Michigan Muse Winter 2025 > Breaking New Ground in the Performing Arts: SMTD Alumni Draw on EXCEL Lab Experiences to Springboard Innovative Enterprises

Breaking New Ground in the Performing Arts: SMTD Alumni Draw on EXCEL Lab Experiences to Springboard Innovative Enterprises

By Claudia Capos

Laub’s nascent company got its first big break in early 2019 when the EXCEL Lab invited Michael Isaacson, artistic director and executive producer at the St. Louis Municipal Opera Theatre, a.k.a. the Muny, in St. Louis, to come to the University of Michigan campus and meet with Runyonland Productions at SMTD for an in-depth coaching session. For six hours straight, the students volleyed questions at Isaacson about the entertainment industry in general and how best to break into the production end of the business. “Mike was the lead producer of David Byrne’s American Utopia, and he invited us to join him after graduation as co-producers of the production, so we could learn the ropes under his guidance,” Laub said. “Part of the money from our EXCELerator grant went toward the legal costs of our first professional credit on Broadway.”

Today, Runyonland Productions maintains an office at the corner of 43rd Street and Broadway near the heart of New York City’s vibrant theater district. To date, the company has worked on the production of three Tony Award-winning Broadway shows – David Byrne’s American Utopia, Parade, and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s Appropriate. Other Runyonland production credits include Gutenberg! The Musical!, The Wiz, Slave Play, and The Old Man and the Pool.

Last year, Laub asked his former SMTD classmate, Alyah Chanelle Scott (BFA ’19, musical theatre), to join Runyonland Productions as co-CEO. Scott, an actor, writer, and director who stars in the HBO Max series The Sex Lives of College Girls, accepted.

Surviving and thriving in the highly competitive arena of Broadway theatre, film, music, and television production is no easy task. Runyonland’s success has centered on a passion for fostering artistic excellence and an artist-first approach to creative producing. Forging valuable industry connections and collaborations has been paramount to the company’s growth. Laub said Runyonland Productions’ superpower has been the strong mentors who have guided the company’s steps along the way. “Jonathan was our first mentor, who believed in our idea and helped us realize it,” he said. “Now we have mentors in the entertainment business here in New York who welcomed us into the industry. We come to them with our questions and ideas.”

Laub returns as often as possible to SMTD to speak at producing and musical theatre classes and to help usher in the next generation of performing arts talent. “We’d be nowhere if Jonathan, Mike Isaacson, and other people hadn’t helped us, and we want to do the same thing for today’s students,” he said.

A Life-Changing Program

Joshua DeVries (BM ’18, cello, music theory; MM ’23, cello; PhD ’23, music theory) transferred to the University of Michigan as an undergraduate student in 2015 – the same year the EXCEL Lab program was launched at SMTD. As a side hustle, he began doing music engraving and printing, using a small printer stashed in the closet of his campus apartment. With help from the EXCEL Lab, he gradually expanded his bootstrap business, Just a Theory Press (JATP), and formed a limited liability company in 2019.

Today, Just a Theory Press is based in Iowa City, Iowa, where it operates a flourishing e-commerce business from a 1,500-square-foot warehouse. Now in its fifth year, the company is profitable and maintains a staff of several employees and contractors based all over the country. “JATP is dedicated to promoting and selling works, mainly by living composers,” explained DeVries, who serves as executive director. “We provide a platform that helps contemporary composers and performance organizations reach a broader audience and, at the same time, enables consumers to access new, innovative music. We handle all the logistics – such as music engraving, printing, distribution, and PDF sales – so the composers can focus on their creative work,” he added.

JATP’s clients range from current SMTD students and recent graduates who want one copy of a music score for a premiere to large publishing companies that need several hundred pounds of music shipped to them weekly. Many client connections evolved from prior introductions and networking while DeVries was a student on the U-M campus.

Among the company’s top names are Emmy Award-winning composer Joel Thompson, whose choral work Seven Last Words of the Unarmed was premiered in November 2015 by the University of Michigan Men’s Glee Club, and acclaimed composer Damien Geter, whose Symphony No. 1 (The Justice Symphony) was premiered in March 2022 by the University Symphony Orchestra, the University Choir, the Chamber Choir, and other vocalists at U-M. Recently, SMTD composition professor Kristin Kuster contracted with JATP to distribute her entire catalog of music compositions for performance. “EXCEL was a life-changing program and altered my trajectory,” DeVries said. “I’m glad to see it thrive.”

