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Hi Tom,
Our theatre is in the 30th year of operating. We started producing plays in a middle school and did that for sixteen years. We produced two plays a year and spent about $2,000. total for the season. We now own our own building, produce a four-play season, an additional show as a fund raiser, rent the theatre and do some presenting, and have a $280,000 budget. We have 2 1/2 employees, an 18 member theatre board, a 15 member "friends group" (social support & fund raising) and 474 volunteers on our list.
Many community theatres are smaller than us and many are larger. When we did some benchmarking two years ago we found many very large community theatres. (the Des Moines Playhouse had a $1.9 million dollar budget).
The advantage of owning our own building is we can do whatever we want, we don't need to seek approval. Of course the disadvantage is there a re many expenses associated with owning our own building.
But, as far as presenting goes, with around 500 seats we can afford to present events, concerts, shows with an artist fee of $10,000 or less and make money. So, when we produce The Ozark Jubilee from Branson, we make money. When we present some big band (like Tommy Dorsey Orchestra and the Glenn Miller Orchestra) and folk music (like Leo Kottke, Roger McGuinn, Greg Brown with Pieta Brown & Bo Ramsey) we make money. It's helps to supplement our revenues, it's like getting additional grants. The pressure isn't on us to make the most profit out of every single play. We couldn't afford to compete with large venues, theatres, performing arts centers. We could do a Willie Nelson concert and afford the $30,000. artist fee. But, there are some things that we can afford to do, that there is an audience for and makes financial sense.
The great thing about all of this is those other things we present help to bring in an audience that is not already coming to our theatre on a regular basis. If they come to our theatre for one of those events, we have a good opportunity to get them back for one of our own plays. That's how we've grown our audience. That's how we've grown our budget. We had the von Trapp Family Singers here and this was probably one of the smallest venues they've evr played. But, some people that came to that concert came to some of our plays the following season.
I know some theatres own their own building. Some rent space and are the main tennant. Some rent space are are one of many tenneants, or resident companies. Some just produce their own plays and the ones that own buildings do some rentals and other presenting. It's a fine ballance. I think this is a great site for benchmarking and picking each others brains.
Later,
John
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John
cfct@cfu.net
http://www.osterregent.org
http://www.facebook.com/osterregent
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