Bizvox Podcast

To BizVox, Or not To BizVox | Spotlight On Mansfield Shakespeare Company

Host:  Scott Leon Smith

Guest:  Mary Frankenfield

Scott:
Welcome to BizVox, part of the Electric Secrets variety podcast. We are dedicated to small businesses, entrepreneurs, and nonprofits. We're here to build knowledge, spur productivity, and have a few laughs along the way. My name's Scott Leon Smith and I'm your host.

Let’s talk some shop.

Alright, Happy New Year everyone. It's 2025 and the snow decided to drop on us all at once here in my hometown. Ice is covering the roads, so as much as I want to conduct my interviews on location, we've got to do this one via Zoom.

So I am on Zoom right now with my guest, who is the board president of the Mansfield Shakespeare Company, Mary Frankenfield.

Hi Mary.

Mary:

Hi Scott.

Scott:

How was your new year?

Mary:

You know, it was nice, it was lower-key than I had intended, but I'm not mad about that at all. It was fun.

Scott:

Awesome. Can you give my listeners some of your background, where you're coming from?

Mary:

Sure. So I'm a theater kid. I've been doing theater in the area since I think I started when I was 14 and I'm 46 now, so I'll let your listeners do that math.

And I've done everything, you know, I've been on stage behind the scenes, helping with

all different aspects of theater. I recently, a few years ago, started doing some directing, which I found that I really, really enjoyed. But that's sort of my hobby. And so in my working life, I am an administrator in a public library. And I've worked for the library for over 20 years now. And I've done all different types of things in the library. But now at this point, I'm in administration. So.

Scott:

Well, my listeners, I need my listeners to know that this is the first episode that we're focusing on nonprofits and being part of a nonprofit is basically like having at least another part-time job on top of your regular job. So, all of this stuff that we're going to talk about in this particular episode is extra stuff and nonprofits are run like small businesses. You run them the same way. And one key difference is all of the extra stuff that you have piled on top of the regular small business routine of consistent branding and marketing.

So Mary, the Mansfield Shakespeare Company is a young nonprofit. Can you talk about the things you had to do just to form the company?

Mary:

Yes. So you're absolutely right. It is basically like having a second job. I realized that a little belatedly, but I was already in it. So I'm going with it. 

So, fortunately, when we decided to form, I have a good friend, someone I've known since childhood who has done this before with an opera company, a local opera company. And he was enthusiastic about the area having a Shakespeare group and doing Shakespeare in

the park. He didn't want to be part of the ongoing running of the organization, but he wanted to support it getting started. So I was able to get a lot of advice and guidance from him. The first thing we did was we had to find the right people. So I reached out to a theater professor.

We have a branch of OSU in Mansfield and I reached out to Dr. Fahey and I said, ‘Hey, do you happen to know anyone who might be interested in Shakespeare or in Mansfield, having Shakespeare in the park?’ And he immediately named you and several other people. And fortunately, everybody was interested. 

And so then we worked on creating bylaws. And then it was just a matter of doing all the legal filing with the right entities. So you first have to incorporate, so you fill out an application and send things to the state. Then you apply for your EIN number, employer identification number with the feds, and you apply for your nonprofit status with the IRS. So we did all that, which there's a lot too, each of those steps, but that's sort of in a nutshell. And then we started holding planning meetings for our first event.

We also worked on getting our website created, our socials created, and we looked for grant

opportunities to support what we were trying to do. Fortunately, we found one with a local organization, the Richland County Foundation, and bless their hearts, their application process for at least the grant that we went for was so, so simple.

I've applied for grants a couple of times before, and it was not so simple. So I really appreciated their version of grant applications. So we went for that. We started looking for other sorts of support, like individual donors and businesses who might want to be sponsors or donors.

And all of that sort of felt like it happened all at once. But that was how we got started.

Scott:

And that's great. There's so much that goes into it that we can't fit into a 20-minute podcast episode. But just one thing I want my listeners to know when Mary says the feds, she's not talking about the FBI. She's talking about the federal government that you have to file all this paperwork with. 

Mary:

And you have to do all, you know, dot all your eyes and cross all your T's. And then when you're going for grants and applying for grants, there are always deadlines that you have to meet. And as a nonprofit, you need to plan at least a year ahead when you're going for grants and applying for those so you keep ahead of the game.

Scott:

Okay, we're going to take a little break and we'll be right back with Mary Frankenfield. Hey, did you know BizVox is just one segment in the variety podcast we call the Electric Secrets. And more segments are being added as we speak, including Dedicated to the Craft, a segment

that reveals the secrets behind the often misunderstood professions of acting and directing.

I host that one too.

Keep an eye out for more segments in the next couple of months. Now back to the show. Okay, welcome back. I am talking via Zoom with Mansfield Shakespeare Company board president Mary Frankenfield. And she's taking us through the wonderful world of the nonprofit business grind, which she does on top of her regular job. 

