The Post talks with Stev Gustav, co-founder, executive producer and CEO of Shadow Box Live. Gustav will be a guest lecturer with the Ohio University Center for Entrepreneurship on Monday.
Stev Guyer, co-founder, executive producer and CEO of Shadowbox Live, will be featured as a guest lecturer by the Ohio University Center for Entrepreneurship on Monday. Guyer is taking the lecture series in an artist direction while offering advice about pursuing great ideas and persistence. After growing Shadowbox Live into America’s largest resident theater company, he is eager to share his passion.
The Post: How did Shadowbox Live get started?
Stev Guyer: 25 years ago, I had written ... a rock opera, and I wanted to perform it, produce it somewhere, somehow, so of course there was no one willing to do that for me, reasonably so. So, I pulled together a bunch of musicians and singers myself, and we produced the show ourselves. After doing that a couple of times, the performers got together and decided, “You know what, let’s keep going. Let’s not get together only once every couple of years.” So we formed a little theatre company, and slowly but surely, that grew into the Shadowbox that it is today.
TP: How does Shadowbox now compare to where you were starting?
SG: *Laughs* When we started, the very first show we ever did, I don’t remember what the gross receipts were, but I do remember we lost $10,000 after about three weekends. It was maybe fifteen people all working as volunteers to put the show together and working for two or three months together. Now, Shadowbox has grown to a total of 60 employees and a $3.5 million budget. We do 530 shows a year and produce year round. It has changed as dramatically, I think it is possible to change for us.
TP: Also, I read that you dropped the “e” out of your name. What is the story behind that?
SG: I was 14 years old, and I was starting to get serious about playing rock ‘n’ roll and Jimi Hendrix was a huge influence. He was spelling his name J-I-M-I and I decided I needed to spell my name some weird way too, so I did. When I came to Shadowbox, the press kept putting the “e” back on my name, and I said, “Okay, fine. We’ll leave the “e” on there.” Maybe ten years ago, I decided, I am sick of that and I am going to tell everyone that that is not right. It is just S-T-E-V. The local press had a field day with it.
TP: What do you hope students will get out of the lecture?
SG: I am hoping that they’ll be energized to pursue what it is that they want to pursue in life. I am hoping they’ll understand that you don’t have to know anything about it to pursue it. You’ll learn as you go as long as you’re willing to make mistakes and willing to make quick changes. Those are the keys to anything entrepreneurial. It’s easy to go out and do something that someone else has already done. There is a book that tells you how. … If you are forcing you own way, you get to make your own rules, but you also have to be wise enough to know when you screwed up and be willing to make a quick change. If they’ll grasp that, I hope it’ll put an opportunity out there in front of some people with bright ideas to pursue those bright ideas.
TP: As you were learning to grow Shadowbox, what was the best advice you received?
SG: I got a piece of advice from a marketing guru one time that was something I remember absolutely every day. Basically, it was this: persist. Right now, you’re still young in this process, and you don’t realize it, but I’m telling you, if you’ll just keep after it, eventually all the other people who are after it right along with you will drop off. Eventually, you’ll be the only one left that’s continuing to push forward. At least the only one who has got all the experience you have, and if you learn from your experience while you persist, you will be the top dog eventually. He was absolutely right. That truly is the key. Just don’t give up.
TP: Is that the advice you give students?
SG: It sure is among others, but yes. That is a critical piece of advice: just stay with it. I know it’s hard. I know you failed. I know your parents are upset with you. I know you don’t have time to do all the things that others are doing, but if it’s your passion, stay with it because from my personal experience, I can honestly say today I am doing exactly what I want to do with my life. It’s not work — it’s a joy.
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