Some ideas about budgets… When your theatre has a lot of events that use the facility it's important that your admin understands the difference between the budget for the Drama department and the budget for general theatre operations. Even if you just have school events that use your theatre, and even if the Drama teacher is a 'one-person show' and is teaching/directing as well as managing the theatre operations, your theatre is essentially operating as a "roadhouse". Therefore it's important to treat it as such financially – or else the Drama teacher ends up paying for everything out of their class/department budget.
For instance, if you put R51 gels for area lighting in your lighting rep plot (the general lighting that all events in your theatre use – concerts, awards ceremonies, talent show, dance recital, etc.) then the cost of those gels should come out of your general theatre operating budget. The same goes for wireless mic batteries (although you really should get rechargables!). But, if the Drama teacher wants to switch out the rep plot area gels for R02 because the Drama department is putting on 1984 and the R51 areas are a little too happy, then the cost of those gels should come out of the Drama department budget. Likewise, batteries for the body mics for the Drama department's musical or the jazz choir's performance should come out of those class/department's budgets. Lamps (for your production instruments) are another item that should come out of the general theatre operating budget (one can't possibly determine how many lamplife hours each show uses!). The point being, if something is show/event-specific then it should come out of that class/department's budget, but if something is going to be used for most or all events that come into the theatre, then it should come out of the general theatre operating budget.
There is another budget to consider and that's the building budget. There are some items than neither class/department budgets nor the general theatre operating budget should pay for, and that is items that would be in the facility anyway were it not a theatre. Such as room lighting – in our case we call them house lights and work lights. Fire extinguishers and first aid kids are other items the building budget should pay for.
So what sort of items should the theatre operating budget plan for? Following are some expenses you can expect your theatre to have each year.
Consumable supplies
Lamps
Gels
Batteries
Tapes
Rigging equipment
Non-consumable supplies
Gobos (break-up gobos that everyone is going to use, for instance)
Gobo holders
Mics
Big ticket items
(Always plan for at least one big ticket item each year!)
More headsets
A followspot
LED lights
Gobo rotator
Moving light
Mics
Speakers
Monitors
Compressor
Projector Screen
In my experience somewhere between $2000 - $6000 is a typical yearly amount for operating supplies in a high school theatre – depending on how busy it is. That's just the theatre operating budget, not including any show/event-specific expenses. So, here's a tip to make things go smoother and alleviate having to beg for money each time you need it, or having to go through the school's or district's purchasing process when you suddenly find you're out of HPL lamps during tech week or just before a dance recital. See if you can get a school credit card or "P-card", or have open PO's at your most used theatrical supplier, with a budget limit. The less you have to involve an admin's ok (sometimes involving lengthy explanations and justifications…) on every single little purchase, the easier it is for you to be in control. In any case, as the theatre professional, you should be trusted to make autonomous decisions about your own day-to-day operations.
I sense that some of the financial (and other!) issues we are facing at this time are simply because having theatres on our high school campuses which are run like 'roadhouses' is a relatively recent thing. Admin are not prepared for what it takes to run a theatre facility because they simply haven't experienced it before. So even if you are only given one overall budget, it's important to keep track of your spending on two separate spreadsheets/registers/templates. That way at a later date you will be able to help your admin understand the difference between a show-specific budget and a general theatre operating budget. The ideal situation may never happen, but I truly believe that demonstrating to our admins (which, yes, can feel like we are continually having to defend our budget!) about what is becoming the norm is the only way that admin are going to learn what is becoming the norm. And, what they need to do in order to step up to the plate to do – oops, sports analogy! – step into the spotlight!!!
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Beth Rand, EBMS
Lighting Designer
School Theatre Operations Coach
Next HIGH SCHOOL THEATRE MANAGEMENT ONLINE COURSE for Drama Teachers: Spring Session closed. Summer session starts June 4th.
NEW SERVICE: REP PLOT DESIGN - Never have to re-hang and re-focus all your lights again! (Can be accomplished remotely if you're not in the Boulder/Denver area.)
Author of "HIGH SCHOOL THEATRE OPERATIONS" and several more books to help you manage your school theatre, at
http://www.presett.org/helpful-books-for-you.html.www.PRESETT.orgWestminster, CO
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-11-2017 13:37
From: Aileen Zeigler
Subject: new theatre budget template
Thanks for the new theatre budget template! I really love this tool. It's a great way to keep track of our spending and budgeting from year to year. I'm struggling a bit to figure out how to use it for my non show needs. Where should I include general theatre items that aren't connected to a show or my classroom budget. Is there a miscellaneous location where I can put in my own expenses that I'm not finding?
Aileen
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Aileen Zeigler
Theatre Arts Director
Omaha NE
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