What is a Producer?The role of a theatre producer is to create or develop theatre projects. To create a project from the start, he/she has to be able to raise the money to employ all the people necessary to bring the project to fruition: a writer (if it is a new play), a director, a design team, actors, stage management, technicians, publicists, marketing personnel. If the project to be developed is an existing one, again, the money has to be raised to take it over, develop it and move it into the commercial sector. Since the producer is the person who pays for the project and is at risk if it fails, he/she has to be extremely motivated. A good producer should inspire confidence in the team at work and have sufficient self belief to ride through the rough seas of commercial ups and downs. In some cases, a producer may be devoted to theatre in an amateur sense, but their ability to raise substantial sums of money is their gateway to the profession; while in other cases, a producer may have a thorough grounding in theatre. |  | |