A mate of mine, has decided to pull the pin on doing script writing & shuttimg the door on his production company;-
http://www.theatre.asn.au/billboard_bullet...hings_must_pass

The harsh reality of drama finances everywhere. Actually being able to make money seems to have become as rare as unicorns - unless of course you already have celebrity status.

A young drama group our lad is in has been having a nightmare finding a rehearsal space at a price they can afford after the school they were rehearsing in went bust. Schools now see it as letting income rather than a community thing that keeps that group of youngsters off the streets.

Your right Robin!
When we first had dealings with the local City Council, they were falling over thenselves to assist the new theatre group.
I first aproached the council, prior to applying for a State Government Grant scheme, through our Theatre Association, they fell over themselves to accomodate us.
So I rewired the converted Community Hall into a theatre, along with the lighting & sound gear, which we installed as part of the Sate Government grant. Then we made a deal that the Council could have use of the equipment, as part of their hire fee to other users. The theatre group was to recieve about 10% of the hire fees, when the Council hired it to other users & used the lighting system. This money was to be held in an acount earmarked for the theatre group. So inturn when our group put on a season, the acrued amount would be be used to cover the hire fee for the our theatre group. Also if a hirer wanted to use the lighting they were required to pay a fee to the Theatre of $100 for a Duty Tech, from the theatre group for each show or have thier own Techie, aproved by the theatre. I did a number of these shows & donated the tech fee back to the group, which in turn helped with replaced globes. gells & equiptment maintenance. unfortunetly I moved away & left the group.
Since then this has gone by the way & I believe now the duty tech retaiins the fee, so now they have little or any credit, which helped pay for the venue hire, when they put on a thier own season.
Aparently now this has gone by the board & the Council thinks they own all the equipment & want to charge the theatre group a hire fee for using thier own theatre gear?
I have tried to advise the group, that this was not part of the orginal deal, but subsiquent commitees don't want to make waves with the City Council & opt tp pay thru the nose as a general hirer & even pay for the use of thier own gear!
What a bunch of yoyo's!