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[0:00] Martín Acuña: Hi, everyone. I am Martín Acuña, and you are listening to Backstage Talk.

[0:18] Martín Acuña: Hello, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Backstage Talk. I am so happy today to have Tralen Doler. He is the VP of Partnerships of Broadway On Demand. Am I right, Tralen?

[0:34] Tralen Doler: My actual title is VP of Partnerships and Brand Engagement for Broadway Licensing, which is the parent company over Broadway On Demand.

[0:42] Martín Acuña: Thank you so much. And I am really, really excited for this conversation today. So, Tralen, welcome to Backstage Talk. I'm really happy to have you over.

[0:53] Tralen Doler: Thank you so much, Martín. I'm thrilled to be here.

[0:56] Martín Acuña: Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you ended up working at BOD, the entertainment industry, and Broadway Licensing.

[1:04] Tralen Doler: For sure. I was, you know, a kid that fell in love with theater and started performing at a young age and performed all the way growing up and went to college for performance and then kind of made a shift into more directing and choreographing. I spent, had a whole kind of career doing that, traveling around regionally and directing and eventually became an artistic director of a small professional theater in Illinois. And then just had one of those moments where I wanted to keep kind of moving further behind the scenes. You know, I think as we get older, sometimes we realize it's less important to be on stage and more to be the person helping make that happen. And so I moved into kind of the business side of things.

I worked at Music Theatre International for a while and then eventually came over to Broadway Licensing as the director of marketing. And then when we launched Broadway On Demand, that became really interesting to me. So I went over there and kind of ran that division. And then, you know, just evolved into now where I'm making friends all over the industry for all of our divisions.

[2:09] Martín Acuña: I love it. I love it. That is awesome. So let's chat a little bit about Broadway On Demand and this parent company that is Broadway Licensing. So Broadway On Demand is a streaming platform for different theater productions that have been recorded. So what's your mission, vision there?

[2:30] Tralen Doler: Yeah, I'll tell you kind of just the history of the company because we're a newer, that division is the newest of our divisions. And it really came out of our backbone, which is licensing, which Broadway Licensing is a licensing company that includes PlayScripts, which is really kind of an educational play brand, Dramatist Play Service, which we know is kind of the premier play licensing company, and then Broadway Licensing, which handles Broadway and off-Broadway musicals. And, you know, about a year and a half ago in March, we started getting calls from people who had licensed productions saying, I don't think I can have an audience. Can I stream my show? And so the first thing we did, because who knew, could they?

So we started reaching out to authors saying, is this something that you would allow? And then at the same time, we knew that we wanted to make sure that we had a space that was protecting that intellectual property of our authors. And also that we were the best partner we could be for those theaters that wanted to license their shows. We wanted to create a very easy-to-use platform so that they could have everything in one space. And so we went to work as fast as we could to build that. And about two weeks later, they all called us back and said, never mind, I can't have actors on stage. I can't get in my building. So we said, oh, okay. But we'd already kind of started down that path. And so we started thinking about, well, what else can we do with this?

What else is in need in this moment? And it really was looking at kind of that exact moment. And I have a feeling, Martín, that you are as theater nerdy as I am, that it was that people, it was so fascinating. Artists just dove in and they said, I'm just going to make stuff. I'm going to make something that's theater. I'm going to make it on Zoom. I'm going to make it on Instagram or Facebook Live or whatever it is. I'm going to make things. And there was so much exciting content that people were creating, but there was no one place to find all of that. You had had to kind of, I had like such a schedule like, oh, 7 p.m. I got to go to Facebook now. And 8 p.m. I got to go to YouTube. And we thought, what if there was one aggregate source for all of this content that people are creating?

And so that was kind of how we started. We started reaching out to people and saying, what you're doing is super cool. We would love to have it here and create kind of a one-stop shop for really content that was being created now, which is a little different than kind of a host for a three-camera shoot of a Broadway show. That wasn't particularly, you know, there are other folks that are doing that so well. And so we were like, we want to be the opposite of that and really handle that content that's being created now. And the other piece that was really important to us because we were all theater people first, not tech people, was that, you know, what's so exciting about live theater is the event, right?

It's going to the event. It's everything that happens, your dinner before, your drinks before, who you're sitting next to. And so even though we couldn't all be in one space, we really wanted to focus on that come together at a time to watch something. And so that is what we eventually launched with in May of 2020. We launched a platform that was free. There was no kind of subscription model. It was just come to the platform. And then it was a mix of free content, some kind of pay-per-view events that folks had that they wanted to sell tickets to. And it was a real mix of kind of content. And that was the idea was that like, we're going to gather in a space and kind of see what's happening now.

