Production Costs. Tech vs. Royalties

[KGustafson]

I am the Tech Director at a High School. The director and I are having a disagreement regarding what percentage of the budget should be spent on tech versus script costs. I believe that the cost of set building, prop building. gels, etc is going to be higher than the cost of buying scripts and paying royalties. He contends that we should be spending only a small percentage 20 - 30% as compared to the cost of script and royalties. I am really becoming frustrated but want to make sure I am not being unreasonable. Can anyone provide me with a comparison of your tech costs versus your script costs. I would really appreciate it.

Thank You,
Karn Gustafosn

 

[DaveySimps]

I would argue that the two numbers are really not analogous. Each show and each venue has very different needs that often have very little to do with the cost of royalties. If you can build a unit set from flats, door, and window units you have in storage, that set will cost you 10% of what it might cost someone to build a comparable set from scratch on a stage twice your size.

In very general terms though, I absolutely agree with you. I work with 2 high schools and a community theatre. The sets alone always cost more than the royalties for every show, and they have a good number of stock units and props in storage.

~Dave

 

[ravenfan91]

I completely agree that there is no real relation between the two. I am also a tech director at a high school and for our upcoming musical (**** Yankees), the set is easily more than the cost of the scripts. Then when you add in costumes, lights, and all the other "tech" stuff, it's even more.

 

[JLNorthGA]

It depends. I'm in a community theatre situation.

For a regular play - we pay on the order of $75 per performance and the costs of the scripts. So for a typical run that would be on the order of $550 for six performances. My set budget is $500 with an additional $100 for lights and sound and an additional $100 for paint. I've a props budget of about $100.

For a musical - all bets are off. Royalties typically are 10% plus a set fee. The budgeted amount is typically on the order of $4000 for royalties and scripts - sometimes more. I would LOVE to have a bigger set budget - but I still get only $700.

 

[Van]

The Size and Type of venue is very much involved in the cost of royalties, believe me. Our theatre specializes in first-run just off broadway productions, World premieres and West Coast premieres. We are an Equity Theatre and Thank Go we are under 300 seats. My Set materials budget doesn't even come close to what we spend on royalties for an average show. Not knowing what type of shows you are doing, your production standards, and size of your theatre it's impossible to make a blanket statement about how much you should spend on a percentage basis. For Equus ? Heck you need a big platform and some chairs. For Pygmalion you need an Edwardian Interior. The Fantastiks needs a platform and a gazebo, Phantom.... Well it needs a lot more.
You might take a look at the TCG survey which is open to the public < I think> it has break-downs for participating theatres and universities that generally reflect the average percentage of dollars spent from different classes of theatres/programs.

 

[jglodeklights]

It really depends on the show, the space and what is available from stock. For Pippin, the high school I work with spent significantly more on production than the rights to the show. It is an older less produced show, and the lighting package available in house was pretty much nothing, thus requiring renting a significant amount of equipment. When they have done new or newer or more popular shows such as High School Musical, Sweeney Todd and now Legally Blond, the rights versus production costs have been about equal to the rights costing significantly more than production. The key is balancing the two based on the scale of the show.

 

[mrb604]

I've only been directing HS theatre for two years, but I've found that Tech costs are always larger than script/royalties. On a small play with minimal set, my Tech costs are usually 50-60% of my budget. On a big musical, even though the royalties are more, my tech costs usually increase to almost 80% of my budget.

 

[museav]

I've only been directing HS theatre for two years, but I've found that Tech costs are always larger than script/royalties. On a small play with minimal set, my Tech costs are usually 50-60% of my budget. On a big musical, even though the royalties are more, my tech costs usually increase to almost 80% of my budget.

This may reflect the challenge with this topic as what is not clear is what is included in those tech numbers. If you have to rent a bunch of lights and wireless mics, hire operators, rent tools and so on that is going to greatly increase the related costs than if you already have all of those in house. For the same production a theatre with limited physical and personnel resources might have much greater tech costs than a theater with extensive resources.

At the same time, the actual complexity and scope of the production aspects can also differ for the same show. A community theater near here is rather limited in what the physical space and their tech resources can handle so they tend to keep things pretty simple and thus have limited production costs. In comparison, there are a couple of venues in the area that are not that much bigger in terms of seating capacity but that have extensive technical production capabilities and their resident groups would be likely to approach the same show much differently in terms of the technical production and the associated costs.