I have written a new play, how do I send it to you for consideration for next years season?
We want to hear from new writers and seek new plays to stage however to save any of you wasted our and your time, we have a few rules which may put you off submitting work to us. These rules are made clear from the start by us and non negoiable.
1. All plays remain the property of the playwright, however Practical Productions have full rights to stage the play and market the play as sole producers for a period prior agreed with the author using the standard 50 mile and 75 mile and three month rule as a guideline.
2. The author will get 10% of gross ticket sales minus any PRS fees.
3. The play will be cast by Practical Productions, who will also use a nominated director.
4. The writer will be consulted on any technical or artistic matters and any changes required for artistic and logistical purposes during the rehearsal stage. However as a rule, the writer willl not be invited to any rehearsals and may be excluded from castings & rehearsals at the discretion of the director.
5. Practical Productions will not entertain any submission that requires the author to be cast in one of the roles within the play.
6. All submissions should have no more then five actors
7. All submissions should be made once a script has been finished, and we do not accept work in progress.
8. All writers are asked not to send any finished scripts at this stage but a brief outline on one page of the plot, charecters, setting and lenght of the play to practicalproductions@hotmail.com
9. We will not consider any sketch based scripts, TV/film scripts, devised, physical or improv based theatre.
WILL YOU CONSIDER CO-PRODUCING PLAYS?
Yes and in the past often have, were we take a piece of new writing and move it from a small fringe theatre to larger regional theatres. The Musical 'The Legion' was one such production we co-produced and moved it to regional theatres.
WILL YOU CONSIDER PARTNERSHIP PRODUCING PLAYS?
We will, but please consider the following: - Partnership producing differs from co producing as the writer makes a financial input into the production and shares the risk with Practical Productions. To stage a play for a week in a London fringe venue costs between £1200 and £3000 per week including expenses such as set, costume, actors needs, rehearsal space and marketing etc. An average nightly London fringe audience total is 17 seats sold per night and fringe theatres operate 6 shows per week policy. Many London Fringe productions make a loss for the producers of a couple of hundred pounds a week, although some make money also. We will never co produce any work for London fringe (only our own productions) but we will consider co partnerships for other work. Basically as a writer, you need to be putting in a minimum of £700 on a £1400 total production costs.
Let’s do the maths!
Fringe average of 17 tickets sold per night for 6 nights @ £10 per ticket = £1020 - so there will be a loss and no monies made to either side of partnership, however you will get the 10% writers gross of £102 - if you are the writer. It's a loss, but a much smaller one then going alone as you can see! You will also get about £300 back from your £700 invested.
Sell 30 tickets per night for 6 nights @£10 per ticket = £1800 - so there will be a profit of £400 which on profit share you will get your £700 return back plus a few quid on top as profit shared is split with actors plus if you wrote it, your 10% writers fee.
Sell 50 tickets per night - behave this is Fringe! lol, OK for arguments sake that will gross £3000 so you have made a big profit and got your £700 back.
