Theatre without theatre people: NYTW fires entire production staff.
ecoTheater reports that the production staff of New York Theatre Workshop will be let go on May 30, 2008, 16 days after the scheduled ground breaking ceremony of their new scenic and costume shop.
Reason for our dismissal-Board mandated a 1 million dollar reduction to the operating budget so of course who goes first? Production. Season will consist of 3 main-stage productions and an ancillary program of musicals to follow the model of the Encore series basically a bare stage and many performers remounting off-Broadway musicals. So of course production can be handled by either seasonal hires or show by show hires. People have lost their livelihood through no fault of their own and the shortsighted planning of people who really don’t understand what it is production does, we do more than shows, we maintain the theaters and provide a loyalty to the whole of the organization which in turn translates into working to make the productions here as cost effective as possible.
Once again, the people that actually create the shows are cut, while wasted income continues. Their charity filings claim that NYTW has an approximately 5 million dollar budget. Out of that, $3.6 million goes to program expenses, but a whopping $728,000 is spent on fundraising. That’s right: nearly 20% if the budget goes to simply raising money. (to compare, Manhattan Theatre Club spends just 10% of their budget on fundraising. Playwrights Horizons spends about 5% of their budget on fundraising, or $527,000, even though they have a $10 million budget.)
A dollar says that there will be a party/meal/special event to honor some donor, and the Board meetings are catered. Because why would you want to actually use the money donated for shows, when you can spend it on food and other non-show, un-needed expenses?
Hudson & Gaines
