My
high school theater program is in ongoing financial stress. We've had an amazing season and accomplished a lot, but we started this year and last in a hole and haven't managed to dig our way out of it. My tenure has been just over a decade and in that time, we've leaked away money for various reasons. We are (like public broadcasting) trying to raise operational funds via a
gofundme campaign. We hope to continue to produce works at the level we have historically while our participation rate grows and the poverty of participants creeps higher. That means our audiences (the parents and extended families and friends) are straining to justify limited disposable income going to tickets (and concessions). It also means they are straining to cover the costs of other events/activities, like the Thespian Society Regional and State Festivals. School activities dollars are being used to provide financial aid for those events. To learn about us, dive below the orange squiggly.
What do we do? Black Tornado Theater works to provide opportunities for actors, directors, designers, musicians, and technicians. We are a high school with just under 1800 students, a 700 seat auditorium and a 120 seat black box. 50% of our students are free & reduced lunch qualified. We produce six full length shows a year and usually have five additional performance evenings (sketch comedy, improv nights, and a short scenes showcase at the end of the year). We offer classes in general theater (performance, movement, voice, text) at introductory and advanced levels, as well as specialized courses for production support and stage operations; combat, mime, and choreography; performance and storytelling in film and television; and a special projects class period for student directors, writers, and designers to develop projects during the year. Three of our productions are staff directed and ostensibly district-supported with extra duty stipends for myself and one other adult. For the first time this year, we have outside grant funding for two guest artists per season to work on some specialized facet of a show (more on that in a moment). The other shows are student-led. Usually these are senior projects and usually they split their proceeds between our program and some charitable effort. They are smaller budget and the only aspect of our endeavor to be consistently in the black.
This season, our student-directed shows included Much Ado About Nothing (early September), Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (in mid November), and Fallen Angels (in late January). My shows included Antigone (in mid October), In A Grove (in mid March) and The Sound of Music (next week). The student director of Much Ado challenged the program to raise funds this entire season for the school's Sparrow, so each production has watched the gate receipts and costs very closely—any show that broke even before closing night would give the closing night admissions monies to the Sparrow Club. Only Dirk and In A Grove managed to prior to closing night, but between them raised a bit shy of $900 for the cause.
My students don't just act. They write (award-winning plays in the state playwriting contest twice in my tenure), they design (again, award-winning scenic, makeup, and costume designs over the various years), they compose (one student scored a full length original musical two years ago). We develop some of our shows from scratch (it's cheaper than those Rights & Royalties bills), including a wholly new adaptation of Ryūnosuke Akutagawa's "In a Grove" and "Rashōmon" (reimagined as a crime noir in 1940s New York) this year. We provide a full venue production team for the school's music programs, school events, outside groups and performers, with sound, light, and stage ops crews for each and every event in the space (if needed).
It seems like all is well and good, but the truth is, district funding only supports staffing two adults with extra duty stipends. The productions have to generate their own revenue. Most do, but the musicals don't, and I'm obligated contractually to stage musicals at least once every two years. None have made money. Most lose big.
Sound of Music has a price tag of $2900 just to get the scripts in the door and the right to perform it. For some shows, we pay for the 700 seat theater even if only 58 people show up (some licensing agents are nice and will refund royalties based on actual attendance, some don't). Then I have to build a set and light it. Dress a bajillion nuns and some cute kids who have SEVEN costume changes during the show. We do have a new stream of grant funding for guest artists (this year a fight director for
In A Grove and a lighting designer for
Sound of Music) but those are positions we've needed and scraped money for every year. The district doesn't fund a rehearsal accompanist, a choreographer, or any other of the specialty jobs musicals require.
What can you do? We ask three things: 1—a modest donation (we are Troupe #358, so $3 $5 $8 $35 $58 $358?) for us; 2—a larger gift of resources or time to your local high school and their performing arts efforts; 3—spread the word of our effort and of your local school over social media. We're out there as @nmdrama on twitter and our facebook page was linked at the very top of this article.
I also ask that the comment thread here include some nostalgia: if you were involved in a show in school, what was the FIRST show you were part of and what did you do... where was this theater, how old were you and or what year was it...? Have a good day and act well your part.