bills, bills, bills #11

A week in the life and wallet of two playwrights

Bills, Bills, Bills is a monthly series of anonymous money diaries from theatre workers curated and edited by Jenna Clark Embrey. The full archive is available here.

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editor’s note

For April, Bills, Bills, Bills is a double feature! In this month’s column, you’ll find two diaries by playwrights in different parts of the United States (and a note from the Survive and Thrive Movement introducing the second column). It comes as no surprise that these columns bring to light the particularly hard career path for playwrights: for a role that ostensibly creates jobs for the rest of the industry, writers still have to find ways to support themselves while carving out time to, you know, *write*. While industry standards are thankfully changing in many places, it is often the case that playwrights aren’t paid for workshops or other development opportunities, even when others are. 

We recently received a subscriber email expressing that last month’s column was “off-putting” to read because of the diarist’s family support.  The reader wrote that this kind of financial privilege was not the norm in their professional circles and they did not think it was representative of the vast majority of the theater community. While that may be true (I am not a statistician nor a detective), editing these BBB columns has shown me that monetary support (either from a parent or from a live-in partner who takes on a larger portion of expenses) is so common that it's become an unseen and unspoken force in theater workers’ lives. (Lauren wants to note that she replied to this reader and their subsequent exchange was very kind and thoughtful.)

This month’s two columnists illustrate this stance: neither diarist included certain forms of monetary support in the first draft of their columns. This has become somewhat of a recurrent theme in editing BBB: it can take some gentle prodding to uncover the full extent of one’s finances. Moreover,  the concept of “family support” can defy neat description. Privilege exists on a spectrum, from trust fund beneficiaries to having a partner who pays for the full cost of your Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon Prime. While it’s notable that neither columnist reported student loans, it’s evident that sometimes external support doesn’t completely eradicate financial anxiety. Sometimes it provides just enough of a boost so someone can remain in the industry, still working multiple jobs, worrying about grocery bills, and when the next gig might come.

playwright #1

Occupation: Humanities teacher and freelance playwright
Age: 38
Location: A mid-sized city in the Midwest

Salary: $29.00/hour, 40 hours/week 
Yearly Income: $45,000
Yearly Estimated Playwriting/Theatre Income: $2,500 (This money is from a reading, participation in a conference, and a dramaturgy project, spread out across 2022.)
Estimated Monthly Income: $2,800 (Yes, this is after taxes)

Checking at the start of the week $2,025.33
Savings at the start of the week: $500.02
Current credit card debt: $6,422.00

Monthly Expenses:

• Monthly Condo Fees: $565  (Editor’s Note: These condo fees are for general facility maintenance and for internet. After inquiring multiple times if our columnist has an additional monthly expense for rent or a mortgage, they responded that they would not reveal that information.)

• Phone: $0 (Covered on my parents’ plan, so I don’t pay for phone)

• Netflix: $16.99

• HBOMax: $9.99

• Peacock: $4.99

• Paramount Plus: $9.99

• PBS Passport: $5.99

• Hulu & DisneyPlus: $12.99

• UHaul Storage Space: $137.00 (the storage unit currently contains furniture I’m planning to sell)

• Credit Card Bill: $38.00 (minimum payment on $1,000 I’m paying off)

Total Monthly Expenses: $800.94

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Saturday/Sunday

Actually spent zero dollars this Saturday and Sunday, which is not usual, as weekends are usually when I do a grocery run. But we have stocked up at home before trips the last two weekends, so no grocery shopping for me.

I am waiting on two checks, one from a regional company for dramaturgy work, and one for an arts conference I took part in at my undergrad alma mater. I have reached a point in my playwriting career where I get paid for my work, which took about ten years to become a steady reality, which sounds absurd when I type it out.

I spent the weekend going on walks and power cleaning the house because fall in my city has been a gorgeous 50 to 60 degrees, and I love it. The power cleaning had to happen because my allergies in the fall are also awful, so getting rid of dust at home at least ensures I'm not sneezing in my own space.

Total Spent: $0

Monday

No spending today either. Gonna need gas for my car soon however, and on average in my city right now, it's $60.00 to 70.00 for a full tank. I drive my boyfriend and myself to work during the weekdays, and so every three weeks or so, I need to fill the tank back up.

I work as a teacher from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm every weekday, so I try to keep my errands to the weekends. I love teaching at one institution, whereas I started my educational career stringing together adjunct positions. I was running between two different higher education institutions every day during that time in my life, and it was so difficult to make ends meet, with gas and classes getting canceled during our state's budget impasse.

I had a meeting after work with a director for a solo show I'm doing about soccer and my relationship to it while growing up. We had another great Zoom meeting and I have a new deadline to meet for a new draft. This is definitely a speed write, as the workshop of the play goes up in mid-November.

Total Spent: $0

Tuesday

I'm working in our students' study room in the mornings right now, covering for another staff member, and I have been able to get an hour's worth of writing done. Looks like I'm starting this play from scratch!

