Spotlight on Theater Production

     As the Hamilton Players just closed a box office record breaking Pride & Prejudice production and are  preparing the 2016 / 20^th anniversary season, it seems a good time to take another look at what it actually takes to mount a theatrical production. The details may come as a surprise to you.   As a rule, scripts are not free to the public. Most scripts are copyrighted and theaters are required to pay a substantial royalty to produce them.  Each licensing house has a slightly different formula for determining royalties that can be as simple as a set price per performance (as is often the case for non-musicals) or as complicated as a proprietary algorithm combining number of seats available, ticket prices, actor pay scales, and professional/amateur standing into a per-performance royalty.  The performance rights for non-musicals are less expensive than those of musicals and are often a set price regardless of venue size or ticket price and averages $75/show. There is no materials deposit:  you buy and keep the scripts. Musical licensing is more complicated.  Musical royalties for the Hamilton Players average $200 per show, and in addition require that you RENT the musical scores and scripts as well as provide a security deposit.  All this is due prior to advertising auditions, much less starting rehearsals!  Add to these licensing fees the artistic budget (set, costumes, hair, makeup, props, tech, SFX,); artistic payroll (director, music director, choreographer, musicians); marketing budget (print ads, digital ads, posters, flyers) and direct show expenses (programs, concessions, box office personnel, ticket stock and fees); and the average Hamilton Players production costs $7450 for a non-musical and $13,695 for a musical. What’s more, these numbers do not include venue overhead (phone, heat, lights, internet, property tax, cleaning, maintenance), or administrative costs (office management, grant writing, fundraising, insurance) or the thousands of other expenses a venue generates (snow removal, repairs, supplies). 

     Expenses are only ½ of the equation. There is another set of numbers that needs to be considered when discussing a community theater production and that is volunteer hours. In the most recent Hamilton Players production, Pride & Prejudice, more than 4200 volunteer hours were put in to make the show come to life.  27 actors rehearsing 14.5 hours/week plus 9, 5.5-hour show days equal over 3600!  In addition there was an average of 5 volunteers working 5 hours/Saturday for 6 weeks building set (150 hours), 3 costumers working 12 hours a week for 6 weeks, (216 hours), house volunteers for the shows (70 hours), and offsite hours for artists that equaled more than 350 hours!  As employees, at minimum wage these hours would be valued at over $32,000! As volunteers, their hours are priceless and indispensable.

     So what exactly does it take to produce a show?  Money.  Passion.  Commitment. And community.  The Hamilton Players invite you to be a part of the magic in their 20^th Anniversary Season. Volunteer.  Buy a ticket.  Sponsor a show.  Keep the arts alive in the Bitterroot Valley.  For more information, visit the Players online at www.hamiltonplayers.com.   

More "State of the Players!"

Hamilton Players, Inc. - a non-profit (501 c 3) community theater.  Its mission?  Putting the spotlight on education, inspiration, and community through the theater arts...and I believe we do a fantastic job of doing just that.  Each year we offer 30 weeks of K-12th grade education classes, 2-7 weeks of adult education, a 4-5 show season ticket, two concert fundraisers, and a handful of other events including reader's theaters, a comedy roast, and a black tie awards event. In the last few years we have staged more than a handful of productions that are still getting rave community reviews!  I have been privy to testimony that credits the Players with "saving the life" of not 1, but 3 separate children; bullied and depressed children who found mentorship and self-esteem in participating in Players programming. I have letters from parents about painfully shy children who "found their voice" on the Players stage.  And we have a bottomless well of talent in the Bitterroot Valley; full of professional artists and other stunningly talented entertainers who regularly grace our stage, providing riveting, professional quality performances. So why, then, is Hamilton Players struggling from month to month to keep the doors open?


The short answer is simple:  in an income/expense based analysis, the Hamilton Players expenses exceed their income.  Simple, right?  Just spend less money. ...Which brings us to the long answer, which is not quite so simple.


We have worked hard to keep expenses down to the essentials and trim the financial fat wherever we can, so we are really operating as tight as we can. At this point, for nearly every additional expense dollar the Hamilton Players cut, income will also be cut. Decrease administrative staff/payroll?  Right now there is one full-time employee and one part-time employee who function as the Executive Director, Managing Director, Education Coordinator, Box Office Manager, Special Projects Coordinator, Costume Shop Manager, Safety Officer, Accessibility Liaison, Volunteer Coordinator, Administrative Assistant, Grant Writer, Patron Services Manager, Development Director, and 24/7 on-call emergency person...as well as do anything that comes up needing to be done.  Between the two of them, they do the work of 3-4 full time staff positions!  Decrease marketing? Lose ticket sales.  Decrease show budgets? Shows with lower production value = less ticket sales.  Cut production stipends? Lose production staff = less shows or lower production value and that equals, yep, you guessed it:  less ticket sales.


