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How the Heck Does a Play
Get Produced In a Theatre?
(or, Getting Past the Gatekeeper, with thanks to Peter Smith)
The Logistics
Theatre companies in Canada have many different mandates which inform production choices. In general, mainstream, medium to large theatre companies look for at least one new home-grown work to be produced along with subscriber-friendly, often international, established work. New Canadian works usually find their way to the stage in this way:
2. A theatre company commissions a script from a writer.
3. A theatre company reads an unsolicited script from a writer.
1. Often artistic directors or a literary managers of theatre companies (gatekeepers) will contact writers whose work has impressed them. They ask the writer to send them a bundle of work. The writer sends the work. If the theatre company is interested, they make a contract with the playwright.
2. Other times artistic directors or literary managers will pay a given writer, normally one with a good track record, to write a play for production. In this instance, the writer gets money up front.
3. In rare instances, a theatre company decides to produce one of the hundreds of scripts which come across their tables over any given year.
The Big Contract
In each instance, a contract is formed between the playwright and the theatre. The contract outlines conditions of production including First Rights of Refusal. This expression is a fancy way of saying that the theatre in question has first dibs at producing the piece.
Various conditions may be outlined in the contract. For instance, the gatekeeper might see promise in the script but want to see certain elements developed within in certain deadline of about six months. Rewrites may be done by the writer following a simple conversation with the artistic director or dramaturg, or revision may be more extensive, based on work with a full crew in a WORKSHOP (hypertext).
Money, oh Money, oh Money
For both commissioned and uncommissioned scripts, if rewrites are in order, a sum of money is given to the writer after the first new draft has been accepted by the theatre. This money comes from revenue generated from grants, corporate funding or the box office. If no rewrites are in order, a playwright may have to wait until the production begins to see any money. At this time, the playwright usually gets ten percent of the box office. Authors of musicals usually get twelve percent-- six for the author of the musical score, and six for the playwright.
The good news: for the author of a piece playing in a large A house, (Manitoba Theatre Centre, Theatre Calgary, Canadian Stage), an author may make upwards of $40, 000 per run. This means that if the author's play shows at five different A theatres in one year, the playwright may make $200, 000.
The more common news: most theatres in Canada are smaller scale, falling into the B, C, D, E, F, G, fringe, or co-op size categories. Revenues for writers whose pieces show at one smaller theatre are much....well, humbler. For the author of a play which runs in a small G house (Prairie Theatre Exchange, Passe Muraille), for an 8 performance series, is around $960.00. That's if the show sells out and tickets are ten bucks a pop. And all that money after two years work!
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