Shrek Update - 3/6/2021

Good Afternoon Everyone!

As promised, here are two links for ways you can help over the next few weeks.  

1. We are looking for individuals or groups that are willing to help us out with 10 meals for the cast and crew over the next three weeks.  Sign-ups will take place using Signup Genius, and that link is below.  Last year, we had some parents who wanted to help but were not able to actually get the food and make sure it was at school for meal time.  In those situations, those parents donated money and another parent purchased and prepared the food.  That offer still stands for this show.  If you are interested in donating the money for someone else to prepare the meal, please contact me directly and I will get you more specific information.   There are at least two restaurants that have offered to do food for us on different occasions.  I am currently contacting them and am hopeful that they will still be willing to do a meal for the cast and crew.  If you have questions, please let me know.  Each slot has a meal time.  Please notice they are not all the same.  Also, we have students with nut and mint allergies, so please keep that in mind as you are preparing the menu.

SHREK MEAL SIGNUPS

2. We are also collecting items for our concession stand.  If you are willing to help with that effort, there is an additional signup genius link below that will give you more information about what is needed.  In general, we are looking for a variety of chips, chocolate candy bars, non-chocolate candy, cookies, and drinks.  We are asking that these items be turned in to Mr Franklin's office by Wednesday, March 17.  If you have questions, please reach out.

SHREK CONCESSION DONATIONS

3. If you are interested in a parent ad for the playbill and have not already submitted that information, please do that by the end of the day Monday.  We will be finishing up the playbills and printing them around the middle of the week.

4. At this time, none of the shows are sold out, however opening night is close.  There are about 120 tickets remaining.  

5. This week is tech week, and that means it is an intense time for our actors and technicians.  Our rehearsal schedule this week is from 3:30 pm until 8:00 pm. 

6. Finally, I shared some financial information with the students earlier in the week to try and help them understand why their teacher is constantly trying to get them help secure advertisements and sponsorships.  I am sharing that information at the very bottom of this post.  I think, in general, most people don't understand what expenses exist for producing a show before we ever buy a costume, prop, or set piece.  Unfortunately we are running out of time to secure these.  As of Saturday at 1:25 pm, we have three sponsors and one advertisement.  Last year we had 7 sponsors and 16 advertisements.  If you are willing to help in the last few days, please let me know. 

Please let me know if you have questions.
Mr. F

Financial Information Shared With Students Earlier In The Week
Good Morning Friends!

I wanted to share a little math with you this morning to potentially help you understand why your teacher is super stressed about money and can't seem to quit asking you to help.

*To start, it costs $900 to rent the scripts and rights to perform the show.
*We must pay $110 each time we perform the show for an audience. (7 x$110=$770)
*Rehearsal tracks and performance tracks together cost $750.
*Sales tax on those materials is $169.40

Before one costume piece, prop, or set materials are purchased, the cost to produce the show is $2589.40.

We are performing 7 shows with a maximum of 30 audience members per show. The maximum revenue for 7 shows is $2100.

So, without sponsorships and advertisements, and zero purchases for any costumes, props, or set materials, we start in the hole $489.

I did purchase a video license in hopes that we can sell a few DVDs of your performance. That license cost is $75. If we sell 15 recordings at $15, and take away the $75 license fee, that would bring in $150, leaving us still $339 in the hole before any purchases.

I also purchased a streaming license so that we can try to get some audience members that way. The streaming license is $75. Additionally, for each streaming event, we have to pay either $35 or 15% of how much money we take in. We would need to sell 25 $10 streaming passes before we had to pay more than $35. So, let's say we have 20 streamers for each streaming event that paid $10. We have brought in $400, take away $35 x 2 for the events, and the $75 for the license, streaming brought in $255.

If we sell out each show, sell 15 recordings of the performance, and have 40 streamers, we will still be starting in the hole $84 without purchasing any costume pieces, props, or set materials.

You might say, but what about selling shirts! When we sell shirts, the ones we sell cover the cost of the ones you all receive for being in the show. So, I don't count that money in the big picture.

What about concessions? The money that comes in from concessions is not significant, and is hard to even begin to estimate.

As of right now, we have brought in $1350 in sponsorship money, and one $150 ad.

I tell you all this to try and help you understand that advertisements and sponsorships are a bigger deal right now than they have ever been, and I have gotten less help than ever before.

It is also a MAJOR deal to make sure that each show is sold out. For each empty seat, we go more into the hole financially.