Where Your Money Goes
We mean it when we say that no donation is too small to make a difference. We conserve to the best of our abilities and use all of our resources to their fullest extent. However, producing quality theater is simply expensive and we feel that it’s not fair to take that out of the pockets of our artists or burden an audience who might not be able to afford a ticket if we continued to raise prices. With every dollar you donate we are able to provide more for our artists, increase our production values and strengthen our foundation to ensure we are here for many, many years to come.
Gifts to our Annual Campaign pay for the many little things we can’t attach to a single play. They keep the website running and all the tools we need to go along with it. They pay the salaries of our Producing Artistic Director and Online Producer. From printer paper to annual filing fees to our book-keeper, these funds keep us running behind the scenes.
When you become a show sponsor, those funds go directly to that single production and help offset the costs of royalties, materials, and of course talent.
But what does this all look like in reality? What can your donation really do? See below!
For Example
Here is a sample breakdown of exactly how donations help us.
$25
- Food and drink props (think sodas, bags of chips or other things specifically called for in a script to be consumed on stage) for a weekend of a production.
- Printing costs for producing contracts, schedules, contact sheets, scripts etc.
$50
- Lighting gels (colors) and gobos (filters) for a production.
- Sound expenses (batteries, random cables etc) for a non-musical production.
- Payroll costs associated with providing a production manager for two hours to a side-project.
$100
- A cast and crew meal for a 2-show day or day-long technical rehearsal for a production with a small cast.
- The average cost of a small special effect like the instrument in Misery that replicates a barbecue or waste paper basket fire.
$150
- Can typically purchase a single "off the rack" costume.
- Covers printing posters or the window display for a production.
- Covers the cost of a fill-in rehearsal accompanist or musician when we produce a musical.
- Covers the cost of sending a teaching artist out to a school for an outreach for a half-day.
$425
- Covers the subsidized rents of our costume and prop storage units for one month.
- Can purchase a small print ad in Creative Loafing or the Times.
- Pays a 1-week base salary for an actor or stage manager. We typically rehearse 3 to 4 weeks and perform for another 4 per production. Actors and stage managers are paid a weekly guarantee and are also eligible for profit sharing should a show do well.
$500
- The prop or costume budget for most 2-3 person non-musical shows in the Shimberg.
- Typically pays for the rental and maintenance of wigs needed for a show.
- Covers the cost of a social media advertising campaign (Facebook, Instagram).
$750
- Covers the cost of hiring a Scenic Artist to come in and detail paint a small set, or for a props person to go out and acquire the items we need.
- Covers the expense of a replacement projector bulb.
- Purchases the latest versions of vital software such as Qlab, which we use to run audio, lights, and video.
$1,000
- Covers the scenic expenses for a small show, like The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, in the Shimberg.
- Pays for a week of rights on a play like Constellations.
- Covers costume materials for a 5-6 person show.
- Covers the cost of an annual compilation as performed by a CPA.
$1,500
- Pays to have Fire Marshall present for the run of a show using haze, fog, or pyro effects.
- Pays for a small one-week radio or cable ad schedule.
- Pays for a week of rights on a musical in the Jaeb Theater, like Silence! The Musical.
- Covers a designer or technical director fee for a production.
- Replaces a laptop or tablet, when needed.
- Offsets the costs of offering reduced-to-free student tickets to a daytime matinee performance.
$2,500
- Covers the cost of a set or costumes in the Jaeb.
- Pays for a small one-week radio or television ad schedule.
- Covers the cost of an acting apprentice for a single production.
$10,000
- Can cover the basic production team (director, designers) fees for most shows in the Shimberg.
- Pays the institutional marketing expenses for a full season.
$15,000
- Can pay for a part-time producing apprentice, or apprentice to the technical director.
- Can cover base artist payroll for a medium-sized production.
$25,000
- Can pay all of the actor guarantees for a medium-sized production like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.
- Covers all artistic fees and salaries for a small production in the Shimberg like The Beauty Queen of Leenane.
- Would allow us to hire a part-time producing assistant for the season.
$50,000
- Can pay for all of the artistic fees and guarantees for a musical in the Jaeb.
- Would allow us to add another person to payroll, either a part-time marketing and/or development person or for us to take one of our current part-time employees and bring them on full time.
- Covers the marketing budget for a long-running production in the Jaeb Theater.
- Would allow us to hire an assistant for the Producing Artistic Director.
$65,000
- Pays for all materials, royalties, and payroll for a musical of Shakespeare production in the Jaeb.
- Would allow us to make a full-time hire of a business manager, development, and/or marketing person.
Our Season Sponsors
