New Fish A Musical From the beginning Part 1

If you are one of the crazy people trying to create new work anywhere but in this case, in Ireland, then reading about my experience might be of some help to you. I searched and searched for someone who might have shared their first time producing in Ireland story and couldn’t find one so here’s mine. I hope it helps in the rollercoaster ride of getting new work out there. Just know that for every time you hear how hard, how impossible, how difficult it is to do this, they are speaking the truth, it is. But also know that if you have to do it, it will be done.

Logo for New Fish A Musical

Writing a Script

After my first child was born and I found myself unemployed in “housewife” territory, I decided to do something I always wanted to do, write a musical. I knew I had a story, I could see it on stage, I could see the characters, hear them, I knew them, they were my friends, literally. However, a script writer I was not, a composer, I was not, a lyricist, maybe but fairly far-fetched. I started with something I could do, get people to meet me, make them believe in what I believed in and get them on board. I met a few writers at first but I didn’t click with anyone really. It wasn’t until I met my friend Michele that I realised what I had to do. Michele is the type of person who looks naysayers in the eye and says “Not today! No thank you!” Michele reminded me of that pre motherhood confidence I used to have when I marched in and out of London audition rooms like I had already won the part despite the trail of losses behind me and despite sitting beside Samantha Barks in the waiting room. Michele told me to write the script myself, plain and simple, so that’s what I did. I wrote a script, it wasn’t a very good script but the concept of the characters and my story was there and it was enough to win over a composer. Ross O’Connor, an unbelievably talented MD and musician, could see there might be something there we could work with. He went away with my “script” and came back to me with a song. An intro song and it blew me away. The script needed editing to fit around the songs that Ross would send on so in our own time, with no funding behind us, we tinkered away and got a rough piece of work together that could be workshopped. We even managed to record a few very early demos, luckily for us Elaine Hearty, Ross’s wife, is one of the best musical theatre vocalists in the country.

Smock Alley Theatre Dublin 2018

To be Scene and Heard

Instead of workshopping we went straight to stage, clever! I had heard of a festival of new work in Smock Alley, the Scene and Heard Festival and entered our script and music for consideration. We were given the green light. I had never produced anything before but I had been an Events and Marketing Director of various nightclubs in London, it couldn’t be so different, could it? It was pretty different. Although Ross does not have an organising bone in his body, he and his wife Elaine and his Dad, Doc had been in the industry in Dublin their whole lives and so were incredibly helpful. They came with a stamp of approval on the work, people trusted them so we got a team together. Yes, we would come to learn that putting on a musical with a cast of 15 as well as Ross on keys in Smock Alley’s Scene and Heard Festival was close to preposterous but their application calls for large and lively ideas stating -

“Be Brave, Be Bold, Be Brilliant!”

Most of the cast for the Scene and Heard Festival
Photo Credit Ste Murray

It seemed a good fit for us. So with our 15 shakers and makers, plus a director, plus a choreographer, we got to it. Every Sunday morning for two months we got together for 4 hours to rehearse in my brother’s pub.
The Festival put on a couple of events for all those involved, unfortunately I was a little too intimidated to really immerse myself, being “a musical theatre wan” gives off a different vibe in Dublin than it did in London. I should have sucked it up and used the events they put on to my benefit but instead I skirted the edges like the new girl in a new school. It felt like everyone else knew each other, which they kind of did to be fair. Somehow, I asserted myself just enough to find the longed for Producer with experience who might show me the ropes, hand over a secret formula for success and most confusing of all, how to get funding?

Money, money, money!

In 2018, Scene and Heard gave a shared 30 minute slot in their program to each participating company. We were sharing with Splash! a Polliwog Production. Our director decided to tell a condensed version of our story in 15 minutes including a grand total of 5 fully choreographed musical numbers which in hindsight was way too ambitious and we should have just focused on setting two songs really well but sure isn’t hindsight a marvellous thing altogether? Everyone involved in our show at this time was doing so voluntarily. They put up with a lot, really a lot! We were way over our heads with dreams akin to a grand West End Opening night when we should have approached it for what it was, workshopping new work. There was great stress, tempers rose and dramatics flared beyond the usual allowance for musical theatre performers but they stuck with it. Even though I made so many mistakes and let people down, they carried on with the work. When I look back I am so grateful to everyone who gave so generously of their time and patience.