I have been saving up from my fall teaching paychecks, in order to pay off my credit card in six months. My high balance came from covering car insurance and rent from seven years ago, when my previous job of adjuncting made it impossible to save to pay those costs. The balance kept rising due to interest, and I am hopeful I can pay it down, after taking on office work, and then moving to teaching at a private school for my day job as a humanities teacher. I paid $1,000 to that bill today.

I also bought tickets to a Richard III production that a friend directed. I purchased tickets for myself and a friend, and will be reimbursed by that friend soon. The total cost was $74.03. 

I finally bought groceries, mostly for dinners ($95.10).

I got a deal on Peacock for the year and the $1.99 was charged today. I really want to watch Lady Parts and Girls5Eva.

I bought items for my Halloween costume for school (in case you’re wondering, this money diary was kept in October)! I'm dressing up as Bronwyn from The Rings of Power and I am hyped at my dress and cloak purchase through Amazon. The cost was $62.09. I know I will wear it again, so that justified the expense to me.

My payment for my biweekly therapy appointment (held last week) went through, which was $127.20. My current health insurance plan doesn't really lessen the cost of this expense, which is why I had to switch to biweekly. I need to think through my insurance plan for next year and whether I should opt to go on the marketplace.

I also transferred $250 to checking from savings, in order to cover my condo fee check, which hasn't been cashed yet. As a consequence of that check being cashed in the next few days, my budget will be very tight for the rest of the week.

The $250 is part of a $500 honorarium I received yesterday from my alma mater for attending an arts conference and networking with students who are interested in the arts. I conducted a playwriting workshop and had one of my full-lengths read, fulfilling a dream to have my work done in some fashion at my alma mater! Now my plan is to save at least part of this honorarium and my upcoming payment for dramaturgy work as part of my summer savings. (I have very few classes to each during the summer, and money dries up then.)

Total Spending: $1,360.41, not including the transfer from savings to checking

Wednesday

Another hour of writing, and started reading a Twilight Zone episode with students. Rod Serling is always a great way to teach dramatic structure.

No bills to pay. I did transfer the $250 back to my savings. I do this a lot, shuffling money around within my mental accounting. My condo fee check still hasn't gone through, and sometimes it takes a while to go through, but I may need to contact the landlord to see if they have received it.

Total Spent: $0

Thursday

More writing! I'm now up to junior high with me playing soccer in my solo show. Teaching junior high through high school students every day is definitely jogging my memory of those times.

Still running on a quarter of a tank of gas and no spending after work today.

Total Spent: $0

Friday

A half-day of teaching and pay day! My paycheck was $1,692.93 (Yes, this is bi-weekly.)

I was excited to play in the third place match of my social soccer league tonight, but not enough of us could make it, so I emailed the organizers. So we won fourth place by default. It's been good to get back into playing a sport, and has definitely inspired the play I'm writing. There was a league buy-in and I had to buy all new equipment, most of which didn't fit due to the change in weather. (Cleats are strange shoes.) But I had a blast the whole season!

Because I didn't have soccer, I ran some errands instead. I finally got gas! It was cheaper this time around at $50.97 being the total.

I had a gas bill to pay. I split this cost with my partner, so the total was $50.

I bought my partner's Christmas present. I like to buy early for family and friends, just so I know I have enough to cover my winter break finances. That gift was $84.80.

I hit up the grocery store for weekend snacks and the total was $69.84.

Finally, I hit up my local comic shop, where I picked up a lot of Batman, Batgirls, and the final issue of Jurassic League, where the Justice League is all dinosaurs. It's incredible. Total was $15.94.

I transferred $350 of my paycheck to my savings, in prep for paying off more of my credit card balance next month.

Total Spending: $220.58

Saturday

Saturdays are for sleeping in and I woke up with my sinuses all clogged. Thanks, fall! We will see if I make it to the show I bought tickets for tonight.

Today, I paid my car insurance, the minimum balance at $173, and I got the check for my dramaturgy work thus far for the company, which was $500, and I am depositing that this afternoon.

Total Spending: $173

Total Weekly Spending: $1,753.99
Checking at End of Week: $1.564.16
Savings at End of Week: $1,350.02

playwright #2

This column was solicited by playwrights C. Quintana and Winter Miller, as part of their initiative to draw attention to the pay inequity for writers across our industry, known as the Survive and Thrive Movement. Included below is a note from CQ and Winter, and the team here at Bills, Bills, Bills is so grateful for their support and advocacy.

We hope to change the ongoing inequity in our field regarding how playwrights  are rarely,  if ever, compensated for our time in the rehearsal room. With the "Survive and Thrive Movement" all are welcome as we envision and cultivate better days ahead for playwrights.

Please note:

• Our effort towards equity for playwrights is backed by the Dramatists Guild. We encourage you to fill out their Dramatist Compensation Survey.

• If you are a member of a theater and you want to talk to us about how you already are engaging with this principle or how you can begin to initiate it, we are here to talk to you. 

• If you are a playwright, please be an advocate for yourself and all of us: negotiate with theaters when they hire you to pay you for your time in the rehearsal room, and at the very least, find a way to talk to management about this issue so collectively we can change the game for all playwrights.

• If you are an agent, please advocate for your clients of all levels to be paid for their work in the rehearsal room.

