Theatre Management: Arts Leadership for the 21st Century by Anthony Rhine (review)
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Anthony Rhine’s Theatre Management: Arts Leadership for the 21st Century offers theatre educators a text that is not only comprehensive and affordable to the students, but provides its readers with the necessary skills to develop and manage a theatre in the twenty-first century. Unlike other texts in the field, its primary focus is as a textbook to be used in the undergraduate or graduate classroom. With its clear writing, imaginative case studies, and class discussion questions, this invaluable resource is not only effective for performing arts students, but also business and management students, liberal arts students, and anyone enrolled in a leadership program. The text covers a complete range of topics fundamental to successful commercial and not-for-profit theatre management, from developing a mission statement to communicating with stakeholders, from marketing and promotion to fund-development platforms, and from governance structures to community engagement. Throughout the text, Rhine emphasizes practical applications to any venue and presents a framework for success.
The author presents all fifteen chapters in a succinct manner: chapter objectives, questions to research for class discussion, critical-thinking assignments, and a section called “Build Your Own Theatre,” intended to help the reader build a viable business plan. Each chapter concludes with a case study featuring Patrick, a composite character based on a real person, recently graduated from college with a degree in theatre management. This format allows readers to become fully engaged in the chapter and its content. Rhine’s fundamental and practical approach provides his readers with a desire to learn more, a key feature of a successful university textbook.
The first three chapters provide the groundwork for the more practical applications that follow. Chapter 1 distinguishes the difference between theatre and business management, while chapter 2 clarifies the difference between not for profit and commercial. Chapter 3 elaborates on the difference between management and leadership. In these three chapters, Rhine covers managerial strategies and how to develop a mission statement and a vision statement.
The next three chapters introduce staffing issues, organizational structure issues, and operational issues that will all have to be decided before one can start bringing in an audience. The chapters discuss external environments— namely, how theatres exist, both in their own and the commercial worlds. Rhine introduces arts unions and their relationship to professional theatre. A primary reminder runs through these chapters: that any business, including a theatre, is part of the community in which it works and that it may require interactions and communications with government officials, chambers of commerce, and/or other business organizations. This is a way of considering collaboration that expands beyond the traditional creative collaboration one generally thinks of in theatre.
The next two chapters introduce the need for financial and audience management, and the necessary tools for marketing to that audience. Chapter 7 discusses the difference between cash and accrual accounting and describes the three financial statements: cash flow, balance statement, and income statement. The author presents this information in a user-friendly way that even the untutored business professional can grasp; practically, the reader is urged to prepare a balance sheet. Chapter 8 stresses the requirements of a ticket office and the functions of ticketing systems. Both of these chapters present the reader with precise, concise information concentrating on the fiscal management of theatre, which is important to any artist.
Rhine covers marketing next. Chapter 9 discusses a marketing plan for a theatre and stresses the distinctions between marketing and public relations. He suggests best practices for creating promotional materials and covers the necessary tools for making an effective press kit in chapter 10, while the next chapter deals with fundraising plans and the different types of funding sources available.
Chapters 12–14 cover leadership, boards, governance, executive staff, volunteers, theatre advocacy, and community engagement. While the entire text maintained my interest, attention, and enthusiasm, these three chapters had the most profound impact. Rhine presents adaptive, transformational, and transactional leadership styles as the nucleus for successful management. The term...
