Community Theater Green Room Discussion Board: New To new the stage Set Builder Questions

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   I have some ?'s  For you all 
I have been building sets for the last two years. The directors give me a some ideas and I'm in charge of designing / building & painting the set/ and put there sound bites together.
This is done in a high school Theater so time is a factor. I have had about 7 days to this great task. and the theater is used some time during the day and have to move the set.
One question is how many hours are put a shows I average about 60 hours per show and payment  (I  live in Minnesota) 

                                           Thanks to all 
                                             this really helps
                                                 Startingout

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startingout Lead Joined: 9/09/08 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 39	Topic: New To new the stage Set Builder Questions Posted: 2/24/09 at 3:10pm
	I have some ?'s For you all I have been building sets for the last two years. The directors give me a some ideas and I'm in charge of designing / building & painting the set/ and put there sound bites together. This is done in a high school Theater so time is a factor. I have had about 7 days to this great task. and the theater is used some time during the day and have to move the set. One question is how many hours are put a shows I average about 60 hours per show and payment (I live in Minnesota) Thanks to all this really helps Startingout

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spikesgirl Celebrity Joined: 3/30/08 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 129	Posted: 3/07/09 at 3:31pm
	We usually put in between 140 and 160 hours per production. When I was working as a shop foreman, I usually made about $25 an hour and then had my design fee added on top of that. Design fees will vary depnding upon the complexity of the set and your experience. If you've been designing and construction for two years, then you would be receiving anywhere from $400 to $1,000 per production in California. Musicals usually garner a high fee than 'straight' play. Children's Theatre is usually a little less than that whether it's a musical or not. That probably doesn't help very much, but you can't really expect top dollar or have a lot of clout when you're just starting out. It's that whole 'dues' thing. it took me a long time to be expereinced enough and for folks to have confidence in me to start earning a decent living wage - thank the Powers That Be that I didn't choose this career for money alone. SG
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David McCall Celebrity Joined: 1/28/09 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 299	Posted: 3/07/09 at 11:10pm
	The town has been very generous with us so we have an old school cafetorium to store our set pieces and to build the sets. We typically build and paint the set over 5-8 Saturdays. Usually a couple evenings get added toward the end. We "hire" a tech director that is responsible for everything technical. This person gets $500 for the bigger shows, and $0 for everything else. There is a heavy dependence on slave labor in the form of actors to do the build and paint, but the majority of the work falls on the shoulders of the tech director. We load the show into the venue on the Saturday before opening. Lighting, sound and sets all go in at roughly the same time. Sound finishes first followed by the set, and the lighting folks stay later so they can have the room to themselves. Sometimes the director will try to shove a rehearsal into Saturday night. Sunday we try to Finnish the lighting/set and do a cue to cue rehearsal and/or a run through. It isn't often that both rehearsals actually happen. It is a middle school and the music department thinks that the auditorium is the "band room". We have to take down all of the chairs and music stands every school night and put it all back at the end of the rehearsal. All of the set pieces hve to fit into the wings every night, so that as to be considered in the design. Monday through Wednesday, and sometimes Thursday, we have rehearsals that get closer to a full dress rehearsals as the week progresses. Usually there are still props and costumes being made in the hallway, and finish work on the set being done on the set whereever we can find room. We usually do 4 shows. Most often over 2 weekends, but sometimes all in the same weekend. Set budgets run from $300-$1200 for materials and rentals depending on the complexity of the show. The venue cost around $4000. The rehearsal hall is another $1500. Overall expense can be as high as $30,000 for a big musical. Does that help at all?
	David M
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gaftpres Star Joined: 11/14/07 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 80	Posted: 4/22/09 at 11:05pm
	$0 we are 100% volunteer in our CT, this is everyone, with the exception of our musical. This production pays the director $600, orchestra director $500, choral director $100, choreographer $100 and set $300..... Everyone else that helps, which is required of all participating cast, family or whoever we can get to commit, they are all volunteers. We are fortunate to have this arrangement with our people, hence my quote on here.
	Old volunteers never die, they just get recycled!
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Topic: New To new the stage Set Builder Questions( Topic Closed)