The Lomas Hall, Church Street, Stannington, S6 6BQ
In this section we'd like to tell you about the business side of our productions - about all the people who work hard in the background to make sure that the show is a financial success!
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It doesn't matter how good the set, the lighting, the direction, the script or the acting - if a production loses money or if it's not a financial success then it could be the last production Stannington Players make. That's why it's vital that the business management of any production is absolutely spot on.
Every job from letting the public know who we are and what we're doing, through to processing their seating selections and making sure their tickets are available as requested, and accounting for every penny each production costs has to be completed with the upmost professionalism. As soon as the public start to part with their money, the word amateur drops right out of amateur dramatics and the whole process, as rightly the public can expect, becomes very professional indeed.
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Scrolldown or hotlink to the section you're interested in!
Tickets Officer is quite a demanding job, as the Tickets Officer is usually the first point of contact for anyone wanting to see a production. They plan the seating, take the payments to pass onto the Accounts Manager, canvas prospective and past patrons to let them know what we're doing, maintain the reserved bookings lists, where patrons indicate that they automatically want a seat reserving for everything, unless they indicate otherwise, and they operate the tickets desk on the door, on the night of the production. Phew!
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The Publicity Manager is responsible for promoting the play, after all. There's no point in putting a production on if no-one comes to see it, and no matter how good you are no-one is going to come unless they actually know that a play is on in the first place! This last point is especially true for Stannington Players, where there is not the same element of passing trade that some of the city centre theatres can enjoy.
In our case, publicity starts with poster and program design, then continues with prominent placement of our advertising within our catchment area. We go on to organise leafleting, advertise on the internet and approach local Newspapers, Radio and magazines looking for a slot! The Publicity Manager is usually kept very busy indeed.
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The Stage Photography is a special skill needed for publicity; usually the stage photographer will take:
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Selections of these pictures are uploaded onto the Internet for our website, and some are kept by the Society as a record of what we've done over the past fifty years!
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The Accounts Manager is usually the Society's Treasurer.
The job's a responsible one, as through the Account's
Manager all bills are paid, ticket receipts are sent and
membership fees passed.
The Accounts Manager is the one who sets the target and
minimum ticket sales for a given production, bearing in
mind the costs dictated in the script, such as :
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Plus anything else that comes along. The Accounts Manager and Treasurer are amongst the few people who can accually advise whether or not a given production should proceed or be cancelled, although this hasn't taken place in our history, so far!
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The role of the Web Designer is to manage the internet pages advertising the Society and it's next production - this means maintaining the 'static content' - such as the pages on the responsibilities of the actor, and the 'dynamic content' - like our 'Auditions'/'Coming Soon!' and 'Past Productions' pages. Web Design, like Photography, is a special type of publicity, and the Web designers usually report to the Publicity Manager and Producer regarding content and style for a given play, and to the Committee for overall content of the site.
The Stannington Players website has to change constantly, as people are rarely motivated to keep returning to the same pages to read the same information. We constantly receive suggestions from Members and Customers on how to improve our site, and it's the job of the Web Designer to build those suggestions into our pages.
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