Here's the general breakdown of our last musical:
Materials rental .......................$900 (cost to rent music & scripts)
Materials deposit......................$400 (damage deposit)
Royalties.................................$1845 (cost per show x 9 shows)
Musicians................................$1250 (piano + 3 musicians)
Art/Music Direction...................$1500 (Directors' stipends)
Artistic Show Budget.................$2800 (Set, Costumes, Props, etc.)
Admin/Box Office.....................$1650 (Show related admin costs)
Ticketing.................................$150 (ticket fees & ticket stock)
Programs................................$900 (printing fees)
Bldg. Overhead.......................$1000 (Heat/Air, utilities for show)
Marketing...............................$1300 (posters, ads, etc.)
TOTAL..................................$13,695


If every showing of a musical sold out (165 seats x $15 x 9 shows) the Players would make $22,275 -$13,695 for a total of: $8,580. Unfortunately, average attendance for a NOT well-known, musical is <55% (or >93). So 93 seats x $15 x 9 shows =$12,555 - $13,695= -$1140 (Yes, a LOSS of $1140!).   This musical averaged 97 per show which came out to $13,095-$13,695 = -600.  Luckily, this production had a 1/2 sponsor that helped offset the royalties leaving the Players with a profit of $600...for the production itself.  Now, this budget does not include day-to-day operations, salaries, and show incidentals (like custodial services and feeding the work crew); nor does it quantify the burden placed on our volunteer pool for the 1200+ DESIGNATED volunteer hours it took to bring this show together.  Non-musical comedies are less expensive to produce, but they also bring in significantly smaller houses as they run about 25% or less (>42)...and if it is a drama?  We're looking at houses that are > 15% or an average of 25 people per show.  That is why the Players do 2 or 3 musicals a year out of their 5 show season, and why we choose at least one well-known, popular musical; because popular musicals (think: Sound of Music, The King and I, My Fair Lady) bring in houses that average 115 people or 68% for a profit of $1830.00...more if the director can come in under budget and we get a sponsor. 


Without sponsors, it is almost impossible for a show to break even. Thankfully, THANKFULLY! Most of the 2015 shows have sponsors, (A HUGE thank you to:  Taco Del Sol in Hamilton, Ravalli County Bank, Family Medicine Center of the Bitterroot, Ann and Paul Thomas, Chapter One Book Store and Roaring Lion Ranch!), but we are still looking for a partial sponsor for Pride & Prejudice, and 4, $250 sponsors for the Summer Session 1 Theater Camp.  It is the rare performing arts organization that can survive on ticket revenue alone, and when I say rare I mean not just unicorn rare, but rainbow-maned-flying-unicorn rare.  And Hamilton Players is not one of those unicorns.  So we plead for community sponsorships, madly write grants and compete with the hundreds of other non-profits in the community and thousands in the state (and sometimes more if it's national) for the same grant dollars, and continually reach out to our community for support. 


The Hamilton Players is a non-profit community theater.  We love what we do and judging by the fact that we are still open and going on our 20th year at the Playhouse, you love us too.  We need your continued support. And in return, we will give back all that we can:  our talent, our time, our gratitude.  We will keep reaching out to this community to entertain, educate, mentor, and help. We will still: partner with other organizations to raise awareness and money (for them and us), donate tickets to fundraisers, give away tickets to other non-profits (youth homes, SAFE, 4H mentorship program), and try to help out the schools whenever we can by supporting their projects (musicals, wax museums).  We will work every day to fulfill our mission statement and prove that we are worthy of your support!

 

Introducing the new and improved...

So much has happened since my last blog...in 2013!  As a mid-year resolution I have decided to make weekly blog posts a priority.  There is always so much happening with the Hamilton Players, that the issue isn't finding something to say, but rather, finding the time to say it!  So in the upcoming posts, I will be talking about events, funding, programming, wants, needs, wishlists, thank you's  and everything in between. 


