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Some of the most important people in the Dallas-Fort Worth arts and entertainment world are virtual unknowns because they work behind the scenes. You wouldn't recognize them in a crowd, but without their support — in design, fundraising, management — even the best actors, singers and musicians would be mere street performers. We talked to nine of them for this story.

 

Robin Phillips
Principal promoter for Daughter Entertainment

AGE: 29

WHAT SHE DOES: For the last six years, Ms. Phillips has been bringing up-and-coming rock acts to venues as far-flung as the Cavern on Lower Greenville, the Dallas Museum of Art and Hailey's in Denton. Her job, she says, entails "trying to tell people to come see bands that they've never heard of — and then losing money when they don't." She recently got hired by the big concert firm AEG Live and will "phase out" Daughter Entertainment later this year.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT: With Daughter, Ms. Phillips presented indie-rock groups that otherwise might otherwise not have gotten a gig in D-FW. The payoff is came "when the bands I’ve booked forever get big and everyone says 'I saw them when' — when I know they didn't!" She plans to book some of those same acts with AEG Live.

SATISFACTION: While running Daughter didn't pay much ("I'm [expletive] poor," she notes), it did offer comic relief you can’t get in the corporate world. Her wackiest experience? "Walking in on a band member in a very compromising position," she says. "It was awkward. Real bad."
– THOR CHRISTENSEN / Staff Writer

Meet other Almost Invisibles:
Heidi Shen | Zenetta S. Drew | Kristin Gray |Pam Minick | Michael Terry | Shawn Mahan | John Gage | Gayle Halperin

Published in The Dallas Morning News: 04.22.07