Computing Comps For Your Company

In the age where there are so many avenues of entertainment - the Internet, cable TV, movies, festivals, cellphones - trying to get butts into blackbox theatre seats has become even more difficult.  For the patron, that requires them to have to buy tickets, physically have to travel and be somewhere for a while, semi-disconnected from the collective social media hive mind, interpret what they're watching, and then travel all the way back home when all the while many of the alternatives are much easier to perform (but much less satisfying :) ).  Productions have to think of increasingly more creative ways of getting people out to see a show and one of those ways is by offering free tickets (comps) to the show for people to take advantage of.

Comps are an interesting animal.  Comps can be considered as cryptozoological creatures - they don't exist until they're actually redeemed.  Their population is determined by your budget; their habitat is determined by temperament of those receiving them; their diet consists of the production's bottom line, i.e., profit margin.  If you projected within the run of your show that you'd have 40 comps for various reasons and only 5 get used, it's like you never had them to begin with.  But if you had all 40 comps show up, you quickly realize just how detrimental they can be to your show's financial success.  Imagine if 40 Sasquatches showed up to your cryptozoology convention at the same time - PANIC!

It's important to realize as a producer that comps have benefit and cost.  It's also incredibly important to determine what the comps policy for a given show is going to be.  Determine the following items:

• Who gets a comp?  An agent, manager, or media?
• How many comps total can you afford to give before your projected bottom line is affected?
• How many comps do the actors, directors, stagehands, producers, etc get?
• How much lead time do you need to make sure those comps can be honored professionally?

Once you've determined those items, make sure to communicate the policy to the group.  Typically telling them earlier in the production is best vs. doing it the day before opening night.  The sooner they come to grips with what they're allowed to do with their comps, the easier it'll be to honor them.

However, expect to hear some grumbling from those in the production who don't agree with your policy.   I've determined that an education in what it takes to produce a show is the quickest way to keep these grumblings from becoming issues down the road.  You don't need to fully disclose the financial information about the production, but make them do some quick calculations in their head just to get them off your back.  For example, a simple educational lesson could be the following:

"Hey, do you know it costs me X dollars per night to put this show up?!  Multiply that number by the number of show times and that's what we pay to the theatre.  Then add on top of that what it costs for actors, directors, stagehands, props, set design, rehearsal space, and promotion.  Then divide that number by the ticket price.  That's how many paying customers we need by the end of the run just to break even.  Now you want me to allow more people than you've been alloted in for free?  If you had to pay that total amount, would you let people in for free?  I rest my case.  Oh, by the way...you're at places!!!"

If you're an enterprising producer, you'll find ways to make comps work to cover their own costs.  If you're not, it's just best to avoid them :)