Cocktail Suite and the Co-op Model

Hearing the President talk about the economy brings to mind my own most successful project from the short-term economic point of view, my hyperdrama Cocktail Suite. I wrote, directed and produced the work at P. J.'s bar and restaurant near the downtown Post Office. This was at a time before professional theater in Portland when pay for actors was rare. I came up with a way to let all of us profit from the show.

First, being a hyperdrama in a contemporary setting, there was virtually no expenditures. We got the space free, with the owner happy to get paid via food and drinks. No set required, no costumes. I think I paid maybe ten bucks for an actor who wanted a clothing item from a thrift store. Negligible at any rate.

Cocktail Suite offered a new storytelling strategy in my experiments with hyperdrama, three self-contained plays in which major characters became minor characters in other plays, all three running simultaneously in three parts of the space. A comedy, a heavy drama and a musical (!!), all running at once.

We had 8 actors. Each got "a share" of the gate. As writer and director, I got 2 shares. 10 total shares. We limited the audience to 50 a night. $12 a ticket (less than 1/4 the ticket price for the Pittock Mansion hyperdrama, which made the form something everyone wanted to see). We easily sold out, 2 nights a week. $1200 receipts a weekend. $120 a share. Actors made $120 a week, I made $240 a week (this is in the 80s), and we did this for several months, until we all got tired of doing it. But this was hugely successful for all of us, getting financial reward as well as personal and critical rewards. A great success!

For a variety of reasons, I wasn't able to keep this ball rolling. But it was rewarding and fun while it lasted.