Nunc Licet, the stage play, management notes

The following material was taken from one of the AOL web pages before they closed Hometown. The material is being reorganized under different subject headings within the IMS Virtual Studio. Please bear with the parts that I have not yet been able to review& edit or relocate. AG


Distribution of Production Materials

Persons who specifically identify themselves as serious investors, vested creative/managerial partners, producing organizations/facilities, or parties to the ancillary markets will be provided with contract or script materials. A CD-ROM is being produced for distribution of the script materials. This CD-ROM will be provided to partners or it may be purchased by persons simply wishing to read the script. The a cost for the CD-ROM is $15 + $2.50 S&H and a printed version of the script willbe made available at a cost of $25 per script plus $5 S&H. These material will be generally available when the PayPal shopping cart is set up.

Reporting to Vested Partners

Vested partners will receive the appropriate reports when they are issued. The reporting requirements of Nunc Licet Productions, LTD will be managed by a vested board position responsible for that function. I will not be engaged directly in that activity. Therefore, the Front Money required for the foundational work of the production will be required to finance that aspect of the production, (in addition to securing the balance of principle board members who will also serve as Vested General Partners) before the Limited Partnership is filed with the Security Exchange Commission. Board members who are not vested can only sit in a secondary role, as they are positioned to perform in a limited fashion to a specific degree. (ie: organizational representative placed for oversight & reporting functions) Contracts specifying secondary functions allow for a limited return to the organization from the net receipts.

A Summary of the types of Productions

Workshop- a closed reading environment designed to supplement the writing process

Developmental production- a staged reading, script in hand, in black, one actor for each character, open to invited guests and test audience. Designed to establish timing, blocking, inflection & delivery, and to initiate necessary changes as a result.

* NOTE: The implementation of A Documentary film project begins at this stage and continues until union contracts cause a hindrance. This may be encompassed in an Academic Production or lead to it.

Refer to the note under cinematic production.

Academic production- produced in partnership with a university or college as an educational tool for the students and a refinement tool for the production. May also be used as a networking and training tool with multiple universities in a touring scenerio between Performing Arts Departments. Involvement in an Academic Production would have income producing implications for the university involved. However, all creative and managerial control remains with IMS, but may be modified upon approval so long as such modifications do not adversely impact the presently implemented contract terms.

Limited Regional Production- release into the regional theatre environment which brings into the mix the union contracts required by The League of Regional Theatres. This arena may work in conjunction with, supplement, or replace, the out-of-town tryout venues. This arena involves the not-for-profit theatre and may likewise fall into the Developmental Agreements depending on the type of production being presented.

Out-of-Town Try-out Production takes place in the professional arena, under the umbrella of a developmental try-out production, thereby allowing for reviewers imput to contribute to the development of the show without the destructive stain of a bad review from the New York critics.

Off-Off Broadway- is basically equivalent to an out-of-town tryout or a regional theatre, with the specific intent on traveling to New York. The Off-off Broadway theatre is closer to New York and draws the sophistication of the New York audience.

Off Broadway- is in New York but, allows for further development.

Broadway/London- are the premiere venues and the presentation is expected to be the best it can be. The cost to make this presentation is in the millions and the reviews are critical to the success of the production as a whole. Bad reviews will likely kill aproduction. It is advisable to stay out of New York until a demand has arisen for the production to move into the city.

Cinematic Production is best reserved for after a successful run on Broadway although in recent years successful films have made the transition to the stage, so film may become the most viable way to proceed.

* NOTE: recent decisions regarding the viability of this show as a whole and the difficulties with maintaining the actors and crew who will likely be available, indicate that a film production must take place simultaneously to the world premiere production in Bryn Athyn. Numerous production logistics & supplies can more easily be co-ordinated and shared if both efforts take place at the same time. The film materials gathered at this time may or may not be used for general release and it is possible that a different film production may occur.

National & International First Class Touring Productions- are a result of demand thathas been generated by a successful Broadway or London run.

National & International Second Class Touring Productions- are for a second run on a four-wall or for a run into the regional theatres.

