Doing Business Better Using the Five Traits of a Theatre Director

Several years ago, I was given my county Chamber of Commerce’s President’s Award. The following day, a newspaper article about the award opened with the question, “What does business have to do with the arts?”

This is a question that many of us who have produced theatre and immersive experiences have been asked. My answer? Just about everything. 

The arts are a key aspect of city revitalization and the so-called Creative Economy and have been proven in report after report to bring a considerable Return on Investment to communities (see, e.g., http://www.nasaa-arts.org/Research/Grant-Making/Fact-Sheets/ROIFedStateFactSheet2011.pdf).

 Downtown revitalization, increased traffic to businesses, bringing young families to older communities, and new ways to look at persistent problems are all contributions made by arts organizations and arts entrepreneurs. As a matter of fact, these boons to local business by the theatre company I founded 19 years ago, Seven Stories, is why I was receiving the Chamber’s President’s Award (and a Certificate of Recognition from the Governor of West Virginia).

Over the past 15 years I have sat on numerous Boards, including the Chamber’s, local government and business focus groups, and executive committees. I have taken several leadership courses, and have been at the forefront of efforts to bring different pieces of legislation to the floor for a vote, including testifying before the West Virginia House of Delegates on bullying education and training equal rights advocates on the importance of effective storytelling when talking to legislators. Stories move people—facts and figures don’t. 

All of this was accomplished while being Artistic Director of Seven Stories and running an arts and education center. And the reasons I was asked to serve on these Boards, focus groups, and committees was because they wanted (or thought they did, in some cases) New Ideas and someone who could create buzz and motivation for fundraising (all five of the traits listed below are essential to securing grants and raising money).

I am currently a Board member and play reader for Arts Judaica.

artsjudaica.com

Time and time again, I have applied to these interactions what I call the “Five Traits of a Great Director,” which first appeared in my book Directing in the Classroom (Accompany Publishing, 2007) and are also included in my storytelling how-to book, Every Day Is a Story All Its Own (Dimensionfold Publishing, 2024). Although the Five Traits were initially created for classroom teachers, they are easily applied to the office, Board meeting, government position, or any leadership opportunity, no matter the business you are in.

https://www.amazon.com/Every-Day-Story-All-its/dp/1989940897/ref=sr_1_1?crid=B25Y1O72G4UA&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.3GYp7gyaVw65MJCdffLUwQ.DgsXdRAFlxbAKbnHsPaPGU-13YsjldmJtcxJJ6lH_Ls&dib_tag=se&keywords=every+day+is+a+story+all+its+own+joey+madia&qid=1740496115&sprefix=ever+day+is+a+story+all+its+own+joey+madia%2Caps%2C130&sr=8-1

The Five Traits are:

1. A Great Director is an Organizer. Collect data. Interview stakeholders. Formulate a plan, based on numerous scenarios and possible outcomes. Track progress by keeping good records. Analyze past successes and mistakes and apply them moving forward. Get the most out of your team by effectively assigning tasks and tracking efforts, gains, and obstacles. This is very close to the method I use to create new plays for peer-to-peer performance with high school students, which I wrote about in my last blog.

2. A Great Director is a Diplomat. Artists are famously fragile in the ego department and at times difficult to work with, so tact and even-temperedness are a must in my world. Add in a team of designers, all with their own ideas about lighting, sound, costumes, and the set, each with strong visions of their own and diplomacy is a must. Create an atmosphere where everyone has a sense of Ownership, where ideas are free to flow and feedback is encouraged and as objective as possible. Most people just want to be heard and responded to in a thoughtful, respectful way. 

3. A Great Director is a Leader. Although diplomacy is essential, at the end of the day the theatre director is ultimately responsible for the completion of the project—the performance of the play. Just like any business person, we have bosses (producers) and investors (donors, Board members) to answer to. Preparation (part of organization) and diplomacy should be partnered with practice (e.g., the 10,000 hours rule—the minimum time to reach proficiency in your field; http://gladwell.com/outliers/the-10000-hour-rule/) in the cultivation of leadership. If you have done your homework, and have devised the best path through, let your presence be known. In the theatre, we strive to build an ensemble, with everyone working together under the guidance of the director. Your teams wants effective leadership. Give it to them. 

4. A Great Director is a Visionary. As a colleague once told me, it’s not a matter of getting everyone rowing in the same direction. That’s akin to putting the cart before the horse. First, you have to get them to WANT TO GET IN THE BOAT. And that takes Vision. It’s what makes you uniquely valuable to your employer, your team, and your customers. It’s the new strategies applied to the tried and true. It’s the ability to manage risk by understanding history and articulating the future by identifying trends. It’s that NEW IDEA that everyone is searching for. It’s what makes great directors great.

5. A Great Director is a Communicator. Organization, preparation, practice, and vision are useless if you cannot convey your depth of knowledge, goals, and plans effectively to your stakeholders and potential clients/consumers (the audience). A director must be skilled at the art of mediation: hearing both sides of a story or conflicting ideas and bringing the parties together in a place of agreement and shared commitment. Brooding behind a closed door while things implode around you is the worst possible action, and I have seen more than one director do just that (I even saw one roll under a car in the middle of a film shoot!). How you convey your expectations often dictates whether or not they are met. This goes back to Ownership by team members. Buy-in is absolutely essential, and communicating the benefits to the team and to the individual is as important as the elements of the previous four traits.

Take some time every day to start applying the 5 Traits of a Theatre Director. I think you’ll be amazed at how quickly things begin to change for the better in your workplace and everywhere else you serve in a decision-making capacity.