McCollum: The unions’ demands and the fact there are only so many seats to sell in a given night and that it’s a diminishing inventory business, like the a irline business, and the fact that the pricing controls the tickets—all those are obstacles that should be reinvented. But until they are reinvented, you have to learn how to navigate and not be a victim of those things. And through your success “utch” the unions and the establishment to see what everybody is responsible for if we’re going to effect change and drive audiences to this wonderful art form.

Of course, the economics are all out of whack, which is why nine years ago we produced Rent on Broadway for $3.5 million, not $6 million. Avenue Q we produced two years ago for $3.5 million. We kept our economics the same. How? We don’t overspend on advertising. The New York Times is very expensive. We open our shows typically in smaller venues to work on them, to really listen to the audience, etc., and put the whole show together. We are not valets; we are collaborators. And that’s sort of why we built our building. We had that need to collaborate, to create an arts space that would inspire young people to write and an economic threshold that wasn’t crippling before we began.

We all have a role to play, like we have to be the producers, etc. But the ethic we come from is creating an environment where people can do their best work. We’re there to support that vision, as long as there’s accountability from everyone. And what has happened in the business is that it’s become a series of vendors where the producers don’t come in the room and do that. They have different people who make those decisions.

But because we came up through the business, we understand what a technical director is supposed to do, what a general manager is supposed to do, etc. And we are involved in those decisions; we don’t subcontract those decisions. That’s a very different way of producing, and there should be more of this.

Photograph by Andrew Kist.