Paul Szmal: We're going to talk about the Bristol Valley Theatre in Naples with their Artistic Director Curtis Phillips, who joins us now. Curtis, good morning. How are you this morning?
Guest: Good morning. Thank you. I'm fine.
Paul Szmal: Good. It's much warmer there than it is in Duluth, Minnesota. We have yet to hit spring.
Guest: Yeah, I have been up in Duluth in the wintertime, and I know how bad it could be. I got caught in the blizzard that happened there a few years ago on Thanksgiving weekend, I think it was.
Paul Szmal: Yes. Yes. Very famous.
Guest: Yeah. Yeah.
Paul Szmal: So, you were in Duluth, but you're the Artistic Director for a theatre in the Finger Lakes.
Guest: Yes. It's actually an artistic consultant, let's say. I'm actually from Naples, New York, and grew up there, and actually worked at the theatre way back in the 90s while I was an undergrad in SUNY Fredonia. And I started designing scenery there when I was really young, well, 2019, and then just kind of lived with the theatre forever. You had my mother on last time, and I've been with the theatre off and on ever since my undergrad years at Fredonia, and care deeply about this place, and we're trying to make sure it lives.
Paul Szmal: That's a lot of work that goes into what you do, even in kind of a consultancy role.
Guest: Yeah, right now we're getting ready to invite and have the crew on board on June 22nd. We've been working since November on choosing the season, hiring all of the production crew, designers, directors. We've all been working really since December on designing the shows, picturing the shows, getting them drafted, getting the costume plots ready. And then we started to work on the cast members. So it's been a pretty intense job so far, just gathering all these people. I'm used to designing scenery for a living. I'm not used to running a business or helping to run a business. So it's been quite a learning curve, but we're pretty well set for this coming season when people arrive.
Paul Szmal: And that statement you just made, that kind of peels the layers of the onion back of just what's involved for a live theatre production. There are a lot of moving parts.
Guest: There are. We call it a collaboration. It really is. We start with the script, obviously. We study the script. We work with directors for a number of months ahead of time in designing it, picturing it, researching it, and then go through our own designers, all go through renderings and draftings and model making. And then we get everything ready for the directors and cast to come on board. The cast will actually rehearse for one week and then go through a week of tech rehearsal and then open that same week. So the actors are actually coming to Naples, learning their lines, learning their music, learning everything they need to before they actually get on their feet in a rehearsal room. And that rehearsal room actually is alive for a week. And then we go on stage and then tech it and open it.
Paul Szmal: From an actor's standpoint, that sounds like that's a pretty quick turnaround.
Guest: It is, but all of our actors are professionals. So all of the cast members are used to working this way. Typically you have to come off book, which means you know all your lines, you know all the script, you know all the story, you know your character before you even get into residency or on campus. So there's a lot of homework that actors and everyone really needs to do before they get there. But they're all professionals. They're all from all over the place. We have some from Minneapolis, we have some from actually Duluth here, and a lot from New York. So this is what they do for their living too as well. So they're used to it.
Paul Szmal: So the first production of the year is a production called A Year with Frog and Toad. How did the selection process go for that to be the opener for this season?
Guest: We always want to do a family-friendly show. Part of that is to celebrate the community, celebrate our young audiences, to generate young audiences. We know that theater, you know, we need to find new audiences for theater to thrive. So we chose Frog and Toad partially for two reasons. I love the play. I've designed it before. I fell in love with the books reading them to my son. And we just think it's a good way to celebrate diversity and people of our community by going through a year with Frog and Toad and learning who they are. Learning who the characters are, which actually reflects on who we are as well. The tickets, and we always want to make it affordable. So we have a few sponsors for this show, and also the tickets are set at a standard rate of I think $25 per ticket. So we want everyone to be able to come. We want to start with a family-friendly show to excite people to come for the rest of the season.
Paul Szmal: And the rest of the season includes some great classics. The next production that'll be up on tap coming up in July is Dial M for Murder.
Guest: Yes, the classic Hitchcock suspense thriller. It's a new take on the play. It's a modern adaptation of it. It's fast, it's slick, it's funny. It has a couple twists and turns, but the classic Hitchcock feeling is there. It's very cat-and-mouse deceptive, but it also has that film noir feeling as well. But it's a very nice new adaptation of it.
Paul Szmal: We're talking with Curtis Phillips, he's the artistic consultant for the Bristol Valley Theatre in Naples. A couple of August productions coming up. You go down the comedy road for Ken Ludwig's Moon Over Buffalo.
