These are not theatre - based necessarily, but may be local sources of assistance in Torbay for those experiencing hardship. Many of us are limited in what we can do due to low incomes / non-conventional housing situations, but this is what we can help with, and signpost to.  

Please let us know if any application etc, requires a reference or confirmation from us

In-house:
As always at this time actors and crew with us are most welcome to fill up extra thermoses with hot drinks at rehearsals, and charge additional devices/ power packs at rehearsals. 

Any members of the cast and crew who require assistance obtaining menstrual sanitary items, please speak to Laura (theatre company founder) for confidential assistance from the supply we keep at the rehearsal hall. 

Local Assistance:
The Household Support Fund is for residents of Torbay; The maximum award Torbay Council can provide is £50 towards food and for those applicants who are liable to pay energy costs, another £50 towards those costs (£100 in total).
The Torbay Community Helpline signposts local people to assistance with food banks around Torbay, benefits advice & applications, housing, domestic violence, etc. 
​Yes Brixham  run a free foodbank for which you do not need a referral, and a warm heated communal space where you can sit in the warm, use internet, etc. 

Wider assistance 
Equity Benevolent Fund supports members of the actors & creatives trade union who need one off help with financial hardship. 
Acting for Others - Provides financial and emotional support to theatre workers in times of need through their 14 member charities
British Association for Performing Arts Medicine  - Provides medical advice to people working and studying in the performing arts, helping you overcome work-related health problem
The Actors’ Children's Trust - Awards childcare grants and education support to help working actors cover the costs of their child’s care and education
Dance Professionals Fund - Provides financial grants to dance professionals of all ages facing illness or injury and can support everyday living costs or with crisis funding
The Grand Order of Water Rats - A fund that helps performers and their dependents who, because of old age or disability are unable to work. 
The Royal Theatrical Fund - Support for people who have worked, or work, in the theatrical profession and are in need as a result of illness, accident or old age. They provide grants, assist with shortfalls in nursing and residential homes fees, give advice about benefits and debt
The Theatrical Guild - Practical help at any stage of your career – from welfare and debt advice to financial support and counselling 

One of the things that we have been working on, during the Covid-19 crisis, is looking at how we can improve and expand our production work when we get back to doing live stage shows. One small part of this, is looking at how we can improve our tech. 
Obviously, there are no budget, funds or resources to do this, and even less than usual in these times of crisis for the theatre industry, so it is very much a case of finding what we can, for free, and cobbling together. 
Having been very pleased with what we found, we decided to put together an article, linking to the software we found. It is all available for PC and is all free & legal. Some of the software does have paid upgrades for such time as you can afford them, but the basic functionality is free. 

When you are looking at software for theatre, you have to consider many aspects. Marketing/ publicity/ admin in the office, creating posters and videos, audio editing, and then you can go on to more complex software for visualising and controlling lighting and sound in a theatre setting. 
Ultimately, there are also options for online broadcasting of shows. 

So, without further ado, here is our "must have" list of free software. Remember, if it is possible for you to donate, that most of the freeware creators, welcome a donation to thier funds. 

Office/ Admin

Openoffice is a free answer to Microsoft Office, with added functionality of being able to export documents direct to PDF. 
Quickfile is a free business/ accounting program, for up to 1000 ledger entries. 
Zoom is free for up to 40 min calls, using video-conferencing to work - especially useful during the Covid-19 lockdowns
GIMP is the internet's free answer to Photoshop. Very powerful, and with some great third-party plugins available, you can create your show posters, video overlays, image watermarks, batch edits and anything else with ease!

Video editing

Hitfilm Express is a programme that contains basic video editing. It is also easy (and cheap) to buy add-on packages for special effects, motion graphics and more. 
NCH VideoPad is a very simple but robust video editing program, ideal for beginners or lower capacity hardware. The non-commercial version is free (please make sure you are honest about how you are using it). 
Da Vinci Resolve is a complex program for more advanced video editing, with a specialism in colour correction. Do note that you will need a more powerful computer to run Resolve -  Laura's 4gb ram laptop can't do it. 

Audio Editing

Audacity is a fantastic, fully free, audio editing, recording and mixing program, with some excellent sound correction and noise removal functions. 

