Let's look at the elephant in the room. The big issue is not what your musician is paid for a show, the big issue is why are Drama teachers given so little a budget for directing a show at a school that a musician's wage is 1/4 the whole budget.
Doing the math – the rehearsal and performance times you mentioned, plus I'm adding an arbitrary 10 hours of personal rehearsal and preparation (sounds like he's a guy who takes his worth seriously), I'd guess he's billed you around $1500 - $2000? That doesn't seem like an unreasonable wage to me (for what is about a 2 week time period, where he can't take on any other gigs). But what is unreasonable is your pay. And why is your music director being paid so little. And why is your budget so low. Yes, it's the same in most schools, but why, when a cross country team (for instance) can hire a running coach, a jumping coach, a pole vault coach, a hurdles coach, even someone to be a timer, or a football team can hire a kicking coach, a running coach, a catching coach, a throwing coach, ticket takers, the list goes on and on, each at about $2000 per season – why then can we not hire a singing coach, a band coach, music support, a lighting coach, a set coach, a sound coach and so on?
This is a systemic problem at high schools in our country, which we all buy into. One person mentioned "its just simply not how things are done realistically, especially at a school", but does it have to continue to be that way? Should it be? When you go to your principal (when we all go to our principals), perhaps the conversation to have is how many students are 'served' by putting on a play (more than any sports team), how long the rehearsal process is (as long as some sports 'seasons'), how many "coaches" it takes to serve/supervise/mentor/train the students and how many hours they put in. I know, all administrators say they don't have money, but they do, they just don't have an understanding of the value of what we do. It's up to us, collectively, to take the elephant to the principal's office and have the conversation; not to lower someone's wages to fit within our budget, but to raise our budgets to a reasonable share of the principal's budget, so that we can properly support the education of our students.
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Beth Rand, EBMS
High School Theatre Operations Coach
Next HS Theatre Management Training for Drama Teachers online course: Winter Session starts Jan. 15 (limited to 8 students).
Author of "High School Theatre Operations" and "The High School Theatre Safety Manual" and several more books on Amazon and also at
http://www.presett.org/helpful-books-for-you.html.www.PRESETT.orgWestminster, CO
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Original Message:
Sent: 12-04-2017 17:03
From: Gloria Goodwin
Subject: Musician pay
Hello. I am in a full-blown dispute with one of my musicians from my just completed musical production. My fault lies in my failure to obtain an upfront quote. He was asked to play by our regular accompanist. We had a vague conversation in which I asked him his rate and he said he could work out some hourly figure. He was at 5 rehearsals and 3 performances. I am new at this school and was launched into producing the show quickly. When I got his bill I was in shock. He charged for study and preparation hours, outside rehearsal time, in rehearsal time and performance. He charged $25 an hour. (That is, by the way, more than the union rate in this metro.) His final bill was about 1/4 of my total budget and twice what the music director was getting paid. I counter offered about half what he requested thinking I was being generous and he is now calling me unprofessional in bold letters and saying he is taking his case to my principal. I know I blew it when I didn't get a solid quote up front. However, we never had a contract and the understanding is it would be a fair rate. We have a 300 seat theatre and charge $4 and $7 a ticket. Am I being delusional? The amount I put in to pay him pretty much wiped out the remainder of my budget. Advice?
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Gloria Goodwin
Kansas MO
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