not a very hard task. We have an
abundance of great artists and
performers that grow in Hackensack from hugely diverse backgrounds. The hard part is getting
people to come down here to see
it. I have to admit it gets easier
and easier every year but it still astonishes me how you can’t predict
what events will do well and what
will not. As far as finding the arts /
theater community willing to put
the work out there, that is the easiest part of the job. I am booked
through until the end of 2015.
In the early days, we produced
events that were as low budget as
we could produce, but striving to
not let the quality of the show appear low budget. It was low budget in the sense that we produced
shows that were original works,
where royalties were low; we did
very few musicals where musician
costs can be high. I strived to get
new playwrights in the space, and
I started the playwright festival,
for first time playwrights. Along
with the Superintendent of Recre-
New Jersey Stage
ation (at the time) Miriam Ferguson, I developed a system to help
new Theater companies can get
started.
They can either rent the facility
outright, and pay a fee for each
day, (as you can imagine that is
not cheap) and they had to show
proof of liability insurance. If they
do that they can charge what ever
they want for their event or they
can co-produce it with us. With
that they don’t have to pay a fee
October 2014
pg 120