Guest: Yeah, funny classic farce. There are six doors in it, which is classic for a set design for a farce. Wacky characters, a lot of schtick, a lot of pratfalls, a lot of combat, a lot of jumping. It almost feels like a circus in this little tiny green room of an old theatre in Buffalo. And we understand who actors are when they're down on their luck and everything they have to go through in order to survive. But it's a true comedy. It's very funny. It's very fast. And it's just a lot of fun. It's all about these people in Buffalo in this tiny little theatre and how they ended up in Buffalo and why they're in Buffalo. It's quite funny.
Paul Szmal: That's one of those shows that sounds like it kind of peels that fourth wall back a little bit.
Guest: Yeah, it definitely feels like Three Stooges in Buffalo, New York. It's very funny.
Paul Szmal: And then the season wraps up in August with a little more modern day classic, Pump Boys and Dinettes.
Guest: Yeah, it's a wonderful play about a gas station and diner workers. They're in love with each other and they're just a nice little family. It has live musicians, so the actors are actually playing the music on stage in front of you. We have very famous, I'm sorry, very well-known Pump Boys who have all played rock and roll music in million-dollar quartets and other kind of shows. And then we have two wonderful female singers, and they just come together to tell the story of love, of caring for each other, and just in a total musical way. Everyone plays music on stage. They're all playing live instruments. There's no band, no recording. It's all just right in front of the audience. And there is a lot of audience interaction as well. So it's a really fun, just a fun evening.
Paul Szmal: So Curtis, I want to ask you about how royalties work for these shows, because you don't just get to pick a show and then do the production of it. Somebody obviously needs to be paid for things like publishing rights, musical rights, that sort of stuff.
Guest: Yeah, all the royalties are paid before we can even announce a season. So way back in November, maybe late October, we chose a season. And then you apply for licensing, and then the licensing companies give you a fee. You need to pay for that before you can even get the scripts or advertise the season, and actually almost plan the season. So the ticket royalties are actually based on the number of seats you can house, and number of seats you sell, the number of nights you play. And then it's all put together in a big package. Typically, it's about 20% of what your ticket revenue can be. So an average royalty for this season, I think, is roughly around $1,800 to $2,000 that you pay before you are able to even get the scripts.
Paul Szmal: And that's why you want to try to have a full house, obviously, for each production that you do, is you've got that initial expense right off the top, plus the sets, the costumes, as you mentioned, the technical crew, not to mention the actors. This is a lot of stuff that needs to be covered.
Guest: Yeah, everyone should come. Everyone should come to the shows. It'd be wonderful if we had full houses. And the shows, I think, warrant that this year. Yes, it is an expense. There's an expense ahead of time. We're actually finding right now that we're covering about half of our payroll before we start the season. We were hoping to do three quarters to all of it. So we'll have to make up some revenue during the year. So we're encouraging everyone to come see the shows. They're wonderful shows and a lot of talent on stage.
Paul Szmal: Do want to mention the 2026 season sponsors. They include Mitchell Joseph Insurance Agency and Canandaigua National Bank, along with Community Bank, Finger Lakes Dental Care, Naples Hotel, The Company Store, and Hazlett 1852 Vineyards. And that sponsorship support for any theater organization like yours, Curtis, is key.
Guest: It is. It helps us have money before we start. We're doing some wonderful promotions with local companies that are helping us with our concessions, putting together packages for special cookies and special intermission snacks for the shows, theme-specific shows. And then Naples Hotel is actually helping us quite a bit by promoting our season with a package that they're putting together. So we're working together with them to do pre-show dinners and drinks, after-show drinks as well. But packages where you can buy a ticket and also have a special themed meal with Naples Hotel and then walk down the street to the Playhouse itself, to the theater itself and enjoy the show. So a lot of the sponsors have been wonderful in both money and donations, but also support in partnering for special events and things. And it's been greatly relationships.
Paul Szmal: Now, as Curtis mentioned, for a year with Frog and Toad, the tickets are $25 each. There are not only individual ticket sales, but there are also subscription tickets with a couple of different options available that are really affordable for you to enjoy the entire season of productions at the Bristol Valley Theatre in Naples. The website, by the way, is bvtnaples.org, bvtnaples.org. And a year with Frog and Toad, the first production of the year, that's coming up, looks like it starts on the Thursday, July 9th, right?
Guest: That's right. Yep. That's right. That's our preview night. It actually opens the next night.
Paul Szmal: Yeah. So opening night, Friday, July 10th, with shows 10th, 11th, and 12th. And again, on July 15th, 16th, 17th, and 18th, if you want to go check it out. Again, bvtnaples.org. Curtis, thank you so much for joining us this morning. Appreciate it, sir.
Guest: Yeah. Thanks for having me. Come down to BBT.