Paul Ryder, Ranae von Meding, Aisling Breen and Will Guppy.
Photo Credit Ste Murray

Because we were part of the festival, certain things came at very reduced costs to the individual companies or producers but there are still costs and someone still had to foot the bill. Actors, director, choreographer, lighting and tech at the theatre were all free or included with the very reduced theatre rental of €450 to be shared with Polliwog for our slot. We were to be placed in the Main Space with 178 seats and the tickets were to be priced at €10. If we sold out (you rarely sell out) Polliwog and New Fish would take just over €1000 for our two days of performances when you minus the theatre rental and credit card charges.
In my inexperience, I decided we would sell out, we had a cast of 15 plus a whole other production company selling the 30 minute slot of 178 seats, surely we could manage this. So, I put in €1500 of my own money to pay for marketing, radio mics, rehearsal space in town and transport of the set. Luckily it's a modern day show so everyone helped out with costume and the set we required I could borrow from my brother’s pubs (New Fish is mainly set in a restaurant).
My brother in law’s brother owns a sound company in Bray so he massively helped out with discounted mic rental and a print company that works for my brothers pubs helped out with flyers and posters. Basically I pulled in favour after favour from anyone I could, people are amazing, did you know that? So we had some sort of a show together, now, how do you get the right people to see it? Or anyone to see it?

Paul Ryder, Aisling Breen and Will Guppy
Photo Credit Ste Murray

PR and Marketing, what’s the difference?

Marketing is making your show look awesome. It’s getting a slick poster together, coming up with a great logo and some great images to send out to the world. Of course marketing costs money and you can spend all your money putting great imagery together but without the drive to get it out in the world it’s not much use.
For New Fish I spent most of my time on social media using what I had which was 15 cast members plus creative team with their own followings, Smock Alley and their following and Scene and Heard and its own following. I set up an account for New Fish on Instagram and Facebook and through social media I found other musicals that had been on at Smock Alley, the people who had been involved with them and the people that had supported them. I found the musical theatre gang in and around Dublin and then posted to them regularly tagging and hash tagging anything relevant. I didn’t bother with flyers but I had a few posters printed for Smock Alley itself as well as local venues and universities where a younger audience might hang out. I knew our show would attract 18-25 year olds being a musical as part of the festival so I singled out venues in the immediate area and asked if they would hang our posters. I pulled in favours from friends again asking for help with posters in their businesses on staff notice boards or places they stopped by such as coffee shops or lunch cafes. I also targeted music stores, rehearsal rooms and recording studios. It’s time consuming and to be honest I’m not sure how effective it was but if you prepare and research and just spend one day at it, it’s not so bad. I also took photos once the posters were up and tagged the business on social media and found this to be more effective and worthwhile. I should have worked more with Polliwog, we talked about each other a bit on social and tagged each other, we could have come up with some creative marketing together but there are only so many unpaid hours in one day!

Press Release for our Scene and Heard Debut

The way I see it, marketing is getting your message out to the masses without too much control over what they do with that message; PR is controlled and targeted messaging directly from you or an organisation to someone you want, you need, you have to have at your show. The producer I met through Scene and Heard had a list of such people so I had a press release put together in the body of an email as well as an attachment and we went about mailing this invite to various people. At this stage I wasn’t too worried about getting certain people in the room, I wasn’t sure if we had something worth getting them in the room for. At this stage it was about getting feedback from an audience for us but it depends how far along you are with your work and what your aim is. We were using Scene and Heard to workshop our writing, not as a showcase at this stage even if we weren’t aware of that at the time. It’s good to be clear on this when sending out messaging so people know why you want them to see it and what they might expect to see. Knowing why you are putting you are work on in the festival and what you hope to get out of it will answer a lot of marketing and PR questions.
Audience members got mini questionnaires when they came to see a show during Scene and Heard, this was our motivation so we needed people in there to fill out those questionnaires and we wanted them to be an audience that somewhat enjoyed musical theatre. If you are clear about who you want to target, then you can target them!
Our ticket sales were increasing slowly but surely, it was February and the Festival was only a couple of years old so it wasn’t easy but we did ok. A week or so before the show we were sold to about half capacity which was fairly decent, we figured we’d get a boost of sales the week of, the day of, on the night. How wrong we were, suddenly weather reports were coming in of an unprecedented amount of snow on the way. We weren’t worried at first, it’s Ireland, how bad could it be? When news channels started reporting it as a “Beast from the East” however, we started feeling a little tetchy.

Online and on print, no turning back

The show must go on, mustn’t it?

We were having a last dress rehearsal in Dance House on Foley Street when the snow started. We managed to put on Tuesday night’s performance to an audience of 89 people. A few people didn’t turn up for tickets they had bought and there were very few walk ins. Over night the snow started and the next morning I received word from the Scene and Heard team that the show would still be going on as long as wanted to. All that work, of course we wanted to. By the afternoon the snow fall was too heavy and the show was cancelled. It was heartbreaking but at least we got to do it once.
At first we hoped we could move the date and put it on later on in the festival but reorganising a huge cast of voluntary actors all with their own commitments was tricky let alone reorganising an entire festival. The audience for Wednesday night were reimbursed. We took €811 at the box office, the rental was €452 and credit card charges were €56.18 so we took a grand total of €150.97 as did Polliwog.
It was a huge learning experience and shockingly enough, it didn’t put us off. Despite the drama, the stress, the not a clue what we were doing most of the time, Ross and I saw something on that stage that we could salvage and we had some positive audience feedback to back us up. Some, not all but some.