Just a quick update/overview...a snapshot, so to speak, of the 2015 Hamilton Players:

• We currently have an 8 person Board of Directors that meets at 5:30 pm on the third Thursday (generally) of every month at the Playhouse.
• We have an amazing 5-show season that started in February with The Drowsy Chaperone, followed in April by The Curious Savage. The remaining 3 shows of the 2015 season are: Singin' in the Rain (June), The Odd Couple (August), and Pride & Prejudice (October).
• As of today (May 12, 2015) our sponsors for the season are: TACO DEL SOL, RAVALLI COUNTY BANK, FAMILY MEDICINE CENTER OF THE BITTERROOT, ANN & PAUL THOMAS, MONTANA CULTURAL TRUST, and ROARING LION RANCH.  Without these sponsors, we would not be able to keep the doors open.  Thank you, Sponsors, for keeping the magic alive!
• We just closed out an amazing performance tech upgrade made possible by a grant from the Montana Department of Tourism combined with the generosity of our theater donors.  This $33,855.00 project enabled us to purchase new light and sound boards and upgrade the wiring, acquire new masking curtains (legs), a new scrim, a new performance keyboard, monitors, 28 new light fixtures, 4 headsets, a tech laptop, 2 LED spotlights AND install new dimmer packs.  This upgrade, along with the new seating installed in 2010 takes your theater experience to a whole new level.  The production value is at an all time high and you will just have to see it to believe it.
• The K-12th grade education program has expanded to include 2 weeks in the summer, 12 weeks in the fall and 16 weeks in the spring.  This summer the session 1 camp ends with a production of Disney's Beauty and the Beast, Jr. (licensed by MTI:  Music Theater International).
• We have added 3 reader's theater productions to the season lineup:  March, September and December.  The September title is Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf featuring denise rose, Terry Croghan, Mara Luther, and Eric Monson.  The December title, which is going to be an annual event, is Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.  Anyone who is interested in participating in that production should contact the Playhouse Box Office.
• We are currently engaged in campaign to recruit volunteers for all aspects of Playhouse functions, but we are focusing on recruiting builders and carpenters to help build sets.  If you have any interest in volunteering in any capacity, please contact the Playhouse Box Office.
• Box Office Hours were reduced to Wednesday-Friday, 1-5pm to help reduce the operating budget and keep the Playhouse afloat.  This economy has been rough on the arts across the nation and the Playhouse is no exception.  But we are passionate about what we do and we will fight to keep the magic alive!
• 2016 marks the 20th anniversary of the Hamilton Playhouse.  We will be kicking that season off with the first show ever produced at the Playhouse:  Something's Afoot.  It is our dream that this production will bring the Playhouse full circle and bridge the gap between the past and the future at the Playhouse.  Bring back our favorites from the Players past and sprinkle in new faces and talent...both on and off stage! 

...and that, in a nutshell, is where the Hamilton Players are today.  I look forward to sharing more about the Players; where we've been and where we're going.  And I look forward to hearing from all of you: your thoughts, your ideas, your suggestions...let's make some magic happen together!

"just" is a four letter word of the worst kind

If there is one phrase I dread hearing more than any other (excepting, of course, "You're fired" or "You have {insert number here} weeks to live") it is:  It's just community theater. As in, "I don't want to go see that, it's just community theater."  Just? JUST?  What exactly does that mean?  That phrase instantly attempts to devalue hundreds of hours of collaboration and work and worry from scores of talented, busy people by implying that the scope of community theater is inherently less than...well...apparently less than anything that could be construed as important.  I get that we are not actively and immediately saving lives like a doctor - no one says, "Oh it's just heart surgery" - but that does not make community theater worthless. 

Anyone who has participated in community theater can tell you that it takes hard work and dedication to put on a show.  And it takes a lot of hard work and a ton of dedication to put on a good show.  They don't just, "happen."  For roughly 7 weeks, actors attend 12.5 hours of rehearsal per week.  This is actual specific, required rehearsal time.  This does not include any time spent at home memorizing lines (anywhere from 1-8 more hours a week), learning blocking, learning music (1-8 hours a week), practicing choreography (1-8 hours a week), or helping build set, create costumes, or props (1-4 hours a week).  In essence, an actor in a non-professional, community theater production could spend anywhere from 12.5 - 40.5 hours a week, for 7 weeks, to put on a successful show.  This is in addition to their day jobs, their family time, and whatever social life outside the theater they can manage to eke out during the production time frame.  Now, multiply that by 15 (the size of a modest musical):  that's 7 weeks x 13.5 hours/week (low estimate of:  required rehearsal + 1hour) x 15 people.  That equals 1,417.5 man hours.  For one show.  That does not include the hours spent by the director, assistant director, designers, seamstresses, builders, painters, house volunteers, and organizational personnel...which can add 600+ more hours.  2000 or more hours of labor and love; and that's "just" community theater!

You can talk about the heart surgery being important.  I will talk about the little girl who wrote an essay on the topic of her proudest moment and cited stepping on the Hamilton Players' stage in her very first production...because she never thought she would be capable of doing something like that. Or the young woman who was being bullied and in despair but found confidence and acceptance in the theater that armed her to not only succeed on stage, but to go out into her community and work with at risk youth thru the process of performance based ministry. I would argue that the impact community theater has had and will continue to have in those girls' lives is every bit as important as life saving surgery... with a much farther reach.  But that's "just" community theater.

