At BAT we meet the most interesting people.
Today, while waiting to lend some of BAT’s couches to CARES for their fundraiser, a very interesting woman stopped by. As is oft to happen, we got to talking.
She asked about BAT’s season and about BAT’s writing group, Seattle Playwrights Studio. With every answer I gave, her question was, “Is it free?”
I totally get living on next to nothing and watching every penny. People living there have all of my respect. It is very hard. Making theater possible for those on small-to-meager incomes is what got BAT, over ten years ago, to designate the first Sunday of every run as $7-Sunday. On $7-Sunday all tickets are $7. (Because $7-Sunday sells out so fast, BAT recently added a half price night on the first Saturday of a run.) TICKETS
Even at $7, BAT’s $7-Sunday is out of the reach of some. I am in the box office quite a bit, and many times people coming on $7-Sunday, pay me with quarters, dimes and nickels. I know some give up eating a healthy meal, or make do, to attend that performance.
I have talked to many of the regulars to $7-Sunday, and that performance is their special spurge, a break from a daily grind.
At $7 at ticket even with a sold-out house, it does not cover the costs of the show for that day. It does not even cover the royalties for that performance for most musicals. Nevertheless, accessibility to better live theater is one of BAT’s core missions.
Of course $7-Sunday is abused. More and more people, who appear to be able to afford full price tickets, come in groups, taking away seats from those who can only, or can just barely, afford $7. I do not know the back story of those who appear more affluent, and BAT would never ask. It may be they just put on a better front, and could not attend another performance, but when they tell me at intermission that they were at the 5th Avenue last week, I wonder. But I digress.
So, why is more theater not free? Why are BAT’s performances not free? Well, theater is expensive. It takes time and space. Lots of time, and lots of space.
BAT pays rent to the City of Burien. Rent that goes up every year. Rent that has doubled in just a few years. Then there are royalties. The royalties for BAT’s last musical were over $5,000.00. (That is four sold-out performances just to cover the rights to produce the show.) The show needs a set. BAT’s budgets are totally bare bones, and it is mostly due to Albie’s genius set costs about $1,500. And BAT has great sets. Then costumes: in some shows nudity works, but most all of the time actors wear clothes. Costumes must be built, borrowed or found. Props: don’t get me started. Cyindi and Deb are amazing and find or build the oddest things that scripts call for, but it all costs money.
At BAT, a typical straight play has a budget of $10,000, or more. A musical can have a budget of $20,000, or more. That excludes overhead.
BAT pays its designers and actors what it can. But no one could live on what BAT can pay. (It barely buys gas for the car.) Would BAT like to pay a living wage, and paying its creative team is one of BAT’s core values, but based on ticket sales alone the economics are not there.
BAT would also like paid staff, and a bookkeeper and on and on, but again it is a question of economics.
On average, in King County, theaters raise approximately 40% of their budgets from ticket sales. That means up to 60% must come from donations, grants, and sponsorships. If you would like to help BAT cover its costs and pay for the royalties for its next musical, please DONATE HERE. (If you donate before March 6, your donation will be matched!!!