Mentoring NPT style

Our recent NPT Mentoring events include the video below which was made during the After School at the Klein program.  The class worked with Producer, Mark Holleran (who is on our NPT board) and is a commercial producer.  They made the commercial as part of their class. ( If you get this as an email you might have to go to the actual blog website to see it.) You will be amazed!  NPT is a partner with The Klein (also a non profit) to bring this program to life! 

Our 2nd semester starts up next week and again includes our NPT teachers (Scott Bryce - Film and TV, Jerold Goldstein- Acting, Mark Holleran- Video Production, Andy Reimann- 3D Design, and me for Voice) as well as other professional teachers in Puppetry, Shakespeare, Improv, Yoga, Dance, etc.

(commercial video made by the class)

We also had our instructional meeting with It's Relevant.com, a webshow based in lower Fairfield, and our Youth Board and Interns will be producing a series that focuses on "Kids in Connecticut making a difference".  Their first story comes out at the end of February!  VERY exciting as the students get to do all the work of a real TV station (camera, broadcast, voice over, editing, story research) to produce this.

We had our So Ya Wanna Be a Broadway Star event at the Watermark Retirement Community last weekend and had 75 audience members (which included parents of the contestants and also seniors from the Watermark) as well as 16 talented contestants.  Gwendolyn Jones (Broadway), A Senior from the Watermark, and I gave constructive feedback.  (Pictures below)

Finally our Sunday Spotlight with NY Director Richard Sabellico was this past Sunday and we had 38 attendees on this virtual master class (webinar) who learned tons about what a person on the "other side of the desk" thinks about auditions in NYC.

ALL IN ALL A VERY PRODUCTIVE WEEK! 

Lyrics to Live By

My friend and business partner Reed posted these on his Facebook Wall so I thought it was good to share them here with you.

"There is no second place. You're either flying or falling.
C'mon pick up the pace! I hear destiny calling.
You cannot be afraid to fall down and work through it.
Cause this is what I'm born to do. So let's do it."

-Bring It On: The Musical

Join us Tomorrow at 3030 Park Ave in Bridgeport for So Ya Wanna Be a Broadway star.  A truly multi generational afternoon of support for Musical Theatre! 
 2:30-4:30 ! 

So Ya Wanna Be a Broadway star and Sunday Spotlight

Under our NPT MENTORING category we have a big week ahead!

Got some great folks signed up for both events this weekend.

36 so far for Sunday Spotlight and 15 great contestants for So Ya Wanna ... There are always walk-ins.

Also got a call from Flat Rock Playhouse's Artistic Director and we are setting up auditions for the kids at University of Hartford for this weekend. What a great experience for them to sing for North Carolina's premiere theatre.

All in all a jam packed weekend!

Still time to sign up for both events. Write Nate, our youth board VP, for Saturday's So Ya Wanna Be a Broadway star at:  nptyouthboard@gmail.com   and then here is the link for Sunday Spotlight with Richard Sabellico:   https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/4607388382979710209

OH and our very first training for the Youth Board and Intern WEBSHOW with It's Relevant.com is this week!  They will be producing their own series with this online news show!  More on that later...

So Ya Wanna and Sunday Spotlight

Have to give props to Shaina Arsenault, our youth board treasurer and designer extraordinaire who created this newsletter recently.  Join us! Gwendolyn Jones is one of our judges this time for So ya Wanna...and Richard Sabellico will rock your world with his candid advice about auditioning in NYC for our Sunday Spotlight!  January 2014 View this email in your browser

