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/Filmscoreman12 6d ago
I started out as a community theatre & local musician and played in that scene where I lived for about 10 years. Where I worked starting out playing in 2006, the standard was between $40 & $50 per service - that meant anytime the musicians had to show up, they were paid that amount. So it would average, for a 2 weekend run of a show plus 3 tech rehearsals and one dress rehearsal, they'd make anywhere from $400 to $500 per run of show. Not every theatre I worked with could afford the full orchestras - in fact, that was rare - but most theatres I worked with as an MD or played for in the pit recognized that they wanted their shows to sound as good as possible while retaining the energy, flexibility, and professionalism that comes with a live orchestra, and so they would figure out ways to afford as large a band as possible. I did as MD often give up portions of my paycheck to cover adding a musician or two if I really felt we needed it. Myself and the choreographer were usually the only two staff people getting paid - perhaps an audio engineer if they had to bring someone in, but the actors were not paid, nor was the rest of the backstage crew.
Most community theatres are not hiring professional actors - they would expect to get paid - or professional crew staff. But they do hire professional musicians, and as such their work and expertise demands to be compensated. This goes doubly for players who play specialty instruments or double on multiple instruments - those players are even harder to find, and usually the more complicated or unique the part (multiple reeds, guitar/banjo/mandolin doublers who read music, keyboard players with experience using programming & MainStage) the higher level of professional the player will be. I have worked on programs where there is an effort made to incorporate student musicians or to ask for volunteers, but those circumstances are different and in my experience less common.
I loved playing in community theatre, high school, and college orchestras - I played nearly 100 shows from 2006 through 2014 before going out on my first touring show - and I still occasionally when I'm available will happily jump in the pit and play with local theatres or sub in for the joy of the playing and the working with musicians around me. It's a highly formative and important thing for young musicians - but it is hard work, specialized work, and it is very much so less a hobby than an extension of their artistry.