And as everyone knows with this segment, we want to bring everything back around to branding

and branding consistency. So along with logo design and fonts and colors and flyer styles and all that stuff that a small business does, nonprofit branding is grounded in the company's mission statement. So Mary, tell us about Mansfield Shakespeare's mission statement and describe your brand voice.

Mary:

One of the things that actually is one of my goals for this year is to formalize and officially define our mission, vision, values, and branding because we pretty quickly created a really nice logo and we have a great motto and we have sort of a temporary mission statement, but I am going to actually propose to the board in February sort of a more formalized version of all of that.

So we worked on the logo first. We had one of our board members, their spouse is somebody who can create things like that. And so we kind of gave him the idea of, you know, we want to be clearly Shakespeare, but not stuffy formal Shakespeare.

And that sort of is the vibe that we've applied to everything, our marketing, our branding, our social media posts, our website, and our events. So our mission statement, the one that it stems from what we currently have, but it's slightly expanded so it's not official yet, but I'd like to propose that it's to enrich our community through accessible, vibrant Shakespeare performances in public spaces, breaking down barriers between classical theater and modern audiences while fostering cultural engagement and artistic excellence.

And our motto, which I really love is “Shakespeare for all and for all time.” That's our mission statement.

Scott:

And the motto and the mission statement go together so well. And the mission statement is so clearly articulated and defined. And that is going to help for anyone who wants to go for grants, nonprofit that is clear and specific as you can be is what is really going to make the people with the money sit up and take notice of your brand and of your company.

So let's talk about partnerships and sponsorships and going to a little bit more detail about how you work with other organizations and companies to not only promote your brand, but to raise money and do the productions.

Mary:

Yeah, so actually pretty quickly when we formed, we realized that we needed to sort of tap into existing organizations, artistic organizations, to get it some advice, to get the word out for auditions, you know, for looking for actors and tech crew. So we just used fortunately all of us on the board were already connected into these various organizations.

We have OSU Mansfield's Theater Department. We have two local theaters, the Mansfield Playhouse, and the Renaissance Mansfield Renaissance Theater. And even into Bucyrus and some of the other surrounding areas, we had connections through, like you for Bucyrus Little Theatre. So we were able to pretty quickly partner with those organizations to get the word out about our auditions, to secure technical people, and volunteers for technical stuff. And then they, of course, because everything's at least in this area in the artistic community, people are so reciprocal. And so they were more than happy to support us by helping get the word out about what we were doing to their audience. And then we try to return the favor by talking about what other artistic organizations are doing too.

So one of the big partnerships we have right now is with OSU Mansfield's Theater Program. Joe Fayhey at the branch really offers a lot of support just in offering his space for us to use for rehearsals, offering of course advice and his expertise because he serves on our board. And Andrea Whitmer is the librarian at the school library out there. She's been very generous with her time in helping us create, and manage our website and all of that good stuff.

So, and then as far as sponsorship goes, when you're a nonprofit, there's a certain percentage of your income that has to come from individual donors or sponsors. Not all of it can come from grant money. So we wanted to be sure that our income was pretty diverse.

So we reached out to individuals that we knew who might want to support what we were doing.

We begged all of our family members and friends for money. And we reached out to some local businesses. And we just started with who do we know? You know, who do I know who runs a business, who might be interested in being a sponsor? Who do I know who might be passionate about seeing this happen and be willing to give us $100?

Scott:

And that's really the best way to start out.

Mary:

If you already have a relationship with someone or an organization or a business, you reach out and see what they might be interested or willing to do to help support what you're trying to do.

Scott:

And I think the big takeaway from that is don't be afraid to use your connections and not starting from nothing. You know people that can help you. You may know more than you think you do or more people than you think you do. And that's what helps you get started, especially with moving forward as your nonprofit and moving forward in your branding and getting your name out there and getting people to talk about you. So that's really important stuff with keeping your branding consistent by starting with your connections and going back to them and back to them and having them be your support, your first support even.

I remember when we were meeting, we talked about this honorable mention to people to say, ‘Hey, you could be a founding sponsor or founding.’ We would word it in certain ways where it would be an incentive to support us. So there's different things that you can do with that for your branding for nonprofits.

Attention, Ohio business professionals. BizVox needs your voice. We are booking guests for the season right now. If you are a new entrepreneur, a veteran small business owner, an overstressed nonprofit warrior or a grizzled guru of the grind and you'd like to be a guest on our podcast, hey, it's easier than morning coffee. Just reach out with a friendly email to info@monstervoxproductions.com. Big voices are always welcome. Now back to the show.

Nonprofits are a huge part of any art scene and Mansfield, Ohio, has a scene that just keeps

growing. It's been growing for years, not only theaters, but art galleries, orchestras, music ensembles, festivals. Mary mentioned an opera company that we worked with to get the Mansfield Shakespeare company going. Lots of culture is happening to help enrich the community. So Mary, can you tell us about what Mansfield Shakespeare is doing in 2025 to contribute to the growing Mansfield art scene?

Mary:

Sure. So the very first thing we have coming up is a workshop on January 8th from 6 to 7 p.m. at the OSU Mansfield campus and it's called “Shake the Fear.”

