Nica Burns

Here’s one from our archive – The Nica Burns Masterclass took place at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in 2006.

Nica’s Masterclass was a great chance to hear how a play begins and the economics involved with bringing it to a West End stage. The main point that Nica wanted to press throughout the session was that theatre relies on collaboration and this collaboration must take part at all levels, ‘it doesn’t matter if you’re playing Hamlet you’re stuffed if you don’t have a good Laertes, it doesn’t matter if you have the best company in the world if you don’t have as good a stage management in the world.’ To take this point even further Nica later stated that, ‘there is no such thing as a great director, actor, producer who can’t collaborate. A selfish actor is essentially at the end of the day a ‘not good enough actor.’ However, even with collaboration and the best team, there is no guarantee of a show that will sell and make you money. Nothing is certain and there is always a massive risk.
Nica started her career as an actress at University where she was studying law. Both of these have helped her career as a producer, the law has provided her with knowledge of contracts and business and the acting has allowed her to understand the creative process in rehearsals. It was whilst acting at University that she started producing as everyone wanted to act or direct but no one wanted to take charge of dealing with the admin side, consulting with venues and liaising with all the creative team. So Nica volunteered herself and found that she liked being the one in charge, motoring the production on. This was confirmed when she adapted an H. E. Bates story, The Dulcimer, in which she played the lead role for the stage and took it to the Edinburgh Festival on £600, which she had saved. She realised that she wanted to control her own work and she learnt the, ‘satisfaction of being able to have a vision and completing it.’
Nica then went through some of the main points of what producing entails. The start is finding the text and understanding (very important) where the edits need to be made. After this you need to raise he money, find the director who can share your vision and then cast the actors. There is for the West End a certain amount of decision making into who your leading actor is as there does need to be a draw for the audience. Nica also sits in with the director on all auditions and plays a large role in the casting.
To be a good producer there are several qualities that are needed. The most important is:
– being able to think with the two sides of your head – the creative and the business. Most people will end up finding that they are far better at one of these and will really struggle with controlling the other.
– You should also never get directly involved in the rehearsal process – this needs the one strong voice of the director. Notes that the producer has for the actors should go through the director.
– You don’t get paid to be a producer, you have to create the money yourself, to achieve this you need to have a clear head and most importantly not panic under huge pressure.

Nica outlined the important 5 R’s that every producer needs to remember:-

Reason – You have to be able to think your way through problems.

Relationships – You have to have good relationships with everyone involved. It makes breaking bad news far easier and can keep alliances going. When you have to make decisions it has to be a quick ‘yes’ or a quick ‘no,’ leaving people hanging is the worst for maintaining good relationships.

aRithmetic – You have to be good with money. You cannot delegate, you have to do it yourself.

Responsibility – The buck stops with the producer. The director is the king of the rehearsal room but the producer is the king overall – they will always have the final say.

Risk – You have to be able to cope with risk. This risk can even include your own house and your personal relationships. You have to step in and sort out the problems. There is no one else at the end of the day to pay the bills apart from you.

Dealing with risk is one of the hardest parts of becoming a producer. Nica told us that there are several brilliant and talented people she has known produce once only. The pressure of the risk had been too much for them and they had ended up with physical signs of being unable to cope, eczema on the hands, rashes and being sick. Nica mentioned that those who still want to be in this side of theatre but feel that they might not be able to cope with the risk should look at becoming a general manager. The general manager is the producer’s right hand and they are totally responsible for the business side but they are not making the judgement calls.
Nica then told us in detail about One Flew Over the Cukoo’s Nest, which she produced at The Gielgud Theatre before taking it on for a limited run at The Garrick. The first thing you have to work out is your budget. In OFOTCN they could factor in that it is set in an asylum so the costumes will be simple, it is one set and the play is finished (which means that you don’t need extra rehearsal time). You then have to add in the costs of the actors wages, rehearsal space hire, fees for the creative team, rights for the play, building the set, press officer, print, art work/graphic design, copy (it should cost around £100,000 for publicity).
Nica’s end figure came out as £352,000, which was raised to £450,000 as contingency. This follows the idea that you can’t get money when you’re already in trouble – always raise more money then you think you will need. We then worked out the average weekly cost of running the show – £22,000 just to open the theatre, (hire and staff wages) on top of this you have insurance, admin, actors wage (equity minimum for west end £450 p/w – although Nica will always pay more than this!) Altogether this comes to £65,000 a week.
After this you have to work out how much you will be able to gain in revenue. The theatre (most of the Nimax theatres) seat 700 people and most of the seats they sell will be top price, £45, although the price goes down to £7.50. If the show is a sell-out then the likelihood is to make your money back in 4 weeks. If the show is operating at 50% capacity then it could take up to 10 weeks to make your money back.
Finding the investors (angels) is the hard bit. Never be embarrassed about asking for money. Nica suggests parties as a place to try and find people who are interested in theatre but don’t want a creative input. Once you have found your investors the usual split of the profit is 60% investor with the remaining 40% going to the producer. Nica ended the discussion with the statistic that 1 in 10 shows will make a profit. The risk is clear. When asked why so many people continue to take that risk Nica could only say, ‘because we believe.’

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