We normally pay our Music/Vocal Director and the orchestra.  The remaining members of the staff and the actors are not paid.

John

We have several paid positions at our community theater.  We have the following positions:

Managing Director: Salaried position whose salary is partially reimbursed by a grant from our city's cultural council.

Education Director: Salaried position whose salary is acquired by our children's theater/camp.  Additional profits are used to maintain the theater expenses.

Directors:  All play directors are paid a stipend of $200.00 according to our policy and procedure manual.  Most directors have used this to pay for a cast party. These payments are managed by our Managing Director, although recently, it was discovered by the Board, that certain directors have been compensated at a much higher rate.  It was understandable for a Musical Director, but this also occurred when comparing apples to apples so to speak.

Musicians:  Generally pay the minimal fee allowed, and accepted.

Note:  We also had a paid part-time technical director, who has since resigned, but this position caused our theater to lose several volunteers who were treated very poorly by the Technical Director.

Hope this helps some individuals.

Nick Charles

We pay no one.  Our theatre is run entirely with volunteers.

A small theatre group just north of here pays the director $500 per show.  They also seem to pay a stipend to the lighting and set people as well as the musical director/orchestra.

Especially in a small community; why is it that people have to be paid?  I realize that sometimes if you need a good orchestra or piano/bass, whatever, that they may not have the same level of interest as everyone else.  But the directors??? Many of them are the same ones that serve on the board and end up either acting in the show or are at least in other shows.

My advice to any new theatre group in a smaller town would be to try your darnedest to find people that don't mind giving you their time.  To me ... that's what community theatre should be.

That group must have it's own gold mine?

Although in another life, I was asked to Direct a revue professionally. So considering they were a community group, I only charged them $1 per minute - for the duration time, it took to perform the show, I think it was about $60 for the whole job.

As compared to community theatre, I was treated totally different & with a new respect & attitude by everyone concerned, it was great & weird!

So I think our attitude does take on a more filtered personal response, when we deal with professionals & not just one of the troupes!

So from the Groups point of view, I don?t think it is a big drawback, but rather a renewal of amateur values for everyone.

Having said that, paying someone can run away with the gold & get out of hand very easily.

I tend to believe that we should be encouraging members from within, to try their hands, while only allowing perdiums only, to cross their palms!

We pay the Music Director, Orchestra and sometimes, the choreographer for a musical.  No one on a straight show.

John

I belong to five different CT's. A few pay, most don't.  Of the ones that pay the most consitant one has a pay schedule as follows:

Director (straight play) $300  (Musical) $400

Producer (straight play) $300 (Musical) $400

Music Director $400

Rehearsal Pianist $250

Choreographer $200

Orchestra Member $175

As for whether they should or not, I don't care one way or the other.  I do what I do for the fun of it. (although you won't see me NOT take the check when its offered)

The last theatre for whom I worked designing and sewing costumes didn't even give me a "thank you".  

Before that I was paid $200 per show for my work.  I would have done it for free for that theatre because they were such a great group ... enthusiastic, cooperative, etc. ... quite a pleasure to work for. 

I belong to one of the same theatres as MartyW, and wanted to add a little to what he reported.  I've been around this group for 34 years, and when I first started no-one was "paid" (we preferred to call it a "stipend" or "honorarium").  A member who was getting his degree in theatre (this would have been in about 1978-79) and who has since gone on to teach/direct in academic circles insisted that we would attract a more informed, talented, experienced group of directors if we offered them money.  Several others and I argued that this was a dangerous precedent to set, and wondered where it would all stop.

Shift to present day.  The money didn't attract a whole new group of directors (3 of our 5 directors this past season are the same ones that were directing 28 years ago) and now we also "pay" the producer, music director, choreographer, musicians....and one of the usual set builders has started to campaign for payment.  Indeed, where does it all end?  And what did the money accomplish?

Just to keep it between the yellow lines... On Diva's message, she is so right on where does it end... BUT, (and only because it matters to her and me and not to most of you) it was a set dresser that desires payment, the builders and to a same degree that dresser really only wanted what we all want in a way.  To be appreciated.. I think we often fall short in appreciating those around us.. Particularly in C.T. and particularly those who do our tech... I think all of us need to find more ways to make people feel appreciated and to say thank you...  Might sound like a small, even petty thing, but it is just like giving medals in the Army... We say "Great job, thank you for risking your life.. Here is a medal, go do it again next week"  Same concept with people who do the "work" of the theater.. If you don't say thank you sometimes, they just seem to go away... Where all this pay stuff comes from is when we turn around and they are all gone, we resort to the wallet, when we should have been appealing to the soul...

Thank a Techie.. (or anyone else that makes it possible)

Up until a few years ago, a "token of appreciation" was always given at the cast party.....sometimes (depending on the individual/position) a very nice token!  They were usually purchased by the director, though as time went along the producer usually had the privilege of procuring gifts for the tech staff.  These gifts were purchased with funds out of the director's/producer's pocket, willingly and with great joy and enjoyment in the choosing.  A lot of thought and work went into these gifts (very often handcrafted by the director/producer), and they were frequently chosen with the individual actor/tech person in mind. The cast usually took up a collection (small amount from each cast member/tech person) to buy the director and producer an appropriate and heartfelt gift.  To me, (as an actor, techie, and director) this kind of "pay" means a lot more than a set amount voted impersonally by the Board.  I always took great pride and pleasure in receiving such a gift, and even more pride and pleasure in creating, buying and giving it.

In recent years, this tradition has continued with some people, but many of those involved in the shows have ceased to attend the cast parties, and so are not there to receive verbal thanks and this token at the traditional time.  This time at the cast parties was always referred to as "humility hour", and was looked forward to throughout the whole production. 

Yes, I agree that appreciation also needs to be given on a continuing basis throughout the rehearsal period and not just at the cast party. I agree that not enough of that happens. But isn't it a shame that we consider money to be the most important kind of "thank you"?  It has become so impersonal that it is almost pointless. A lot of the heart, comraderie, and warmth has gone out of the theatre group.

I have been both on stage and backstage, as dresser, props designer, sound, lights, director, etc., and I have to say that I have never felt slighted in the least.  There always has been someone to thank me for my efforts, and even to compliment me on what I have done.  As a matter of fact, I have often received more feedback (except for applause, of course) on my backstage work than for being onstage.  Applause from the audience is wonderful, but thank yous are very seldom given to the actors by the tech people or theatre members for the time-intensive efforts that they have put in.

I agree with you totally about support and thanks for ALL members of the theatre effort. I know that we all need to make more of an effort to do so, and if I am unknowingly at fault, I do apologize to anyone that I may have slighted. But why is money the be-all, end-all solution to this problem?

Sorry for the ramble, but this is a very emotional topic for me.  I feel that it causes more rancor than it solves, dealing with who to pay, how much to pay, etc.

Straight stage productions, no one is paid. Musicals, we sometimes will pay the musicians.  $500 to the Music director, and pit band members each get $100 for the run of rehearsals and shows. Pretty much just gas money.

We also produce 2 - 2 week children's theatre workshops in the summer. One for 1st - 8th grade, and one for 9th - 12th. The teaching staff and administrators are paid $700.00 per workshop. I kept track of my hours one year, and figured I made about $1 per hour.  

Just an addendum to my post above:  because we (and most of the other community theatres) in Ohio belong to OCTA (Ohio Community Theatre Organization), we are not permitted, per their by-laws, to pay any actor in a member organization's production.  Theatres are perfectly within their rights to pay actors, but then they are not permitted to join OCTA, which offers many benefits to its member theatres.