Poll

How much do you make from stage management?

I pay to do it (School)
$0 - $100 a week (basically volunteer)
$100 - $300 a week
$300 - $600 a week
$600 - $900 a week
$900 + a Week

Author Topic: Stage Management Salary  (Read 22986 times)

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MatthewShiner

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Re: Stage Management Salary
« Reply #15 on: Jul 01, 2008, 12:26 am »
I think that's an amazingly good point about the sometimes feast or famine in this business.  (it's one of the reasons I don't freelance . . . granted I may make a little less then production contract, but I know what I am doing two years out . . . it's a trade off.)


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Anything posted here as in my own personal opinion, and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of my employer - whomever they be at a given moment in time.

BethanyP

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Re: Stage Management Salary
« Reply #16 on: Jul 10, 2008, 01:17 pm »
I'm getting a $500 stipend this summer for SMing a musical. Basically just pays for gas, but since I just graduated high school in may, not too shabby.
"We can do no great things, only small things with great love." -M.T.

centaura

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Re: Stage Management Salary
« Reply #17 on: Jul 11, 2008, 12:19 pm »
Quote
I think that's an amazingly good point about the sometimes feast or famine in this business.

That's why I'm fine right now with a salaried position.  The stagehands when I took the job all teased me about being salaried, but heck - the economy is crap right now.  We can't get shows in to the building because promoters are stepping back from taking risks.  And there are tours that are taking themselves off the road instead of playing to half-filled houses.  Its a tough market right now.

-Centaura

Rebbe

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Re: Stage Management Salary
« Reply #18 on: Jul 20, 2008, 03:32 pm »
  There is no constant, and taking a salary cut (that tiny contract) in return for health weeks is enough of a draw to choose that work. So sometimes I work as an SM exclusively, and sometimes I have a day job. And yes, as we all do, I always work many more hours than the contract allows and usually don't get OT.

Me too.  When I get questions about salary, I usually remind people that Stage Managers have much the same lifestyle as actors.  Sometimes work is plentiful and well-paid, other times not so much.   I would add that I  feel like SMs have less leverage for negotiating higher pay than an actor might.  Theaters may like you and appreciate the vital role a good SM plays through entire production process, but we are invisible.  It’s a harder sell to get them to spend more money on an SM, when it means spending less on the actors, props, and costumed, which are actually seen.
"...allow me to explain about the theatre business. The natural condition is one of insurmountable obstacles on the road to imminent disaster."  (Philip Henslowe, Shakespeare In Love)

LexieTaylor

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Re: Stage Management Salary
« Reply #19 on: Nov 09, 2015, 04:41 pm »
I would really love to see an updated version of this thread - maybe with more precise poll answers?
If you're not union, it can be really hard to figure out what your value is to a company.

iamchristuffin

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Re: Stage Management Salary
« Reply #20 on: Dec 05, 2015, 08:43 pm »
I had to do a bit of adding up, and then converting into USD. I'm on an average of about $750 a week, freelancing on non-Equity in the UK. But this year has been filled with very commercial contracts, and less artsy stuff than I am normally doing.