Small Theater Puts Training to Use

More than geography separates Mu Performing Arts, in Minneapolis, and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts,

in Washington. With an annual budget of $445,000, Mu (pronounced “moo”) produces plays that combine Asian and Western themes, and holds performances of Japanese taiko drumming and offers classes in it as well. The Kennedy Center features a wide range of productions, including dance, music, and theater from the United States and overseas, and has a $145-million operating budget.

Still, Stephanie Lein Walseth, Mu’s managing director, aspires in some ways to run Mu the way Michael M. Kaiser runs the nation’s cultural center. And Mr. Kaiser is showing her the way.

Mu is among 24 organizations that participate in the Kennedy Center’s Capacity Building Program, aimed at helping administrators at arts organizations whose primary mission is producing work by, about, and for members of minority groups.

Participants, who are recruited by the center and whose organizations have annual budgets between $300,000 and $1.5-million, attend monthly online discussions led by Mr. Kaiser and one annual weekend symposium at the center. In addition, Mr. Kaiser offers to visit the organizations he works with to provide advice.

In an interview, Ms. Walseth, 27, talked about the impact the program has had on her leadership and on Mu, which is the Korean pronunciation of the Chinese character symbolizing an artist who connects the heavens and earth through the tree of life.

What did you value most about the program?

I was a theater major in college, and I didn’t have any formal arts-management training, so it was really nice to have Michael Kaiser’s expertise and knowledge. It has also been great to talk with other arts groups to share frustrations and hear what has worked well at other organizations.

What kinds of ideas have you gotten?

Plowshares Theatre Company, in Detroit, developed a membership program with benefits where they had a goal of getting 250 people to each donate at least $500 a year for five years. We started the Mu 100 Club and hope to sign up 100 people to each give us $100. We also started the Mu Grand Circle where we hope to get five gifts of $1,000. The benefits for both groups include some combination of preferred seating at shows, receptions with the artists, and watching rehearsals.

How else have you followed Mr. Kaiser’s advice?

Michael has helped us see that in order to receive larger gifts, we need to be viewed differently by the community. The playwright David Henry Hwang visited last summer, and in the past we might have done a potluck kind of reception or just cheese and crackers. I felt it was important to have it catered at a nice place, where Mr. Hwang could give a talk and we could invite some of our donors.

It’s about changing the image of Mu. It doesn’t mean that we’ll be hoity-toity, but it means we have evolved from a company that pulls people off the streets to a company with trained actors who are working with nationally recognized playwrights.

Is any of Mr. Kaiser’s advice difficult to put into practice?

For the most part I agree with everything he says. But in practice it can be hard, not because it’s wrong but because of our limitations. We sometimes have a typo in information we send out because there are only two people to proofread, and we are doing lots of other jobs as well. Michael thinks typos are inexcusable because they make an organization look unprofessional. Also, it’s hard to spend time wooing new board members when so many day-to-day things need to happen to run the company. And at some point I have to go home and see my family.

How does he react if you don’t follow his advice?

Michael says to all the groups in the program that if we want to move to the next level and increase our budgets, we need to start building boards more capable of donating money or helping make fund-raising contacts. We are trying to slowly phase that message in with our board, and we’re still figuring out if this approach is the right one for us. Michael hasn’t in any way pushed us. He is letting us figure it out for ourselves. But all advice is still helpful even if we decide we don’t want to be a million-dollar company.

What do you think about Mr. Kaiser’s expectations for groups in the program?

I appreciate there is not an expectation that in one or two years we’ll be this entirely different organization making hundreds of thousands more dollars. It feels like there is a commitment to these organizations to help them grow in small steps.