Re: RAT Marx in Soho (in LA)

[Impacttheatre@aol.com]

We just raised our ticket prices from $10 general, $5 students to $12 and $7. 
 It wasn't an easy decision, but one we had to make.  We do 4 shows a year on 
a 20K budget.  We have no space of our own (obviously) and donated space is a 
pipe dream out here, as space in general is a huge crisis in and of itself.  
There are more opportunities and rentable spaces in San Francisco, but we're 
committed to staying in Berkeley.  Right now, there are 2 affordable rental 
spaces in Berkeley.  Yes, 2.  There are two more spaces that rent for about a 
grand a performance, and that's just out of our league.  The lack of space 
situation could change within a year or so, but suffice it to say that it's a 
tough deal right now.  We may have to cancel our usual August show for lack 
of space.  We're attempting to find alternatives, but the choices are ugly 
and few.  And expensive.

As we're strongly committed to keeping ticket prices low (comparable to a 
movie), we rely heavily on audience donations and we've just started applying 
for grants.  The grant application process is arduous- but hey, I don't have 
to tell YOU that.  We have one actor/crew benefit performance per production 
and we pay our designers a pittance.  No one in Impact is paid, which 
necessitates us all having other sources of income, which impacts our ability 
to find the time to apply for the grants that could partailly alleviate this 
problem.

It costs money to do theatre, especially if you'd like to pay the artists for 
their time and talent, which I do.  It costs money for publicity, flyers, 
postage, not to mention costumes and sets and the occasional playwrights' 
stipend or rights fee.

I really don't want to raise prices again for a long, long time.  So I'm 
hoping that some of those grants come through and that not all of our 
audience members' potential donations cash went down the dotcom drain.

Clearly I don't know what the answer is.  Granting organizations have their 
own agendas, and the application processes are extremely time-consuming and 
mysterious to me.  Corporations have their own ideas about the kind of 
theatre they like to fund, which is not usually new plays by emerging 
playwrights, something we're totally committed to.  We have a dedicated 
audience- we average about 500 people per production- so it's not entirely 
impossible to secure some sort of grant/corporate funding.  I guess.  I guess 
what I mean is that we're small, but perhaps we service enough people to 
count on someone's radar.  Maybe.  I hope.  I'm open to suggestions.

Melissa Hillman
Artistic Director
Impact Theatre
P.O. Box 12666
Berkeley, CA 94712-3666

(510) 464-4468
http://www.impacttheatre.com

"Planet Janet" opens May 11th!



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