Do dramas make money?
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Topic: Do dramas make money?
Posted By: shoeleather
Subject: Do dramas make money?
Date Posted: 7/14/10 at 12:38pm
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I serve on a play selection committe and the rousing topic of which genres to include on a season slate consumes a lot of our time. Though I know it depends heavily on the audience in question, do dramas tend to make money, break even or lose revenue? |
Replies:
Posted By: pdavis69
Date Posted: 7/14/10 at 1:06pm
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I can only answer for our community in NW Ohio. The answer is.......it depends. We did very well with Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. We lost our butt on 'night Mother. We have polled our audiences in the past and found overwhelmingly they want comedies and musicals. Big name dramas such as Cat brought in the audiences where as "night Mother did so poorly we cancelled a show (first time ever at our playhouse) when only two people showed up one night.
So again, do they make money? It depends. Know your audience. Know your talent base. ------------- Patrick L. Davis Fort Findlay Playhouse |
Posted By: FFootlighters
Date Posted: 7/14/10 at 2:56pm
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There is an old adage that the comedies pay for the dramas; a good comedy makes you money and a good drama grows your audience. As pdavis said, that's not always true with the well-known dramas, but comedies do always seem to do historically better than dramas.
I worked for many years on play selection with a CT in Florida. Our formula was an opening and closing musical; start the season with a bang for new subscribers then woo the renewing subscribers at the end. The other four shows were 2 comedies, 1 mystery, and 1 drama. While that didn't always hold true, 'cause when a good show comes along you produce it, the breakdown gave us a general guideline. ------------- Fairfield Footlighters Fairfield, OH http://www.fairfield-footlighters.org |
Posted By: B-M-D
Date Posted: 7/15/10 at 4:24pm
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Very much depends. If it's a well known drama like Proof or a well known playwright it can work out. Our group has done well over the last 20 years or so never losing money on any show we've done, even relatively obscure ones. We did Side Man this past season, word of mouth was incredible and we made money on that as well. If you have a good or exceptional production word of mouth is money in the bank around here.
Our seasons tend to open with a comedy, have dramas or other genres in the middle and close with a musical or comedy. We've varied it on occasion, primarily for director availability. ------------- BD 
"Dying is easy, comedy is hard." |
Posted By: 23cal
Date Posted: 7/17/10 at 11:25am
| We seem to have a nonstop battle going on whether to do more comedies--and make more money--or to do more dramas, mysteries, children's theatre, etc. to fulfill our obligation to educate and to bring "theatre" (all kinds) to the community. l think typically we end up doing comedies for the audience and the coffers, and dramas for ourselves. |
Posted By: Helena
Date Posted: 7/20/10 at 10:41am
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We have this discussion as well. Everyone wants to see the musicals and comedies... some of our group want to do only "family fare", and some of us want to explore heavier pieces.
We really try to offer a diverse season with one of each genre.
The best attended dramas for us have been ones that have had familiar titles or playwrights. ------------- "..that's farce, that's theater, that's life" |
Posted By: KEB54
Date Posted: 7/25/10 at 12:29pm
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I agree - it depends. Generally the dramas do not make money, but I think they should be included in a season package.
Sometimes they do make money, if they are well know. We have done "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "Driving Miss Daisy" and they were big money makers for us. ------------- KEB |
Posted By: John Luzaich
Date Posted: 10/25/10 at 3:32pm
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Yes, dramas should make money. Anything other than straight forward comedies should always make money, too many factors involved to get into detail here, but educate, communicate, market, direct, act, design: if those are all done well, every play should sell well. (other than the unusual: we had a flood in the midwest that killed our production of Damn Yankees).
Our dramas, dramadies, mysteries, all do well. ------------- John cfct@cfu.net http://www.osterregent.org http://www.facebook.com/osterregent |
Posted By: skywalkerlt
Date Posted: 12/01/10 at 2:17pm
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I'm in the Denver area, and I sit on the board of directors for two different theater companies that have made money on different dramas. One company produced 12 Angry Men and grossed well into the five figures. The second company did Angels in America, and it sold very well and ended up turning a good profit.
I think it depends upon what drama you plan on doing. I've had and seen bad luck with playwrights like David Mamet and Lillian Helman. But really, both of those had different circumstances. If your going to do a drama, doing a piece with a name attached to it from a playwright or a famous film might seem like selling out, but it can still be a great show that'll turn a profit and earn plenty of accolades. |