Minstrel Booking

ANNUAL REPORT

The Minstrel held its own in 2016 in terms of attendance, which was virtually unchanged from that in 2015. Over the past 12 months, we averaged 92.0 paid for shows with a paid performer (74.6 including Open Stages and Birthday Show) over the past 12 months, vs. 92.3 (and 76.5) respectively. Financially, we did much more poorly due primarily to the fact that we, like all the other F.P. venues, covered our own insurance costs this year. Also we had five fewer shows this year than last, lost to the new Member Concerts, , which are not credited to the Minstrel and two cancellations. We netted $1,219 this year vs. $6,744 last year. However, the Folk Project as a whole “benefited” from the Minstrel’s “loss” by not paying insurance costs out of general funds, and reaping the profits of the Member Concerts. (Note: the Minstrel Performance graph below reflects those added costs and lost shows.)

(Secretary's note: I was unable to paste or attach Mike's graphics document here.)

We added a cost-savings measure of holding our Open Stages in the Terrace Room, except in the summer when they go back to the air conditioned Meeting Room. The smaller Terrace Room also makes for a better communal feel in the room with the space more suitable for the smaller attendance at the Open Stages. Other changes to the Open Stage instituted by O.S. Host Christine DeLeon include the elimination of the break and closing the Library where sometimes the players would hang out, rather than being in the performance space. This helps maintain the audience to the end of the show.

One major improvement to the Minstrel was the installation of a new built-in digital sound system in the Meeting Room. This was financed in part by a $10,000 grant provided by an anonymous donor. I take some satisfaction and pride in the fact that the donor had approached me personally with that offer, inspired by the good work the Project was doing by providing high quality concerts for 4 decades, and also in appreciation of my own personal part in spearheading that effort all these years. Not only is the new sound system the most up to date and high capacity with bells and whistles galore, but the fact that it is built into the room means much less work for our sound volunteers.

As mentioned above, we had to cancel two shows this year. Canadian songwriter James Keelaghan was not able to appear due to delays in his obtaining a work visa from the I.N.S. And a show featuring Reeds, Rhythm, and All That Brass was cancelled due to a power outage at MUF. Both shows have been rescheduled for 2017.

In July, the Morristown Planning Board put a restriction of a 10:30 ending time for our shows. That resulted in a number of changes to our show schedule. We moved our starting time up from 8:00 to 7:45, and replaced our unique show structure where the opening act did two 20 minute sets to open each half of the show with more conventional half-hour set to open the show. 7:45 was chosen as a compromise to be able to get a full show done by 10:30 (a half hour earlier than previously) , and yet not impose too much of a burden on our volunteers by asking them to arrive a half hour earlier. But a subsequent poll of both the volunteers and the audience revealed that a 7:30 start would not be too much of a burden. So we will be moving the start time up to 7:30 starting in 2017. This will give us a little more latitude in the show length.

Starting in 2017, our admission price will also be going up from $9.00 to $10.00. That, and a slight revision of the feature act’s pay formula should go a long way towards restoring the Minstrel’s former profitability. If indeed that proves out, we will increase the opening act’s pay schedule, which has been stagnant for about a decade.

Our relationship with the Unitarian Fellowship remains good. The Folk Project will again be producing a Holiday concert at the end of the year to benefit them. The building renovations that had been planned for last summer were postponed, and will probably occur in Spring of 2017. There have been some preliminary revisions to the parking lot in the past couple of months. We are still set to use the facilities of the Presbyterian Church of Chatham Township as temporary quarters when and if it does.

Upcoming 2017 highlights: There are a number of high profile shows already in our 2017 calendar. Look for The April Verch Band on Jan. 13, the return of The Loose Canons on May 19, Frank Vignola & Vinnie Ragniolo on June 2, and fingerstyil guitar pioneer Happy Traum, who will be presenting a multi-media presentation of a show, Coming of Age in the Greenwich Village Folk Revival on June 30.

MONTHLY REPORT

November was a particularly disappointing month for me, primarily because of the poor attendance for the Agranoff Imperative Mollie O'Brien and Rich Moore. The paid attendance of 64 was very disheartening, and leads me to conclude that the "Imperative" rating has lost its effectivity. It will make it much harder for me to introduce high quality acts that do not have name recognition to our local crowd. Another consequences of this was the need for a $183 guarantee makeup to meet their very modest (by their standards) $750 guarantee. Our average paid attendance for regular shows in November was 84.7, and 68.5 if we include the Open Stage. We netted a piddling $34 for the month, including insurance costs.

New bookings since last month:

· March 3: Tyler Hughes & Sam Gleaves opening for Orrin Star. Traditional Appalachian tunes and songs plus originals that sound trad on guitar, clawhammer banjo, and fiddle

· March 31: Lisa Bastoni opening for James Keelaghan. Singer-songwriter

· June 2: Frank & Hank opening for Frank Vignola & Vinnie Ragniolo. That's Frank Sole and Hen3ry (Hank) Nerenberg

· June 16: Shawna Caspi opening for Fendrick & Peck. Toronto based singer-songwriter

· June 30 Happy Traum. Legendary fingerstyle guitarist from the 60's & 70's, who will also be presenting a multi-media show entitled "Coming of Age in the Greenwich Village Folk Revival."

Highlight for December:

· Dec. 30: The Kennedys

Mike Agranoff