The Production Meeting

Producer Him and I sat down with Director Witch and Director Demon last night to discuss the scary bit of the show. MONEY! Simple stuff like where it's going to come from. In theory, this should be an inexpensive show with minimum costs. Two one act plays both on minimal sets. That's what Director Witch told the EGM last Thursday. Yeah Right.

Two one act plays equals two sets, however minimal. Two one act plays equals two show licences. Two one act plays equals two sets of scripts to buy. two one act plays equals less ticket sales than a musical, hence why we started doing 'supper night' shows as a smaller audience seated around large circular tables makes the hall look fuller for the cast. Supper night shows equal table hire.

I sat at the table in the George in Colnbrook with laptop in front of me, manipulating the figures and reducing costs left, right and centre to get us to just break even 'on paper' as we discussed first the hall hire costs and hall bookings, subs, script cost and script licences, group overheads, advertising, set, costumes etc. Director Witch (and most of the rest of the committee to be honest) take the mick about my love of Excel spreadsheets. Director Witch and Director Demon may come to hate them (and both Producer Him and I ) by the end of July. They have to reduce their costs or find more income. End of story.

Thought: In all the time I've been involved with shows we've never discussed the finer points of a show budget with the cast. It's always been left to the Production Team to get the sums right do the worrying about finances and the cast have only been advised about the ticket sales to date and how far on or off target we are. Should the show budget be open to the whole cast to see> There in black and white. Exactly how much everything associated with a putting on a show costs. Do members of the cast really know just how much it costs to put on a show? Do they care? Do they realise that until the ticket sale revenue comes in, the bulk of the expenses are met by the Directors and Producers out of their own pockets, often with sundry smaller items being written off or forgotten about.... I wonder.

One things for sure. My brain hurts.

Lyric of the Blog: "All the things I could do, If I had a little money, It's a rich man's world" ABBA