# Starting Theatre Organization



## AppleCorer (Oct 4, 2010)

Hello there,

I am interested in creating my own professional theatre organization. I wanted to know what the best route to go would be for this? How much does it usually cost to start up? Should I seek sponsorship and grants? Eventually, I hope to be able to build my own theatre. 

Any comments would be appreciated.


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## cprted (Oct 4, 2010)

Do you have any experience in theatre/performing arts administration? If not, that would be a good place to start.


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## jonliles (Oct 4, 2010)

Start with the American Association of Community Theatre (http://www.aact.org/running.html). 

Do you want to form a performance troop or do you want to start a performance venue? You can do minimalist theatre and not need a venue, but a venue that caters to performnce has some high costs.

Speaking from experience about the 501c3 theatre association I formerly belong to: Our individual shows ticket sales would coverthe cost associated with the show - Set , costumes, director's fee, orchestra, rights, lamps, gels, etc...However, the profit from the shows did not cover overhead such as rent, utilities, equipment upkeep, new equipment purchases. Anytime we wanted or needed something new, we started a capital funds campaign. Grants kept us alive until the owner of the building sold it and we lost our lease.


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## AppleCorer (Oct 4, 2010)

jonliles said:


> Start with the American Association of Community Theatre (Running a Theatre: American Association of Community Theatre).
> 
> Do you want to form a performance troop or do you want to start a performance venue? You can do minimalist theatre and not need a venue, but a venue that caters to performnce has some high costs.
> 
> Speaking from experience about the 501c3 theatre association I formerly belong to: Our individual shows would cover themselves - Set , costumes, director's fee, orchestra, rights, lamps, gels, etc...However, the profit from the shows did not cover overhead such as rent, utilities, equipment upkeep, new equipment purchases. Anytime we wanted or needed something new, we started a capital funds campaign. Grants kept us alive until the owner of the building sold it and we lost our lease.


 
What do you mean the individual shows cover themselves?


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## shiben (Oct 4, 2010)

AppleCorer said:


> What do you mean the individual shows cover themselves?


 
It looks to mean that ticket sales made enough money to pay for show specific expenses, such as rights to the show, payment for the services of a director and orchestra, lamps, gels etc. However, They needed to get money from various other groups in order to pay rent and utilities.


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## lparks1 (Feb 25, 2011)

I am the founding artistic director for the Bloomington Repertory Theatre (The Rep | Live Theatre at its best | Bloomington, IN). I can offer a few pointers, but I will warn you -- I am by no means an industry professional, just someone with some stat-up experience.

First, please sit down and think out a business plan. Look at other theatre companies in town. Try to fill a niche not served already. After you have assembled a pretty good business plan and you really think it is feasible for another company in town, then you need to follow these steps:

1. Incorporate as a non-profit corporation with your state. Usually done with the Secretary of State. Fee in Indiana is $20, but might might vary by state.

2. Appoint a very talented board of directors. These individuals, especially in a start-up, can be a huge asset. They can help kick up some much needed funding.

3. Apply for 501(c)3 status ASAP. You need this too get grants and tax deductible donations. The fee is currently $850 to file and takes at least 8 weeks to get a yay or nay. 

4. Select a small season (1-2 shows) your first season. Don't get in over your head, but at the same time pick SAFE shows. The last thing a new company needs to experiment with a new play as it's first show.

5. Work with the media. You will be shocked at the number of "media sponsors" you can get, especially in smaller towns. We got a $20,000 media sponsorship from the local newspaper and it cost me a few emails. I want to stress, to try get as much free advertising as you can. Ad's are expensive to buy, and you need a lot of ads to cut through the clutter of other shows in town. 

6. If you want to go professional like we did, then you might want to define "professional". Are you wanting to go Equity and use IATSE hands? If so, you better have some pretty good backers or have ticket prices that will cover that cost. WE consider ourselves professional by paying our actors $100 on contract, paying stage-hands on contract (non-union) and using the Equity Guest Artistic contract for the occasional Equity actor.

Too answer your question of how much it takes to start a company. It depends. I founded BRT with about $200. I did this by taking that $200 and investing it in a deposit for a local venue, got bands to come perform for free, put our some fliers, made about $3,000 off the show that cost about $1,500 to put on and then built from there. Your local conditions will vary.


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## mstaylor (Mar 3, 2011)

lparks1 said:


> I am the founding artistic director for the Bloomington Repertory Theatre (The Rep | Live Theatre at its best | Bloomington, IN). I can offer a few pointers, but I will warn you -- I am by no means an industry professional, just someone with some stat-up experience.
> 
> First, please sit down and think out a business plan. Look at other theatre companies in town. Try to fill a niche not served already. After you have assembled a pretty good business plan and you really think it is feasible for another company in town, then you need to follow these steps:
> 
> ...


I operated a dinner theatre for seven years. Start with small production shows. Decide how much you are going buy and what you are going to rent. We bought our lighting gear but rented sound for a while. We built all our own gear by the time we folded up. We lost our home so we decided it was time to quit.


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## museav (Mar 9, 2011)

AppleCorer said:


> I am interested in creating my own professional theatre organization.


That is an extremely broad statement, it would probably be much easier to generate some discussion if you could be more specific about your goals. It would likely also help if you could provide some information on your background and that of the others involved, your current situation in terms of physical and human resources, etc. People here are typically happy to try to assist but showing that you've already done some of the initial research and work usually helps.


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