No, Annie is going to be our local production to raise money for our tour of Babes in Toyland.

Jayzehr: I have experience in musicals, I've produced and directed several. There is actually two reasons we want to do Babes in Toyland. #1 is that it has name recognition, and it also has the ability to done very elaborately. #2 is that since we will be touring it around the large venues, we don't want to be stuck paying $4,000 per performance royalties to license houses. If we commission our own, we don't have to pay any royalties, and we can make extra money on licensing the rights, soundtracks, merch, etc.

We are also currently in consideration of "A Little Princess" through Princess Musicals, but there we again have royalty issues as well as lack of rights. Also, since this is a very small musical without much in the way of a large name, we might have issues with filling the seats.

Not technically,
Annie will be a professional show as well, at least in theory. I guess the question where is what determines "Professional". We are not, and don't have intentions of going equity, but in all intents and purposes we have decided that everyone involved in our productions should be paid. Now this does not mean we hire only "professional" people, we have just taken the route of employing instead of volunteering.

When we started the group we had no intention of paying anybody or going on tour... We were just wanting to start a Community Theater... This new turn in our company was brought on by the desire to branch out and serve more than just one community, as there are many communities across the state and America for that matter that don't have access to quality Theater. As for paying people, naturally if were going to pull them away from their jobs for days on end, money needs to be involved for them.

Also, we are still considering rather Babes in Toyland is the one we want to go with or not. We currently have permission to tour "A Little Princess" which would be a much simpler production. I won't know till I bring up the contract for Princess at the next board meeting.

"So I'm sure even if your not an equity company, you would come under some form of minimum wage & conditions liability."
Yes, even non-equity must abide by all federal and state employment laws, including minimum wage, which is currently $5.85 / Hour in Indiana as well as mandatory workers comp insurance.

Under state or federal law, offering company health insurance and 401 (k) plans are all optional, especially if for non full time employees.

As to min/max hours, etc... When not using union employee's you can ultimately work people as much as you want under what terms you want, with to provision of more than 40 hours per week is overtime @ 1 1/2 times pay by law.

IATSE however has there own rules, and since most of the larger Theaters require using there labor (stage hands, flymen, riggers, etc) we will have to abide by there somewhat stricter laws concerning min. hours worked, max. hours worked, breaks, etc.

Actors, Makeup & Wardrobe, SM's, PA's, etc are not union however, so only covered by state and federal labor laws.

Landon--There's nothing wrong with thinking big as long as you're being honest with everyone about your experience and knowledge. If you're thinking you might want to manage and produce touring shows that will play large venues my suggestion would be to first try and find a job in some capacity working for a company that actually does that so you can get some real world business and theater experience. If you're still in school, another option might be to get involved in theater productions at your college or university.