A Chat with the Theatre League's Charlotte St. Martin

This July came the news that the Theatre League had found its new Executive Director - Charlotte St. Martin. Martin, a high-ranking veteran of the hotel and hospitality industries is a life long theatre-lover and is clearly taking over her new position with much enthusiasm. That makes us very happy to help introduce her to the Broadway World.  

To start off, where did you grow up and go to school?  

Well, I'm a Dallas, Texas native and I went to the University of Texas in Austin, and then to the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas. 

What was the first show that you saw? 

The first show that I saw in New York was Applause with Lauren Bacall. I saw shows in Dallas at the Dallas Summer Musical before I ever came to New York, and frankly I can't remember everything but I know that I loved it all.  

Did you ever have the performing bug yourself? 

I've never had the performance bug, and I can't sing a note. They made me "mouth" to the music at my sorority sing-song. I guess that I have to confess that my high school boyfriend was a singer and in the high school musicals, so I started going to high school musicals and I loved them. I have been in love with them ever since.  

That's a great way to get started…  

That's an exclusive by the way -- no one's ever heard that story before! I remembered because we were talking about a potential program with schools the other day, and I think it's a great idea. I said that it was what got me hooked, and that reminded me of the rest of the story! 

I can see the headline now - BroadwayWorld.com Exclusive - St. Martin's Boyfriend… Maybe not. Anyway, what have been some of your favorite experiences as an audience member over the years?  

I've said that when I first saw Applause, I was transformed into another magical world, and I've had many shows since do that to me. Certainly, A Chorus Line was one of the first, and I loved it so much because it was Broadway, and it was about Broadway. I loved Phantom and I loved Evita too.

I've been on a board of directors of a local theatre, Off-Broadway, called the Vineyard, and I think that I loved every show that we did, which is why I was on the board. Avenue Q for example started there. I love all forms of entertainment and I'll admit that I do love the spectacles as well.  

I've been to see Jersey Boys 3 times, and can't wait to go back to see The Drowsy Chaperone, and The Wedding Singer again too. I'm sure that there'll be others that I'll say that about as soon as I've seen them! I have seen almost all of the shows on Broadway right now which is exciting.  

How did this new position come about?  

Actually, I had started my own business when I left Loews last year. I got a call from the headhunter that was doing it, and she knew me. She said that this position description just describes who you are, and what you're about and I just think you should talk about this.  

I remember thinking that "they're not going to want to talk to me, I'm not part of this world…" And she said well it won't hurt you, and I was beginning to realize that in my own business, while I had more business than I needed, that I missed the excitement of being in an office around a lot of people.  

I fell in love with the people that I met with, and I got excited about the mission of the League and it just felt like a natural thing to do! 

What did your company do? 

I was consulting with hotels, and Loews was my primary client, but I was consulting with other hotel companies and hospitality industry organizations to develop integrated operations and marketing plans for their venues.  

Is the company still in existence being run by anyone else, or is it on hold? 

No, I put it on the back burner. I was just about to sign a major contract when this came along but fortunately had not signed it yet because it was a 3 year deal. One day I might go back to it, but I have the feeling that I'm hooked for a while.  

For those readers out there who don't quite understand what exactly the Theatre League does, can you give us a bird's eye view?

It does a lot of things, but I'd say that key things are that we certainly negotiate with all of the labor contracts with the various unions and guilds and all of that. We clearly work making ticket distribution for Broadway a more accessible thing and something that more people know about - how to get tickets. I think that Broadway is a very strong brand nationally, and I think it can be stronger, but I don't think that everybody necessarily knows how to get tickets. One of the missions of the League is to do that.  

We definitely work closely with all of our members to help them to market and to promote and to deliver Broadway on the road. I think that there's 148 cities that do Broadway shows across the country. We also handle governmental relations for the industry on a citywide, statewide, and national level. We do obviously PR for the industry, marketing programs.

I'm sure that there's a bucket, and in that bucket are a 122 things, but I think that the ones I've mentioned are the more prominent ones. One of the ones that goes throughout all of this, is education about Broadway, what it's impact on New York City - impact culturally, economically so whether it's educating the press or our local city officials or the general public. We're about talking about Broadway and making people aware of it.  

What are some of your goals for yourself and/or the League in this new position?  

Well, having been here 7 weeks I think that I probably am one of the luckiest people I know because the League has just gone through a very exhaustive planning process and I was handed a new strategic plan. So, the first thing that I'm doing is meeting with the executive committee members and a lot of other members across the country to make sure that I have the priorities established within that plan. I'll be working with the members and the League staff to set up a timeline and measurements for activities into the plan and then initiating it.  

There are a number of other things, but that's the most important one to begin with as I do my own orientation and education into the non-obvious things that the League does.  

What's your average day been like so far?  

For the last 7 weeks, it's been filled with 7 or 8 meetings that last from thirty minutes to an hour and a half. Really, it's been all about getting an education and about learning what the priorities are of our members, partners and sponsors. I've been doing a lot of press interviews about the League's new mission and goals and that's what I think that we're doing. And of course, I've been meeting a lot with staff.  

They've been long, full days. Fortunately because I was such a theatre goer, I haven't really had to catch up and see the shows because I've seen almost all of them. I've just been going to the new ones that are opening.  

Did you get any advice from Jed Bernstein, your predecessor?  

Yes, certainly. I know Jed because we served on the executive board of NYC and Company for over 10 years. We talked about the League and his goals for a long time, and he has been very open and helpful to me when I had questions about various parts of the job.  

And are you still in contact?  

I actually talked to him yesterday. He was at Broadway on Broadway on Sunday. He's staying in the industry and is going to become a producer so I'm sure that I'll see Jed a lot.  

Speaking of Broadway on Broadway which kicks off the Fall season, what are you looking forward to the most? 

It won't surprise you that my first answer is A Chorus Line. I'm excited about the entire fall line-up though. I heard Christine Ebersole sing a song from Grey Gardens on Sunday and it was just fabulous. High Fidelity is another one that I'm looking forward to. I love Bob Dylan so I'm looking forward to that show (The Times They Are A-Changin') . I can't imagine putting his music with Twyla Tharp's choreography so I'm excited about that. I never thought I'd be excited about a puppet show again, but I saw Jay Johnson at our Broadway on Broadway and I was crying because I was laughing so hard about his "monkey show." Those come to mind first.  

A topic near and dear to my heart and BroadwayWorld.com readers as well is the marriage of Broadway and the Internet - how do you see the two fitting together? 

The internet is where the future is. There's no doubt about that. The world growing up today can't even imagine living without the internet. I see our presence growing on the internet. I see our site getting to be even stronger and more user-friendly and filled with a lot more information. I see all of the sites like yours becoming stronger resources for the theatre-going public as goes. 

Any specifics on what you hope to achieve there? 

I can truthfully say that I haven't had time to delve into that yet. My first priority is to get to know our members since we are a member organization and that's what I've been doing. While I was both an operator and a marketer in my hotel career, I always loved marketing and had really gotten into the Internet with Loews pretty exhaustively over the last 10 years, so it won't be long before I jump into it. I'm thrilled that you're out there, and I'm thrilled that we're able to use them to deliver information about Broadway to the broader public.  

I think that one of the goals of our strategic plan is to make Broadway more accessible to people across the country and less of a mystery. I think that the Internet is one of the tools that will help us do that.  

Sounds good to us here… For more information on the League of American Theatres and Producers, visit http://livebroadway.com/