In the Theatre

Mixx is free "DJ" software, but ideal for mixing different inputs from sound, eg microphones, and sound effects, or microphones and backing music. Can be integrated with Itunes.
Freestyler is free stage lighting control software, ideal for production lighting. You will of course need to use this linked to external lighting equipment to control the lights. 
Magic 3d Easyview is a free 3d modeling program that can be used in conjunction with Freestyler, to create virtual models of your stage set, and to test out lighting effects and rigs in a virtual world - making design from home a lot easier. EasyView connects the DMX signal from any controller (console/desk, software) to your computer. 
Open Broadcaster Software, allows you to create and stream live broadcasts to the platform of your choice (youtube, facebook live etc) from your computer/ webcams etc. 
MapMap is a free projection-mapping program that allows you to project images or video onto any survace of your choice (you will of course need to use this with a projector) 


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and that, thus far is the list - hopefully it is as useful to others as it is to us. And now, of course, is the ideal time to download, test and learn to use some of these programs, ready for better times. 

Stay strong, theatre-awesomes! 

So, on top of all the other challenges we face as a small regional theatre company, we now have to face Covid-19. 
This is going to be a death knell to many theatre and film production companies. With (quite nessecarily) theatres closed, and film productions shut down, and us all encouraged to at the minimum socially distance, and if ill (even with a cold) to self isolate. 

As with all other businesses and organisations, it is down to us to help set a good example and not only look after our cast, crew and audience members, but also on a wider scale, to not break the reccomended methods for keeping people safe. 

We have lost our main funding source - the market where we have our book stall is closed. 
Theatres are closed - so we have no shows in rearly spring therefore no Spring earnings for cast & crew 
We cannot meet to make films for festivals - social distancing. 

This does not mean we are finished. FAR from it. We are adapting and developing new temporary ways of working. All work is now happening online. 

- We are rebooking our shows for a time that hopefully life will be starting to get back to normal. 
- We are rehearsing and meeting online using a video-conferencing system called Zoom. (many thanks to the people on Women+ In Theatre for reccomending). Until it is safe, there will be no meetings in person. 
- We are setting up online broadcasting, so that we can live-broadcast Zoom-based readings and other creative work on a "pay what you can" model. 
- We are finding ways that our people can offer their skills online, for a small fee just over UK minimum wage), helping them raise some money for the time being. 
- We are working on funding bids, networking, and preparing all sorts of things to build company publicity, funds (ultimately to find ways to fund full wages for all cast and crew as opposed to profitshare), developing further expertise by online and book study, and networking.   
- We are writing new scripts & training manuals, making new costumes, repairing equipment, and doing all those tasks that we didnt have time to complete before, that can all be done from home with no physical interaction. 
- We are keeping a safe locked online network for our cast and crew to chat and interact, with friends from our productions - helping keep all our mental health together at this incredibly stressful time.

Ultimately, however upsetting and stressful (and absolutely heartbreaking) it is, we will survive this. We will even have developed new things,and  when things are able to get back to normal, we will have used this time as well as possible. We will have the technology to reach many more audiences via online broadcast. We will have maintained interaction and operation.  We will have developed and grown many things. We will be ready to hit the ground running. 

For now, please stay at home if you possibly can, keep well and safe, look after those around you, follow social distancing advice, and do not, whatever you do, give up. This storm will pass. Decide that you WILL emerge victorious, just as we have decided. 

For anyone who really cares about improving work in theatre and film, profit share is never the first or ideal choice. However, for grassroots organiations - like us - with little to no external funding or sponsorship, and no wealthy benefactors, it is the only honest way to reward the cast and crew of a show. We can proudly say that as a result of this good practice, we have never once ended a show in the red, and our actors have always earned money from the shows they are in with us.

Regardless of the budget of a production, you should never, ever, for any reason, promise anything that you cannot guarantee offering your cast and crew.


Sadly, as with anything, people jump on the bandwagon to use it as a fancy way of saying that they have no intention of paying the cast and crew, or add so many "dodgy costs" to the outgoings that they make it look as if no profit is made - which then badly hurts the companies who are genuinely paying whatever they can and supporting their cast and crew in whatever way they actually can.

