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Theatre Budget

  • 1.  Theatre Budget

    Posted 07-27-2017 14:48
    Hello Teachers!

    I'm in my 3rd year teaching drama, and I am halfway through my masters program studying Curriculum Instruction with a concentration in Differentiated Instruction. 

    I'm working on my research paper regarding funding for theatre programs and classes. If anyone is comfortable sharing with me if/if not their school provides a budget for your theatre program and how your program is impacted with this budget (if it is too much, or not enough) and any other personal experiences with the funding for the fine arts in your district, please reach out to me!

    I would love to have a large amount of feedback and data to use in my action research report. 

    Thank you,
    Chana
    cwilczynski@lfschools.net

    ------------------------------
    Chana-Lise Wilczynski
    5/6th Grade Drama Teacher
    Lake Forest IL
    ------------------------------


  • 2.  RE: Theatre Budget

    Posted 07-28-2017 10:42
    My school does not provide me with a budget. Everything we need must come from ticket sales and fund raising. We are able to produce two or three good plays a year with these funds. Fortunately I am an expert scrounger and can find what we can't afford to buy. I also make the costumes to save rental costs.

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    Ellen Di Filippo
    Tracy CA
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Theatre Budget

    Posted 07-28-2017 12:31
    We are not given any funding and have to do fundraisers to bring money into the program. It impacts the program when we spend time & energy fundraising instead of working on the craft. So, I have found three solutions for this:

    1. I involve my officers with budgeting every show, with the intention of turning a profit. We still lose money sometimes, but the students learn a lot about budgeting & expenditure reports.

    2. Arizona has a dollar for dollar tax credit for any taxpayer who donates up to $200 to extra curricular activities. This helps tremendously and it's a win-win.

    3. Summer Camp. We created a summer camp program for elementary students. Another win-win. We make enough money with this one fundraiser that we don't have to spend time selling people stuff they don't need or want. It's a fundraiser that also educational. My students take on every role: direct, choreograph, design, etc & we produce a full musical with the campers in just two weeks. It's also great for community outreach and building the program with feeder schools.


    ------------------------------
    Jeana Whitaker
    Theatre Director
    Mesa AZ
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Theatre Budget

    Posted 07-28-2017 15:50
    My classes get a small budget but I get nothing for the main stage or improv shows. Everything comes from ticket sales. sponsorships and, because we're in AZ, we get tax credit based funding as well.

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    Shira Schwartz
    Chandler Unified School District
    Chandler AZ
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    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Theatre Budget

    Posted 07-28-2017 19:11
    At my school, we receive a yearly allotment of about 1,500 dollars or so (it varies from year to year, but ranges in that area)  We also receive a stipend for being an Arts teacher, which I'm sure we all spend on supplies and things. We are also fortunate that my school belongs in a supplemental tax area, which allows us to apply for various projects from time to time.  For example, 3 years ago, we were able to buy new drapery and they have helped us out with various projects from time to time.  If we plan, we can usually get the things we need for our students.  For the most part, however, our performance program is funded by ticket sales, student fees and booster club fundraising.  Our "budget" ranges in the area of 20 grand each year for four main-stage productions and one travel trip.  We are very thankful for our patrons, who help us produce theater each and every production.

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    Michael Johnson
    Trinity NC
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    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: Theatre Budget

    Posted 07-29-2017 10:54
    At my school, we are given no budget from our county and nothing from our school.  There is a stipend for myself and my assistant "Theatre Coach", but that evens out to be about 15 cents per hour when you factor in all the rehearsals for the musical, play, theatre competitions, and one act festival.
    We fund raise for everything!  We do have a boosters to help us out.  Some years, we do an election day bake sale, which- for the presidential election- got us nearly $4,000 in a day!  This year, our state is electing a governor, so we'll probably cut the total for that fund raiser in half.  We also do a fall and spring yard sale, concessions during our shows, and spirit nights.  
    We use ticket sales for rights and rental of our shows and booster funds for set pieces, props, and many costume expenses.  Sometimes, we have enough in ticket sales to reimburse the boosters.
    Our goal is always to have our previous show pay for our next show.  We do one musical and a play each year as well as a smaller student-directed one act showcase and an "everyone participates" One Act Festival.

