Author Topic: PEOPLE: Who is organizing your promotional appearances?  (Read 3491 times)

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Tempest

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My Christmas show has a couple of promotional appearances, set up by the Marketing/PR person.  However, the flow of information is not copious.  Neither I, nor the actors received any information, other than the dates of said appearances in our contracts, and the info for the last one came only 24 hours before it, via e-mail.  I have two company members who cannot check their e-mail on a regular basis.  I ended up "actor wrangling" for an event I had, literally NO IDEA about.  Luckily, it turned out okay.
We've got two more of these events, and I've started being proactive about requesting the information, about a week ahead of time.
I'm not, sure, however, that this is my job.  My contract says nothing about my attendance/working promotional events, and the first one was on the dinner break of Tech, when I could really have used the time to work in the theatre.
Can anyone who's worked big shows where you had promotional events, appearances at charity dinners, etc. weigh in on this?  I have no problem seeking out the info for my actors, or toting/organizing/wrangling, because my cast is awesome and I want to make their lives as easy as possible.  But I can't help feeling that I shouldn't have to ASK for this information.  It should be coming to me as it becomes available, if it's even my job to distribute it.  I'm feeling that the PR/Marketing Director and perhaps the Producer should be a little more active in this process.  But the place I'm working now has always been a bit chaotic and I'm okay with that.  I'm just wondering how other theatres handle these events.

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« Last Edit: Dec 17, 2009, 12:20 am by Rebbe »
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Rebbe

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Re: Who is organizing your promotional appearances?
« Reply #1 on: Nov 28, 2009, 09:12 pm »
At the theaters I’ve worked at, typically the marketing/PR person, or occasionally the production manager, communicates directly with the actors/directors/designers about promotional appearances, interviews, anything “extra curricular.”  Many times I am not in the loop about these things at all unless they effect actor availability for rehearsals, or someone will be sitting in on rehearsal related to the  promotion.  I don’t think that it is necessarily the SMs job to act as a middle man on these things, and it’s unfortunate that you need to pull teeth to get the information, but it does seem like it’s in your best interest to be proactive and do so.

If there is a special event at the theater that actors in my cast are involved in, it’s always been a separate negotiation as to whether I would be SMing the event as well as the show.  If the actors come to me with questions about the event and I’m not actually involved in it, I would refer them to the appropriate staff member, and/or let the staff person know that the actor has questions.

On the other hand, you mentioned that  the dates are in your contracts, so the theater might think it’s a given that by signing the contract  you’re agreeing to work on those events on those dates, rather than that you’re just acknowledging the fact that they are happening.  Maybe you can have a discussion with producer about what dates, such as tech, are not good for these things, and set some ground rules about providing more details ahead of time.  It may be that the theater staff mean well, but are just overworked and don’t make passing along info a priority.
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ChaCha

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Re: Who is organizing your promotional appearances?
« Reply #2 on: Nov 29, 2009, 10:08 am »
I would expect the Company Manager ( if there was one) or certainly the PR/marketing person to both provide info on the event or publicity call and to attend it with the artist. I would expect the stage manager to pass on information provided and to remind the artist to attend.I dont believe the stage manager should be attending except if some tech assistance was required ( photo call onstage  or in costume etc) or you have been specially asked to deputise for the PR person for some particular reason. I personally think that under most circumstances an artist should never be left to attend a PR call alone for a variety of reasons.
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ReyYaySM

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Re: Who is organizing your promotional appearances?
« Reply #3 on: Nov 29, 2009, 10:11 am »
My experience has been that PR sets the events up directly with the actors/directors but cc's me on all correspondence so that I'm aware of the scheduled events.  Often our PR person will ask me what our schedule is and what days I would recommend, but overall I would say I'm on the periphery of the loop when it comes to PR.  

On some of my past holiday shows, though, there have been tv spots that we've filmed live at the theatre for a morning program, and I had to be there as the SM.  We were all given notice well in advance and had a meeting that involved me, production management, and PR.  I then communicated the info (call time, scenes we would shoot, etc.) to the actors involved.  But again, this was all discussed and negotiated well in advance.