Editor’s Note: Several producers/artistic directors of Los Angeles intimate theatres responded to our question: “What to Do With a Hit Show…Extend It or Move It?” The following is the second response to LAStageBlog’s question.

Lee Melville from LA Stage Alliance posed the question: “What to do with a hit show–extend it or move it?”

The short answer is, I wish I knew for sure. The people who know the correct answer to that question are probably the same people I write to for non-profit donations.

Someone once asked Charles Grodin if there was anything more difficult than making one’s living as an actor. “Yes,” he replied, “selling original poetry door-to-door.” I would argue that getting audiences for Equity Waiver theatre in Los Angeles has a stranglehold on third place.

SeaGlass Theatre is a newly formed theatre company, composed of former, adopted and transplanted Chicagoans. We all experienced the guerilla theatre work ethic of those glorious storefront spaces; that electric optimism of folding programs at 7:59 pm, when you have 12 tickets sold but remain convinced that the wind chill of nine below won’t deter the 87 walk-ups needed for a sellout.

When the SeaGlass production, Wonder of the World, was met with such critical and audience acclaim, I was elated. But given the roots of our company, my thoughts were more modest and hardly about extending. “Wait a minute. Are you saying there’s enough in petty cash to cover the Skittles? And they said I was a fool to dream.”

That’s when the idea of extending began to creep into my middle-aged mind. And these thoughts were not about money. They were about energy and hope. When I’m involved in something that clicks with people, it awakens that 20 year old I haven’t seen in 25 years. That Jagermeister and Camel Lights-fueled manic-obsessive with one goal: How many people can we get to see this?

And because it’s primarily about energy, I think the biggest risk is moving. To move, you have to unplug the appliances. When there are enough monetary resources to cover the gap and effectively promote what is, in effect, a new production, a second success is often possible. But with smaller budgets, it’s harder. Most of the momentum of a crackling run dissolves when you relocate. With intimate theatre, I’ve found people want to be where “it” happened. They want to be in that room where the production was born. They want to be invited to the clubhouse.

Extending the show presents its own mysteries. Critical acclaim is great but doesn’t necessarily translate into ticket sales. Pre-sale can be deceiving, especially when most ticket buyers purchase at the last minute. And the biggest question: Are we dissipating the last three weeks of potential attendance by spreading it out over six weeks? Pass the magic eight ball, please.

I am much more a creative personality than a business one. But in order to effectively produce theatre in the current climate, art and commerce have to get along. Business-wise, I would not recommend extending unless there was, at the very least, the capital to break even for the extension period. That is existing capital, not dipping into the credit cards. Creatively, if you have a hit on your hands… you extend. If you don’t, that disheartened 20 year old will beat you to death in your sleep. Metaphorically, of course.

Why risk it? Because we owe it to the audience. Without them, we don’t exist. All actors have a tendency to get irritated with the stragglers, the candy crinklers, the whisperers… but they showed up. In our reality TV/American Idol-sodden culture, they got off the couch. They struggled with LA traffic to hope for street parking at a former bakery with questionable air-conditioning and one androgynous rest room. We owe it to them. The people who recognize live theatre in LA is important for its own sake and not merely as a springboard to film or television.

Taking slightly more than a year to build SeaGlass and mount two productions during one of the worst economic periods in history turned out to not be complete idiocy.  Our production of David Lindsay Abaire’s Wonder of the World is a hit. We have given people a reason to travel to a little 48-seat space in Burbank and enjoy a delightful, eventful evening of theatre. The company, cast and crew are some of the finest people I’ve worked with in over 20 years, which is saying something because I tend to exhaust people.

So extend it is. For as long as we can before our status as a new company, our actors’ schedules and the holidays dictate that we complete our run on November 15. And you know what? We couldn’t be happier.

Article by Paul Stroili, Managing Director of SeaGlass Theatre.