    Our basic budget is between $16-18,000 to run our program.

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    Lisa Dyer
    Henrico VA
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    Original Message


  • 7.  RE: Theatre Budget

    Posted 07-29-2017 14:24
    Edited by Rachel Snow 07-29-2017 14:32

    At my school, everyone in the Visual and Performing Arts Dept. gets about $500-600 for class supplies each year (my god does my Tech Theater class go through that cash fast!). But for all stage productions, etc, our Thespian club has to be entirely self-sustaining so we have to fundraise and use our ticket and concession profits. This would be incredibly challenging for someone new whose club is starting with an account at $0. I was very fortunate that the teacher before me left the club a $6000 nest egg to work with. So my first year I felt like I had a comfortable cushion if we made some mistakes along the way and didn't earn a profit.

    Currently we do a talent show, a haunted house, a play, and a musical each year. The talent show costs us very little and we usually make about $1000 net profit from tickets and snacks. That gives us our haunted house budget. We typically spend about $1000 on the haunted house, but usually make a net profit of $1500 from tickets/snacks and about $300 from T-Shirts. We then use that to fund our Fall play, which usually doesn't cost us more than $1000. We generally make a net profit of $1500 from the play. We then do a See's Candy winter fundraiser, which typically gets us about $700 in net profit. So all that plus any other small fundraisers we do like dinner out nights, halloween candy grams, etc gives us our first semester profit, which is typically around $2000-3000. We use this as licensing budget for the musical. We then sell See's Candy again for Easter, and usually make about $1200, and we sell local business ads and family shout-outs in our musical program, which also earns us about $2000. Between ticket sales, T-shirt sales, cast-signed poster sales, snack sales, ads, shout outs, sponsorships, photobooth pics, etc we typically make a $4000-6000 net profit from our musical and musical-related stuff. 

    Looking at this year's finances, we spent maybe $100 on the talent show, spent $1000 on Haunted House, $1300 on the Fall play, and about $12,000 on all our musical related expenses, (including paying our vocal coach and choreographer). So in total we spent about $14,400 this year. But we made a $6000 net profit by year's end, which will allow us a little more budget to pay our vocal coach and choreographer more appropriately for their time as well as get a backdrop or two for the musical. 

    We've also just started a parent booster club, so I'm hoping that will also help us even more this year.

    All that said, I truly love what I do but sometimes I feel a little bit more like an entrepreneur than a Drama teacher. And I really do hate feeling I have to ride the kids all the time to sell, sell, SELL. Sell tickets, sell candy, sell T-shirts, sell ads, sell Halloween grams, Valentine grams, Easter grams, so on and so on. I know I find it exhausting sometimes and I'm sure the kids get tired of feeling like they're constantly begging their family and friends to buy something. But what else can we do? Theater is expensive!



    ------------------------------
    Rachel Snow
    Drama and Technical Theater Teacher
    Alhambra High School
    Alhambra CA
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 8.  RE: Theatre Budget

    Posted 07-30-2017 01:10

    My school is very interesting.  We do a lot of shows here.  This coming year we are doing 13 shows. 3 MainStage shows (2 plays and a musical),  6 Repertory Theatre shows (5 plays and 1 musical), and 4 improv shows.

    MainStage:
    The school gives me $500 for each MainStage play and $4000 for the MainStage Musical. So, basically covering the royalties for the shows.  Everything else is fundraising.  We do not get to keep out ticket sales for MainStage shows.  All ticket money goes back to the general activity/athletic fund for the building.  


