[SML] HS TD job

[Bill Conner]

Thank you all for comments. I didn't know how this compared but seems not
too bad. Cost of living there seems to be around 92% of national average
(and Wisconsin 103%).

One of a very few projects I've stayed in touch with over the years. They
had a staff of 5 at one time, just for the hs theatre. Nice folks.

Bill Conner Fellow of the ASTC

On Sat, Dec 20, 2025, 3:40 AM Mick Alderson via Stagecraft <
stagecraft at theatrical.net> wrote:

> The bottom of that range is about what I was making when I retired in 2019
> from the Univ of Wis system after thirty years. Salaries were low, but the
> kicker was the included benefits. Those made it worth while. I was lucky.
> For the first 9 years I was TD/designer at a 2 year UW Campus at 3/4 time.
> I settled for the first offered salary, because I got full bennies for
> health insurance. That was important because I had a wife and two kids to
> take care of. The insurance was as important as the salary. I could
> supplement my income by working with my IATSE Local. I had the security of
> a year-to-year position instead of the gig-to-gig life my fellow IA members
> lived. The steady salary meant I could get a mortgage on a fixer-upper that
> needed a LOT of work. I put a lot of sweat-equity into that house, but
> nothing my theatre training couldn't handle. It paid for the next house.
>
> Then I was hired full-time at a four year UW campus (salary, no overtime)
> for 21 years. I was the lowest paid person in the department, and retired
> at 45k for salary (60 hour weeks and no overtime). BUT in the mean time I
> had a gold-plated insurance for my kids, and I lucked into the only state
> retirement system that was in the black (the Wisconsin Retirement System
> cannot be raided by the governor because it is the only state retirement
> separate from the stage government). AND I leveraged that fix-upper into
> the home I live in now. It's an old farmhouse, older and it needed work,
> but the mortgage was paid off before I retired. Between Social Security and
> my state retirement, I'm living on about what I did when I retired, but
> with fewer expenses.
>
> Point is, don't just look at the immediate salary. Decide what is
> important to you long term. I chose security and bennies over a gig to gig
> income that may or may not have been more lucrative. I lucked out. I hope
> you can do the same.
>
> What concerns me is that when there were 32 theaters in the Univ of
> Wisconsin system in 1986 we are down to maybe a half dozen. There are a lot
> fewer positions or there than there use to be. I was in the right place at
> the right time. Are you?
>
> Mick Alderson
> Stagehand
> IATSE Local 470
> Retired TD, UW Oshkosh Theater (that no longer exists)
>
> Subject: Re: [SML] HS TD job
>> Message-ID: <5C8E1988-C895-43E1-8695-8CD9FC3DC244 at dejazzd.com>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>>
>> Many of the secretaries/admin assistants were not making the $45-70k
>> range they are offering for this position.  After 25 years, my base was at
>> the top of that range but I did receive OT on top of that.  Kind of hard to
>> judge without researching cost of living in Hardin County.  My
>> replacement?s base is below that range and that is about average for our
>> area for a starting FT HS TD.  (South Central PA)
>>
>> Greg Bierly
>>
>> > On Dec 18, 2025, at 4:38 PM, Kristi R-C via Stagecraft <
>> stagecraft at theatrical.net> wrote:
>> >
>> > Yeah - that salary is for clerical work. I?m seeing $75K-90K for HS
>> technical theater folks who are FT.
>> >
>> > Kristi R-C
>> >
>>
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