions of "The Color Purple: The Musical," "The Boy From Oz," and "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert," the cult hit improv-based show "The Blind Date Project," and the critically-acclaimed and award-winning LA premiere of "Rotterdam" at the Skylight Theatre (which was subsequently remounted at Center Theatre Group's Kirk Douglas Theatre.)

This past fall Andrew Carlberg completed production on the feature film "The Pleasure of Your Presence" (starring Alicia Silverstone, Mathilde Ollivier and Tom Everett Scott), and produced the Los Angeles return production of Tony Award winner Sarah Jones's smash hit "Sell/Buy/Date" (The Renberg Theatre at the LA LGBT Center.)
Carlberg also produced "Skin," which won the 2019 Academy Award for Live Action Short Film.

Andrew is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, an alum of Film Independent's Fast Track Producing Fellowship and New York's Independent Filmmaker Project, and an event producer for the I Have a Dream Foundation - Los Angeles and the National Breast Cancer Coalition.

Frier McCollister is an independent theatrical producer and general manager based in Los Angeles. Most recently, he served as producer on Sandra Tsing Loh's holiday hit "Sugar Plum Fairy" at The Skylight Theatre in December. He will co-produce the show with East West Players in December of this year.

He served as Associate Producer for the South Coast Repertory production of the show in 2017 as well as for SCR's production of Ms. Loh's "The Madwoman in the Volvo" and its subsequent productions at Pasadena Playhouse and Berkeley Repertory Theatre. He has produced the west coast premieres of all Ms. Loh's solo performance pieces beginning with "Aliens in America" and "Bad Sex" with Bud Kemp at the Tiffany Theatre and more recently "The Bitch is Back" (Broad Stage/ Eyde).

With Joel Viertel, he is the original producer of the hip hop dance hit GROOVALOO. He has served as general manager on a wide range of commercial productions in Los Angeles, notably "The Vagina Monologues" (Canon Theatre); "Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe" (Ahmanson Theatre); Eric Idle's "Rutlemania!" (Montalban; Blender NYC); and "Pee Wee's Playhouse" (Club Nokia). As general manager, he operated the Coronet Theatre (now Largo at The Coronet) and The Falcon Theatre (now The Garry Marshall Theatre) and served as Managing Director of the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills. Prior to arriving in Los Angeles in 1994, he served as company manager on a variety of Broadway and off-Broadway productions and toured extensively throughout the United States and Europe.

Frier McCollister is currently the Los Angeles steward for the Association of Theatrical Press Agents and Managers (A.T.P.A.M.)

SPIKE DOLOMITE is the executive director of Theatre West. She has a 20-year background in arts nonprofit management. She started her own nonprofit, Arts in Education Aid Council, which got the arts back into San Fernando Valley public schools.

Her producer credits include producing the Valley Wide Student Art Show and Family Arts Festival for 10 years in a row (the audience doubled every year until it hit 5,000), the Valley Artists Studio Tour, the Reseda Open Studio Tour, Reseda Rocks Again for the Reseda Neighborhood Council, and Ian Ruskin in To Begin the World Again - the Life of Thomas Paine, and From Wharf Rats to Lords of the Docks, at both Emerson UUC and Theatre West, The Vagina Monologues directed Emmalinda MacLean at Emerson UUC, Tom Dugan's Wiesenthal at Theatre West, and coming up in July a reading of Twelve Angry July by twelve Los Angeles attorneys.

Spike Dolomite has received personal recognition from the City of Los Angeles on several occasions for her advocacy in supporting the arts in the San Fernando Valley and was one of the very first Community Champions for the Annenberg Foundation's Alchemy program, mentoring nonprofit leaders on how to build stronger boards. She also has a long background in grassroots community organizing and is using those skills to bring people together in the LA theatre community to brainstorm, share best practices and pass on fundraising tips!

STEFANIE LAU is an arts administrator specializing in marketing, fundraising, and audience development with almost 20 years of experience in Los Angeles theatre. She is a co-founder and Producing Artistic Leader of Artists at Play, a theatre company dedicated to telling the stories of underrepresented communities, with a focus on the Asian American experience.

Her work with Artists at Play includes mainstage productions, new play development, fundraisers and other special events. Stefanie previously worked at Center Theatre Group, East West Players and the Ford Amphitheater, among others. She has been part of Cold Tofu Improv since 2003 in numerous capacities: student, producer, managing director, board member and current marketing manager. A graduate of UCLA, Stefanie sits on the national board of the Consortium of Asian American Theatres and Artists. Twitter @MsStefanieL.