So it's a workshop for anyone who might be interested in auditioning for an upcoming performance production of Romeo and Juliet that we are doing in partnership with OSU, which I'll give a little bit of detail here in a minute. But before those auditions happen, we wanted to give people an opportunity to sort of dip their toe in the water. 

A lot of the conversation that we've had about our events is how to encourage people to give it a try if they've never acted in a Shakespearean play before because it can be a bit intimidating.

So we've got that workshop coming up. Dr. Fahye, Joe Fahye's going to be running that.

And then, as I mentioned, we're going to be producing Romeo and Juliet in partnership with the Mansfield campus of OSU. The auditions for that are January 13th and 14th at 6 p.m. And the show dates are Feb.  28th, March 1st, March 3rd, all of those at 7.30 and March 2nd at 2.30.

And then our summer show we just recently announced will be Twelfth Night. And we haven't determined the exact date for that yet, but we're looking at the month of July. So we'll be gearing up planning for that here in the next couple of weeks. And then we are intending to do an autumn event, but it is to be determined. Our first year we did an autumn showcase, which was really fun. We just did scenes and monologues from different plays. So we might do something like that again, but that sort of remains to be seen.

Scott:

You have a full season.

Mary:

Yes.

Scott:

Being such a young nonprofit, that is a very ambitious season to have two full-length plays going on and then a maybe, but I mean, I'm sure something will happen with the company in autumn. Now you did an event recently at one of the local brewing companies, the Phoenix Brewing Company. Can you tell us about that?

Mary:

Sure. So this was definitely an attempt to partner with businesses that might allow us to present

Shakespeare to their customer base, who may not be the type of people that would come see a Shakespearean production normally. So we partnered with the Phoenix Brewing Company, which is a local microbrewery in Mansfield. And they are just generally awesome people. They do a lot of really creative, interesting things with different partnerships in the community. So they were really enthusiastic about this. They just recently opened a whiskey bar on the second floor. It's called the spirit room. And they've been doing events like this. It's a very cozy kind of lush atmosphere, very small. I think you can only fit about 35 people in that space. So the idea was to do sort of an evening of Shakespeare presenting monologues, and poetry.

And then we wanted to again, with this goal of making Shakespeare really approachable and fun, we wanted to include some music and some games and other fun activities. So they were really on board with making this happen. So that's what we did.

We did this in November or just November, I believe. So in November, we called it Spirited Shakespeare. And we just invited people that we knew could create or do something without a lot of rehearsal time and a lot of support.

So they were pretty self-sufficient. So we had a pub-style sing-along. We had monologues. We had scenes. We had poetry read. We played some trivia games. And we did Shakespeare Mad Libs. And I believe you did. What did we end up calling your monologue roulette?

Scott:

It was a celebrity Shakespeare where I did impressions during a monologue.  And it went OK. It was OK. I wish I could have improved a little bit better. But that was a fun event. And do you have anything that you've been, you know, and you don't have to give away any secrets or anything, anything that you've been talking about in your meetings, interesting fundraisers, interesting people you might partner with in the next year?

Mary:

We haven't talked about any of that yet in the past. And it's still something that we want to see happen. We've talked about potentially working with the Kingwood Center, such a beautiful venue, especially for an outdoor production. We've talked about doing something at the coffee shop, relax. It's just coffee, sort of like a coffee in Shakespeare, something or other. And I'm sure we've talked about others, but those are the two that spring into my mind at the moment.

Scott:

And that's great. So again, going back to this idea of doing things on top of anything a small business would do. That live connection with people is so important, especially with a performing arts nonprofit. It's important to have that live connection with people that helps sell your brand and sell you as a company.

We're running out of time here. Many, many, many thanks to Mary Frankenfield for joining us in this episode. It sounds like Mansfield Shakespeare has a really exciting season planned. And you can find them on social media as well.

Remember being part of a nonprofit, especially running a nonprofit is like having another part-time job, but use your connections to get started. Make sure you're following all the rules with the federal government, not the feds. Follow their rules too.

Mary:

Yes. 

Scott:

Do everything they say, but the federal government is who you're going to be working with the

Most. Meeting deadlines, learning from mistakes and oversight.

So Mary, what's the most important lesson you've learned so far in running your nonprofit?

Mary:

I think that what I learned is to work really hard to lay the right foundation first. So get all your ducks in order if you can before you start doing whatever it is you've created this organization to do.

But don't spend so much time creating the perfect organization that you don't ever actually do anything.

So you need to find a good balance there and get the right people on board, people who are passionate about the thing that you're about to do, people who have a bit of knowledge or connection, and people who just are pleasant to work with, team players, you know, willing to go the extra mile. That's so important.

Scott:

Thank you so much, Mary, for your insights. Please find a way to support your local nonprofits. They are there for your communities' entertainment and enrichment. And I think, and I know this is cheesy, most importantly, they are there to feed your soul. There's a little part of everyone's soul that needs some Shakespeare, and Mansfield Shakes is doing that.

So thank you again, Mary. And until next time, I'm Scott. Let's get to work.

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