Everybody involved in Play In A Week at the Nomad theatre works hard and strives to run a high quality theatrical experience in our “real theatre”.
Why does it cost money?
The unfortunate reality of working in the real world, with real props, costumes, lights and cameras in a real theatre means there are very real costs.
How much does it cost?
To run Play In A Week costs on average £10,000 a year.
Our biggest expense is hiring the professionals who have the right specialist skills which we need to achieve our goals.They generously give us a lot of their time for nothing, but they are not volunteers and so don’t come for free.
Even when the theatre is standing idle, it is still costing money. Maintaining the fabric of the building, utilities, having insurance, security etc means that every production and activity within the Nomads has to make a contribution.
Then there are the fun and exciting things that make the show professional and attract a wider audience – posters and programmes, building staging, painting stuff, making custom props and costumes, and of course the glitter cannons!
Whenever we can be, we are prudent, so use existing props and costumes from the Nomads stores and wardrobe. We even fold up and save the shiny slash curtains so that we can use them year on year!
We are gifted lots of things from individuals and companies, and of course our volunteers give us huge amounts of time and labour for free, and often donate odds and ends too.
Where does the money come from?
In order to be as accessible as possible in line with the underlying ethos of Play In A Week, we try to keep the fees our participants pay as low as possible. This means that additional money has to be generated elsewhere.
Over the last 20+ years the fundraising landscape for charitable events has changed. Corporate donations are not what they used to be and lots of companies prefer to give employees time off to volunteer rather than donating cold hard cash to good causes! We still take advantage of corporate opportunities where we can, enjoying contributions from the Waitrose “green tokens” scheme, and free donations from on-line shoppers who use Easyfundraising.
This makes other funding sources even more important. Our varied Fundraising Events happen throughout the year, and aim to raise awareness in the wider community as well as generating income. Organisations like the Foresters Friendly Society, Rotary and others kindly support us, and we are always willing to come along to their events and dinners to speak publicly about what we do (PowerPoint optional!).
Our volunteer filming and DVD production team incurs some costs making the DVD, but raises a healthly profit each year. Buying a DVD is always a great way for you (and all your friends and family) to help us!!