Royalties

Am I imagining things or have the costs of rights gone up a 'considerable amount' recently??

We have just got the necessary forms for our first three seasons - 'we' being the Old Mill Theatre in South Perth - (an amateur theatre in case anyone reading this is unaware)

1. The Sum of US - $200 per performance

2. Dangerous Obsession - $190

3. Jakes Women - $250

This equates to a complete row of seats every performance just for the royalties.

We increased our ticket prices last year, partly to cope with rising costs and partly to cope with BOCs charges and hope we don't have to do the same  for 2008.

On a related theme - why are people unwilling to pay for a programme?? (not everyone of course)

I have just done a full colour, 8 page A4 programme for a season. Simply to get it printed cost s around $2.20  per programme and that's not taking in to account the time taken to actually design and compose it in the first place - for which as a member of the theatre I don't charge. As anyone who produces theatre programmes will attest it isn't simply a matter of sitting at a computer and tossing them off in a few minutes!! To produce a quality programme takes several hours.

We have tried: a) charging $1 for an A5 B/W and $2 for a colour A4 (the latter recently caused  us to have a lot left unsold!!)

and: b) saying "programme by donation please" 

I still haven't decided which way is 'best' . The obvious alternative is to build the cost into the ticket, which will cause complaints about "getting too expensive these days"- And yes I have been on the receiving end of many such comments!!

I'm not actually seeking a solution- I don't think there is one- merely voicing thoughts.