We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Michael Cote. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Michael below.
Michael, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?
I’ve been involved with in the entertainment industry for over 50 years. My love of theater/performing and all that goes along with it began in high school, I was not encouraged (in fact, I was discouraged) not to follow my passion in college, so it took a back seat for awhile. My undergraduate degree in education actually set me on the road to owning an entertainment service. Not being able to find a full time teaching job in my given field of science, I took a position teaching ballroom dancing. While doing this, I was approached to choreograph a community theater production. That didn’t work out too well, but it opened the opportunity to meet on of my mentors, who was the New England Region’s Ronald McDonald (we did almost 400 personal appearances each year). He also put together a group of performers for a two week show at The Eastern States Exhibition, the fifth largest agricultural fair east of the Mississippi. That’s where I met several professional performers who assisted me in getting on track of starting my own entertainment company, Mel O’Dee Entertainment Services. I started doing balloon deliveries and singing telegrams, with songs written especially for the occasions. This moved to doing roasts, character deliveries and led to writing, producing and performing original, interactive murder mysteries, including entire weekend shows for the Sheraton Hotel organization. During this time I also co-wrote a limited holiday TV series for the Manchester, NH ABC affiliate WMUR-TV. “A Visit With Santa”.
At the beginning, as you can imagine, it was difficult making a full-time living, but as I kept increasing the options for customers (ie. children’s birthday parties, etc.) the easier it became. I had little overhead and my services eventually started covering my expenses. Knowing what I know now, I would have expanded my services much sooner and given more alternatives to my customers.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
After starting a family, I decided that the business was not enough to take care of that family. While still keeping my fingers in the business, I expanded my skills in marketing and design that I had put to use in my entertainment business. This allowed me to still do some writing and performing but also make a decent living to support my family.
Then came the day that for my wife’s medical issues, we needed to move from New Hampshire to a warmer clime. That happened to be Florida’s Gulf coast. I sold or gave away decade’s worth of costumes, props, set pieces and more and thought that I had given up entertainment for good. That lasted about 4 years. My wife and I divorced leaving me with time on my hands, so I decided to get back into community theater. Through this, I met my current fiancée, Susan, and the other friends that have now become my partners in TheatreFor, a 55 seat, boutique theatre in Clearwater, FL.
We all brought various expertise in theater and entertainment to the table. Between the 6 of us, we brought over a century of experience to our new little theatre. We had some issues finding the right facility and then transforming it (mostly dealing with permits and city inspections) into what we were looking for. We wanted a space where we could do new, award-winning shows, that most theaters in the area weren’t doing, that performers would enjoy putting their talents into and audiences would enjoy things out of the ordinary. The partners were all very frustrated at the hesitation of local theatres to try such works. We offer a chance for local and national playwrights to submit their works for consideration for production. We pay (non-equity rates) our performers for their work, and our clientele leave entertained, excited and talking about the shows they have just seen. We have won awards and accolades for our productions, and our audiences have steadily grown in the 15 months that we have been open. We recently finished a critically acclaimed production of the world premiere of “Clone” by playwright DC Cathro. Thus far, the funding has come from the partners and donations from friends that wish to see the same type of theater that we are providing.
One of our goals, besides bringing quality theater to Central Pinellas County and the Tampa Bay area of Florida, is to educate people of all ages in all aspects of theater that is of interest to them. Our partners have decades of experience in arts education and we hope to pass that on to future and current generations.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
As I mentioned earlier, it took us some time to find the right facility for TheatreFor. We found several that would have been perfect for what we needed, but in some cases the landlords weren’t interested in renting to a theater, or another business (not a theater) would take it while we were still making sure that the price would work with any adjustments that needed to be made, etc. It was well over a year of searching to find the right spot.
Once we found our space, then came the makeover to turn it into a theater. Lighting needed to be installed, requiring re-wiring, hanging lights and much more. Also, providing dressing rooms, storage, performance area, lobby control booth and more in our little storefront. We were thrilled with the way it was turning out, until we ran into the permitting office of the building committee. Initially, we were told that the previous tenants were zoned for the same type of business so that would not be a problem, Unfortunately, that was not the case. they put up walls that were never permitted or inspected that all had to be redone. Most of the inspectors did not understand the fluidity of theatrical productions in that all the walls, etc., were not permanent, and educating them was frustrating and at time expensive. Because of the size of our site (3000 s.f.) they wanted our capacity to be 300 people (ridiculous) This would have meant new AC units, another restroom and sooooo much more. Fortunately, we had people working with us that were able to convince them of the reality of what we wanted. It took six months longer to get the space ready than we planned and had to postpone shows that had already been scheduled and in rehearsal. But even with all the issues, we got underway and have been producing an average of one show per month, including comedies, love stories, thought provoking dramas and classics, including Shakespeare and more.
How did you build your audience on social media?
Due to budget constraints, we have relied on reaching our audience through social media. That along with the old-fashioned method of printed posters and handout cards, is our main advertising strategy. So far, fortunately, word of mouth has treated us very well with friends telling friends of our new little venture. I would recommend finding a strong social media person(s) to take care of that aspect and not rely on only the people working with your crew. As we are all retirees, we’re not truly up to date with the newest techniques in social media.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.TheatreFor.com
- Instagram: @theatrefor
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/theatrefor
Image Credits
1. K. DiMauro, M. Phillipe, J. Hoolihand & S. Dearden in TheatreFor’s Premiere “Academia Nuts” by Gregg Kreutz, Directed and designed by Mike Cote
2. Josh Paul, Juan Toro & TJ Howsare in “A Picture of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde, Adapted by Antonio Aquirre-Sacasa, Directed and designed by Mike Cote
3. Cast of Dunedin Showcase Theater’s production of Agatha Christie’s “And Then There Were None”, Directed and designed Mike Cote
4. Cast of Dunedin Showcase Theater’s production of “The Turn of the Screw” by James Joyce Directed and designed by Mike Cote
5. Cast of “A Lighter Shade of Noir” written and directed by Mike Cote
6. Mike Cote and Susan Dearden at Theatre Tampa Bay Awards Gala
7. Mike Cote