We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Danielle Moore a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Danielle, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Was there an experience or lesson you learned at a previous job that’s benefited your career afterwards?

When I worked at NBCUniversal, I had the opportunity to work on projects related titles in their portfolio I really cared about and loved personally, like Saturday Night Live. What I learned from that experience is that the quality of the branding is as important as the quality of the project itself. You only get one shot to make a first impression, and that’s really what creative can do for you. As a result, I’ve always tried to be thoughtful about what that first impression for my work will be, and try to make it as close as possible to the overall experience I want the audience to have from my work.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’m a writer and creative producer with experience spanning theater, TV/film development and editorial, with a specialization in developing new musicals and content related to the form. I founded GLG, the first and only U.S.-based organization exclusively dedicated to developing and producing new musicals and related content by women and nonbinary writers and composers. As a creative producer, I’ve worked with/for companies ranging from EBG/Shubert to Paramount, Disney, and NBCUniversal. As a writer/composer, I created the musicals Audrey (Off-Broadway Residency; Bold New Voices Honoree from Helen Hayes Award-Winning Production Company Creative Cauldron); Crossover, and Ink & Paint, which is currently having a developmental premiere with the

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

I absolutely love Austin Kleon’s “Steal Like an Artist” — it really crystallized my philosophy of using reference points to help shape your creative work, understand where it fits into the larger picture, and to better communicate with your collaborators. In the book, Kleon talks about how we’re all contributing to this bigger, humanity-wide project of being creative, and everything you make is a contribution to that, with the hope that others in turn may be inspired to contribute something of their own. I’ve found it to be a really helpful antidote to the narratives of scarcity and competition that run rampant in art and entertainment. Additionally, Jia Tolentino’s collection of essays, Trick Mirror, and its incredibly incisive dissections of “optimization” or self-improvement culture, and how that’s sort of programmed into us as modern Americans, is something I think about constantly, and try to be mindful of when attempting to balance my day-to-day work and life. There’s so much work that we do with just the hope of participating in certain spaces. While some of that can be positive, it’s always worth taking a step back and saying, “How much of this effort is actually necessary? And how much of this is not worth my time and energy?”

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

With my work in theater, it’s so many different things. I love growing alongside collaborators and pushing each other out of our comfort zones, getting to new levels of the industry together, and being able to celebrate each other’s wins, as well as be (and have) that voice of sanity during moments of stasis. I also think the role of the artist or the creator is one of catharsis — that we make art and tell stories in order to help each other feel our feelings, or feel or feelings better, in a world in which that can be a really confusing process — and whenever I can see an audience member or a collaborator having that experience from something I’ve worked on, that’s incredibly fulfilling. Additionally, since theater can happen literally anywhere, one of my favorite aspects as of late has been the opportunity to travel, meet new creatives, and experience different creative communities. In the past few months I’ve been in Philly, LA, Dallas, and D.C. for totally different projects, and met incredible people and connections. That’s a real privilege, and a part of the work I enjoy so much.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.greenlightgroupproductions.com
• Instagram: @danie.moore
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-moore-9652a2a8?original_referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F

Image Credits

Audrey photos are by William Gallagher

Headshot is by Joshua Going Photography

Ink & Paint photos can be credited to GLG Productions