We spent a lot of time working out the fairest possible way that we can do this. One day hopefully, we will reach our ideal - which would be to have the funding and income to be able to offer all cast and crew union rate payments. In the mean time we are constantly looking at best practice to benefit everyone involved with us. After all, we started to benefit local people wanting to get into self employed theatre work, in an area where there are few, if any, such opportunities, and in an area of high poverty. We would be extremely remiss not to benefit everyone!

So today, we decided to share what we have developed as our best practice for honesty, open-ness, and supporting everyone in our team. Obviously this is always looking at improvement but this is where we are at, at the moment.

The money.....

So, we looked at funding day to day running costs in a way that this does not come from the actors earnings from shows. That covers rehearsal space (we use a local community centre), and annual insurances.
We traditionally have had tables at carboot sales and fetes; and while this will continue, we will be soon opening a regular book stall at our local town market. This covers the costs of the rehearsal venue, and the insurances for the most part - as well as providing extra publicity for our shows, which of course sells more tickets to earn for the actors! Again, none of those costs are taken from the show ticket sales. We are also able to provide free tea, coffee, biscuits and milk for free rehearsal refreshments - on a week when income is low, one of the company directors will purchase these for the group.

Then of course there are show costs. With early planning, and always keeping an eye out, we have been able to source most of our costumes, props, and even technical equipment, by touring local second hand charity shops, and picking up things from Freecycle (or even the local dump!). We have some lights (fully tested, and working beautifully), and a sewing machine for repurposing fabric and costumes, that had been found dumped. It is amazing what you can find, and remake, with planning and effort.

Then it is down to getting the show on the road. We usually only book venues which can offer a box-office split, rather than an upfront hire cost. The usual split is 80% to the production company and 20% to the venue. We did learn in our early days to be very careful with contracts for the venues, to make sure they do not add hidden extra costs that you never agreed to. As a regional and female-led company, there are venues which will try to change things from under your feet.

We tend to be quite clear that we only accept actors and crew based in our regional area - this is because many of us live in less-than-ideal accomodation where we cannot put another person up, and we do require people to attend rehearsals and performances in person - after all theatre is a group effort.. With no possible budget to cover travel and hotels, we therefore are restricted to working with people based in our local area.

So, once shows are booked, we work ourselves crazy in publicising the shows - after all the more ticket sales we get results in the more that the actors and crew earn. Publicity on little or no budget is a whole other article, and takes a huge amount of work, but it can be done very effectively.

After the show, we get the ticket sales reports from the venues, and the payment for our (usually 80%) of ticket sales, from the venue to our company. This is usually quite detailed information, and we make this available to all cast and crew, in our productions locked cast/crew facebook group, as screenshots, so that everyone involved in the show can peruse and check the figures should they so wish. Once the show run (which may include several venues) is over, and all sales reports recieved, we refer back to these reports as made available to the cast and crew; and also provide the final breakdown of total earned by the show.

This (again in a group post provided to all cast and crew) is then broken down equally by the number of people involved in a show, so that each person will recieve an equal amount, down to the nearest penny. (Regardless of your role in the show, you recieve an equal share, because you are equally valuable to to the show - without you it couldnt happen!).

The payment then is made available and paid out within 7 working days, of our having it, to all cast and crew.

That is how we deal with the financial side. However, that is not the limit of what we provide.


You can provide more than money as well.

Regardless of a low or non-existant budget, you can provide extra things to your cast and crew, which is seriously valuable. It can vary a little by show but there are constants we developed our list by looking at portfolio development opportunities for your people, creature comforts, and tangible things! It also doesnt need to be the often nebulous and undefined "exposure", hated by all theatre and film professionals. It is far better to consider what actual things you can guarantee being able to offer. These do not need to be expensive things, or even cost you much time, but can be very valuable to the recipient none the less!

Our guaranteed "extra" things for cast and crew on any production include:
- Show photos (character photos, on set, or in a themed location)
- Individual character posters (featuring a character poster of the actor)
- Video clips of the show featuring the work of the actor or crew member.
- Copies of any publicity (think newspaper articles, etc) featuring the cast or crew members image or name.
- Social media shoutouts where possible for the cast and crew members.
- In-rehearsal / backstage refreshments (tea, coffee, biscuits, fruit squash)
- references for work or education (after show run has ended)

We do not ascribe a financial value to these things but instead provide them in addition to the financial profit-share.


