Theater Production Budget Calculator

This calculator assembles a full theatrical production budget from cast size through venue costs, department by department. Talent costs are built from a 6-day rehearsal week converted into actor-weeks, added to the performance run (assumed roughly one week of performance for every 6 shows), then multiplied by cast size and weekly pay to get total cast cost; a stage manager is added on top at 120% of the actor rate for the same number of weeks, reflecting the stage manager's typically higher pay scale. Creative team costs add the director's fee plus an assumed choreographer/music director fee set at 40% of the director's rate — a reasonable placeholder for musicals or dance-heavy shows, but you should zero this out or adjust it for a straight play with no choreographer or MD. Design costs are simply the sum of your set, costume, and lighting/sound budgets, with an additional props budget auto-calculated at 15% of the set design budget, since props are commonly budgeted as a fraction of scenic spend rather than tracked separately.

Venue cost covers every rehearsal day, every performance day, plus 3 extra days for load-in and strike, all at your daily rental rate. Running costs (front-of-house staff and running crew) are charged per performance, not per week, since those costs scale with shows, not rehearsal time. All of this sums to a subtotal, and your contingency percentage — industry standard is 10-15% — is applied on top to reach the total budget. Because rehearsal-to-actor-week conversion and the choreographer/MD placeholder are structural assumptions baked into the formula, always sanity-check them against your specific show's actual creative team and schedule before treating the total as a firm number.