Category: Budget

Getting more for your money

When working towards a performance within a theatre company, it is important to make the most of all the money that you have. This means that where possible, a company should try to gain props, costumes or even pieces of set for free. When our set designer decided that the production would have two large wooden angels either side of the stage, we immediately knew that sourcing and purchasing this wood would take some time. We wanted to try and get the wood as soon as possible in order for the cutting and painting to be completed. After some research, the price for the amount of wood we wanted would come to around £30-£40, not including delivery. As this price was quite high, I decided to try and see if one of the builders merchants would give the wood to us for free.

Donated wood to create the set

Donated wood to create the set

Outside the LPAC there was a building site whereby the library was being extended. Because of this they used large boards of wood to fence off the building area. Thinking that they may have some of these board going spare, I decided to ask them if we could have any for free. With a smile and a little bit of persuasion, we managed to get one full board and two half boards for nothing. This was also beneficial because of the sheer size of these boards. Anywhere else we could have got them from would have cost us in delivery, where as the location of this building site was right next to the LPAC, costing us only the kind help of a few technicians to come and carry the wood to the scene dock for us. By acquiring this wood for free, we were able to spend more of the set budget on things such as paint and fabric for the other angel.

Other props such as a double piano stool would have taken the majority of the props budget away. The LPAC props store only had one seater piano stools available. With a few quick phone calls to members of my family, I managed to get not only a double stool, but a mirror, some sheet music and a few dust sheets to save the theatre company some money in the budget. The double stool became essential to the performance during the piano tuner and countess’ scene as there is an intimate moment between the two of them that requires them both to be sat together by the piano. By acquiring this specific prop for free, it allowed other money to be spent on props such as fake blood, that took some experimenting to get right. If a theatre company (like ours) is on a very tight budget, it is important to try to save as much money as possible by ‘begging stealing and borrowing’. Being able to communicate with other people and businesses makes this task a lot easier as the right approach may lead to a freebie or discounted items. I have found through being a stage manager that there are times when being ‘cheeky’ and asking for a little more is always the best plan of attack as long as it is done in a professional way. It is clear that this approach worked as I managed to save over £80 of the set/props budgets.

Another example of gaining things for free would be during the rehearsal process. I made contact with Lincoln City Football Club for rehearsal space and Sam Taylor for our photography and graphic design. Both of these contacts were very useful to the theatre company as a whole, our branding was created for us with accompanying brand manual to keep consistency and we were granted over 16 hours of free rehearsal space. These contacts are displayed in our programme to help advertise their businesses in return for helping our theatre company.

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Alex Urbanczyk

Final spending spreadsheet

PROGENY SPENDING 2

 

See above the final spreadsheet on Progeny’s spending. It turns out that we did not use the whole of our £250 budget as we have money left. This means that, unlike what we thought before, the copyright for the show can be taken out of the budget instead of being paid for by the cast and crew.

As has been posted about before, our production required a lot of set and a lot of props. Luckily, a lot of these were sourced from the LPAC, meaning that the money we had in the budget could be used for more important, less easily sourced items. The crew in charge of set and props used their money successfully, sourcing the cheapest and most relevant items they could.

Just as a note – I have hold of the expenses forms which will be handed in this week (beginning 20th May).

Francesca

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Company spending

As head of finance, it is my job to review the budget regularly as well as keeping up with the companies spending. I have to have direct communication with the head of set, costume and props to make sure the spreadsheet is up to date at all times.

Budget

Here, I have attached the budget. This is what the company is keeping to as their limits. On the ‘Administration’ page (or on previous post ‘Budget’), you will be able to see the original budget which included the copyright to our performance. Due to expanding the financial needs for other aspects of performance, our producer decided to take the copyright out of the budget. We agreed as a group to put towards the copyright ourselves.

 

PROGENY SPENDING 2

Here I have attached the most up to date spread sheet which notes down all of the companies spending. (This will change slightly until after the performance is over).

As can be seen from the budget and the spending spreadsheet, Progeny have been lucky enough to receive in kind support from the Football Club. They were nice enough to lend out their space as rehearsal space for free. Although we received in kind support from LPAC in regards to rehearsal space, space was not always free so we were left with no where to rehearse. Having the Football club allowed us to have a guaranteed space.

Items such as the wood (from which the angels are made) have also been given in kind, meaning we saved a lot of money. The props cupboard at the LPAC has also served us well in saving us money. Altogether, we have saved over £80 on props that we would have had to spend if it wasn’t for the props cupboard, friends, family and companies support. This has benefited our company greatly, meaning we have been able to focus more on aspects such as costume which have needed alterations.

If we were a real company without the support of the LPAC, we would have had to source everything ourselves, meaning we would have had to spend more money. We have to stick to our budget, but there are other ways to raise money. Refer to the ‘Fundraising’ post.

Francesca

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Fundraising

This post is just a brainstorm of some of the fundraising ideas I had if we needed more money for the budget.

 

  • Bake sale – LPAC Cafe
    We would bake a variety of our own cakes, liaise with the LPAC to set up a date and spend a couple of hours in the cafe.
  • Quiz – LPAC Cafe
    Taking inspiration from online, we could put together a quiz of around 20 questions, charging 50p-£1 for every entry.
  • Bring & sell – LPAC Cafe
    A bring and sell is where we could have brought in anything from our homes that we do not want/need anymore and asking for a donation for it instead of selling it for a certain price. The items of course would have to be in good shape and could not be anything inappropriate!
  • Donations to Progeny (collection) – LPAC
    This would just be a basic donation – tell people what we are about and what we are doing and why we require donations. There would be no pushing people into giving us money.
  • Sponsored fancy dress for the day
    Fancy dress which includes the whole company could be a fun idea. The fancy dress would have to be a theme which linked to our performance or made people want to sponsor us!
  • Sponsored silence
    Some people may love to shut us up for a limited amount of time! We would have to prove this by being out in public though.
  • Running a workshop for the public (including schools, colleges or youth centers).
    This was an idea from Hannah. We could have ran a small workshop on ideas which stemmed from our original fairy tale ideas. It would only be one hour long per workshop.
  • Bingo night – LPAC Cafe
    Speaks for itself really. Again, charge 50p-£1 per entry.
  • Competitions – eg. the competition we had on our Facebook page (guess what this image is)

 

There are of course many other ways in which we as a company could fundraise, these are just several of the ideas we could have chosen from. For now, we do not need to fundraise.

 

 

Francesca

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Keeping up with spending

Just a quick post to put up the picture of the spending spreadsheet. This spreadsheet will keep detailed track of what money is spent on what items and how much money we have left in the budget. As previously said, if we feel we will overspend, fundraising ideas will be put into play.

progeny spending (2)

Click image for clearer picture. If this does not work,  the top lines say: Company sectors, Items bought, Cost and Money remaining (according to budget).

Underneath is then the sectors such as marketing, set, etc.

This spreadsheet will be filled in as and when to keep on top of our spending.

 

Francesca

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