On March 8, 2020, four days before Broadway shut down, a group of producers, investors and theater professionals concluded the annual intensive as part of the Commercial Theater Institute (CTI). The three-day program covered the ins and outs of commercial producing. Shortly after, the industry shuttered. In 2023, then-Broadway League president Charlotte St. Martin felt it was time to bring back CTI; she reached out to then-executive director of TDF and longtime theater professional Victoria Bailey and Tony Award-winning producer Sue Frost. For the past 18 months, Frost and Bailey have been laboring to revitalize CTI. From Nov. 8 to 10, 2024, they will hold the first three-day intensive from CTI in four years.
Founded in the 1960s by Broadway producer Frederic B. Vogel, what is now known as CTI began in the nonprofit world — a conference for managers in nonprofit theater under the banner of the Foundation for the Extension and Development of the American Professional Theater (FEDAPT). In 1982, the conference changed its focus to the commercial sector and became a joint venture between Vogel, the Broadway League and TDF, named CTI. For 40 years, CTI has provided “necessary foundational literacy around the business of commercial theater producing,” according to its website, through an annual weekend intensive and a long-form course.
Bailey and Frost have focused their efforts thus far on the intensive. They have curated an agenda that includes sessions focused on every aspect of commercial producing — from defining key terms (lead producer vs. co-producer vs. executive producer) to explaining paths of theatrical development (enhancement deals, transfers, etc.) to reviewing individual productions as case studies (“Suffs,” “The Outsiders,” “Death Becomes Her” and Off-Broadway’s upcoming “Goddess”).