Final
What is important in any profit-share production, is to offer everyone what you can guarantee: in our team, nobody, from the company owners, to the tea-lady, is treated differently from any other, or gets any more or less than the others. It is also critical to be open about everything. Not only does it allow people to see for themselves, that you are doing all you can for them, but in a world where all of us are jaded by malpractice, it builds confidence, which is also important - it adds to a positive atmosphere, and a positive atmosphere makes for a happier cast, who put on a better show, which builds the production following, and so on.

Our ultimate aim is to find the funding and support to be able to move to union rate payments for the people in our projects, and in fact active attempts are being made to find the support to take this next step, however, in the meantime, this is where we are. And doing our best with the circumstances we find ourselves in.

As a general rule, theatre can generate a huge amount of waste - paper from printing, materials from props/ costuming and sets....
When I looked online for useful tips, I found a lot of tips for theatre venues, but not so much for production companies who are not based in any one building. I have seen brilliant things, like the Watermark theatre in Ivybridge, where the building is solar powered, but I have seen less for companies like us.

On a good note, for the simple reason of economy, we have to be eco-friendly. We wouldnt be able to afford to buy in brand new costumes, and new materials for sets and props. Not if we expected to earn any profit from the shows to use to pay our cast and crew. So, by force of circumstance, we have to use second hand items and remade items.
Despite doing high-grade historical and classical theatre; behind the scenes the vast majority of the things we use, are second-hand; we have learned over the years to remake, reuse and recycle.

Charity shops, freecycle, freegle and similar sources become our primary way of being able to create the costume and props for our shows. Very little of such items are bought new, other than consumables like paint, or glue. This is nessecary to save money, but at the same time, also means that most of our shows are created with recycled materials.

Other single use consumables have to be bought new; paper, ink being the promary ones for printing posters, scripts, marketing, letters, etc. In those cases, anything left over can be recycled.

Fundraising wise, we also recycle. We have table top sales to raise funds for rehearsal space- most of the items we sell are either unwanted items  (books/ bric-a-brac/ DVDs etc) cleared out from home, or crafts made from recycled items.

Electrical items get turned off when not in use - so we are saving  both power and money.

Because of having limited "show storage" at our rehearsal hall, consisting of a cupboard, each actor has a costume bag. We have recently made actors tote bags from spare fabric, for actors to keep thier costumes in, rather than using plastic carrier bags.

So, here is what we do with items after a show.

COSTUMES/ FABRIC
We make costumes to last. Unless it is something which has had to be dirtied or ripped apart, costumes are washed and stored away for future use, next time we do a show set in the same historical period.
If something is not worth keeping, there are other uses;  clean fabric can be torn up and saved as cleaning rags. "Dirtied" fabrics  can be washed and put in the green recycling box.

Buttons saved from old items that are being thrown away, are donated to The Naked Sheep, a family-run eco-wool clothing business in Cornwall who in turn help us with advertising.

PAPER & PRINTING
Some paper (posters/ flyers) printed on a single side can be kept as scrap paper for making notes on the blank side; the rest goes into the green bin for recycling.

Items that are useful for paper crafts are given to a local card-maker, to be used in making one-off greetings cards.

We save used ink cartridges for our fundraising and send them off to a company who give us a small donation for each cartridge they can recycle.

SET
If we have set pieces which we are not able to store, they are offered to other grassroots theatre companies, for a small donation, to be used again.

PLASTIC CONTAINERS
If plastic containers have contained food and or something else that is nothing toxic, we save them to grow plants in, to sell on our fundraising stalls for the team. Any surplus gets offered on Freecycle or again put in the green recycling box wherever possible.

BATTERIES
The vast majority are recharagable. Where they are not, one of our team takes them to a recycling point.

As a result, we are proud to say that due to a mixture of nessecity of recycling to be able to simply afford things, and through higher motivations as well, we have almost no landfill wastage from our shows.

I would be ever so interested in other companys approaches to how they recycle and reduce waste.

Laura