So that was the kind of the genesis. And when you ask about mission, you know, it's, I think we've all learned so much in all of this. And we didn't know what a mission was at the beginning. I always joke that we came up with a name before we knew what we were making. And so we actually are so, so much, little of the content on the platform is actually Broadway in, you know, quotes, because what we started discovering was that there was so much exciting theatrical streaming content that was being created all around the world, at all different levels, whether that be a middle school, or that be the South Korean musical that we streamed. You know, there was just, there was amazing work that people were doing.

And we wanted to give a space where all of that could be viewed equally, that there was no kind of filter on quality, that, I mean, we think it's all quality, that it was really providing a space for anybody to have their art seen, and find that audience. And that actually, although was not our intentional, like initial mission, and vision for the platform, that's what it became. And it's one of the things I'm most proud of now. And it's kind of working towards this idea that we believe very strongly in, which is the democratization of theater. The idea that there is value being created at all different levels in all spaces around the world. And that people who love theater should be able to have a space where they can find that.

We'll get into the other questions around accessibility and our barriers. But, but, you know, that's now, I think, really is our mission is to create one space where people can discover theater, feel that they can find theater that they can't find in their communities. And that artists have a place where they can be represented.

[8:16] Martín Acuña: I love it. I love it. And I feel that so much content is out there right now, like you said, all over the world, and different levels of production, but it's so valuable to have one single place in which I can go. Like during the pandemic, it probably was a year ago, through Facebook, I found a theater company that wanted to do readings on Zoom. And I entered one reading, I started acting with them. And it was very weird. It was like my first acting gig in the pandemic. And it was like, we after it, I asked if it was being recorded, since it was on Zoom, it was recorded, and they uploaded to YouTube. And I was like, I wish there was a place for all of this production, because they were doing readings weekly.

This was when we were all in isolation, no one was outside. So they were doing things daily. And it was just great to see how different people started writing, started producing, started acting all over the world. And now, Broadway On Demand is that stop and that hub for this type of productions. I want to go into accessibility in the industry. And you just mentioned it. And during September, we got every single weekend, we got either a pro shot or a film adaptation from a musical. And it's just, for me, it's just so valuable to see that fans out there are getting the chance to see shows or adaptations without having to go directly on Broadway. So I want to know your thoughts around accessibility in the industry and how platforms like Broadway On Demand and Broadway HD are changing the game by opening up the market to people outside New York or outside the West End.

[10:27] Tralen Doler: Yeah, it's, it is the biggest aha moment that I think I and, you know, everybody at Broadway On Demand and Broadway Licensing has had during this pandemic is we know that there has been a very important conversation happening in theaters, you know, across the country for, let's say, the last 10 years, every TCG conference, right? The conversation is how do we become more accessible? And really, the conversation has been, how do we may allow people to feel comfortable coming into our space, right? That's been the real focus. How do I diversify my audiences in my theater? And what happened was that all of a sudden, that wasn't an option anymore. It wasn't, we weren't defined by the brick building that surrounds us.

All of a sudden, it became now I have to go outside of my building in a digital way. And what does that mean for making connections? What does that mean for introducing new audiences? And that idea of kind of breaking that mold of like, people have to come into my building, I think really kind of pushed us a whole way further along this kind of journey of about accessibility, right? So we know that there are barriers to entry in theater, a lot of them, whether it's, you know, financial barriers, physical barriers for distance getting there, or even just like feeling comfortable in a space. I don't know what that, what I'm, what's required of me in that building, that makes me uncomfortable. I'm not sure I'll behave correctly, you know, a lot of people, it can become really exclusive, like only certain people feel comfortable in that space.

And to be able to have a theatrical experience that can be shared still, you know, I mean, we want it to be shared. So maybe it's a live stream, but I'm in my home, and I can chat with folks saying, I'm really enjoying this. In that way, that is the best introduction to theater, I think that could be there, right? If we're somebody that might not be able to, or might not feel comfortable getting into the space, or might not be able to get to the space. So that's one piece of that kind of accessibility. And we've seen it in so many different ways. One of my favorite things that came out is I was chatting with Roderick Justice, who is the artistic director at Cincinnati Theater for Children. And Roderick was saying that he, I was asking about if they were doing anything in the filmed productions to make them sensory friendly.

And he said, for folks on the spectrum, and he said, by virtue, streaming productions are sensory friendly, because I can adjust the brightness, I can adjust the volume, I can make noise, I can get up and move around if I need to. And so all of a sudden, I was like, oh my gosh, that's amazing. Like, I, you know, that's so incredible that every performance is sensory friendly. And every performance can be closed captioned, or open captioned, or subtitled, like we have all those abilities. And you know, so often we have the one night that's going to be the sign performance. And if I can't get to that night, then all of a sudden, now I can't be a part of that production. And so, you know, every night can be accessible to all these folks.