    Last year our MainStage expenses (after royalties):
    Fall play The Nerd: $1700
    Spring Play Romeo and Juliet: $2150
    Musical Kiss Me, Kate:  $17,000
    Total; $20850

    Rep Show:
    I do not get money specifically for this.  I have a class account ($1000) that I can use if I need to, but that is usually used to cover field trips and the like.  We do get to keep the ticket sales for these.  We try to keep costs down and use what we have in stock, but props and costumes are needed usually, at least a bit.

    Rep Shows expenses (after royalties):
    Ernest and the Pale Moon : $550
    Haunting of Hannibal House:  $900
    Dogg's Hamlet, Cahoot's Macbeth: $450
    Anne Frank and Me: $275
    Hay Fever: $400
    The 39 Steps: $625
    total: $3200

    that is about $24,000 for the year for show expenses.

    Fundraising:
    We are able to keep ticket sales from Rep shows and Improv shows.  We also have a concession stand we run for shows.  The students who participate as cast members in the MainStage Musical are required to pay $240 to be in the show.  This covers the cost of renting and cleaning costumes.  A large part of our funding are from donations from our theatre booster club.

    Last year we took in about $2500 from ticket sales.  $1200 from concessions. $7200 from musical participation fees. $8,000 from parent donations. for about $19,000.   The rest was covered from a bunch of smaller fundraisers we did. couple hundred here, couple hundred there.  

    I really hate spending so much time on fundraising.  It takes me away from the shows, especially all the smaller ones.  We are planning some larger ones this year, but have not been decided yet.



    ------------------------------
    Jeremy Riggs
    Director of Theatre
    Blue Valley North
    bvntheatre.org
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 9.  RE: Theatre Budget

    Posted 07-31-2017 06:12

    In response to the students that are cast members having to pay $240 to participate.

    If I had to pay or my parents had to pay $240 or $75 or back when I was a kid maybe $25 to be involved in a play. I might not be doing theater today. Which is how I make my living. Have a nephew, when he was in High School he wrote plays for the school short play writing contest. He's plays always won. One play had lots of charters with just a few lines. This was wonderful, that would mean lots of students could be involved and get on stage. Wrong, each student had to come up with $75 to be involved. Which means the Parents had to judge is it worth $75 to hear my child say a few lines?

    Paying to be involved in a school play etc... means theater is only for the well to do and cuts out students with family that have tight budgets? How do you deal with this problem? It sounds like this practice is wide spread and is and is a little________.



    ------------------------------
    [Stanley Allan] [Sherman] [Custom theater mask making, Commedia dell'Arte masks & workshops. NYC winter holiday workshops and summer workshops]
    [Mask Maker, Commedia dell'Arte expert, Teacher, Mime, Movement, Actor, Director, performer, producer of workshops and shows.]
    [Mask Arts Company www.maskart.com]
    [New York] [NY][stanley@maskarts.com[212-255-2882][il-dottore@commediau.com][New York][NY][Roving Classical Commedia University* (*totally unaccredited) ]
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 10.  RE: Theatre Budget

    Posted 07-31-2017 11:49
    My school has three budgets, one for tech to allow purchase of materials and upkeep of various systems. I think that it might be 2-3 thousand. My budget for two-three straight plays runs between 1500-2000 per year to cover royalties, makeup, and prop or costume items. It is also the budget I use for classes, which meet only once a week, and to purchase plays to peruse. My middle school director (we are a 7-12 independent school) has a budget, too, 500-1000, plus she is compensated for writing the play, too, which she does after working with the kids. Our argument is that we should at least pay her royalty fees!
    We do not charge admission to any play or concert. We believe free shows allow more students and their families to come to a diverse selection of plays, classical and contemporary. Plus, we figure parents are paying tuition, so we should charge them twice! Also, we occasionally get donations from interested parents or friends of the school. These kinds of grants have allowed us to pay occasional choreographers, stage combat choreographers, and royalties and musicians for the occasional musical.