The confidence and self-esteem engendered by participation in a theater performance will impact a person for the whole of their existence.  It will make a difference every day.  It will support the child, strengthen the adult, and make our world a better place to live...every day.  Technological visionary, Paul G. Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft, summed it up when he said, "I have seen the critical role that the arts play in stimulating creativity and in developing vital communities...the arts have a crucial impact on our economy and are an important catalyst for learning, discovery, and achievement in our country."

Take the time to appreciate your community theater and all it has to offer.  Whether you participate onstage, offstage, backstage, or in the audience...it will change your life.  Call the Hamilton Players and buy tickets to a show, volunteer to work on set or as a lobby volunteer.  Take an improv class or  audition for a show.  You can even make donation the general fund or the theater school.  Every little bit makes a difference and you'll be able to walk away knowing that you contributed to an important, life changing, confidence inspiring, self-esteem fostering, problem solving, community building project...even if it is, "just" community theater.

Live theater is a wonderful beast but it is NOT a movie!  The success and pleasure of the experience depends on several factors; the most important being the ability of the audience to willingly suspend their disbelief and get "drawn in" to world of the play.  Any interruptions to the audience's ability to stay immersed in the world of the play ruins the experience and the hundreds of hours that the cast and crew and worked to create their unique fantasy is destroyed.  Having been on the receiving end of having my hard work, sweat, and tears rendered useless by one thoughtless audience member's cell phone ("Out, out damned spot"...brriiiinng, brriiinggg...'oh hey, I can't talk right now, I'm at a play....really?  When?  what did he say?") I have some very specific suggestions to you.  Now these are specific to our community theater:  professional theaters are far stricter.  (For example, if you are late you may not be let in until intermission.  No latecomers will disturb the show.)

THEATER ETIQUETTE FOR THE COMMUNITY THEATER AUDIENCE

BE ON TIME.  Arriving late and having to open and close the door and walk in front of people is loud and distracting.  Professional theaters will not let you enter the house after the show has started.  A professional theatre will make you wait for intermission AND they will not refund your money if you choose to leave because of it.  Plan ahead.  Make sure you have ample time to find parking and pick up your will-call tickets.  Be courteous, be on time.

DO NOT UNWRAP CANDY IN THE AUDIENCE.  Candy wrappers are very distracting.  The audience can hear them, the actors can hear them.  If you have a cold and need throat lozenges, be prepared. Unwrap them before the show begins.  The same goes for any noise making activity…including squeezing water bottles or crumpling paper – it’s very distracting!

TURN OFF YOUR CELL PHONE.  There is nothing that is more rude and disrespectful than texting or answering a cell phone during a performance.  It is bad enough when it rings and distracts the entire house and ruins the in-the-moment live theater experience, but to answer or text is just plain wrong.  Actors dedicate a lot of time, energy, and emotion into their shows and when you use a phone during a performance you are telling the actors, the directors, the producers, and your fellow audience members that you are rude and selfish and could not care less about their efforts and time.  Turn off your cell phone.  In the event of an emergency page, please exit quietly and discreetly, with as little disruption as possible.  Deal with it in the lobby or outside. 

NO PHOTOGRAPHY/VIDEOTAPING.  Flash photography is especially bad, because the flash is startling and very distracting to the actors.  But non-flash photography and videotaping is also distracting.  There is often a red light on the front of the camera that the actors can see and be distracted by.  Also, holding up a camera or standing up block the view of audience members around you.  Professional theaters will throw you out if you are caught recording the show.  For many shows, it is illegal and an infringement of the copyright laws.  A theater can lose its contract rights if an illegal “bootleg” is discovered.  No contract = no show.

DO NOT EVER WAVE AT ACTORS ONSTAGE.  It doesn’t matter how cute they are.  If they are not in an interactive production that deliberately engages the audience, DO NOT ENGAGE THE ACTORS!  They have worked too long and too hard on developing a character and a show to spoil it for the others by waving to grandma in the audience.  Hugs before the show and flowers after are always appropriate, but save the by-play until the show is over.

SPEAKING OF FLOWERS…it is common theatrical tradition to give an actor/actress flowers after a performance.  Many choose opening night, but others choose whatever performance they attend.  But without fail, actors love flowers.  Directors, Stage Managers, and Accompanists love them too.

Just be courteous.  That's all we ask.  We work hard to entertain you - and for your viewing pleasure:   we are always in 3D!

