Community Theater Green Room Discussion Board: DO YOU PAY ANYONE? Please respond.

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   I'm wondering if your theater pays their directors, music directors, etc. a fee or honorarium for their services?

If so, do you know how much?

We are investigatig these possibilities.  Please leave a reply here, or feel free to send me a personal email at j_d_haller@chartermi.net.

Thanks so much.  Your reply will help us a lot!

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Guests Guest	Topic: DO YOU PAY ANYONE? Please respond. Posted: 10/13/03 at 12:51am
	I'm wondering if your theater pays their directors, music directors, etc. a fee or honorarium for their services? If so, do you know how much? We are investigatig these possibilities. Please leave a reply here, or feel free to send me a personal email at j_d_haller@chartermi.net. Thanks so much. Your reply will help us a lot!

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Guests Guest	Posted: 10/14/03 at 1:19pm
	Hi There, The small community theatre I work for does pay a few select people. We pay them to get a certain quality of work you cannot get out of volunteers. Our paid staff still volunteers quite a lot of hours and do not get paid as much as they probably should for the work that is involved. That staff includes: Artistic Director Technical Director Music Director (including orchestra if needed) Choreographer Costume Designer Janitor Office Manager PR Coordinator We personally also feel, as a group, if someone has enough experience we can pay them for running lights. A good lighting person who you do not have to start and stop on a first light tech is as good as gold! Other than that we are all volunteer. Volunteers include Stage Managers, backstage crew, anyone who works assisting the paid people (for example Costume builders), actors, directors, and so on. We feel we provide an educational enviroment and that is our pay. We often get directors that want to direct for the experience. Most of our major productions are directed by the Artistic Director. You can get grants or sponsorship to pay certain areas. For example we get an operational grant for our orchastra when needed. If you have questions on how our system works feel free to email me. lambertconsulting@msn.com ~joe
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Guests Guest	Posted: 10/14/03 at 3:01pm
	The theater I currently work in pays no one. Another theater in our area that I was recently involved with pays the following on this scale. Director: Straight show $300, Musical $400 Music/Orchestra Director $400 Producer/Tech Director $300 Straight $400 Musical Choreographer $200 Rehearsal pianist $250 Orhestra, $170 (also paid to the pieanist if in the orhestra as well) Thats about it. The reason they pay however, is that it was the only way to get Orchestra members. After that the slippery slope took hold. Then again, unlike many other theaters, they can afford it.
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Guests Guest	Posted: 11/06/03 at 5:11pm
	We pay our musicians and musical director. Forced into paying for some high school dweebs to run lights and sound because we are using their facility....they spend most of their time goofing off on our dime and don't even show up 'til tech week. (Little rant there...just finished production where we lost huge money!!!)
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Guests Guest	Posted: 11/08/03 at 12:35pm
	We only pay a musician for our musical programs and instructors for our training programs. I produce all of or programs am direct a good number of them. It always seemed unfair to pay one person and not another. Our local "big" theater used to pay the director $1,000 and the musical director $400. It has gotten out of hand for them recently and I don't think they have found a way to put the Genie back into the bottle. About a year and a half ago, they ended up paying $4,000 in salaries for a musical - $2,000 for the Director and $1,000 each for the musical director and costume designer. (I think hey lost a ton of money on the production). Then they had a director who wanted $1,200 and got it. The director for their current production is getting $1,000 PLUS 20% of the profits!!! (I understand the deal is that the lead actor will get a cut of the Directors pay but they don't want the other actors to know that - fat chance!!). (Having seen the show last night there may not be any profits). It has turned into a bidding war and no one is happy about it. I interviewed at a distant theater to direct a show that offered the greater of $1,000 or 10% of the GROSS - $25 tickets - dinner theater - wow!!! I think paying is unfair to those who do not get paid. I understand the issue about getting the quality of people they want but I don't see this working in real life. In our local case I think the pay is inversely proportional to the quality of the final production. How do you tell one person they are only worth $xxx while another person gets more???? If I ever did pay a director it would be on a per seat basis. Then they have a vested interest in the success of the play and I wouldn't hear all these discussions of the "bold artistic choices" in a lousy show. If they don't want to direct a play that may not fill the house, there are others who will. Well, I guess I should get down off my soapbox.
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Guests Guest	Posted: 11/08/03 at 2:56pm
	Allow me to disagree with the statement that the director should be responsible for the financial success of the show. This means that he should also be charged with promoting the show, which is actually the job of the publicist who gets hired by the producer. The three basic tenets of a financially successful production are promotion, promotion, promotion. The best directed show will be a financial flop if nobody hears about it. But even a mediocre production can be successful to a degree given adequate promotion. (Insert snotty remark about "Cats" here.) I know of a dinner theater that produces some godawful shows on a dance-band platform lit with yard lights, but they always get sold out. How? The publicist makes more than five hundred personal phone calls! Again, promotion and publicity is the job of the producer, not the director. If you doubt the director's ability to direct a good show, well...uh, don't hire him. As for directors getting a cut of the profits...If a company wishes to share its good fortune with the director or anybody else, that's their business, and the rest of us should root for their success because it rubs off on all of us.
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Shawn Guest	Posted: 2/24/04 at 2:01pm
	Here in St. Louis we have in the neighboorhood of 30 professional and community theater companies and competition to secure quality paid staff is very high. We pay everybody on the production staff something because it seems only fair. As producer I spend $5000 - $6000 per musical production on staffing, with directors and musical directors starting at $1000, support staff on down the line from there. At least in this competitive environment you do get what you pay for. Volunteers are nice but they are exactly that, volunteers. The talent that literally does "donate" their time deserve to work with a staff that will help them grow as actors and will do their part to ensure a good production. My two cents, Shawn
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Linda Lead Joined: 2/09/04 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 29	Posted: 2/24/04 at 10:22pm
	I am on the board of directors of a community theater in a very small town. We pay directors, music directors, choreographers, accompanist and musicians a fee. Slightly less then they do in the big city, but comparable. Director's fee differ between straight shows and musicals. Stage Managers, crew heads for set,lighting, sound,and props get paid a $100 stipend to cover their out of pocket expenses (gas etc.) for running around collecting items for the show. We feel it shouldn't cost them to take on a position of reponsibility. We very rarely have trouble getting someone to head a crew and we always have plenty of volunteers. Since we are up up front about why crew heads get a stipend, so far there have been no issues. A fully staffed large musical with a pit and choreography comes in at around $3500. A straight show usually is around a $1000. I have never heard of a director getting a cut of the profits. That's a new one for me. Linda
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Russell E Williams Guest	Posted: 5/06/04 at 1:40am
	Ummm... There is a mixed-bag here; and, not easy to answer. Our amateur theatre company generally subscribes to the philosophy that, as a member of the company, nobody gets paid -- after all, the reason you joined the company is to be part of a team of dedicated amateurs who stage quality productions for your audience; not to make money. That said, we have "hired-in" non-company members as directors because of their style of directing, or reputation for, a particular show. The fees paid have been typically around $800 for a play, and around $1,500 for a musical. Basically, though, we try to keep the outgoings (by way of fee-for-service) to an absolute minimum! Cheers.
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johnc Walk-On Joined: 5/04/04 Online Status: Offline Posts: 0	Posted: 5/06/04 at 5:32pm
	WE do not pay anyone. We have discussed the need for a paid administrator.Especially as we discuss getting into reserved seating to enhance the theater experience for our patrons. We also have a 200 seat theater facility that we can rent to the public durring non show times.
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