Hi guys

For awhile know I have been wanting to rent a theatre out in the Kansas City MO area to do a show!

Ive looked up almost everything I can on the internet . Im looking for a rental fee $1,000 or under . the liberty performing arts center is 1,000 but I would really like to have a theatre with curtains, lights, etc for under 1,000 . Do I just need to go for the liberty performing arts center? or do you guys know of anywhere else that is pretty comparable? I'm going towards the liberty performing arts center because so far I cant find any others for under $1,000 that have a little bit of a stage infront of the curtains. Which I would really like.

Any ideas?

Here is a link to the liberty performing arts center
http://mo-liberty2.civicplus.com/index.aspx?NID=37

Look into local theatre companies that own their own facilities. A dark theatre generates no revenue and you can usual arrange a door split that includes house and box office staff, etc or a straight rental.

I just got a theater rental taken care of this week.

Look into something like this... I rented out a high school theater. The rental fee is somewhere in the ball park of $1400. But.......

I teamed up with a scout group. They are selling tickets for as a fundraiser and will retain a % of their own sales. I am getting the theater for $120. that's it. $20 permit fee, and about $100 for the custodians to clean up after we are gone. The reason we can get it for so cheap, is we are using the scouts as the actual renters. They are a not for profit group, and the fees have been waived.

sb

Jut checked your website. If you are still in high school, talk to them! get one of the school groups involved (stage crew??) and see if you can get the theater for nothing!

When renting a theater, $1000 doesn't seem like too much to cover.... but in reality, that $1000 can be a big nut to crack. And if you do sell enough tickets, wouldn't you rather make that money, than give it to the theater to pay for the venue???


Good luck.

Im still in high school but I'm homeschooled so I can not do any groups from a school or anything. The theatre I was talking about want the $1000 up front. I would take the money from the tickets.

Thanks for talking to me about this
If you have any more pointers please keep them comming!

If you have never done a show like this... you really really want to keep the costs down. Even though you are not going to one of the schools, you can still work with them.

First find out if one of the area high schools have a theater that would fit your needs. Then price the theater, is there a huge discount available for a not for profit company?

Then figure out a group to help shoulder some of the cost burden. You can even broker a deal with them, where they keep part of their ticket sales, and don't get anything from your other ticket sales (the ones you were are currently planning on).

Here's some groups that you could work with:
school group (stage crew, marketing club, etc...)
humane society
scouts
elementary school
any group
(the local home school association may even be able to qualify)

Remember, keep your costs low!

Here is a way to keep the cost down and make some good money. Do an Ice Cream Social for schools in your area and split the profits.

See Jim Snack for complete details on this topic.

-Dennis

All of the above advice is great and partnering up at this point is right on the money. The big thing to remember is that a stage show isn't a one-man show even if you're the only one on stage. You still need a stage/technical crew, house and box office staff, and publicity/sales. The latter may be just you putting ads in the paper, but hooking up with another organization gives you access to their contacts, membership and subscriber lists, etc. Most of the more expensive outright rentals will include minimal required staff (light/sound tech, box office, maybe house) but they won't provide your own running crew if you need one; you wanted a curtain - someone has to pull it and if it's a union theatre it's big bucks.

If you just want to rent four walls, you need to budget in all these people. Partnering with a community organization as suggested above can provide you with a lot of this (ushers, box office, bake sale ladies, etc) but you'll still have to rent a theatre and pay some techs. Just to elaborate on my previous post after you have digested the others' comments, here's another plug for partnering with a theatre company. A quick Google search showed at least a dozen in Kansas City.

1. If they own their own theatre, as I said in my earlier post, a dark house makes no revenue. There are always off (dark)nights when their shows aren't running. They will have their own staff and that can be included in a house split for an evening there's no show running.

2. Even if the company you partner with rents a theatre (four walls), they will still have their own staff (paid or volunteer, they're trained techs) that would be part of their contribution to the partnership. You make less money but you will likely get advertising in their programs, access to their subscriber lists, etc. A theatre company that is paying to rent a theatre won't be able to use it 7 nights a week, even if they are in rehearsals and most would be happy to help allay part of a dark night's rental (they pay whether they play or not). You might even do some close up in the lobby of the play running before you to generate interest in your own event's ticket sales.

Sorry for the long reply. Good luck!
Joe

Thanks for the plug Dennis. When I was starting out I did exactly what "magicdrums" is proposing - partnering with a community groups to raise money, doing the shows at high schools - and after six shows with several assistants and a lot of work, I had lost $75. Doing a smaller Magic Show & Ice Cream Social at an elementary school is a great way to get started promoting a public show with a much lower risk. And you can do it as a one person show. Once you get some experience, then you can think about putting together a larger show on a bigger stage.

Jim

Having served on the Board of Directors of our local theater company and procuding/directing a number of shows I cannot agree enough with that'sJustWrong. There is a lot involved in producing a show for a theater. Renting the theater is the easy part. We have had several groups come in and rent our theater only to sell 30 - 50 tickets. Hardly enough to break even. don't forget you will need to have a valid Liability Insurance Policy and if you intend to use music be sure the theaters ASCAP license covers your performance.
Also - even if the theater is dark often the smaller theaters are in production for their upcoming shows and have rehearsals, techincal weeks and set building going on.

Partnering with social or civic groups is a great idea.

Jim's Ice Cream Social is a super way to get started.

I would also advocate for partnering with a group to rent a high school theater. They often hold up to 1000 people or more and the rental fees are waived as suggested for non-profit organizations. I've had the same costs as mentioned @ $120 for the rental.