FESTIVAL DEVELOPMENT- Inaugural New Play Festival and OTHERS!

Photo: Cover of the Play Bill

Last weekend I journeyed out in public to check out the inaugural NEW PLAY FESTIVAL, which was put on by the Playwrights Workshop of Trinidad at the Trinidad Theatre Workshop. There are SEVERAL interesting things about this festival that captured my attention from the get go.

FIRSTLY, the festival features plays that have NEVER been staged before. This means that there was no point of reference for these staging and the team could translate the words on the page in as many way as they could imagine.

SECONDLY, the playwrights all came from the PLAYWRIGHTS WORKSHOP, which by the way is open to the PUBLIC! The group meets every first Wednesday in the month at the Trinidad Theatre Workshop at 7pm. 

THIRDLY, the relatively new play writers worked with relatively new and upcoming directors, and relatively new actors. A whole bunch of NEWNESS with this one! 

FOURTHLY, after each play there was a PANEL discussion, which I guess due to the learning environment that is the Trinidad Theatre Workshop allowed for very difficult or challenging questions about choices that the writer, director and actors made.

FINALLY, the festival was held in a very HISTORIC space the Trinidad Theatre Workshop, which has assisted in the development of  MANY theatre folk who have gone on to be leaders in the industry.

Photo: Festival Flyers

The FIRST year of the festival featured three plays: Miracle; Angel Live in Tunapuna and Hell. Now I am not going to give away the story line given that the intention is to stage these plays again. However, Miracle and Hell where particularly interesting and allowed for some intensive conversations during the panel discussions.

Oh! Let's take a moment for the cast of characters....

Photo: Taken from the Play Bill

So… the question now becomes what next?

The thing about FESTIVAL DEVELOPMENT is that you NEED to be very clear in your VISION, very clear about who and what the TARGET AUDIENCE values, maintain INNOVATION each year, continuously enhance your VALUE PROPOSITION, have a sophisticated understanding of STRATEGIC MARKETING and great skill in managing BUDGETS!

                                                         Photo: A moment from ANGELS LIVE IN TUNAPUNA

In Trinidad and Tobago the tendency is to start “ah small ting” and then try to do it a little bigger the next time. This approach suggests that there is no clear vision in the direction and an ad hoc approach to development is being employed. FINANCIERS DON'T LIKE THIS!!

Photo: A moment from HELL

One problem which sometimes arises when the vision finally becomes clear is that decisions have already been made that work against it; and often time festival organizers find themselves having to mitigate damages or have great difficulty in changing cultures that have already been established.

Photo: A moment between the Kidnaper and his Kidnapee  during MIRACLE

So…. Festival Development… How does one start and grow a festival?

STOP!

Think of a festival you would like to put on.

GO!

1.   RESEARCH other models that exist for your festival type. See in which ways your vision is similar or different e.g. geographical location, target market, presentation style etc.

2. Identify your VALUE PROPOSITION. What is the “something” that you offer that is different, that is better, that adds value to the audience or to the industry. You must not only be able to identify it but be able to CLEARLY ARTICULATE it.

Photo: Festival of Movement

3. ANALYSIS… this is the boring stuff nobody likes to do. YOU NEED TO FIND THE PERSON WHO LIKES TO DO THIS!! The analysis could utilize some of these:

(a)    Strength Weakness Opportunities Threats (SWOT) - The strengths and weakness are found when you look internally within your industry e.g. what are you great or weak at compared to others, are you utilizing all the talents in your organisation wisely. The Opportunities and Threats looks at things like are you likely to lose resources to competition, is your funding and sponsorship secure… do you have to actively engage in stakeholder management. WRITE THESE DOWN.

Photo: Soca Parang Festival

(b)   Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, Environmental (PESTLE) - This is different from the SWOT in that the PESTLE focuses on the wider environment i.e. outside of your industry… so you are looking at things like when is most persons pay day, is there an increase in festivals in your space, is the public demanding different or alternative types of entertainment, do you run the risk of losing sponsors to competition. WRITE THESE DOWN.

Photo: Animae Caribe just celebrated its 15th year!

(c)    Porter 5 Forces- Porter is a man that has provided A LOT of models to help persons develop business ideas. His five forces simply looks at areas such as:

Power of the Buyers- Basically your Audience and what value they place on thing.

Power of the Suppliers- Basically the people who services you need for your Festival

Threats of Substitutes- Basically what would people prefer to do than come your Festival

Barriers to Entry- Basically consider entering the market, rules and regulations such as Occupational Health and Safety or Best Practice in your industry.

Competitor Rivalry- Basically who are you competing with for the money in the audience’s pocket.

Photo: Tobago Jazz Festival has been growing through the years, attracting visitors from throughout the globe

(d)   ANSOFF- Growth strategies are simple in that they help you figure out what is the next step for your festival. Ansoff options are:

Market Penetration- Do you go deeper into the existing market/audience segment?

Market Development- Do you develop a new market/audience segment?

Product Development- Do you improve the product/ play?

 Diversification- Do you branch of or add new elements to the Festival?

Photo: Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival has become a fixture in the month of September

ONCE YOU HAVE DONE THESE…. You now have good bones on which to develop your Festival. You would notice that a lot of the DIRECTION naturally emerged from doing the exercise. NOW, you are more in a position of readiness to develop the creative aspects… the tactics to develop our festival. 

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Please share your comments or opinions on this post. 
Trinidad and Tobago has seen a drastic increase in Festivals in recent years and the more WE understand about development the more OUR chances of developing a sustainable industry. 

What are YOUR thoughts?