So that's kind of, you know, it's, it's just, and I think we're going to see that's a yes and moment, we're going to see more and more of kind of how this unfolds and what else that means. The other piece of accessibility, I think is super important to talk about, is again, going back to kind of this idea of, of democracy in theatre. And, you know, what is on Broadway is often decided by a small group of people. What is in your community is decided by a small group of people, right? That's going to be the tour presenters who are deciding from the shows from Broadway, which ones they think your community will buy tickets to, essentially. And, and then it's maybe you're the board at the community theatre, that's your local theatre, right? They're going to decide what they feel like is good for their community. If you're in one of those communities, that means

[14:45] Martín Acuña: I love it and I totally agree with you. There's a lot of content that we can't even start to imagine that it's out there and it's great content that probably won't ever get a Broadway for the type of show it is or the type of cast or yeah, just the show but it's out there and it's being produced regionally or in many theaters all over the world.

[16:12] Tralen Doler: Correct. You mentioned that you were previously in charge of the marketing department at Broadway Licensing. Am I right?

[16:22] Tralen Doler: Yep. Then you stepped into Broadway On Demand. I want to ask you how is Broadway On Demand stepping into a close niche as Broadway? How are you dealing with marketing? How are you targeting the audience and all that comes with the marketing department?

[16:46] Tralen Doler: Sure, interesting question. Again, I'll just reiterate that again, Broadway On Demand, even though that is what we are called, we are so little to do with Broadway and the way, you know, one of the things we talk about is that Broadway is so much more than that seven block radius. We like to say that Broadway is an aspirational brand that it is because people in communities will say, oh, I'm going to go see a Broadway show tonight, but it might be at their local, you know, dinner theater, but to them that's a Broadway show. So, you know, I think that's one of the things is that we are in a space of so much more. One of the things that we are trying to do because originally, right, so we had that moment going back to kind of our Genesis story that originally was a platform for folks to put their shows on.

Then we moved into this where we were having other content for people to read. So we really kind of reaching to the theater fan community. Hey theater fans. We have all this cool stuff. Come see this. Then about the end of the last summer, we started getting calls back from those theaters saying, hey, I'm going to do something and I have to give a shout out to theater educators because teachers were the first people to figure it out. They were the first ones to say, I don't know what I'm doing. They probably don't have time to do this, but my kids are doing a show this fall and we had over 2,000 productions on the platform between August and December of last year that were amateur productions like middle schools, high schools, churches that really just figured this out, you know, it made it wasn't a three-camera shoot in a space.

They were just making theater. What is so exciting to me and what kind of our dream is, is that those high school productions, let's say, you know, it's your local high school production of Bill in the Black and what's really thrilling now is that all the relatives around the country can see that, you know, they're the student performing the show, which is also one of the things we talk about with accessibility. It's so exciting. We always use the example, you know, Timmy is doing a show at a school in Iowa. Grandparents live in Palm Beach. Grandparents can't come to Iowa to see the show. Now they can see the show that Timmy's in which is super exciting. Just again as a moment of accessibility.

But then what our dream is, is because it's one space and you know, we're saying you can see this high school show, but you can also see this amazing professional theater production from, you know, one of our partners was ACT. We streamed their archival recording of the musical of Tales of the City, right, that nobody got to see because nobody went to San Francisco. But now, not only is it for theater fans, now we can say, hey grandma in Palm Beach, you just watched this production, but also come discover all this stuff. Come like, you know, maybe grandma loves seeing their grandson in a show, but doesn't see theater in their community, right? Then this becomes, we like to think of ourselves as kind of a gateway.

Come, come see the more, see all of these other things. And we have this kind of dream of, I love the word theater people. I love this idea of theater people and it can be kind of exclusive, right? Martin, you're a theater person. I'm a theater person because we know theater. And that can be a little off-putting to other people that I'm not a theater person. I've seen a show, but what if everybody was, what if everybody in the world was able to like see, engage, love theater because we know it makes the world better, makes the world more empathetic. So that is really thrilling to me is that, so as I say in the marketing, it's been kind of twofold, right? Like we speak to the fans because we want to really elevate that experience for people that love theater. But I think our bigger ambition is for folks that might be casual theater goers to become theater lovers and theater fans. So that's kind of our big goal.

[21:02] Martín Acuña: I love it. Now that you're talking goals, what do you think it's the future of digital theater?

[21:09] Tralen Doler: Great question. I know my personal dream is that somebody could buy a ticket to every Broadway show. You could buy a Tuesday night streaming ticket. I think that would be incredible. I think, and not just Broadway shows, I think all shows should have the ability to stream. That you could on any given night pull up Broadway On Demand and say, you know what, I want to spend a hundred bucks and see Wicked tonight or I want to spend ten dollars and see a show from this high school because I love that play that they're doing and I'm curious to see what that looks like, their production of it. That is my dream. And I think the only thing that does is make more people love theater.

