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Producer Project Planning Tips

While there is so much artistic satisfaction with producing a work of art, there is a significant amount of project management and organizational skills needed.


If you are not an organized person, it is time to get an organized co-producer!


You're going to want to track everything and keep drafts so that when you start planning in the future you can remember where you started and how it ended up. For example, if you started with a 3-week rehearsal schedule, but ended up needing 4 or 5 weeks, you need to mark down that you underestimated your original rehearsal needs, that way you can learn for next time.

  • Calendars (keep copies of the original and any adjusted calendars).

  • Items bought, money spent (even if it wasn't specific for the production).

  • Budget updates.

  • Donations / Income.

  • Tasks assigned and if it was accomplished or not.

Task Tracking

  • Write down who is doing what, deadlines, and break it down as much as possible

  • Use Google Sheets/Calendars to track this info

    • Air Table / Trello are also helpful task trackers, but can also have learning curves.

    • Whatever you do, make sure you actually use it and that it's accessible to your team.

Building Production Calendars

  • Shows can take a different amount of time, but it is always better to have more time, but just be mindful and intentional, you don’t want things to lag for no reason.

  • Specific Dates help to pull a team together

    • they need to know if they are available

  • Commissioned/New Works need more time for rewrites and for actors and directors to work with new material

  • I would NEVER recommend doing a show with less than a month's notice. (Just because you can, doesn't mean you should)

File Management

  • SAVE EVERYTHING, every single document. It looks like a lot of nonsense but will be helpful for future productions.

  • The two most common File Management systems used are Google Drive or Dropbox.

    • Google Drive is cheap/free but if someone doesn't have a Gmail account it might be harder for them to keep track of things.

    • DropBox is more expensive, and it is super easy to accidentally delete things, however, some people like it because it's helpful for people who don't have Gmail or looks "more professional."

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