Community Drama Clubs - Can Anyone Help?
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Topic: Community Drama Clubs - Can Anyone Help?
Posted By: Guests
Subject: Community Drama Clubs - Can Anyone Help?
Date Posted: 8/23/01 at 9:51pm
Hi Everyone! I've been in community theatre for a while, but I recently moved to a new county and the nearest theatre company is an hour away. I've been in productions there, but it's just too far to drive and I had the idea of possibly starting a drama club. I'm in the process of finding out exactly what that entails! I do have a very good idea of how everything will be run, but as for actually starting it, I'm at a loss. Can anyone give me some ideas as to just what starting a club involves? Is it something feasable for me? I do have quite a few essentials for starting a club (meeting place, material to perform, money, etc.) but I just need help getting started. Can anyone help me? Thanks!
~Rebekah~
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Replies:
Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 8/24/01 at 12:11pm
Are you looking at an informal club that is not incorporated or a non profit theater company?
We got started because I could not get a production slot at the theater so we started our group and rented the theater. We have come a long way since then. In our first 18 months we have generated $17,000 in revenue and made $7,000 in "profits", put $5,000 into lighting and sound equipment and have $2,000 in the bank.
There are a lot of ways to start - anyone will tell you to start small - but you need to be willing to do everything it takes to be a success yourself.
We have four major types of projects that we do. Full productions, Readers Theaters, Training and Dinner Mystery Theaters. Training brings in about 1/4 of our revenue but very little in profits. Readers Theaters are most of our productions (over a dozen) while most of the money comes from our full productions (four).
Find yourself a script and do a readers theater. We do them at resturaunts (we get $5.00 a head). There are a lot of good plays out there that work for Readers Theater and it does not take the big committment that a full production takes. We do each show three times on consecutive nights. The plays cost us about $250 to do (royalties, scripts, advertising, etc.) and we make about $100 to $150 a night.
There are several old threads on this bulletin board and www.aact.org that talk about getting started.
There are articles of incorporation and bylaws on this site and I have a 501(c)(3) application I can send you.
Let me know how I can help.
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