Celebrating Entrepreneurial Milestones

Over the past year, o-PONG! Productions has celebrated several important entrepreneurial milestones that have propelled it to the next level of business development. Co-founders Andrew Otchere (BFA ’23, theatre & drama) and Cortez Hill (BTA ’24; BBA ’24, Ross) received a 2024 EXCEL Impact Award, which will help them to advance their mission of providing a creative launchpad for underserved and misrepresented voices. “We try to find unique stories that are not often seen in entertainment media and bring them to life through productions in film, television, and theatre,” Otchere said. “That premise serves as our guiding light.” The prize will also help underwrite the costs of attending arts-focused entrepreneurial events, enabling them to expand their professional connections and industry network. Otchere began seeking out EXCEL events in his first year at SMTD, eager for information and guidance. He and Hill progressed through a number of EXCEL resources throughout their time as students, receiving microgrants from the Enterprise Fund and participating in the EXCELerator fellowship program, which provides funding and mentorship for early-stage ventures.

Another milestone in 2024: the two co-founders took the next big step in formalizing their business venture by setting up a limited liability company. “Becoming an LLC will allow us to make strides in the real world outside the academic structure,” Otchere said.

The highlight of the year for Otchere was attending the annual Yale Innovation Summit – one of the largest entrepreneurial convenings in the United States – for the second consecutive year and, for the first time, winning top honors and a $5,000 prize in the intensely competitive Arts Track Pitch Contest. The opportunity to pitch at the Arts Track grew out of o-PONG! Productions’ participation in the EXCEL Lab program and its EXCELerator program. “The EXCEL Lab is constantly creating opportunities for SMTD students to take agency of their creative futures,” Otchere said. “Through the EXCELerator, we learned how to scale our company and what it takes to have a sustainable business. We also explored different business models to see which ones were the best fit for us.”

As part of the EXCELerator offering, Midnight Oil Collective, co-founded by Allison Chu (BM ’19, clarinet performance; BA ’19, LSA), invited participating SMTD teams, including Otchere and Hill, to pitch their creative ventures in a Student Showcase at the 2023 Yale Innovation Summit. In 2024, Otchere returned to the event and pitched o-PONG! Productions’ concept project, a film titled Becoming BFA, which won the Creative Ventures portion of the Arts Track. “EXCEL has helped us connect with SMTD alumni at other institutions as well as entrepreneurs outside the alumni network who are doing amazing work that aligns with our interests and mission,” Otchere said. “This is a great way to learn about the many resources available to us.”

Running an early-stage venture often requires wearing many different hats simultaneously. “We are a very versatile production company that is still growing and developing, so our role changes from production to production,” Otchere explained. “Typically, we are involved in all parts of the process – from inception of the idea to distribution and exhibition of the final production.” Maintaining a creative partnership is essential for the successful premiere of new works. “We are both artists who get passionate about good ideas,” Otchere noted. “When we find a project that we believe in, we determine what resources are needed to bring it to life and work together to bring the idea to full fruition.” He added, “I typically take charge of the creative capacity while Cortez focuses on the financial and logistical side of the business. Together, we build out teams specific to each production to support different areas, as needed.”

Currently, the two co-founders are pursuing opportunities for self-growth and professional development to ensure they have the well-rounded experience needed to be competitive. In Los Angeles, Otchere is auditioning and writing independently while working as a studio page at Paramount Pictures to gain hands-on insights into the television and film industry. In St. Louis, Hill is pursuing a producing internship at the Muny to acquaint himself with the theatrical side of the production business. Eventually, they plan to maintain a bicoastal footprint in LA and New York City, which will afford greater flexibility in taking on exciting new projects.

For these SMTD alumni and thousands of others, the EXCEL Lab – through project funding, mentorship, facilitating connections with industry professionals, and other means – has made a significant difference in their career trajectories, helping to build a foundation from which to launch a fulfilling, sustainable career in the performing arts.