DCA Productions - When the Entertainment Matters

Dan and Gerri Abrahamsen are not new to the campus market. In fact, with all the mergers, buy-outs, consolidations, and new entries into the field, they might even be considered ‘old timers’. For the last five years they have been strong contenders for the Agency category. So it is not surprising that for 1998, the husband and wife team have come out on top. But the honor is richly deserved. They have built not only a strong agency but also a complete management team from the ground up.

If you ask most any school about DCA, they will know immediately whom you are talking about. Not only do they offer one of the strongest rosters in the market, but also their follow-up and relationships with students is incredible.

Dan and Gerri Abrahamsen of DCA Productions have for many years been a colleague, mentor and most importantly, a friend to countless entertainers over the years. Their efforts to provide the most reliable support to their clients on the campus market have allowed them to receive the extremely prestigious Agency of the Year award. Throughout each year, campuses all over the country file away mental notes on each agency according to their reliability, resourcefulness, promptness, and most importantly, friendliness.

This year, the faculty at DCA Productions have surpassed the other agencies in these categories and have been selected by our readers as the college market's favorite agency. Perhaps the reason for their success is the number of years they have both been involved in the entertainment business, but one significant difference between DCA Productions and other talent agencies is that Dan and Gerri also serve as personal managers for their clients. By providing this service, each client is guaranteed the attention and dedication that every entertainer desires. This includes every detail of the booking process from start to finish.

Over the years, Dan and Gerri have discovered that this is the most effective way to serve their clients while offering them a service unlike any other agency. This method of service has been a strong component in their equation for success. Currently, DCA represents ten artists, but also works with outside performers that they are trying to bring in the market. Dan Abrahamsen explains further, "As personal manager, you work with an artist on a day to day basis, deciding what's best for them and giving them financial advice, career advice and booking advice. We let the artists make their own travel arrangements.

As an agent, your job is just booking the act, yet as a personal manager, your job involves every step of the booking process, from start to finish. As managers, our goal is to help them achieve their own personal goals. One thing we ask of our clients is to send us a list of their personal goals and what they hope to achieve in their career, which they update periodically. It's really interesting to see what they envision for their futures, and it outlines a strategy for us to follow as well. Some want to have a television career in the next three to five years, and some want to settle down and have a family.

As managers, I think we listen to our artists more and try to look at the overall calendar to see what they would like to do for an entire year, as opposed to a short term calendar for one month at a time. " The History of DCA Productions DCA Productions was formed in the latter part of the seventies, after Dan and Gerri met and discovered they had a mutual interest in the entertainment business. Dan elaborates, "Gerri and I met in New York while she was studying to be a dancer, and I was a lighting/ set designer in a theater. I was designing in several off-Broadway shows at the time when we realized we had a mutual interest in the entertainment business. Shortly after we began dating, we acquired a small cabaret space in the theater district where we started booking music shows. " "Dan was still pursuing a design career at that time, and I was still pursuing dance and theatre.