Broadway Bound and Beyond
Talent Gets You Noticed.
Trust Gets You Hired.
Professional development masterclasses with musician, author and educator Clayton Craddock. For musicians on any instrument, including college students preparing to enter the industry and working players building their next chapter.
Broadway: Memphis · Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill · Ain't Too Proud · Cats: The Jellicle Ball.
Off-Broadway: tick, tick... BOOM! · Altar Boyz.
Problem
Almost nobody teaches students how hiring actually works. Talent opens the door once. Without trust, it quietly closes.
Solution
Clayton shows students how contractors and music directors decide who gets the call, and what keeps it coming.
Benefit
Participants leave with a practical plan to prepare, earn trust and build a career that lasts.
Professional development
Programs
The Trust Economy
Talent Gets You Noticed. Trust Gets You Hired.
Why reliability, reputation and relationships decide careers, and how to build all three on purpose.
Broadway Bound and Beyond
Building a Sustainable Career in the Performing Arts
The three pillars of a working career: relationships, versatility and financial resilience.
The Broadway Sub Playbook
How to Prepare, Perform and Get Called Back
Inside the substitute system: learning the book, the first night in the pit and earning the second call.
Every booking includes a planning call with your faculty, so the session is shaped around your students.
Start the conversation
Book Clayton for your institution
Send your dates and program. Quotes within two business days.
Participants learn
Prepare for a working career.
- How to prepare before the opportunity arrives
- Why trust outweighs a great audition
- How to become the person people hire again
- How to stay financially steady between gigs
About Clayton
Experience behind the advice.
Author of Broadway Bound and Beyond and The Broadway Sub Playbook, host of the Broadway Bound and Beyond podcast, NAMM GenNext speaker, Innovative Percussion artist and Howard University alumnus.
Formats
60-minute keynote · 90-minute masterclass · Half-day workshop · Full-day residency. Virtual or in person.
Rates available on request.
Ideal audiences
University music and theater departments, conservatories, arts high schools and professional associations.
“As a music coordinator I was lucky to have Clayton play drums on several productions that I coordinated for Broadway… He knows whereof he speaks.”
The NAMM Talk
The NAMM Talk
In January 2026, I spoke at NAMM’s GenNext series for musicians preparing to enter the industry.
I shared how a connection at a Ramada Inn jam session led to work across tick, tick... BOOM!, Memphis, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, Ain’t Too Proud, and Cats: The Jellicle Ball.
The lesson: relationships shape a working career. Watch this excerpt from the talk.