Author Topic: PAY: paycheck = percentage of the house?  (Read 4484 times)

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missliz

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PAY: paycheck = percentage of the house?
« on: Jun 18, 2009, 01:06 pm »
Has anyone else worked with that sort of pay situation? Where your paycheck is a percentage of ticket sales and therefore not a set thing week to week.

This makes me a little nervous, but the company is legitimate, AEA contract, etc. I don't know what the percentage is yet, as we're still negotiating. Any thoughts on this, please let me know!
« Last Edit: Dec 15, 2009, 01:13 am by Rebbe »
I personally would like to bring a tortoise onto the stage, turn it into a racehorse, then into a hat, a song, a dragon and a fountain of water. One can dare anything in the theatre and it is the place where one dares the least. -Ionesco

NomieRae

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Re: paycheck = percentage of the house?
« Reply #1 on: Jun 18, 2009, 01:28 pm »
What kind of AEA contract? It must be a showcase, because I believe anything else requires certain levels of pay.

I personally wouldn't be comfortable accepting a percentage of the house-especially in this economy.
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SMrose

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Re: paycheck = percentage of the house?
« Reply #2 on: Jun 18, 2009, 01:51 pm »
Years.....and years.....ago, I worked at a non-professional theatre that paid all running crew 1/4 of the net from the box office. (Worked out best if you were on a small crew show!).  Is it posiible to negotiate a minimum base fee and then a % on top of that if the show sells well?

missliz

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Re: paycheck = percentage of the house?
« Reply #3 on: Jun 18, 2009, 02:45 pm »
It's still a negotiation thing right now...I'd get a steady paycheck during rehearsals, and then % of the sales. Like I said, still figuring it out. I'm not sure what the contract is yet.
I personally would like to bring a tortoise onto the stage, turn it into a racehorse, then into a hat, a song, a dragon and a fountain of water. One can dare anything in the theatre and it is the place where one dares the least. -Ionesco

MatthewShiner

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Re: paycheck = percentage of the house?
« Reply #4 on: Jun 18, 2009, 04:25 pm »
For awhile, there was an equity waiver waiver contract that was $50.00 or a show, or your fair share of a certain percentage of the box office.  So, I was guaranteed to make $50.00 a show.

I would try to negotiate a base salary.
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Re: paycheck = percentage of the house?
« Reply #5 on: Jun 19, 2009, 01:40 am »
in the west, the HAT (Hollywood Area Theatre) contract and a few others have a basic weekly salary for rehearsals and performance supplemented by a percentage of the box AFTER a certain dollar figure or percentage has been reached. For example, my nightly performance reports on a HAT show requires a house count broken down by comps, discounted and full price tix (which I always got from the house manager at intermission), and the producer is required to report the weekly box office figures to AEA, which calculates and confirms the additional pay (well, AEA calculates to make sure the producer has done his/her calculations correctly). I worked a show for 6 months at the Canon that basically doubled or tripled our minimums every week we were sold out, which was most of the run. It was lovely...


 

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