There’s money in theatre…

If you start charging the playwrights!

I’ve rambled before about how hard it is to get a break in this business. You have to realise the financial risks a theatre is taking on if they were to accept your play – the have actors, directors, SM, lighting directors, sound operators etc to pay for… And that doesn’t even take the costs of the venue, front of house, advertising etc into account.

But there is one thing that still makes me mad. Charging Reading Fees.

Thankfully, I have never encountered an agent that has done this. If I did, they wouldn’t gain my manuscript. But it would appear that there is a growing trend for theatres to start charging.

Okay, let’s adjust that statement – there is a growing trend for US theaters (sic) to charge reading fees. But unfortunately, what happens stateside soon migrates to the UK shores.

I read this article about this very subject, trying to put both sides of the argument. And it is well written. After all, theatres do have to stay afloat.

But why should this be done that the expense of the playwright? If there were no new plays, the theatres would go under in months. They should be encouraging new writers, not placing financial barriers in place to stop them.

Look at the cost of mailing just on manuscript to a theatre: Not only do you have the printing costs and the postage and packing… But you have to shove in a postcard for them to return to you (postage paid) so that you know that they have received it (and don’t mention recorded delivery – you do that automatically to insure the contents) and enclose the required return packaging and necessities postage. So one submission cost three sets of postage (if there were more playwrights the Post Office would never be under threat!).

But having to pay a Reading Fee on top of that!

There are days when I worry about theatre’s future. If this is one of the trends that drift across the Atlantic – we all need to worry about its future.