Should you stay away from volunteer gigs just because they don’t pay? No, almost any performance opportunity is not just valuable experience, it can be economically valuable, too! Mark Stoddard, author of Marketing Singers, expounds.
As professional singer or actor, do you ever participate in volunteer productions? Of course you need to get paid as a professional, but don’t let performance opportunities slip away simply because they are volunteer gigs. There are ways to turn nothing into something and I’m happy to show you how.
On June 28 the curtain came down for the final performance of the original musical I wrote and produced, “Strangers in Nauvoo”. An enormous amount of work produced tremendous satisfaction in seeing the audience experience what I hoped they would. But now what for the actors and singers who put their heart and talent on the line in this volunteer production?
As I get ready to go to the cast party I wonder about something and it involves you, the professional singer. Our production was made up of 60 volunteers in this area, most of whom had never been on a stage before nor will ever do anything professional with the skills they developed.
They didn’t get paid a dime and even donated to the cause.
So why did they do it? They loved doing it, just as you love singing. Your reward is the experience and the understanding that your audience appreciated what you gave.
But that can’t be enough for the professional. You can’t be a professional without being paid – that’s the definition.
How can a singer make this experience not only deeply gratifying and memorable but profitable? The answer is many fold. I’ve written many of the strategies and techniques in Marketing Singers, but let’s focus on one in this blog.
An amateur production can produce professional products so even if you are doing a “free” performance you can take steps where you’ll have a product that you can sell, or that promotes you for future work. At the very minimum get a review and letter of recommendation from the producer and director.
Here’s another thought. As a professional, it is up to create the professional products if no one else is doing so. You ought to arrange to have at least three of the productions videoed. Cameras are made to be borrowed. Professional videographers await your negotiations. If they know you’re serious, and that you and the other members of the cast have ample email lists (house lists), they know they can get paid. Students majoring in film and media at universities are awaiting a chance for such a project for credit.
The videographer will typically want a guarantee of $500 for editing. If you have a cast and crew of 20 or more, they’ll all want a copy and so will their parents and family. You can quickly get 100 orders before shooting. Of course there are royalties and other such agreements and you’ll need to deal with those properly.
100 preorders at $15-$20 gives you a chance to satisfy the royalties in many cases and leave enough for a great editing job.
What you want out of it is the video so you can take bits and put them up on your website; to show them to producers and directors face to face; to use in your teaching. With the right legal arrangements you can even post on YouTube and sell more copies.
If the show is like mine with original book, lyrics and music, you can make me a deal that I can’t refuse because I’d like to get word out for my production.
The only sin in this whole matter is if you do NOTHING. Do SOMETHING and enjoy the experience. Expand your horizons and with it your opportunities.
By the way… if you’d like the DVD of our little show, just email at mark@mjstoddard.com
Author Bio: Mark Stoddard has staged more than 100 cruise-ship concerts, hiring more than 200 classical singers and instrumentalists. He earned a master’s degree in communication and theater arts, with a nearly completed master’s in English literature. He is best known for the consulting and writing work he has done in marketing and advertising. He’s written 11 books on business and marketing, including his most recent publication, Marketing Singers. He has also published a collection of poems and short stories, written more than 700 newspaper columns, and had three plays staged, including a musical.