    Sent from my iPad


    Original Message


  • 11.  RE: Theatre Budget

    Posted 07-30-2017 10:40
    Like most school theatre programs, we get no operational funding from the district. All of our funds derive from ticket sales and other earned income. It can be a challenge.

    ------------------------------
    Mark A. Zimmerman,

    Theatre Director
    Akron School for the Arts
    Firestone Community Learning Center
    470 Castle Blvd
    Akron, Ohio 44313

    Troupe 5570

    mzimmerm@apslearn.org
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 12.  RE: Theatre Budget

    Posted 07-30-2017 23:00
    Hi Chana,
    Here is information on my program.  I teach in Washington state in a suburb of Seattle.

    For the past 15 years, I have been directing an after school program that combines 3 different schools.  A Jr. High (8-9) and 2 middle schools (6-8).  The jr. high gave me $500 per play each year - the middle schools gave me $400 that came from General ASB to our clubs.

    The rest of the money we used for our productions were through ticket sales and student fees.
    I always put all kids who auditioned in the play (no cuts). Each student pays depending on their grade level - it matched pay-to-play for sports.  9th grade $75, 6-8 $50.  We charge $7 for gen admission, $5 for students and seniors.  I carry up to 40 kids in the fall and 80-120 kids in the spring musical, we bring in large audiences.  With Shrek this past year, there were about 80 kids in the show and we had 500 plus audience members at every performance.

    For my fall play for 8th and 9th only, I have been carrying around $7,000 each year to put on the show.  For the spring musical, I carry between $12,000 and $16,000.
    Since this is an ASB budget, I am able to carry it forward each year, and that means that I spend just about all of it each year, but usually make all of it back when we count up ticket sales.  

    There have been years that we have done some fund raising as well - a local mall has a night they open the mall after hours, we got tickets for free so that we could sell them for $5 each to families who wanted to do some pre-Holiday shopping.  We have done Car Wash coupon sales (pre-buying a car wash coupon/token that is about 1/2 the price of the lowest priced car wash at a facility in town).    We also do a revue each spring that costs us little but we charge the same ticket price as the shows.  We have attempted to sell costumes (we make all of our costumes and we are overflowing currently) but that didn't go over very well.

    The district also gives me a $7,500 stipend budget to hire whomever I need during the year for either of the plays.  I am also paid a stipend for directing 2 plays a year.

    For classroom, I am a department unto myself.  That means I have been given pretty healthy budgets at both schools.  At the Jr. High, I get $2500 each year (I used to get $3000, but $500 was given to another department at some point).  At the middle schoolwhere  I teach, I get around $2000.  I teach a film acting class at the Jr. High level, so I spend all of that money each year on updating cameras and associated equipment, sd cards, mics, etc. and all my drama supplies.  

    Hope that helps!  Good luck with your research!

    Earlene DeLeon
    Tahoma School District
    Maple Valley WA  98038





    Original Message


  • 13.  RE: Theatre Budget

    Posted 08-01-2017 07:58
    I would post on the many playwright websites you are looking for a high school style show with few scenes, small band, not difficult costumes and you are offering to do the musical and will work with the writer.   And there is no payment either.    As a writer, this is exactly what I was looking for because my publisher, Samuel French, would not consider my new musical without a production.

    ------------------------------
    Leon Kaye
    Playwright for the Ages
    Lhk@koa1.com
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    Original Message


  • 14.  RE: Theatre Budget

    Posted 08-01-2017 09:10
    I teach in Augusta County, Virginia, and I'm in a unique situation. Our program is sort of a half-day magnet school, which means most of my students are still involved with the drama programs at their regular schools. Since that means I'm contending with seven other schools' fall plays and spring musicals, I only produce one show a year in January. Sometimes we'll do a senior showcase or an open house in the spring, and a couple of years we've competed in the one-act competition at the Virginia Theatre Association annual conference (I pay for that whole production out of my theatre fund).

