University alum hits big time on Broadway

The secret of David Stone's success has not been very well-kept, and that's good news for the 27-year-old theater producer, a 1988 University graduate. His new show, Family Secrets, which he co-produced, is currently playing off-Broadway and has received rave reviews. Stone was recently on campus February 24 and 25, speaking to students about careers in theater and film, and answering questions about resumes and jobs. Stone said he first saw Family Secrets in Miami and decided he wanted to bring it to New York. To do this, the producer said he had to raise a lot of money. "From the time I saw it until the time it opened in New York, I had to negotiate all the deals and raise most of $300,000," he said. He did this with partner Amy Nederlander, with each raising a portion of the money. Stone said it took just two weeks to raise the money, and said most of it was raised not from people he knew through business but rather through personal contacts. "We try to keep it away from theater professionals and keep it toward personal investors," he said. Family Secrets stars Sherry Glaser, who performs a series of monologues, playing five characters in a Jewish family that has moved from New York to California. The characters range in age from 16 to 80, and are both male and female. Stone called Glaser "a wonderful performer," and said the production is "one of the few one-person shows ?that's well-written." Stone said he never expected his career would be in theater when he was an undergraduate at the University. "I never thought I would really do theater," he explained. He discussed the impact the University had in shaping his theater experience. "The most important thing I think I learned at Penn -- I think the most important thing you can learn if you're going to have any kind of career in theater -- is how to handle people and politics," Stone said. He also said learning how to deal with different egos of the actors, directors and the board of Penn Players prepared him to be a producer. "That's what I do for a living," he said. "I'm on the phone all day just making everyone happy and making everyone work well." He said he left Columbia Law School after a day-and-a-half, and added he has absolutely no regrets about doing so. "If you love something, then you're probably very good at it too," he said. "And if you're good at it, there's a way for it to work." "I do encourage people not just to take the safe route," Stone said. As a producer, he said he is always watching for promising material, but much of his time is devoted to rejecting projects. "A lot of things come my way that I have to say no to," Stone said. "I feel like most of my day is spent saying no to projects that I don't want to produce." Stone also said marketing is vital to any particular show's success. "It really is also about marketing," he said. "The idea is not to depend only on The New York Times review, but to market it properly so that it can sustain itself even if it doesn't get a great review."