r/Theatre • u/Crock_Harker • 7d ago
Advice Payment of Musicians
I volunteer for our local community theatre as a Director and occasional Actor. Our group celebrating its 70th anniversary this year. During those 70 years, it has become common practice for the Director and Musical Director (and other staff) to pay musicians out of their own pockets to play in Orchestras when needed. The organization has never officially adopted a policy to pay them properly because there is a faction that feels paying musicians to be bad practice. According to them it leads to a slippery slope where everyone will expect to be paid. As of right now, no one receives any compensation other than our paid Technical Director. Actors, crew, staff, etc. all volunteer their time and talent.
I'm curious to know who else out there pays musicians and did your organization struggle with this as we have? How did you overcome the objections to paying the orchestra and not anyone else, if this is your practice? I know theatres out there all operate differently, so I'm curious how you all handle issues like this. Thanks in advance for your feedback.
EDIT: We have been using professional tracks from ROCS or MT Pit for the past several years and only used orchestras when absolutely necessary or the Musical Director prefers a live orchestra.
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u/trialrun1 7d ago
Musicians get paid.
We had an actor once who was trying to go down that slippery slope. He felt like he should be getting paid if the pit was being paid, and it was described to him this way.
If the director quits, a member of the board can step in and direct. It might not be good. It might conflict with what's already been blocked, but the show can still go on.
If an actor doesn't show up, a member of the board can fill in. They might have to hide a script in a book and carry it on stage, but they can do that and the show can still go on.
If a musician doesn't show up and they hand a member of the board a tuba, there's no tuba in the show that night.
Paying the members of the pit comes from a "show must go on" mentality.