Release of Performance Licensing- for revivals at regional not-for-profit, dinner & community theatres and for the festival environment. May include numerous performance variations on a case to case basis.

Investment Notes; discussions on money matters

Front Money - The minimum investment at this stage is $10K. This money currently falls under the Front Money Agreement, however this offer may be withdrawn or changed at any time, depending upon the advancement of the project's economic status. Any changes in this offer will not effect Investors who have contributed and have a signed Front Money Agreement. The Front Money required to enter into the offering stage of the Nunc Licet Limited Partnership is not fully determined, but should be expected to be in the neighborhood of $100K, due (in part) to the expectation of establishing a communications network for the proper & full implementation of the reporting requirements. This network must include a paid Director for the Partnership. This role may be filled by the legal firm assigned to filing the partnership, or the accounting firm on contract with the partnership, depending upon the agreements entered into. Discussions and a budget outline regarding the cost of mounting a production will be conducted on another page. Those materials are being reviewed and I expect to provide a brief synopsis and partial budget online for your review.

Front Money is money that is made available for the producers to apply to the pre-production development at their own discretion. It encompasses all the funds necessary to set up the management (and accounting) structure for the individual production and to establish & maintain the production office and key personnel in that office. It also is used for pre-production development of production materials and the adjacent materials needed to market the Limited Partnership and to make the filing with the Securities Exchange Commission. Front Money is recoverable from the proceeds of the Limited Partnership. There is a profit margin cap of 300% on the principle investment, derived from the net income of the Production Receipts and the principle investment buys an equivalent amount of shares in the Limited Partnership. The Limited Partnership shares in only those ancillary rights and markets which have entered agreement with the Partnership, but may be called upon to finance a foray into additional markets under the terms of the agreement. Ancillary agreements entered into prior to the complete capitalization of the LP may be transferred to the Partnership at the discretion of the Producers and/or General Partners on a case by case basis.


Further discussions on these matter will occur.
All proper contracts and management materials must be in place to cover the full range of exploitation.

Regarding the script: the material included in the script is more substantial than usual, because I felt it important to be comprehensive. I felt a need to be assured that, should my death occur before I succeed in producing the play, at least I know that the information will be provided for someone else to proceed.

At this point, it is difficult to say what the actual playing time is. A primary factor in determining the final playing time, is that an audience can only sit in a theatre for so long before the enjoyment of the experience begins to wane. Of course, the level of endurance depends highly upon the content of the play and the presentation of that material, so until we manage to produce the first full timed run-through, we really won't know. An open reading will help us to determine these issues. Clearly the success of the play depends upon the addition of more externals, tangible design elements, such as set & lighting, costumes, and properties. I believe conveying the period nature of the piece will add greatly to it's appeal. The subject matter has an substantial degree of depth to it, although I've tried to spread it out and present it in a casual way. I believe the play requires the creation of a total experience, in order to ease the mental strain of the concentrated challenging thought which sometimes does come forth.

For those of you who have, or will read the play, I am certian that in reality it is much shorter than it appears in writing. Some of the written text is not actually intended to be delivered as lines. It has been placed in the script as a resource for the actor to create a fulfilling characterization or to present semi-directly.

I do expect further refinement, as a result of imput from the performers who convey the 23 characters.

Look for other pages to appear regarding this production, as renewed effort to produce this play is beginning to ocur.

The Film

This script lends itself well to a film production and as the stage play begins to move into a Developmental production, work will likely progress on a film version as well.

As mentioned above, the film production ought to proceed in conjunction with the stage version. In addition to the narrative film, there is a documentary film, about the making of the play and a filmed version of the theatre show. Sort of an American Playhouse thing. So each of these productions is viable in itself, but together they support each other and access the same resources in terms of production personnel and costumes

I expect all this activity to take place in Bryn Athyn. There are sufficient resources as a whole- in terms of theatre facilities and shooting locations and there is a plethora of talented people there to achieve the goals that would be set forth. Additionally, I am considering expanding my facilities in Southampton, since I have become resolved to the fact that I am not going anywhere else and I'm not about to move away from the church. As always: Inquiries are welcomed. AG

Studio Operations

Details regarding  

IMS Studio Operations  

are available on the 

IMS Producing Partners Membership Site

General overview;

IMS was founded in 1977 and has gone thru many changes both up and down. The studio has been set up in nine different locations over the years from Boston to Hollywood. The last scene shop was on a ten acre farm in Solebury just out side of New Hope, Pennsylvania and that was shut down in 2005. The office location in Southampton has been in use since 1985 and has served as a private work space for most of that time.

