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I’ve been starting and growing a live theater venue in San Francisco for the past couple years, taking a break from the tech world. It’s finally starting to bui

I’ve been starting and growing a live theater venue in San Francisco for the past couple years, taking a break from the tech world. It’s finally starting to build some good momentum and I’ve even got some paid employees now. This year I’m hoping to get it self-sustaining enough that I can leave it largely in the hands of capable management and start dabbling on the tech ideas I’ve been kicking around. I’m especially excited about harnessing some of the recent advances in ML. There’s been a ton of exciting advances that haven’t been fully productized yet. And maybe ActivityPub has some cool things that could be built now that people are starting to actually get the value of federation. The last few years have been frustrating, with most of the smart tech builders I know wasting their time on crypto. But finally it seems like people’s eyes are clearing a bit. Lots of exciting times ahead. But I’ve got to get the theater to a good enough spot first.

kinow 4y ago
A theater theater? Will you be involved in choosing the plays or anything? Gather other patrons or sponsors to maintain it? Maybe build a troupe and train amateur artists? That sounds extremely interesting, and something I would never think about doing coming from IT. I understood you want to take a break from the tech world, but mind sharing how the idea of growing a live theater venue came to your mind? :) Cheers
- OkGoDoIt 4y ago
  Yep, a live performance theater venue. We mostly host cabaret, circus, magic, specialty movie screenings with interviews/panels, comedy, etc. We’ve even hosted mimes! Our biggest hit so far was hosting the Star Wars parody burlesque show “The Empire Strips Back” over the summer 2022. In these Covid-adjacent times, it’s less about me picking the performances and more about hosting anyone who’s interested in renting the space. But yeah I do get final say in who we host and how I schedule things. Which is actually a huge responsibility; we hosted a comedy show on Halloween that was absolutely horrible and I’m still having to apologize to people for it. I also handle all of the marketing, fundraisers, much of the tech, and did a lot of the initial cleaning myself. Also working with contractors on renovations, etc. For most of the time I’ve been the person checking in tickets at the front, cleaning up messes, doing some of the lighting design, etc. More recently I’ve been able to hire staff to help with much of this, but it’s definitely been a journey requiring a lot of work. As for hiring a troop, mostly I’ve been focusing on renting out the venue to producers who are running their own shows including hiring their own performers. But we have self-produced a few shows including an upcoming Valentines cabaret. Once there’s less work to do on the venue itself, we will probably have more bandwidth for self-producing. I’ve got more details at https://GreatStarTheater.org https://GreatStarTheater.org. If you’re ever in San Francisco, come say hi! Contact info is on the website. I also host boardgame nights there most Tuesday evenings, open to all.

kinow 4y ago

A theater theater? Will you be involved in choosing the plays or anything? Gather other patrons or sponsors to maintain it? Maybe build a troupe and train amateur artists? That sounds extremely interesting, and something I would never think about doing coming from IT. I understood you want to take a break from the tech world, but mind sharing how the idea of growing a live theater venue came to your mind? :) Cheers

OkGoDoIt 4y ago
Yep, a live performance theater venue. We mostly host cabaret, circus, magic, specialty movie screenings with interviews/panels, comedy, etc. We’ve even hosted mimes! Our biggest hit so far was hosting the Star Wars parody burlesque show “The Empire Strips Back” over the summer 2022. In these Covid-adjacent times, it’s less about me picking the performances and more about hosting anyone who’s interested in renting the space. But yeah I do get final say in who we host and how I schedule things. Which is actually a huge responsibility; we hosted a comedy show on Halloween that was absolutely horrible and I’m still having to apologize to people for it. I also handle all of the marketing, fundraisers, much of the tech, and did a lot of the initial cleaning myself. Also working with contractors on renovations, etc. For most of the time I’ve been the person checking in tickets at the front, cleaning up messes, doing some of the lighting design, etc. More recently I’ve been able to hire staff to help with much of this, but it’s definitely been a journey requiring a lot of work. As for hiring a troop, mostly I’ve been focusing on renting out the venue to producers who are running their own shows including hiring their own performers. But we have self-produced a few shows including an upcoming Valentines cabaret. Once there’s less work to do on the venue itself, we will probably have more bandwidth for self-producing. I’ve got more details at https://GreatStarTheater.org https://GreatStarTheater.org. If you’re ever in San Francisco, come say hi! Contact info is on the website. I also host boardgame nights there most Tuesday evenings, open to all.