Jim Patterson

Stage Money: The Finances of the Professional Theater

by Tim Donahue and
Jim Patterson

Stage Money is a groundbreaking guide to understanding professional theater finances today through the use of the tools and metaphors of the business world at large. This approach results in a comprehensive picture of the economic realities of theater production that is radically different from the assessments espoused elsewhere.

Tim Donahue and Jim Patterson combine their experiences in the financial and creative aspects of theatre production to present in straightforward prose their keen insights into the micro- and macro-economic aspects of the commercial stage.

Tangible data, charts, and graphs are counterbalanced with illuminating “intermissions” between chapters and interspersed sidebars throughout to provide specific examples of key concepts, collectively presenting an expansive overview of the contemporary theater business.

Stage Money is an unparalleled tool for theater professionals and enthusiasts interested in garnering a better understanding of the business's inner workings at present and its challenges for the future.

Among the topics addressed in Stage Money are the risks and returns on Broadway in the early twenty-first century, the financial organization of theater performances today, and comparisons between the business models of commercial theater and not-for-profit theater.

In concise language and clear examples, the authors explain where the money comes from and where it goes.

Tim Donahue holds an MBA from the University of South Carolina, where he recently retired from the Department of Theatre and Dance as the director of marketing and development after nearly ten years.

“The authors of Stage Money illuminate current business models with breathtaking thoroughness and ground their observations in anecdotal evidence as well as facts and figures of budgeting, tax codes, union contracts, ticket pricing, and marketing and publicity concerns. In setting these calculations in the recognizable context of creative and cultural aspects of American theater, rich snapshots emerge of early-twenty-first-century Broadway and the regional stage.” —James Fisher, head, Department of Theatre, University of North Carolina at Greensboro

For more up-to-date about the finances of the professional theatre, visit www.stagemoney.net.

Stage Money
University of South Carolina Press
6 x 9, 176 pages, 25 illus.
ISBN 978-1-57003-906-5 unjacketed cloth, $49.95s ISBN 978-1-57003-907-2 paper, $24.95t