My WAA Experience: Fred Frumberg

We sat down with Fred Frumberg — Co-Interim Director at UCLA's Center for the Art of Performance — to hear about his WAA conference experience. Here’s what he shared.

Fred, for how long have you been attending WAA?  

I’ve been at UCLA for five years, and I think I have been to every one pre-COVID.  

Why do you attend WAA? What are the benefits of attending?  

Fred Frumberg — Co-Interim Director, UCLA Center for Art of Performance

For me, it’s really about networking with my colleagues, the managers and agents of the artists we consider and who we might want to consider. The conference provides an opportunity for managers to have in-depth conversations with me — the chance to have a proper dialog. Those face-to-face conversations really help to narrow down the artists who will make sense for us. 

Bringing a human element to the conversation, to the process of programming our season, is so important, and that’s what WAA offers. WAA also always does a great job at creating a really interesting and robust schedule of events so that people aren’t just stuck hovering over a table in the lobby.  

Has it also been useful for you to meet other presenters and peers?  

Yes. It’s always nice to meet with fellow presents — although I will say that at first, I felt it was better to focus on artists and artist representatives. But it became clear to me early on that that the conference is an opportunity for ALL connections, including fellow presenters. It’s especially useful for discussing how to share efforts for tour routing, co-presentation opportunities, to compare notes on finances, audience response to shows we might be considering, etc.    

What does a typical WAA conference day look like for you?  

I take advantage of the conference as a means to having concentrated time — even if only half hour — with a manager in a way that you just can’t do on the phone or through email, so that tends to be the focus for me.  

I will definitely review the panel listings and what could be useful — perhaps there is an artistic director from a specific company and I really want to hear what they have to say. And I’m always very eager to see what the live showcases are. I’ll try and identify those events far enough in advance so that I can block the times out on my schedule.  

I always go to the opening plenary, and usually try to get to the closing plenary as well. But beyond that, for me it’s really is about getting to know these artists and managers better. My schedule gets pretty ridiculous — typically meetings every half hour with 10-minute buffers in between from morning to evening. I try not to book meetings before 9.30 AM so that I can keep up with the office while I’m there. 

Fred meets with the Opus 3 team at the 2019 conference in Los Angeles; image credit: Corporate Close Ups

Do you have a specific approach to the conference?  

What I’ve done in the time I’ve been here is to get a really clear sense of what CAP UCLA stands for: to look really carefully at the kind of artist CAP wants to nurture, and why, and how. I also use the opportunity to really get to know people — who they are, who they represent and why, and what their intentions are. Over the years, I’ve gotten better at really fine-tuning what is beneficial to them, and also to CAP.  

Do you have a favorite or most memorable WAA conference?  

Vegas in 2018 was cool! That was a good conference. It connected really well to the city and it was really well scheduled.  

The 2017 Seattle one was great, too — my first. That left a big impression. Personally, I just love the city — I think it’s one of the most inspiring cities in America. The art scene there really aligns to the ethos of the city, so even if WAA hadn’t gone out of its way to include that element — which you did — you couldn’t help but notice the relevance of the city; to have it as a background to conversations about presenting was great.  

What makes the WAA conference unique? 

What separates out from other conferences is that even though people come from all over, it really focuses on the West — which is so useful for presenters looking to trying to consolidate finances by seeing who else is presenting work — especially given that West is so active. 

Any tips for newcomers?  

I’ve had to get better at saying no to people. That has been tricky for me, I think particularly because I’ve been on the other side of the conversation, having been in in the position of running small nonprofit companies and needing to have those conversations with presenters — I know what that’s like, that need to really present your artist and to do it in a way that you aren’t always pitching, where it’s not always about the dollar sign. 

But in the five years I have been here, I have realized saying yes is not always helpful – you don’t want to mislead people, you don’t want to have a meeting with someone and have them think that a show will come out of it. So, I have learned the importance of communicating with them about why this is not worth their time: you have the potential of meeting dozens of people at this conference, so don’t spend time with someone who absolutely doesn’t present the type of work you’re trying to book, it makes no sense. 

What are you most looking forward to about this year?  

I love that WAA’s going to Calgary this year! I think it’s a brilliant idea. People forget about Western Canada being part of the conversation — the proximity, and the routing, all those things. Why not focus on them being a partner and part of the West Coast conversation? Of course, there are additional visa issues to think about, but they're not nearly as complicated as visa issues for people coming from Europe or Asia. It can be figured out much more easily than with other international destinations.  

What’s really exciting for us this year is that we recently acquired a small cinema in Westwood Village — The Nimoy Theater, a 300-seat venue (named for major donor Susan Nimoy, wife of the late Leonard Nimoy.) It’s under renovation currently and will open next March – we have already programmed the first season there. We normally only book for our main theatre, the Royce Hall, a massive 1,800-seat venue.

The new venue means that we are suddenly going to want meet with people that we probably wouldn’t before – we might love them, but had no place for them – but now we can accommodate them. I love working with emerging artists who can be really nurtured. 

Thank you, Fred! We’ll see you in Calgary!

Stay tuned for future editions of My WAA Experience.