Sunday Spotlight Featuring New York Director Richard Sabellico Date: Sunday, January 26, 8:00 pm   The key to auditioning is to rise above the medium standard. Learn to be a killer auditioner. This man helped so many of us do just that!  Richard Sabellico was on Broadway as a peformer in such shows as the original ANNIE, DAMES AT SEA, and GYPSY (with Angela Landsbury), as well as many other shows. He is also a well-known and respected director in NYC and for Regional theatre who sees thousands of auditions yearly.  His "audition therapy" class is one of the reasons I was able to make my Broadway debut.   Join us for an extrenely candid look at today's NYC audition enviroment. Ask him your hardest questions.  Drill deeply on this one and find out what you need to know about standing out from the HUGE crowd of pavement-pounders.   As always this is a FREE service for you.  Virtual master class that you attend from your own computer.   Sign up now with the link below and then on the day of the webinar we send you a reminder.  Register for the Webinar So Ya Wanna Be A Broadway Star ...at the Watermark! Date: Saturday, January 25, 2:30-4:30 Details: 1. “Open Mic” style musical theatre event with constructive comments from Broadway pros and a Watermark senior guest star for each participant. 2. Any age singer may bring sheet music and perform with our professional accompanist on stage for the audience. 3. Watermark residents = free admission.  Singers= $10. Audience members who are not Watermark residents= $5. 4. All proceeds go to The New Paradigm Theatre (a 501c3 non profit). 5. Produced by The New Paradigm Theatre (www.nptheatre.org), a professional theatre company.   Sponsored by The Watermark - 3030 Park Ave, Bridgeport CT.   Who knows, this could be your lucky night! For more info please email: newparadigmtheatre@gmail.com or call (646)-342-3200.

Too long....

This weekend I had a meeting with a business person concerning the theatre. 

I have had a couple of these with high powered business folks who think they are dealing with an "artist" only or who I see as one-dimensional in their approach to business.  ROI. And hey, they certainly have more saved up in the bank than I do so.... 

But not all business folks have the same "world view" of the arts or of artists and that's fine. I am not out to evangelize. Well sometimes...but not right now.  If you haven't read how the arts help children develop and test scores and creative problem solving and blah blah blah..I am not going to convince you because it's not important to your "world view".  And that's ok! 

But I read Seth's blog on TL;DR ("Too long, Didn't read) for email responses, with interest. It's the idea that while that is a sassy way to tell someone their email was too long and that you are too busy and important to read it, it's also indicative of "...a sad, dangerous symptom of the malfunctions caused by the internet tsunami. "

I see this as the same with in-person meetings where the person cuts you off. Even when you have paired down and paired down your words to mere "sound bites". The "new" is in New Paradigm for a reason and I might have to explain a bit why!

But instead of being offended...which I will admit I was at first...I realized it's a better approach to learn how to relate to this type of person.  Some of them I will have to just walk away saying "Next!", but some may be cutting me off to get me to "speak their language" or to educate them.  (Yes...I realize that is very Pollyanna)

They may sound rude to me...and I will have to figure out a nice way to ask them to stop cutting me off....but maybe they are really just asking me to explain it so that they understand.  
Maybe I can ask more questions so that I really see where they are coming from first.  Then I can tailor my approach using their own words back to them.  

Ok this is why I like writing this blog..... 

Scope it out

Great New Years advice from Seth Godin.

We all work so hard at making resolutions that are for our own self improvement of course.  "Want to express myself more clearly" "Grow my business" "Get that show" "Make more money" etc etc etc, that we often forget that the advice below, while not as aggressive, is really the step that will start us on the path to advancement.

We have a wonderful new board member, Elaine, who is really taking her role as the chairperson of our "Real Estate" committee seriously.  Actually so many of our board members are movers and shakers.  But Elaine has set up tours of spaces so that we can ask questions and decide what we want in our own space more clearly.

She has suggested, and is taking action on, finding someone to help us scope out various demographics and areas so that we can understand the communities we are considering more closely and thoroughly as our "home base".  Between her and the other Real Estate committee members, Penny and Bill, both with extensive commercial real estate experience, we are moving in an exciting direction.

I did some of this work before we even founded the company by speaking to business folks in the Greenwich, Stamford and Norwalk, but it is very nice to have a hard working and dedicated board member now making this very official!

As we look for what we want I want to continue to understand what the community wants (and can support) as well. Therein lies our success.

The hard work of understanding-Seth Godin

Sometimes, we're so eager to have an opinion that we skip the step of working to understand. Why is it the way it is? Why do they believe what they believe?

We skip reading the whole thing, because it's easier to jump to what we assume the writer meant.

We skip engaging with customers and stakeholders because it's quicker to assert we know what they want.

We skip doing the math, examining the footnotes, recreating the experiment, because it might not turn out the way we need it to.

We better hurry, because the firstest, loudest, angriest opinion might sway the crowd.

And of course, it's so much easier now, because we all own our own media companies.