Excellent response!
To tack on to coming in under budget: Professionally, taking on small budget work can be a detriment, not only to yourself, but to other theatre artists out there. If your budget is a shoestring, it means your entitling someone else to make your wages a shoestring as well, and by default those of your colleagues. I often find that in a professional theatre setting, it is best to be honest about your value and the price of quality. Not to say that every theater is interested in quality visual properties. There are many companies that focus on the performer and the philosophy of an experience with an audience. If that's the case, and you plan to create a space that requires focus of funds and a lot of labor, it's not worth your time and doesn't -actually- support the company's goals. If the company -does- want to support visual design as an imaginative experience, then they should tackle smaller shows that allow for costume and scenic designers to focus their efforts into pieces of quality, not quantity.
Non-profit is an amazing community. I have many dear friends that work this ring, and did so myself for several years. It can be experimental, close to the vest, daring, relevant to the social proximity. But that doesn't mean there aren't battles to fight in terms of budgetary abuse.
There's an article circulating right now that illustrates some of these points: dctheatrescene.com/2014/05/29/… It's a good read that everyone in our profession should chew on. : )
To tack on to coming in under budget: Professionally, taking on small budget work can be a detriment, not only to yourself, but to other theatre artists out there. If your budget is a shoestring, it means your entitling someone else to make your wages a shoestring as well, and by default those of your colleagues. I often find that in a professional theatre setting, it is best to be honest about your value and the price of quality. Not to say that every theater is interested in quality visual properties. There are many companies that focus on the performer and the philosophy of an experience with an audience. If that's the case, and you plan to create a space that requires focus of funds and a lot of labor, it's not worth your time and doesn't -actually- support the company's goals. If the company -does- want to support visual design as an imaginative experience, then they should tackle smaller shows that allow for costume and scenic designers to focus their efforts into pieces of quality, not quantity.
Non-profit is an amazing community. I have many dear friends that work this ring, and did so myself for several years. It can be experimental, close to the vest, daring, relevant to the social proximity. But that doesn't mean there aren't battles to fight in terms of budgetary abuse.
There's an article circulating right now that illustrates some of these points: dctheatrescene.com/2014/05/29/… It's a good read that everyone in our profession should chew on. : )