Theater Finance Quotes

I don't know of any American playwrights who earn the bulk of their living writing plays. Many of the older ones teach, while a growing number of younger ones write for series television.

You know, if a TV show dropped into my lap out of the blue, I would have a hard time turning it down because there just isn't the money in theater that there is on TV.

Unfortunately, because the theater is always a poor relation when it comes to making the nut, it's not easy to get the audience in to see a play, unless you have a name that is recognizable, that the audience wants to see and is prepared to pay the $125 to see.

Unless you are wealthy, you cannot afford to act or direct one play and remain unemployed the rest of the time.

The economics of being a playwright are abysmal. I like to think of the work I do out in Hollywood as a way to actually make a life in the theater easier.

I don't think that the theater should necessarily pay.

Even if you're lucky to have a play on Broadway like 'Chinglish,' you don't necessarily earn enough off it to support the years it takes to get there.

The economics of theater are painful. I still think that the theater community should be looking much more rigorously at how to let the playwright keep the money they make.

I think you have lots of actors who would much rather do a wonderful part at the Royal Shakespeare Company, but then you have to take a two-line part in a TV thing to pay the bills.

The reason why Absurdist plays take place in No Man's Land with only two characters is primarily financial.

The opening-night audience is mostly friends of the cast and backers of the show, and they cometo applaud their money.

A play that works well and is done quite a lot - I've never done the math - but it's probably more remunerative than a movie.

I'd been out of the movies for years, I had had a wonderful stage career, yes, in musicals and so on, but you don't really make any money in the theater.