    I alternate between doing a straight play (or sometimes two or even three in rep, depending on how many students I have in my program) one year and a musical the next. This is for financial and logistical reasons, but also to give my students a more varied experience.

    We do not have a theater of our own. I have a partnership with a local community theater, and we rent their space for $1500 for rehearsals and one weekend of production. That comes straight out of my ticket sales. However, I have access to their lights, mics, costumes, props, and set pieces, which helps keep other expenses down. I borrow costumes from other theatres and schools in the area, and I only buy or rent specialty items (aerial silks for Pippin, the two-man donkey costume for Kiss Me, Kate, etc.).

    I am given school money to cover "guest artists" including choreographer, music director, musicians, designers if needed, and a guest director if I'm producing multiple shows. However, all the rest (royalties, scripts, production expenses, dry cleaning of costumes, etc.) comes out of my theatre fund, which is basically only supported by ticket sales.

    I don't have a set budget. I basically do each show as cheaply as I possibly can while still making it good. I spend about $6,000-$7,500 on a musical and between $4,000-$6,000 on a straight play cycle, depending on how many shows we're doing (it costs that much because I always have to pay the theater rental and at least one guest director). We also have the challenge of doing a show in the middle of January, which means most years we have a weather issue. For two years in a row we had to cancel multiple performances and reschedule them the following week, which I'm sure had an impact on ticket sales. 

    However, I'm proud to say that I've been able to put at least a couple hundred dollars (and significantly more for Pippin and Drood) back in my theatre account as income. We don't fundraise at all. With kids in multiple schools and fundraising for band/chorus/theater at their regular schools, I just don't feel I can add on to that. We sell ads in the program, and I'm open to sponsorship from local businesses and community organizations.

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    Cassy Maxton-Whitacre
    Theatre Department Coordinator
    Fishersville VA
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    Original Message


  • 15.  RE: Theatre Budget

    Posted 08-01-2017 10:16
    I work for a private school in a mostly rural area outside of Charlotte. Our school's program literally started with a $0 budget. We begged, borrowed, and stole for our first show which led to our first real budget of about $2000 for the next year. Our budget now comes exclusively from ticket and concession sales with some additional money coming out of the fine arts budget when our principal thinks a purchase will benefit more than one department OR if she thinks it's worth giving us the boost. She's a great supporter, but she's tied by her own budget constraints, so this amount ranges from a few hundred dollars to maybe $1000 over the year. Depending on the success of our previous season and/or production, our per show budget can range between $3000-$6000. We try to aim for $3000 so we don't deplete our reserve. We currently do three shows a year: a children's play/musical (our money maker), a full scale spring production (our main stage beauty), and a third show that can be another play or a student directed showcase. We have our own costuming and tech drama departments, so we make everything in-house and store our materials/products on site.

    ------------------------------
    Maralie Medlin
    Director of Fine Arts/Theatre Arts Educator
    Gastonia, NC
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    Original Message


  • 16.  RE: Theatre Budget

    Posted 08-02-2017 01:37
    We get a small budget from our school to cover choreographer, accompanist and part of the rights for a musical.  This is because there is an expectation that we will do a musical each year, and I pointed out just how much more expensive they typically are.  Ticket sales from the musical cover everything for the winter and spring play, and ticket sales from the winter and spring play cover costumes, set, etc. for the next year's musical.

    We do some fundraising, but my students haven't become great fundraisers yet.  What we do fundraise generally goes into the Thespian account to help pay for attendance at the league acting competition, theatre exploration day and league one act festival (all required) as well as our Thespian regionals and state (voluntary).  It also helps pay for our Thespian Officer leadership camp, Camp Thespis.

    ------------------------------
    Laura Steenson
    Theatre Director
    Reynolds High School
    Troutdale OR
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    Original Message


  • 17.  RE: Theatre Budget

    Posted 08-03-2017 08:19
    While everyone is talking and thinking about their budgets, EdTA has added a budget template (in Excel) that many will find helpful as you plan for your year. When you go to the ITS website Home - International Thespian Society click on either middle school teacher or high school teacher in the menu bar, then scroll down to the Resources section. You'll see this, and many other important links there.

