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I retired in June, so my information is fairly current for our district. Here is what our district has "listed" as stipend amounts for production related positions:

Thespian Sponsor - 2% of base salary (1st year teacher)

Theatre Director - 3% of base salary per production

Musical Director - 4% of base salary 

In addition, the music department provides an additional 4% for the musical director (for a total of 8%). The conductor, lighting designer, and choreographer are given varying amounts, as determined by the musical director and profits. The musical is done on a completely extra-curricular basis, while the theatre productions are a part of the theatre classes so they are co-curricular.

Above I put "listed" in quotations because there are a lot of amounts officially listed, but it is up to the individual schools in the district to decide to pay or not. For instance, I usually did 5 productions over two semesters, but was only paid for one by the district and then one by the school (the school did not actually have to pay me if they decided it wasn't in their budget). There was no extra stipend for Stagecraft, which is where the real after school work was done.

Hope this was helpful.

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Kristie Bach (Retired Theatre Teacher)
Purple Plays Publishing
Traverse City, MI
www.purpleplays.com

Hi All!

Thank you for your assistance. It has been interesting to see how production teams are paid, and what those numbers look like. I love having this discussion forum to gather information to help with ideas and other brainstorms.

Thank you again for your time.

Jim

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James Fry
Director of Student Life & Malvern Theatre Society
West Chester PA

Original Message:
Sent: 03-21-2016 08:57
From: Kristie Bach
Subject: Production team stipends

I retired in June, so my information is fairly current for our district. Here is what our district has "listed" as stipend amounts for production related positions:

Thespian Sponsor - 2% of base salary (1st year teacher)

Theatre Director - 3% of base salary per production

Musical Director - 4% of base salary 

In addition, the music department provides an additional 4% for the musical director (for a total of 8%). The conductor, lighting designer, and choreographer are given varying amounts, as determined by the musical director and profits. The musical is done on a completely extra-curricular basis, while the theatre productions are a part of the theatre classes so they are co-curricular.

Above I put "listed" in quotations because there are a lot of amounts officially listed, but it is up to the individual schools in the district to decide to pay or not. For instance, I usually did 5 productions over two semesters, but was only paid for one by the district and then one by the school (the school did not actually have to pay me if they decided it wasn't in their budget). There was no extra stipend for Stagecraft, which is where the real after school work was done.

Hope this was helpful.

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Kristie Bach (Retired Theatre Teacher)
Purple Plays Publishing
Traverse City, MI
www.purpleplays.com

?I imagine you are going to get many answers. In our district there are only two general stipends for theater; a head theater position and an assistant theater position. The lead one is on a five year horizontal scale that tops out at around $4700 or so, and the assistant position gets around $2500 per year. This is the highest amount you could hope to get in our district and it is an annual contract. If I ever figured out what that works out to at an hourly rate, I am sure it would be minimum wage or less.

?

However, every time I think I have it bad, I hear from another person, who makes even less.


Ed Como
Chaparral Performing Arts Chair
Chaparral Theater and Film Instructor
Scottsdale Unified School District

------Original Message------

As my district goes into another negotiating year, we are seeking the same information, so I will gladly share what we have found in the Tacoma, Washington Metro area.

Tacoma School District - 3,500 (8.28% of base salary)

Franklin-Pierce School District - 4,767 (14% of base salary, an additional $800 for a musical)

Steilacoom Historical School District - 1728 (This is for the 2009 School Year)

Clover Park School District - 4,400

Getting this information from others is greatly appreciated.

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Jym Kinney
Troupe Director
Clover Park High School
Lakewood, Washington