Theatre on a budget

Pathfinder Theatre is a start-up venture. As such, our budget is very, very small.

In fact, we have no set budget at the moment; the funding for each show comes out of the pockets of the people involved — primarily yours truly, the artistic director.

There’s no five-figure budget for our shows; there’s not even a four-figure budget. A three-figure budget? Just barely. The licensing fees for a full-length play are $75 per performance; even two performances of a play will push our budget into the three-figure range. (Yes, even a staged reading such as our September production of The Guys requires the full payment of licensing fees for each performance.)

So we do our best to save money where we can. For example, the set and props for The Guys cost us less than $40: $28 for two armchairs, $8 for the table (plus tax). The coffeepot? Borrowed. The mugs, sugar bowl, creamer, and doily for the table? Retrieved from various cabinets and drawers around the house.

As our director, Michael Kamtman, is fond of saying, “The play’s the thing.” It’s the story and the characters that matter — not how fancy or expensive the set may be. You can tell a good story with black boxes and an empty stage.

That said — it does take money to run a theatre company. If you’d like to help, please consider becoming one of our angels. For as little as $25/year, you can help us to fund our productions; in exchange, you receive benefits such as free or reduced tickets, reserved seating, and more.