The World's Your Stage: How Performing Artists Can Make a Living While Still Doing What They Love - Softcover

If you’re like most performing artists, you’re not in it for the money. Whether you’re a musician, a dancer, or an actor, you've spent years mastering your craft. But to make it your career—you need to figure out how to get paid.

Jobs are scarce and talent alone no longer assures success. Today’s performers need to hone their entrepreneurial skills and create their own careers. Inspired by the celebrated Juilliard course, The World’s Your Stage explains the business side of the performing arts. Filled with insights from leading figures in the arts as well as lessons from thriving artist-entrepreneurs, the book helps you:

Understand the numbers · Find your niche—and fill it · Market and promote yourself and your venture · Network productively · Fundraise both online and off · Balance artistic and financial growth with the Oportunity Framework · And more.

Keep your dream alive, but keep a clear eye on the facts. With planning and work, you can make a living doing what you love—you just need to learn how.

“I wish I’d had this book when I was starting out. It distills and organizes invaluable wisdom that I had to cobble together from managers, agents, and other artists over the years. No artist can expect a career to just take care of itself. The World’s Your Stage illuminates for young performers the crucial ways in which their dedication and creativity will be required offstage, as well as on.” — Renee Fleming

The World’s Your Stage is the essential playbook for every actor, dancer, or musician who has realized that artistic excellence alone isn’t enough to succeed. Whether you want to found your own performing arts organization, work at one that already exists, be a freelancer, or do some combination of all three, you can make a living doing what you love, if you are willing to take charge of the business side of your career.

Inspired by the celebrated business course taught to select students at Juilliard and Fordham, The World’s Your Stage will help you:

Raise money like a pro, online and off · Network with the best · Choose a portfolio of projects that balances your art and your bottom line · Understand and generate business plans and financial statements · Market and promote yourself · Break down your major goals into achievable steps · Motivate yourself and others · And more

The book also provides a singular overview of the performing arts business in America today, as well as how it has operated in the past. And it is full of practical advice from award-winning artist-entrepreneurs and the leaders of some of the world’s top performing arts institutions, including the Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall, and American Ballet Theatre.

The greatest artists, from Bach to Beverly Sills, have also been entrepreneurs. The World’s Your Stage will give you the skills to succeed as well.

WILLIAM F. BAKER, Ph.D. is president emeritus of WNET, New York’s PBS station, and a professor at Fordham University. He teaches Understanding the Profession: The Performing Arts in the 21st Century to students from Juilliard and Fordham.

WARREN C. GIBSON, Ph.D. is an engineer, an economics professor at San Jose University, and a classical music buff.

EVAN LEATHERWOOD is a Slifka Fellow at the Bernard L. Schwartz Center for Media, Public Policy, and Education at Fordham. (Photo by Ben Zweig.)

You can read more about the book at TheWorldsYourStage.org.