Hmmm.... Steve doesn't mention the most-essential decision-making tool DMTC employs - a specially-designed roulette wheel to make those difficult calls:
The Davis Musical Theatre Company's "Kiss Me, Kate" still has one weekend to run ... and there are two shows remaining in the group's 25th anniversary season. But DMTC co-founder Steve Isaacson, with his wife, Jan, already is processing renewals for next season – and will begin working on the season after that in October.
Planning and selling are essential – and never-ending. But how does it come about?
"We go through a list of about 60 musical shows that we think are contenders," Isaacson said recently in a telephone interview. "We won't do anything that we've done in the past five years and we try to do a new show every year. This year, we're doing three new ones."
...DMTC competes for community musical theater audiences with Sacramento's Runaway Stage Productions, although Isaacson said there's no harsh rivalry. "I usually talk with Bob Baxter to make sure we don't conflict on shows. I've known Bob for 30 years, and we get along very well in that regard."
Isaacson said, "We run our shows by Music Circus, too. In the early or mid-'90s, they actually moved a show for us," putting it later in their season so as not to conflict with DMTC's performances.
Three main concerns affect DMTC's choices, Isaacson said. First, of course, is a show that has affordable performance rights. Then, "we have to do shows that actors will come out and audition for, and that audiences will pay to see."
In that regard, although the Davis troupe has presented a daring – and outstanding – "Cabaret," it may be less willing to put on "The Full Monty" or "Altar Boyz," both of which Runaway Stage has tackled.
"We're not in a position to really push the envelope," he said. "Until we're at the point that we can put on anything we want and people will come, we have to be smart" about audience desires.
The final step in the process is timing – deciding which play to present when. "When we've narrowed our list down to about 12 shows (twice as many as will be performed in a season), we put them in order.
"In the first slot, we know we're competing against Best of Broadway for dancers, so we can't have anything too dance-heavy in that spot." (Best of Broadway canceled its fall 2009 production, citing financial difficulties, but says it hopes to return this fall.)
"The Young Performers committee chooses shows that would complement DMTC shows throughout the season, too. When we did 'Into the Woods,' the young performers did 'Jack and the Beanstalk' because they could use much the same set.
"The February-March slot has to be a show that won't conflict with the Easter holiday. We try to do a family-oriented show then."
He proceeds through the six-show season that way. There's always one choice that Isaacson calls "the last slot, last shot," or the "Oh, my God, I can't believe DMTC is doing that" show. In the current season, that show probably was the New Year's production, "The Producers," which Isaacson said "was a major success. Artistically, it was a wonderful success, and financially it did well, too."
In the coming season, "Singin' in the Rain" may be that wild-card choice. "We had 'Spamalot' on our list, but I notice that Music Circus is doing it. It's also set-heavy and men-heavy (two drawbacks for a small community theater).
"Yes, the show might sell, but it has more of a niche audience appeal, I think. Our general season-ticket base – I'm not sure they would go for it."
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