Is Your Show Produceable?

1. What Are You Making

This might sound obvious, but you'd be shocked how many people skip this question entirely, jumping five steps ahead to booking venues, designing posters, or launching a Kickstarter before they can even describe the show.

Start simple by defining the format, genre, cast size, and runtime. Write a short summary, name the themes you're playing with, and think about what kind of audience might actually care.

Ask yourself:

• What type of experience are you trying to create?
• Is it comedic or dramatic?
• Intimate or big?
• What do you want people to walk away feeling?
• What parts of your idea feel flexible, and what is non-negotiable?

If you can't explain the show simply, you won't be able to sell it when the time comes. Not to collaborators, not to venues, and definitely not to an audience.

2. Why Do You Need To Make It

Why now, and why you?

If you can't articulate why this story matters to you and why you're the person to get the job done, you'll stall the second things get hard. The reason might be deeply personal, or it might be an inside joke, or simply that this is a show you can't not make.

Your mission does not have to be world-changing. But it has to matter to you first, and eventually to the audience you're hoping to reach.

Ask yourself:

• What's at stake for you if you don't make it?
• What conversation are you hoping to join or start?
• What unique lens are you bringing to the work?
• Why this show, in this moment of your life?

Then define what success means to you in clear terms: your creative goals, your financial goals, and the amount of effort you're willing to put in. This is the what behind your why, and that clarity becomes your compass when real-world obstacles start rearing their heads.

3. Who Are You Making It With

You can't do this alone. Well, maybe you can. But it'll blow.

The people you create with are just as important as the work you create. Choose collaborators who give a damn, not only about the show, but about how you're making it.

Think about what roles you actually need. On a small production, people can wear more hats. On a larger production, you need more people doing more jobs. Consider what kind of communication and working style will help you stay sane.

You want people who share your values, who you trust to be in the room with you, and who help build the kind of process you actually want to be part of.

Notice the green flags and the red ones. A friend who is hilarious over drinks is not necessarily the right director for your new play. Shared history is not always a shortcut for clarity. In fact, it usually demands more of it, because you're crossing the wires of your personal and professional lives at the same time.

And if you don't have anyone on the team yet, that is totally fine. Naming your gaps is the first step toward filling them.

4. What's Standing In Your Way

Time, money, people. When making independent theatre, or almost anything, you'll never have enough of all three at once.

Be honest about what you do have and what your biggest obstacles might be. Rough out a budget range. Estimate your weekly hours. Take stock of the collaborators you can realistically bring on. Note any big-ticket needs your show might have: a live band, a huge playing space, giant puppets, or whatever beautiful nightmare your brain has invented.

And look internally too:

• Are you someone who overcommits?
• Do you struggle with delegation?
• Do you actually have the bandwidth to take this on right now?

Some obstacles are dealbreakers and some are just things you'll have to plan around.

A lot of creative people avoid thinking about money, resources, and constraints as if they will somehow make the art less pure, but ignoring your limits will not make them disappear.

Time, money, and people are the building blocks that will shape your process whether you acknowledge them or not, so you might as well face them head on.