The Budget: Honest Numbers for a Professional Reading

This is the plan for our reading of The Light in Washington, which hasn’t happened yet. After the performance, we’ll update this page with what actually happened — what worked, what didn’t, and what it really cost.

A play for voices saves you from the millions it takes to make a film, but it isn’t free. Even a small reading has real costs: the actors, the director, and the room. If you don’t plan for them up front, the costs creep up before anyone has read a line.

Novelists often think of budgeting as dull paperwork. In theater, the budget shapes the show. Every extra actor, every extra hour in the room, shows up in what the audience hears — and in what you pay.

The point isn’t to pinch pennies. It’s to know the true cost before you commit, so the project gets finished instead of abandoned halfway.

Our Budget: The Light in Washington

Every payment is a flat, guaranteed amount, paid by check at the end of the session:

Item	Cost	What It Covers
Director	$500	Leads the read-through, coaches the actors, works out the sound effects, runs the clock, and leads the talk-it-over afterward. The director also invites the guests.
Actors 6 × $100	$600	Six performers at $100 each, including the actor who makes the sound effects.
Room rental Portland studio, 3 hours	$180	Two and a half hours with the cast, plus half an hour to set up and pack up.
Supplies and hospitality	$75	Printed, bound scripts; water and refreshments; and any sound-effect props we can’t borrow.
Total	$1,355	One rehearsal and one performance, start to finish

What’s Not in This Budget, and Why

No sound engineer or recording studio.
The microphones are props. The playwright records the performance on his own phone, for private study only. A recording good enough to broadcast or sell would need an engineer, editing, and separate agreements with every actor — a different project with a much bigger budget.
No dialect coach.
Actors read in whatever voice is truest for them. See the note on accents in the plan.
No sound effects to buy, if you can help it.
The director and the actors at the sound table borrow or improvise the props. Anything bought comes out of the $75 supplies line.
No ticket income.
Guests are invited, not charged. That keeps the event simple, and it keeps the focus on learning from the play rather than selling seats.

Adjusting the Budget for Your Play

Use our figures as a starting point, and change them to fit your story and your town:

The cast is the biggest cost — and the easiest to control.
Every speaking part means another actor to pay. Every minor character who speaks three lines costs as much as a lead. Combine small roles, have one actor double two parts that never meet, and let crowd noise come from the sound table. (See Fewer Characters, Clearer Voices.)
Rehearse at home before you rent the room.
The rented room is the most expensive place to discover that a line is unsayable. Read the play aloud with friends around a kitchen table, or over a video call, before the clock starts running.
Finish the script before the reading.
Novelists are used to revising until the last minute. Once you hand the script to the director, stop changing it — except for small cuts made in pencil during rehearsal. Late changes cost rehearsal time, and rehearsal time is money.
Ask about off-night rates.
Many studios and small theaters charge less on nights when they have no shows, often early in the week. A lower room rate is the easiest saving you’ll find.