Pay Scale Suggestions Wanted
Printed From: Community Theater Green Room
Category: Theater Administration
Forum Name: Money Talk
Forum Discription: Questions about fundraising and promotion
URL: http://www.communitytheater.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2652
Printed Date: 5/02/24 at 3:50pm
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 8.05 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Pay Scale Suggestions Wanted
Posted By: sethnic
Subject: Pay Scale Suggestions Wanted
Date Posted: 9/10/07 at 1:13pm
We are creating a cooperative theater company. Our goal is to, first of all, find a sponsor to ensure profitable performances. We then want to share the profits among all of the participants. I'm looking to create a pay scale in percentages. I'd like your feedback on what I've sketched out here.
A three-tier system as follows:
The highest tier includes the marketing people, the business director, the production director, ticketing director and the publicity director. They would get somewhere between 3 and 4% of ticket income.
The second tier includes the stage manager, set designer, costume designer, choreographer, musical director, and all the actors and musicians. They would be earning around 3% of ticket income.
The third tier includes the "day workers" such as stagehands, ushers, lighting and sound, wardrobe and the casting director. They would be earning closer to 2% of ticket income.
The Executive Director, who will be involved in every aspect, and will be the only full-time person will get around 7%.
These gradations are roughly based on the estimated amount of time that people will be involved. Thus, the highest tier are working from before rehearsals even begin straight through the show. The second are those who have more or less the same amount of time from the beginning of rehearsals to the show. The third group become involved only in the immediate timeframe before and during the show (except for casting who is involved before rehearsals begin). The exact percentages will depend on the number of people we end up working with, and the size of the cast.
Is there another model? Or a better way to refine this? I certainly hope that we will be profitable and indeed be able to partially compensate people for their time. Thank you for your thoughts.
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Creating a new company!
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Replies:
Posted By: Kibitzer
Date Posted: 10/05/07 at 2:09pm
Sethnic -
My knee-jerk reaction is to suggest you find another site for answers to your questions. That is not to say that what your are doing is a bad thing, but by and large, you are trying to create a model for what appears to me to be a professional theatre company - or at least the basis for a professional company. This site is all about community theatre, which, despite all the talk about compensation, is largely a volunteer-based, amateur (not to be confused with amateurish) theatre operation. What is often debated in these postings is whether anyone at all should get paid anything!
If you are setting yourself up as a non-profit organization, then you may want to get involved with the resources of Theatre Communications Group (www.tcg.org), which focuses on non-profit regional professional theatre.
Most professional companies find they have to work through the guidelines established by the various theatrical unions. If you are trying to avoid that, but still want to help people earn a little money from doing theatre, then there are any number of structures that can work. The only problem I see is how many people are going to want to work under what amounts to a commission basis?
Compensation depends upon the financial success of your theatre. At first flush, in this capitalistic world of ours, that would appear to give everyone the incentive to make the theatre work. However, not everyone can be a good commission salesperson! And beyond that, what revenues are going into the pie? If you're a non-profit and start writing grants and so forth, some funders don't want to fund people's paychecks. The commission structure can also interfere with your mission and artistic vision. Most funders are in the business of funding the common good, not lining people's pocketbooks. Your commission structure could work against you on this.
This is not to say that funders are against people making a living off of non-profit ventures! However, we must understand that the nature of the non-profit sector is mission-oriented and not money-oriented. Paying on a commission basis can strain that critical dichotomy.
On the other hand, if you are a profit making entity, then instead of funders, you may be looking for "investors": people who will give you money with some expectation of payback. In this case, they may embrace the commission structure. My concern in this structure is keeping in touch with the art; that is, the chase for money trumps the need for good theatrical art.
Not knowing what your orientation is, I'm speculating a great deal and trying to answer questions that may be irrelevant to what you're all about. So, I'll stop with all the "if this"es "then that"s.
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"Security is a kind of death." - Tennessee Williams
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