[SML] ​Re: Theatre Budget Help (Tracy Nunnally)

[John McAfee]

We’re working on getting an arts fee ourselves and the administration was much more receptive than we expected, but we are part of a state system, so we were able to point to other schools in the system that had them.  I think that $20 is the number that we submitted.

We had been working without a budget at all for seven years and we would kick up a fuss and the administration “find us some money,” which usually ended up in the 3,500 per show range as well.  But the money wouldn’t be guaranteed until two or three months before we were supposed to open.  

At the end of last year we said that there would be no productions unless we got a dedicated budget that was stable enough that we could start planning before the academic year started and money to hire an ATD.

We held the line and when the fall started without us having a season, the administration found us 10,000 for a spring musical (still too low) plus some money for an ATD.  We’ll see if it actually becomes a dedicated budget.

The low-budget 2-4 person shows are good options, but it depends on how many majors you have.  If you have 20 majors, 2-4 person shows aren’t going to be reasonable.  Guerrilla theater and site-specific devised pieces are nice, but they might not be useful if you have a lot of tech students that need to learn how to build stuff and work in theaters.

What does the administration want to see?  Do they want big musicals?  New plays that speak to social issues?  Do they care?  The arts should be a major public face to your institution, so the administration should want to have a say in what is presented and how it looks.  You can reinforce this with something like a major Holiday concert that is marketed to the University President and the board.  If you work with that office to plan and execute it, it might open their eyes to how much things actually cost and the amount of labor needed.

The new facility: did it increase the number of performance spaces you have?  Did you get an increase in staff?  I’ve managed two new buildings and I’ve found that the higher-ups often treat new arts centers like other buildings:  It’s built, you don’t need anything for a while.  And while that might be true in terms of maintenance, it’s imperative that you show that a new facility increases the need for higher budgets in order to produce shows that are deserving of the spaces and technology.  New buildings mean a lot of tours and new buildings with stages mean a lot of publicity events (lectures, speeches, commencement, etc.), maybe meet with the PR department and see if you can get them to help you make a case for a reasonable budget.  

John

> On Nov 19, 2017, at 12:45 AM, Tracy Nunnally via Stagecraft <stagecraft at theatrical.net <mailto:stagecraft at theatrical.net>> wrote:
> 
> Hi Dan
> 
> Working at a university myself, I can tell you that one good trick to help the admins figure out where they can get the money from.
> 
> Cultivating a rich donor to put up an endowment works great.  I know some schools who have endowed productions, such as the "John A. Smith Spring Musical", where the budget comes from the interest on a $10-12 million dollar account.
> 
> Another way might be to ask the university to include an arts fee for all students?  I bet that part of their annual activity fee covers supplies and facilities for the sports teams, so why not the "theatre team?"  Try something along the lines of, "Why should the hopes and dreams of my theatre students not be supported equally by activity fees just because they put on pointe shoes or steel toed boots instead of a pair of cleats?"  Hypothetically, if your university had an enrollment of 900 students, and they were paying a $330 annual activity fee, increasing that by $20 would give the program an additional $18,000 annually.
> 
> Just sayin'.
> 
> Tracy Nunnally
> P​rofessor / TD / Head of Design Technology
> Northern Illinois University School of Theatre and Dance
> Email: tnunnally at niu.edu <mailto:tnunnally at niu.edu>
> Office: (815)-753-5829
> 
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