Community Theater Green Room Discussion Board: how much to do a productions

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   How much overall would you say it costs to do a production, with a royalties costing $1,100, theater rental costing $2,200(60 seats) and no actors/tech staff are being paid. The show is Gypsy, and there's going to be a cast of about 20. How much do you think for costuming and set building etc. do you think i should have? I'm sorry if that wasn't clear, but you can ask questions to clear it up.

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Guests Guest	Topic: how much to do a productions Posted: 11/18/03 at 9:56am
	How much overall would you say it costs to do a production, with a royalties costing $1,100, theater rental costing $2,200(60 seats) and no actors/tech staff are being paid. The show is Gypsy, and there's going to be a cast of about 20. How much do you think for costuming and set building etc. do you think i should have? I'm sorry if that wasn't clear, but you can ask questions to clear it up.

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Guests Guest	Posted: 11/18/03 at 12:45pm
	For a 12 performance run in a 140 seat theater the group I normally work with spends around $10,000 to put on a musical. This includes royalties, production expenses, publicity, saleries for musicians (which we can't get for free), but does not include rent. In your situation I would figure on around $1000 for production expenses (costumes, props, set etc). If you really work on the cheap and beg and borrow a lot you may be able to get this number lower. You say your staff is not being paid, I assume this also includes musicians. In my area it's almost impossible to get musicians to work for free and this becomes a big part of the expenses for a musical. Also, don't forget the cost of script/score rental, this can be serveral hundred dollars for a musical, and it's not included as part of the royalties. Dan
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Guests Guest	Posted: 11/18/03 at 3:57pm
	Are you supplying lights, gels, do you have to have union workers? how elaborate is your set? How much costumes are you going to have to buy, or fabric sew, what about PR, tickets, programs? There's more to a production than sets and costumes. You have to consider incidentals, refreshments at intermission, etc...
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Guests Guest	Posted: 11/25/03 at 10:59am
	I counted rental of materials from TAMS-WITMARK under the royalties categories. I have several friends who are very good muscians who offered to do it for free. And the sets can't be too elaborate. It's not a huge space and it's on the floor. And I also want to know about printing costs etc. Like I have no idea about any of this stuff, How much would it cost to print programs and tickets etc...
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Guests Guest	Posted: 11/25/03 at 7:25pm
	When we do a production our printing costs for programs typically run about $700 to $800 for 1000 to 2000 copies (we have a 16 page program which is printed on a web press and sell advertisements and sponsorhips to defray the cost) -- we could get by a lot cheaper by making single page photocopied programs which around here are about $.20 a copy (front and back). If you can get a business to make the copies for you and call it a donation, maybe you can get by with just the cost of the paper! Same thing with your posters...I think that is the route I would encourage you to go at this point. Maybe somebody in your group works for a large company (or even a small one) that would welcome the opportunity to help out with printin.
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AnonymousActor5 Walk-On Joined: 3/24/05 Online Status: Offline Posts: 0	Posted: 3/24/05 at 11:52pm
	oh my god! 10,000 dollars? the last show i put on it only cost 2000! including rights. but since i am starting a theater company i have been trying to figure our budget as well. My colleagues figure around 1000 but sadly after researching, i had found it to be 5000, does this number seem normal? or do you think it is too expensive?
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Scott B Celebrity Joined: 12/08/04 Online Status: Offline Posts: 239	Posted: 3/27/05 at 12:07am
	A very small, rural theatre company that I work with (seats 85) basically figures about $4300 for a musical. I believe that's for a three week/12 show run. This does not include rent.
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fresh Walk-On Joined: 5/30/06 Online Status: Offline Posts: 0	Posted: 5/30/06 at 7:25pm
	We are currently running Gypsy with a cast of 35 in a theater that seats 250. Our budget for this show is $27000, which includes royalteis in excess of $6000 and rent of over $7500. We are charging $20 per adult attendee.
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k8tt Star Joined: 4/05/05 Location: Canada Online Status: Offline Posts: 73	Posted: 6/01/06 at 11:03am
	Geez, our CT is a pauper compared to you guys in the big leagues! We are in a rural area and are very small. All volunteers except the part time bookkeeper. We rent space for $1000 Cdn. for two weekends (6 shows seating up to 80) and keep our fingers crossed that we make anything above our costs. The last show made almost $2000 (and that included concession sales!). We beg, borrow (not steal yet, though) and empty our own homes of props, costumes and set pieces. Sometimes props and costumes budgets are only $100 each! Our last big musical lost money and I have a feeling our current drama won't make anything. People around here only want to see comedies. Of course, we are non-profit and are donating a percentage of the proceeds to charity.
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Scott B Celebrity Joined: 12/08/04 Online Status: Offline Posts: 239	Posted: 6/01/06 at 11:33pm
	We are quite small as well. We have no sponsors, advertising, or corporate contributions. Our shows have to make enough money to pay for the whole budget. Our last one was budgeted at $4500 and I believe we took in around $5300. We don't have our final figures in yet, but I'm guessing that we came in around $4100. We have no space, so the church let us use their facilities. We gave them a $400 donation even though they asked for nothing. It probably does litte more than cover utilities, but they know we're non-profit as well. We may look at a play this fall to help bring down the expenses even more, but then we'll probably lose the church if the show doesn't fit. This is a tough business to be in.
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