New Plays Festival Financial Information

The vast majority of the budget dedicated to each New Plays Festival production is covered and directly allocated by the Theatre Program. This includes, but is no limited to, costs associated with shop and technical labor; rehearsal spaces; the performance venue; venue lighting, sound, and video packages; stagehands and crew; lighting programmer(s); stage and production management; administration; photocall; marketing materials templates; and the Theatre Department’s own inventory of stock set pieces furniture, props, and costumes. 

Columbia also provides each New Plays Festival Production with a $2500 discretionary budget that is primarily meant to cover artist fees and custom design elements for each specific production. Students have a direct say in how this discretionary budget is allocated. More details about the discretionary budget are below.

Additionally, Columbia will provide standardized $500 stipends to the Director and Line Producer of each production. These stipends are separate from the discretionary budget. Performance Agreements and employment paperwork are still required for this payment.

The discretionary budget for the New Plays Festival is $2500. This budget covers:

  • Lighting, set, prop, sound, video, costume materials and rental fees
  • Designer Payments
  • Actor payments
  • Marketing materials beyond what Columbia provides (digital and/or printed)
  • Any stage management expenses beyond what Columbia provides.
  • Any reimbursements for collaborators for legitimate expenses incurred as part of their participation in the production. For details on the reimbursement process, please see the Making Purchases section.
  • Any Hospitality purchases for the production.
  • Contingency of at least 5% but no more than 10%

The Production Manager will send the Playwright and Producer links to an Expense Tracking Sheet and a Google form that auto-populates into that sheet. This will be the hub of all expenses that are made by the production department and the production members, themselves. When any purchases are made, they must be submitted into the Google Form to keep accurate, up-to-date accounting.

Overview

Each production will be sent a link to the master budget for their individual show called [Production Name] Expense Tracker. This document is the primary budget from which the production staff gets all financial information for the discretionary spending and fundraising for the show. It is a live and collaborative document.

Directors and Producers will be given edit access to parts of the Expense Tracker. It is important to keep this document as up-to-date as possible, so that everyone is operating on the same information.

Expense Tracker Details

There are five tabs on the Expense Tracker: 

Tab 1) Approved CU Budget & Totals: This is a summary of the Columbia Budget.

  • Approved Budget Column: This will be the approved budget. Once approved, this column will not change throughout the process, though you may find that certain line items go over or under their projected amounts. At the beginning, it is common for the only expense listed is to be the performance rights, since that happens so far in advance.
  • Spent to Date Column: This column automatically updates based on the expenses entered into the Itemized Expenses tab.
  • Estimate to Complete Column: The producer can (and should, at least twice a week) edit the numbers in this column. This is your tracking of how much you anticipate needing to spend to complete a given line item. You will notice that at the beginning, this column will look identical to the Approved Budget. This will change as we start spending money.
  • Estimated Final Cost: This is the sum of the Spent to Date Column and the Estimate to Complete Column.
  • Remaining to be Spent: This is the Approved Budget minus the Estimated Final Cost. Numbers greater than zero indicate a budget surplus in that line item, while negative numbers indicate a deficit.

Tab 2) Itemized CU Production Expense Tracking: This rainbow-coloured sheet is all the itemized expense tracking for the production coming from the CU budget. The production staff will be updating this sheet in real time as they make purchases on your behalf.  Note that the Costume line is linked to its own separate tracking document maintained by the costume shop. If you need to add an item to this sheet (either a petty cash purchase or an item that will need to be reimbursed), you can do so by filling out the Expense Submission Form for the specific show (this link will be provided to each show individually).

Tab 3) CU Designer Fee Tracking: This tab tracks who is receiving one of the CU Designer stipends and what paperwork we have received. Anything highlighted in bright yellow is information that we are still seeking from the production.

Tab 4) Fundraised Budget: This tab is very similar to the Approved CU Budget tab, but for your fundraising budget. Please remember to update the Total Amount Raised once you have that number, as much of the conditional formatting of the sheet relies on that final amount. Since you control the fundraising directly, the only part of this sheet the student director and producer(s) cannot edit is the Approved Budget Column, which is based on the accepted fundraising proposal. 

Tab 5) Fundraised Itemized Expenses: As you spend your fundraised money, please track your expenses on this tab. The information on this sheet will automatically update the Fundraised Budget tab. Also on this tab is a place to link the receipt or invoice for the expenditure. The easiest way to do this is to create a folder in your production's Google Drive for all these receipts.

Important Notes

If and when you decide to reallocate money in one line item to another, notify Production Management about the change. On the Expense Tracker, this is usually indicated by changing the Estimate to Complete Column. This will show a deficit in one line item and a surplus in another, but the totals will add up correctly.

The Scene Shop will create the bid for the scenic build, but may not immediately update the expense tracker with the specific lumber, hardware, and/or paint used as the build is underway. Unless otherwise noted, please assume that the scene shop will be spending all the money that they projected in their bid. The director and producer will be notified if a surplus or deficit is discovered midway through the process (a surprise deficit from the build is fairly rare).

The costume budget maintains it's own spreadsheet because much of the purchasing is done with the expectation that 60-70% of all costumes will be returned for a full refund due to multiple sizes being ordered. As costumes make purchases, it is not uncommon for their part of the budget to temporarily appear to be 2 or 3 times over budget. This is normal, and is not cause for alarm. Always assume that costumes will spend 100% of any money allocated to them, unless otherwise notified by production management.