Examining Austin Theater Economics

How big was the Austin theater where you last saw a play? Was it 60 seats, 90 seats? How much did you pay? $5, $10, $15? Chances are you don't expect to pay much to see a play in Austin, and you don't expect a very high production value. Or, maybe you do? If you went to see any of the summer musicals at Zilker Park you saw a musical that looks great for the price: free. The point is if you are producing a play in town you can't afford to give people a high production value doing theater the way it is traditionally performed. Let's say you produce a play with costumes and some decent actors and tech people and you decide not to use your best friends furniture as a set. You're certainly not putting up a union show, and it costs you something like $5,000 on the low end.. Let's say we are in a 75 seat theater and we think none of our friends will come if we charge more than $10. We'll make the run Thursday through Saturday for three weeks because nobody really does more than three week runs in Austin anyway. So that means we have to sell at least 500 tickets to break even, and we only have 675 tickets to do it. We'll have to operate at something like 74% capacity . That leaves us a little room for error. Let's go. Another element of this is the speed with which plays go up. You have to act quickly if you want to keep your creative team together.

The issue is that there are a lot of people doing theater in Austin, but are there a lot of people in it for the long haul. When film and musical festivals can command hundreds of dollars for tickets and passes, why can't we just get over the $20 mark for theater. It appears to me that the opportunity and the talent exists for taking the slower approach and building buzz for a show over a much longer period of time including themed events and merch. Why not insert more fun into building a following? Why not have more parties to raise money? Why not create an experience people are willing to pay more for?