Money, money, money - makes the vorld go a-rouwnd...

Week 2 - 435 days to opening night

Hey everyone let's talk dosh, mula, wangah, ol casheroony. Let's talk pounds, shillings and pence. Let's talk money.

So what do you do after you come home from a long 3hr rehearsal late at night - chat with your loved one? Watch TV? Go to bed? Do you know what I did...sat working out budgets for the show. Yep, my life is wild beyond comprehension.

Perception is that it's all a bit arty, this theatre thing, but in the end it does come down to cold hard cash. We have a certain number of seats to sell (about 450 per night), we need to set a ticket price that isn't stupid (particularly in this economic climate) - then you times seats by ticket price and that gives you your cap for a budget. Spend more than your income and you make a loss, spend less and you make a profit. Obviously it's a bit more complicated than that but I, quite frankly, can't be arsed to get into all.

I'm not going to talk figures as, Sue (Treasurer/Accountant) will actually grate my testicles off if I do, but compared to other larger groups in the area who can spend £60-70,000 on a show we're  small(ish) fry in budget terms. The trick is use the budget cleverly to make the show look twice as expensive as it actually is.

So I have a rough budget calculated (taking into account all the big spends: theatre, musicians, sound hire, costume etc etc) - a number ending in several zeros (I think I'm safe in giving that much away) - and a rough ticket price. And I'm fairly happy.

This show is about flag waving and letting people know who we are - so the aim is to break even. The last show we (Neil, George, Pete) did sold out well in advance with a relatively unknown show, so I'm fairly confident we can repeat it this time round. Hey, look, a glass half full attitude will get you everywhere....

Neil