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 lively,
grown-up cross between Annie and Eloise, Ann Sachs,
president and CEO of Sachs Morgan Studio in Manhattan
greets you with a smile as wide as Broadway. Her
job, as she puts it, is somewhere between heaven
and backstage, and she's blessed with a Tony Award-winning
designer husband who insists that there wouldn't
be a business with her.
Ann
and husband Roger Morgan have brightened the world
of entertainment from The Big Apple to Tinseltown.
They've restored Broadway's Lunt-Fontanne Theatre
for "Beauty and the Beast," The Palace for "Aida,"
the Kennedy Center Concert Hall for presidential
concerts, and in Hollywood, the Pantages Theater
for "The Lion King" (now featuring "The Producers").
From
their early drama student days at Carnegie Mellon
University, they never imagined owning a business
or studying theater consulting (which wasn't even
considered a profession when they were in school).
Sach's
first role - the Wicked Witch in "Hansel
and Gretel" in second grade - proved her
theatrical acumen when her portrayal was so frightening
it scared poor little Gretel screaming into the
wings.
After
Carnegie Mellon, Sachs was on and off Broadway (most
notably in the Tony Award-winning "Dracula"). She
co-wrote a play, "Mama Drama," published by Samuel
French and talks about the roles she loved most:
Wendy Wasserstein's first plays, "Any Woman Can't"
and "Uncommon Women and Others." She loved performing
in new works - loved the excitement of
the unknown - and she loved to create.
Around
1990, Sachs felt she wanted to expand her horizons
to make theatrical life more meaningful and accessible.
Looking for new opportunities, her husband persuaded
her to join his studio team of a designer, a project
planner, and a technical systems specialist. Since
their collaboration began, Sachs Morgan Studio has
grown. It is now more than twice the size and serves
many more clients. In her first five years, Sachs
tripled the revenue. In the next five years…she
did it again.
Her
business and management skills were enhanced when
joining the New York Morning Chapter of the Women
Presidents' Organization, a professional group for
women who own and run their own businesses. Over
the past six years, Sachs has found the Women Presidents'
Organization so rewarding that she recently became
the facilitator for the fourth New York City Women
Presidents' Organization Chapter.
Although
she loves working with clients and being the "front
man," Sachs still enjoys the thrill of starting
a project and watching her colleagues bring it to
completion.
"As
on the stage," she says, "collaboration is the key.
Our buildings wouldn't be what they are today without
respect for, and collaboration with, all project
participants."
Among
her favorite projects:
- The
Fulton Opera House in Lancaster, PA, the first
project that she took from the beginning in 1990
through the opening in 1995. Her thrill on the
completion of this five-year project was that
she now had performed on stage from her soul,
and had "performed" the building of a theater
structure.
- The
Ford Center for the Performing Arts in New York,
where Sachs Morgan courageously convinced the
client that, as the first new theater on Broadway
in 30 years, they should build lasting artistic
impressions with mosaics, marble, columns, and
class. The perseverance paid off - the
client and the theater patrons are happy, and
it brought forth the most elegant theater on Broadway.
- The
Berkshire Theatre Festival's 122-seat Unicorn
Theater in Stockbridge, MA, which provides all
the spaces actors need for action, drama and comedy
without the need for sets. Its classic shape is
perfect for performers and ensures that the audience
feels connected to the actors.
Sachs
and her husband work in tandem, and mentor, each
other. Theater doesn't exist without collaboration,
and neither does the Sachs Morgan Studio. The greatest
contribution Ann feels she's made to the studio
is to bring it into existence as a business by finding
the right balance of art and commerce, based upon
exciting and stimulating collaboration.
Venues
throughout the county - from the Ford Center
for the Performing Arts in New York City, to the
Kennedy Center Concert Hall in Washington, DC, to
the Wheeler Opera House in Aspen, to the Orpheum
Theatre in San Francisco, and the Pantages in Los
Angeles -have been touched by Sachs Morgan Studio.
"We're
theater people, and we love creating spaces where
people can celebrate the arts," Sachs explains.
Ann
Sachs is an indomitable force in theater design.
She keeps the quality high and the creativity flowing.
What more could a theater want?
LINDSAY
SHIELDS-GREEN is principal of The LJ Group: an Events
Production/PR Company. She can be contacted at 562-621-0521
(e-mail: LJGroup@aol.com).
For information about a WPO chapter near you, call
WPO President Dr. Marsha Firestone at 212-688-4114
(e-mail: info@womenpresidendentsorg.com).
(This
article is reprinted from the Fall 2003 edition
of Enterprising Women magazine. Copyright
2003, Enterprising Women Inc. Reproduction in whole
or part is prohibited, except by permission of the
publisher.)
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