[22:01] Martín Acuña: I agree. And cross some fingers that happens.

[22:05] Tralen Doler: Yeah, soon. You know, I do. I think there's some. It's scary. It can be scary. And I think there's two things happening that are that are that we're going to have to unlock and have conversations about. I think there's one conversation that is preciousness, that we are very precious about. Theater happens in the building, in that sacred space, because it is a sacred space. And that is that live experience, sitting next to humans, sharing that is so important. But I don't think it's detracting to also have the ability to do that with a group of friends in your house. I think that can be equally as powerful. And I don't think it means that I'm not going to buy a ticket to see it in person. You know, I can.

Great example was recently a colleague was saying that his sister, you know, Hamilton was coming through her town and she was like, I don't know that's so much to spend for a ticket. I just don't think I can do it. I hear it's great. I listened to it a little bit. I don't know. And then she watched the recording and was like, oh, now I have to see this. So all it did was kind of, you know, move her towards being in the space more. So I think that's one of the pieces is that is a little scary, is that we feel like it'll kind of diminish the power. And then I think the other piece, I guess I said is like that'll diminish ticket buyers interest. And I think both of those are can be I think it's the opposite.

I think it's only going to help us engage more. I am one of those that think that streaming services producing or releasing pro shots or streaming platforms for theater will only boost their the ticket sales as you just said. And you know, the other piece of this that I'm getting more and more interested in is the other conversation that has been happening in Regis. There's probably for the last 20 years is we need younger people in our theaters and that's a constant conversation, you know, or there's been a concern that the people who are traditional subscribers to their local theaters are aging out of that. They're not able to get to the theater and how are we going to get that next generation?

And I was just listening to a podcast and they were talking about this blew me away that people under 20 on average spend six hours a day on TikTok YouTube some kind of streaming platform, right? Twitch. Well, if that's where they are, then that's where we need to be as theater makers, right? We can't be like put down your phone come into my building, right? We should be in that space where those that next generation of theater goers is. And so that's really something I'm fascinated about right now that it can build that next generation of audience goers.

[25:05] Martín Acuña: Absolutely. So now that you're talking about the future, what shows can we expect to be on the platform? Can you tell us a little bit about that?

[25:12] Tralen Doler: You know, that's a great question. I think there's hundreds of shows. There's so many shows happening now all the time that are on the platform. If you were to go now in particular kind of in that show share space that we have, that's kind of our amateur division of Broadway On Demand. I mean, there's productions from everywhere. There's a high school production from Nebraska that's on there. I mean, there's just hundreds of productions. So one thing that I'm really excited about, that I can talk about is that we are currently, I believe still, there was a new musical festival in London called Beam, where artists pitch new musicals. And the Beam Festival is streaming on the platform now. Following that, we are streaming a South Korean new musical festival, which will be on right after called DIMF, the Daegu International Musical Festival.

And then following that, we have the National Alliance for Musical Theatre. New musical festival that happens in New York is also going to stream. And so over the two months, you can see new musicals from all over the world. If you're somebody that wants to see what the next hottest show is or just meet new writers. So I think that's something that I'm thrilled about that's happening currently.

[26:42] Martín Acuña: That is amazing. And I'm really excited for that. How can people find BOD, find you, if they want to establish a partnership or if they will be recording a play and want it to be on BOD? What would be the best way to find you?

[27:01] Tralen Doler: Sure. Well, the platform is just BroadwayOnDemand.com. Shocking that that was available a year and a half ago, I have to say. When I searched that domain, I said, wow, all right, great. But the best email address is info at BroadwayOnDemand.com. And then all of our social handles are at BWAY, B-W-A-Y, OnDemand.com.

[27:28] Martín Acuña: OK, last question before we go. Top five favorite musical theatre shows. But since you manage a lot of other plays, I can open it not only to musical theatre, but to straight plays. Which are your top five?

[27:46] Tralen Doler: My top five favorites? Yeah. Top five plays or musicals just that exist in the world. Yes. Oh my. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? It's my favorite play. Sunday in the Park with George is probably one of my favorite musicals. Five. Wow. I would say of recent things, The Band's Visit is one of my favorite musicals. The Inheritance, I love very much. And one more. I would say, let's pick something kind of fun and out there. Maybe. I don't know what my fifth one is, Martin. Head Over Heels.

[28:43] Martín Acuña: I loved it. Me too. Me too.

[28:48] Tralen Doler: Traylan, thank you so, so much for coming over. I've loved this conversation. I've loved your thoughts towards accessibility and I love the work that BOD is doing. Thank you so much for coming over. I am really, really happy.

[29:02] Tralen Doler: Thank you, Martin. Thank you for having me. It's wonderful.

[29:08] Martín Acuña: Thanks, everyone, for listening to this new episode of Backstage Talk. Remember to follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Backstage Talk Podcast.