Arts Professional Story: Steve Scott, Goodman Theatre

Steve Scott, Associate Producer, Goodman Theatre

I began working for the Goodman Theatre on my 30th birthday, in the late summer of 1980. For the first few years, I was the director of our education and outreach programs, and led workshops for such varied groups as high school students, senior citizens in nursing homes, and inmates (more correctly known as “residents”) of Stateville Correctional Center. I continued in this position when Robert Falls became the artistic director of the Goodman in 1986; the following year, he asked me to take on the duties of Associate Producer, and I’ve held that job ever since. Initially, Bob wanted me to take on that position because he wanted to be free to do the important and often exhausting long-range planning that continues to be his primary duty here.

He also wanted to have the freedom to pursue directing jobs outside the Goodman, which he felt were necessary to raise the profile of the theatre nationally and internationally. In the two decades since then, he has established himself as one of our country’s outstanding theatre directors, and the Goodman is indeed one of the most highly respected cultural institutions in America.

As Associate Producer, my job is basically to oversee the day-to-day artistic operations of the Goodman, implementing the plans that he creates. I have no real job description other than that. I oversee the various functions of the artistic department (including casting, literary management, research and dramaturgy, educational programs, and special event planning); I work with the general manager’s office to create and oversee the budgets that these activities require; I work with the marketing department to help create the myriad of marketing materials and approaches that sell our tickets; and I spend a great deal of time with our fundraising office, helping to write grant applications, seeking funds from individual and corporate donors, working with our board members to help solicit funds, and creating events that can encourage people to give money to support Goodman productions and programs.

This is a relatively bare outline of what I really do: on any given day, I may be writing articles for our subscriber magazine, meeting with directors and other artists to assess their needs for a given production, meeting with other artists who have projects that they’d like us to produce, talking to our various artistic associates around the country, or answering letters and e-mails (both positive and negative) from audience members. As a resident artist at the Goodman, I also direct my own shows here—and I direct productions at other local theatres, as well as teach classes at Roosevelt University and Act One Studios.

If I could identify one skill that’s stood me in good stead through the past twenty years, it’s probably my ability to deal with people—all kinds of people, from well known directors and playwrights to student interns, from the wealthy business leaders that are members of our boards to the single ticket buyer who has a question about what she saw last night on our stage. My own training is fairly eclectic—I studied to be a high school teacher, then an actor, then a director—and I think this is why I have the ability to understand all of these different points of view and respond to them in ways that I hope are positive and professional. Although there is always a financial bottom line that has to be observed, I’ve learned never to reject any idea or proposal or request simply because it’s going to cost too much. My job as a producer (and indeed the jobs of everyone on the staff at the Goodman) is to try to realize the visions of the artists that are creating a particular play, and to realize them as fully as possible. So when a director comes to me with a request, I rarely reject it out of hand—we talk about the reason for the request, the conceptual vision that is behind that request, and how that might be achieved.

Theatre artists are used to collaboration, and I want very much to be part of that collaboration, rather than the wet blanket that shuts the collaborative process down. The result usually is that, even if we have to alter exactly how something happens in order to fit the budget, the artist, the staff, and I can usually come up with something that honors the vision that’s being expressed. If we can’t do it completely, at least the artist realizes that we’re here to back him or her up, rather than to act as watchdogs or policemen. And hopefully, that means that that artist will want to work with us again, which is how we’ve built so many ongoing relationships at the Goodman.

I do realize that I am extraordinarily lucky to be working at a theatre that has the resources that we have here, but the process is exactly the same when I work as an artist at very small theatres. When my ideas are met positively and enthusiastically, I feel taken care of, and I’m willing to work in whatever way I need to with that staff. When I’m treated as “the enemy” by a producer or a staff, even if that staff is legitimately overworked and pushed to the limit, my response is to recede from my work and my ideas, and the resulting product is invariably tepid and less successful than it could be. As a producer, I never want an artist to feel that way, and that’s what guides me through my work every day.

When I began my work as a producer, there were relatively few classes or programs for theatre administrators of any kind. Now there are a great many (I’ve taught some of them), and I sometimes wish I’d had a chance to get that kind of training. But what I have come to realize is that many of the specific skills that you need for this line of work can be learned on the job—creating budgets, for example, or devising fundraising plans. The thing that can’t be taught in a program is the thing that I think is most important for success in this field: a respect for, and love for, the art that you’re creating and the people that you’re creating it with and for. We’re not brain surgeons, we’re people, and we’re trying to touch other people’s lives in ways that are simple yet profound. That’s what I love about what I do, and that’s why I’ve done it for much longer than I ever thought I would. I couldn’t live any other way.

Steve Scott is the Associate Producer of the Goodman Theatre, where he has overseen over 150 productions since 1987; he is also a member of the Goodman's Artistic Collective. His Goodman directing credits include Blind Date for the recent Horton Foote Festival, Rabbit Hole, Binky Rudich and the Two-Speed Clock and No One Will Be Immune for the recent David Mamet Festival. He is an artistic associate of the About Face, Chicago Dramatists and CollaborAction companies and one of six resident directors for WBEZ’s Stories on Stage; he is also a contributor to the Encyclopedia of Chicago. Mr. Scott is the recipient of an After Dark Award, five Jeff nominations, and the Illinois Theatre Association Award of Honor; as an actor, he most recently appeared in the Next Theatre’s production of Are You Now or Have You Ever Been…? (Jeff Award for Outstanding Ensemble).