Expansion of the facilities is quite urgent, because the limited facilities are severely impairing our capabilities. The concept of an animation studio fits in quite well with "The Gnomes of New Hope" project and so the new facilities will be oriented toward implementing the animation objectives of The Gnomes, but any expansion must also accommodate the known requirements for office, studio & design spaces, assorted stage & fabricating spaces, a recycling yard, a vehicle maintenance bay and loading dock and storage space for inventory. Even this set-up will require the potential for expansion.

Numerous buildings have been considered and rejected for various reasons, not the least of which is financing. Because with expansion of facilities comes the expansion of personnel and therefore a whole plethora of other aspects of the operation, aspects which I have consciously tried to avoid.

If Image of the Mind Studios is to become better and more productive than it is, it will need to be completely re-organized and managed under an improved corporate structure. For the most part, it has been a proprietorship and it has been a victim of my own deficiencies, one of which has been trying to avoid becoming a personnel manager.

I have chosen to opt for dedicating my energy to developing new works, writing & designing . I have found that business management takes so much energy that it tends to take control of my creativity, leaving less for conceptualization.

As a result, the organization of Image of the Mind Studios has gradually become more disorganized than I care for it to be.   My focus of concentration has been on the development of these new works and I've found that: completion is itself, a difficult task, and refinement just seems to go on and on.  So because of this continuing process,  I've concluded that production must begin before the core material is fully refined. This will will assure that the material does not spend an eternity in development.

In the instance of "Nunc Licet",  the material is as refined as it can be, although I do expect changes to occur in production. "Grael" can work as an animation, but it needs quite a bit more work for a live action film to be fully implemented, although scenes can be shot and I am intending do do so at Tamanend Park in Southampton.  The core material for "The Gnomes of New Hope" is sufficient to begin production in various ways. You can read about these projects in other posting on the IMS Virtual Studio.

Each of these three projects requires investment and facilities in order to effectively move ahead and these funds need to come from external sources that are not directly tied to the banking system in the form of loans.  Thus, those funds need to be coming from investors who can tolerate a longer term return or from the sale of ancillary rights.

There are many other projects on-the-boards at IMS all of which, not only have, but yet still require substantial investment in time and money.

So it is that: the only practical way for this to happen is for a re-organization of IMS to include a corporate board of directors who are capable of managing the larger financial needs of the studio.  I am doing this by building IMS Producing Partners: wherein the corporate structure of Image of the Mind Studios will be defined and implemented.  

Detailed information regarding those operations will be posted there and not be available on the IMS Virtual Studio.

IMS Producing Partners is a subscription site available only to our partners who contribute financially the the studio's growth and long term success. AG

Virtual Studio Archive

Virtual Studio Archive

This section will post items within the IMS Virtual Studio that are in the process of being moved over to the IMS Producing Partners.

Items logged here are subjects of importance that have been brought up and were posted in the main page for the Virtual Studio. 
 
3/10  The most recent occurrence regarding the Spiritual Retreat/Theatrical Development Centre is that I accidentally washed my notebook with the designs in it and it has disintegrated into pulp. Therefore I will need to reconstitute the drawings and designs onto more practical medium and I intend, as I always had, to construct a model of the community. 

Wednesday 8/19/8 (edited) ;

I've begun work to re-construct The Virtual Studio.

To do this, I am currently using space provided by ISPs for external operations. At some point we will introduce a server for internal operations. The expectation is that partners in Image of the Mind Studios, both creative and logistical, will have access to that server.

I will need to locate an IT person who can manage that aspect of things and I hope that we might be able to set up the server as an ISP for the creative community associated with Image of the Mind Studios and The Alpha & Omega Society and the Creative Archive. Certainly, I invite (direct) dialogue in this regard, via email.