    ------------------------------
    David LaFleche
    Director of Membership
    Educational Theatre Association
    Cincinnati OH
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 18.  RE: Theatre Budget

    Posted 08-03-2017 16:18
    Our theatre department has been essentially self-sufficient for years. There is a department budget that gets divided up among theatre, music, and art, and the amount of funding is tied to the number of classes each teacher teaches. Usually it's around $400.00 per class, which covers materials and supplies. There is a small stipend for theatre, because of all the extra hours we put in.
    Our revenue comes from ticket sales and various fundraisers, and is managed by our Thespian club.
    Every couple of years we hold a silent auction during one of our productions-spring, usually. The lobby is transformed, and patrons are able to bid on items (most are under $50.00) and nibble on treats before the show and during intermission. The silent auctions are a lot of work, but the profits are immense.

    Nancy L. Bernhard
    recently retired theatre teacher
    Salinas High School
    Salinas, CA



    Original Message


  • 19.  RE: Theatre Budget

    Posted 08-03-2017 14:29

    I don't have any figures for you, but I do have some food for thought when researching funding and budgets for high school theatres.

    It's been my experience that high school theatre programs in general are woefully underfunded – as it evidenced by many of the posts on this discussion subject already. These days many high schools are being built or re-modeled with a state-of-the-art theatre on campus. While schools manage to raise the money for capital projects to build a theatre facility, once the keys are handed over there is no money budgeted to operate these facilities. This typically leaves the high school with a state-of-the-art theatre facility and no one to properly staff it so that it is appropriate and optimal for educational purposes and suitable for practical and safe operational use. This is even more the case for schools with existing "old"  theatres.

    School district administrators typically jump to the conclusion that their Drama teachers can run the facility (new or old) on their own, with perhaps a custodian as support. But many Drama teachers and custodians are not theatre technicians and managers, and theatre facilities are not contained classrooms. Highly qualified management and staff is needed in order to set up the operating systems, create a safety program, maximize student learning, and determine building performance and academic outcomes.

    Which - dare I point out the elephant on the stage – is how sports programs are run. A football team has several specialty coaches, the track and field team has several specialty coaches; kicking coaches, running coaches, throwing coaches, hurdles coaches, jumping coachs, the list goes on and on. What about the set design and construction coach, the lighting coach, the rigging coach, the costume coach, the sound coach, and so on? Where is the budget for all these people who "coach", teach and mentor our performing arts students?

    Part of the dilemma is that administrators don't realize just how many students a high school theatre serves. Sports seems to be much more visible. For instance, I recently read an article in my local paper titled "Colorado students really get into games". In the article it stated that "60.3 percent of students…could call themselves student-athletes". A few years ago, while working as a high school Theatre Manager, I decided to poll the performing arts teachers (drama, dance, music) and other teachers who used the theatre ("Mr." show, talent show, "Dancing with the Stars" show, etc) to find out what percentage of the students used the theatre. I discovered that in a school of about 1,700 students, about 3,900 students walked through the theatre doors each year, or 200%. How is that possible – obviously some participated in more than one event throughout the school year. I don't have the numbers of the actual amount of singular students, but it does beg the question – what percentage of students in your school call themselves performers and technicians? And – does your theatre budget – and staffing! - reflect the percentage of students in your school who participate in the performing arts (performing and/or tech)?

    I'm glad to see a study being done on this topic!



    ------------------------------
    Beth Rand
    High School Theatre Operations Coach

    Next HS Theatre Management Training for Drama Teachers online course: Fall Session starts Sept. 11. Some spaces still available.

    Author of "High School Theatre Operations" and "High School Theatre Safety Manual" and several more books on Amazon.

    www.PRESETT.org
    Westminster, CO
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


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