Five Questions With Danielle Franich

All week, we've been doing a series of profiles on the artists behind Contemporary Classics three-show summer season. Today, we shift from onstage to backstage with Danielle Franich, the company's production manager, the person responsible for all the behind-the-scenes magic that makes the shows possible.

1. Where did you grow up and how did you end up where you are now? I grew up in the Sumner/Lake Tapps area. I started doing theatre in high school as a fun activity. As I kept working on shows, I started choosing theatre over other things. It was so much more fun to be doing a show then going to practice for a sport or planning a school dance. I attended the University of Washington where I majored in Drama and Political Science. It’s where I got my first taste of production managing and creating theatre with the Undergraduate Theatre Society and met many of the amazing artists I still work with today. At the end of my senior year, we had just finished a production of Into the Woods for UW undergrads and Brandon Ivie and Robert Aguilar asked me to join them working with Contemporary Classics.  I have worked with them as the production manager for three pretty amazing years.  I have also stage managed, directed and performed in the last few years around the Seattle area.

2. Which performance, song, play, movie, painting or other work of art had the biggest influence on you and why? My grandma used to take each of her grandkids out for their birthday to do something special with just her. A few times she took me to see a play. I couldn’t tell you what shows we saw or where we saw them, but I remember being so in love with watching the show. I was so wrapped up in the live performance and the feeling that it was all real. That feeling is the same as the one I get now when I work on a show. The magic feeling that comes from creating relationships, and making it real for the audience. It gives me the same rush that I used to feel watching and just being wrapped up in the story taking place on stage.

3. What skill, talent or attribute do you most wish you had and why? When I was younger, I took piano lessons for a few years. My parents got a piano and at first I loved playing and going to lessons. But, eventually I stopped practicing and I quit. I wish I had stuck with it. I do love the small amount I still know and my ability to read music, however limited, has turned out to be a great skill.

4. What do you do to make a living? Describe a normal day. During the day, I am the Program Coordinator for Development for University of Washington Athletics. I've worked for UW Athletics since my freshman year at UW and its great how wonderful my schedule at UW works with my theatre schedule.

A normal work day is from 8am-5pm. After work is where the day fluctuates depending on the shows I'm working on. I generally reserve my 6pm-11pm to either be attending a rehearsal, working at tech, production meetings, stage managing, house managing, or running various errands for shows. Production managing means that I know I'll be busy, but it’s always up in the air what that will mean.

5. Have you ever had to make a choice between work and art? What did you choose, why, and what was the outcome? I feel like I make this choice every day, and so far, art wins 99% of the time. This summer was a huge test of work vs. art. With Contemporary Classics kicked into overdrive for the summer, it became another full time job and one that I constantly wanted to get to. With Zanna, Don’t!, The Yellow Wood, and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, I managed to pretty much fill all of my evenings. I feel incredibly blessed to work with amazingly talented people, who are constantly striving for the next level of greatness, a new twist on the ordinary, and who ultimately create truly fabulous work. That is what makes every day in the theatre worth it. Someday I hope that work and art will be the same thing, but for now the balance is worth it. Working is a necessary part of my life and I enjoy what I do, but working in theatre is what I’m passionate about and I am always willing to make a sacrifice to do it.  

"Five Questions" was originally developed by Andy Horwitz of Culturebot.org, an NYC-based website covering contemporary performance.