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[Jonathan Goodall]

Ok so a Private School has been in the news here in the last few days  because of their production of "Cats".  The school spent $85,000 NZD on it (approx $68,000 USD) http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/7452353/85-000-spent-on-school-show
and has been getting a bit of flak from some quarters even although they recouped their costs (and possibly made on the deal???).
Anyone have any ideas (without naming names if you prefer) about what has been spent elsewhere around the place as a comparison? 

[Charlie Zureki]

Ok so a Private School has been in the news here in the last few days  because of their production of "Cats".  The school spent $85,000 NZD on it (approx $68,000 USD) http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/7452353/85-000-spent-on-school-show
and has been getting a bit of flak from some quarters even although they recouped their costs (and possibly made on the deal???).
Anyone have any ideas (without naming names if you prefer) about what has been spent elsewhere around the place as a comparison?

   Hello Jonathon,

  I can't name any high school production that cost anywhere near this amount for a stage show, but, I know that there's areas of this Country that seem to spend an obscene amount of money on high school football programs.  One city in Texas, has recently spent 60 million dollars on a new high school football stadium. 

   Cheers,
   Hammer

[Sam Feine]

At a small high school in texas we spent at most 6,000 on a show (including donations) and always seemed to be able to put on a good show.... Thats not to say that schools around here don't spend large amounts on shows, however I doubt that any spend that much.

[Jonathan Goodall]

   Hello Jonathon,

  I can't name any high school production that cost anywhere near this amount for a stage show, but, I know that there's areas of this Country that seem to spend an obscene amount of money on high school football programs.  One city in Texas, has recently spent 60 million dollars on a new high school football stadium. 

   Cheers,
   Hammer

Well, when you look at it like that, $85K is nothing really.  Come to think of it, if they had spent $85K on their school Rugby team (kind of like your Football, but different) no one would have blinked an eye.

[Tim McCulloch]

We've got a private school with very successful music and theater programs.  When I did sound design for them, the TD told me his budget ran between $5000 - $15,000 depending on the nature of the show and how much they had to build vs. rent.  It seems rentals came out of another budget...

A good guess was a total of around $12,000 - $30,000 per production.

Like Hammer said, the spending pales in comparison to what is spent on athletics.

[John Halliburton]

Like Hammer said, the spending pales in comparison to what is spent on athletics.

If they're successful or even come close to breaking even, more power to them.  The arts are getting skewered year after year in schools everywhere, which is absurd.

I'm very lucky wrt to the school I attended, the school district we currently live in(for almost 20 years now), and most of the districts around us in that they all have good to great arts programs, and produce shows regularly.

Best regards,

John

[Bob Leonard]

In this area you'll see schools spend 2-5K for the show, and not huge amounts on sports either, just what it takes to make sure the kids have good programs. Football isn't the religion here though, hockey is, so most schools have their own rinks. My town, which has sent a good number of kids into pro sports was voted a #1 sports town by Sports Illustrated. We have two rinks for 35,000 people.

[Brian Larson]

A school in my area (Boston suburb) rented a fog screen for a production a few years ago.

That thing certainly took them over budget but it was a neat effect for an Instant projection screen that actors can walk right through.

[Sam Zuckerman]

I remember my high school probably spent <$5,000 per show (maybe even a lot less) and we were taking losses.

My college doesn't spend anything close to what you are saying. Though we did just get a new performing arts building filled with fancy new gear.

[Samuel Rees]

5-15k at the high school I went to an embarrassingly short number of years ago. A show with big royalties and something fancy like flying got them to 20k one time, but that was considered very big budget and it was expected to make money back.