This is your mission, should you choose to accept it....

The Hamilton Players mission is "to provide high quality live community theater to the Bitterroot Valley audiences, to develop local talent, and to provide opportunities for the public to participate in the performing arts.  Opportunities…will be provided by producing a varied theatrical season... and performing a variety of plays and musicals throughout the year.” 

That doesn't sound like it should be very difficult, does it?  Well, surprise!  It is much more difficult than it sounds.  In preparing to announce the programming for the next season, we have been struggling with a multitude of questions, not the least of which is, "How do we choose a season that appeals to a diverse community, fulfills our mission statement, and still manages to keep us financially sound enough to keep the doors open?"  The Bitterroot Valley is populated by a wide range of demographically different populations - all of whom have varied likes and dislikes, political views, religious views, social views, ethical mores, prejudices, opinions, and sensibilities.  Oh, and don't forget the differences in social circles, financial backgrounds, environmental views, maturity, education, and good old nature vs. nurture.  Now, pick one show that appeals to a large portion of this diverse community; both in audience and performance values.  Now pick a second show...one that appeals do a different large portion of this diverse community...without gravely offending the first group.  Possible, yes. NOW,  pick a third show, that appeals to another portion of this community - without offending  - well, you get the picture.  Now pick a total of 5 shows that offer opportunities to everyone who wants to act or sing or see a show, that cover topics and styles that have broad enough appeal to fully cast and create a show as well as put enough butts in the seats to keep the theater financially solvent.  Not so easy anymore, is it?  Now, add to that the need to find a competent, passionate director AND enough actors to physically make the show happen:  just because it appeals to actors and audience doesn't mean that the actors will be available for the 8 - 10 week commitment it take to put on a show.  Add to this the competition for the acting, directing, and audience pool as well as a very full community calendar with competing events AND the need to duplicate this process (with different results) year after year after year...it can be be far more difficult than you maybe ever imagined.

Topping off this surprisingly difficult endeavor of choosing a season is the need to expand our audience pool.  Now we have to try to step outside of the safe zones to try to bring in a few new audience members for each show, without losing the already existing ones by moving too far too fast.  The same goes for the audition/acting pool.  How do we entice new actors into the fold?  If we cannot continue to expand our patron, volunteer and actor pools, then we fail, because without a slow and steady infusion of new blood, the theater will cease to exist.  Most of the amazing group of people who founded this theater have, in the last 30 years, moved on.  Some of them can be found in the audience and still, occasionally, on stage.  A new generation of artists have inherited their passion and are carrying their torch:  I am one of them.  but who will this generation bequeath the theater to?  If we cannot grow our only other option, in the end, is to turn out the lights and lock the door.  But I don't think that's going to happen.  At least I hope it won't, because if it does, the Valley will have lost something precious and irreplaceable.

So, when you see our upcoming season and are disposed to grumble or criticize, please remember how difficult the task was, and know that we are trying to serve our community - our whole community - in the best way we know how.  Take a risk, step outside of your comfort zone and go on the journey with us...you just might like it!

All the world's a...swamp?!

It has now been 3 weeks since the first flood of the parking lot and the subsequent flood of the crawl space and basement costume shop.  We are still pumping water out and desperately trying to save the costume inventory from mold and mildew.  It's a sad, sad situation and in the end, the Players will lose a substantial amount of inventory - much of it irreplaceable vintage clothing.  Ultimately, it will be a loss to the whole community, as those will be costumes that will not be available for the wax museum, or the high school musical, or to any one of a hundred community events.  We haven't been able to do much with the costumes for the last 18 months as we have been sorting and organizing and trying to find a way to make our storage system more accessible and the flooding is essentially the nail in the costume shop coffin.  It's no longer a matter of convenience or organization: now it’s a matter of health and safety.  We desperately need to build an above ground, environmentally controlled costume storage space. 

A new costume shop facility has been on our list of delayed maintenance for a very long time.  With the risk of dangerous mold spores higher than ever before and the sheer monetary cost of losing so much inventory, a new costume shop has to be a priority.  Every show the Players put on increases our costume inventory. Every children's camp production, every main stage production, every fundraiser, every concert.  And when I think of the time and effort that goes into the creation of every costume, and that costume just being...destroyed by our inability to keep it safe...it makes me want to scream.

I am putting this project at the top of my "to do" list.  I know that the economic climate we live in today is not one of financial largesse but this theater has meant a lot to a lot of people over the years - me included - and I will just have to keep my fingers crossed that together we will be able to resolve this problem.  In the meantime, please be patient with our inability to commit our meager costume resources to the full spectrum of community use.