Clearly if The Virtual Studio is to be manifested as an ISP, expansion of facilities, equipment, and personnel are required.

The studio activities fluctuate according to my resources. This is a situation that I need to stabilize in order bring about a sustained degree of consistency and growth. Growth that is carefully projected at a manageable rate. It is difficult to avoid the sudden increase in overhead when the principle element in this growth is a large increase in the elements defined above, which is exactly what is needed at this point. Some of those issues are discussed under the heading "Facilities".

One advantage of The Virtual Studio, is the theory that operation can be conceptualized, departmentalized and implemented without the immediate need for expanded facilities. To a degree this has proven to be true, but the "concept" needs to move "to form and beyond" at this point.

The material presented in The Virtual Studio has been oriented for application into a number of arenas simultaneously, most particularly The Theatrical Development Centre, which represents a primary component in The Studio Compound. Recent occurrences are beginning to reshape that overall concept and discussions on that subject will be posted at some point.

The thoughts below are an abstract of some of the elements effecting the larger goal, but are not necessarily a part of the immediate objectives which are the recipients of current resources.

It is my expectation to structure a rational operating system that can- (meet the needs of others, have growth potential, and checks & balances inherent in it, and...) be applied to the Theatrical Development Centre concept of an Artist's Community & Spiritual Retreat. Much of this is already sketched out, but as time marches on, circumstances change and previous theory becomes inapplicable. So when The Virtual Studio can be maintained in-house and have secure access to the more sensitive elements, a more active effort will be made to finilaze and present these concepts. At the very least, it will be a presentation that can remain for future generations, because it seems unlikely that the massive amount of resources required for this will be available for me to work with.

There is also a degree of political theory at work here, I recognize the reality of applying political action to the management & control of a living and working environment, which is what the Theatrical Development Centre is intended to be. Such an environment must be designed to allow for a wide assortment of lifestyles and it is so designed. Various elements of the plans for such a compound are drawn up, albeit (mostly) in my handwritten notes and there are a few variations of this. Obviously, one purpose of The Virtual Studio is to put forth these designs as a way of implementing the manifestation of the concept. The simple magnitude of the plan is such that, I expect it to be "all I can do" to package it clearly , possibly publish it and hope for the circumstance to come about which will allow for implementation. In the expectation that I will likely expire before I achieve that goal, I am using the Internet as the forum by which I will transmit as many of those ideas as I can manage to put down. AG

Opinion: 

  America today is or has been taken over , by developers, exploitation mongers, and local governing bodies who inadvertently (I'd like to think) have effectively deleted any lifestyle but those which serve their limited perspective of how people should live, which is predominately, I have to say, a result of greed. This is clear by the out of control capitalism and selfishness that has resulted from the freedom to act as one chooses. Unfortunately, in America today a large contingent of people have chosen to act in ways that do not consider the larger community good unless it serves their own personal gain. Such behavior is destructive to society and serves as a corrosive agent, eating away at the very fabric of social harmony and balance. We are caught in the dichotomy of freedom to act from ignorance, the results of which can be corrected, and the freedom to act from volition, which may come from the destructive nature of selfishness imposing itself into systems that are meant to serve the whole and not the individual or the corporate (as in community not business) citizen. The result of these acts of volition when founded in greed & selfishness are that the freedom to do so also imposes the consequences of this action onto those who truly do act for the good of society and seek harmony & balance, as well as those who are ignorant of their surroundings because of apathy. One would like to think that the balance could be maintained, but this is not the case. The corrosive nature of such behavior is causing the very foundation of the larger society to crumble. We see this in our economic collapse.

This is (in essence) the point of establishing the Artist Community & Spiritual Retreat. To reformulate the social relationships that make-up a functional society, to establish parameters by which a smaller social unit can function and to identify those individuals who choose to live together, in harmony, because they have a like mind and share the same kinds of loves, different as they all are.

It is my hope that I can offer an alternative social design which will serve the artistic mentality as the primary core and other services, talents and crafts as peripheral to that.

The Virtual Studio is the greenhouse for nurturing this concept and the means to that end. AG