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Position/Occupation: Playwright. I’m a recent MFA grad and this past September, the day job I’d been working at for two years folded, leaving me unemployed. I was between day jobs for three months, from September to December 2022. I supported myself with my own savings, an 18-month unrestricted $1,000 monthly grant I receive from an arts organization, and about a combined $20,000 I inherited this year from two relatives who have passed away. 

Location: NYC

Age: Late Twenties

Assets:

• Checking: currently about $7,000

• Savings: currently about $8,000

• Other Assets: I have two inherited accounts from a close relative who passed away. One is invested in the stock market and I get a yearly disbursement from it that totals a couple thousand dollars. The other has about $50,000 in it; I didn’t know it existed until I lost my job. My parents have been holding it for me and withdraw from it sporadically in order to help me make rent or pay other expenses.

• I also have two accounts my parents set up that are invested in the stock market. I never touch these and hope to never use them until I am in a position to buy an apartment. 

Rent: $1650 (which then went up to $1725 in October)

WiFi: $45 (this is my share, I split the full cost with my roommate)

Gas: Between $15-75 a month (again, evenly split with my roommate, and dependent on the weather)

Electric: Between $30-250 a month (split evenly with my roommate; our landlords were awful and we ended up getting charged exorbitant amounts in the winter, because the majority of our heating units run on electricity). 

During the three months I was unemployed, I considered every “parallel career” one could imagine: starting my own company (of something? I was never quite sure), somehow getting into real estate, somehow getting really into crypto, somehow getting really good at the stock market, somehow figuring out how to become a consultant, somehow designing and selling t-shirts on Amazon (because apparently that’s one way folks make a lot of passive income?), giving up on theatre all together and moving to LA to solely focus on television (at least there’s money?)…and so much more. Fortunately, I am now employed—albeit with various part-time jobs, so I still don’t have company-sponsored health insurance—and am feeling a lot better, even if I still constantly feel like I’m getting nowhere—and am paid for nothing, nor have any productions to show for it—in my career.

The week of December 5^th was a week I was actively editing an existing play, submitting to various playwriting opportunities for emerging writers (I didn’t end up getting any of them), seeking new daily employment, and buying holiday gifts for friends and family members.

As an emerging writer, I often feel like I have four jobs: 1. Whatever day job I’m working (or, if there is none, seeking employment); 2. Applying to various playwriting opportunities, almost all of which are for $1,000-5,000 and I won’t end up getting them anyway; 3. Networking, which is often expensive, because it involves going out to many lunches, dinners, and drinks; it’s also often emotionally exhausting and 4. Actually doing any of my writing or editing. 

This is my first year after grad school and I often feel like I’m in exactly the same position I was before I went to grad school: underpaid, struggling to find work, or, when working, completely overworked and overwhelmed trying to balance applying to residencies I probably won’t get, making important connection that may or may not ever “pay off,” and, oh yeah, doing that thing I’m technically supposed to be doing: writing. While, intellectually, I know I’m in a “better position” (whatever that means) since getting my MFA—I have more connections, more plays, and my writing has gotten better—it’s been pretty demoralizing to leave my fancy degree program with seemingly nothing immediate to show for it. That said, a playwright friend and mentor did warn me that this would happen (“don’t expect to get anything for the first two years after graduating,” he said, and, thus far, he is correct), so I just keep telling myself that all I have to do is tread water because, eventually, I’m going to be the last person still in the ring. If I can outlast everyone, eventually I will succeed—or at least I sure hope so! 

Either way, I am an extremely determined person (for better or worse), so I will be the very last person on the dance floor if it’s the very last thing I do.

But anyway—here’s how that week went:

Monday, 12/5: 

• Brunch with a friend who is also a potential business connection: $18.37

• Subway ride home (I left from my partner’s and walked to brunch, but then had to take the train back to my house after): $2.75

• Total Spending: $21.12

Tuesday, 12/6

• Donation to a theater I’ve done work for: $25.99

• Groceries: $29.98

• A giant order of instant ramen (lasted months): $40

• Dinner with another friend who is also a potential business connection: $39.74

• Total Spending: -$135.71

Wednesday, 12/7

• Assorted holiday gifts for friends and family: $91.10

• My roommate owed me money, so I got + $243 back

• Dinner for my partner and I: $34.94

• Total Spending: 126.04

• Daily Net Total: +$116.96

Thursday, 12/8

• Subway fare: $5.50 (two rides)

• A friend canceled lunch and I was relieved because I didn’t have to spend any money: $0

• ConEd bill arrived; this month, it was $288. I split it with my roommate: $114

• Quick lunch out: $15

• The rest of my holiday gift shopping: $54.44

• I ended up at a bookstore and bought books for research and notebooks for writing: $87.07

• Total Spending: $273.37 (big yikes)

Friday, 12/9

• I spent no money. Hallelujah!

• Total Spending: $0

Saturday, 12/10

• Takeout: $39.94

• Total Spending: $39.94

Sunday, 12/11

*Again, had to piece together from my credit card bill:

• Date with my partner, $52.91 total but I’m pretty sure we split it: $26.46

• Total Spending: $26.46

Total Spending for the Week: $622.64

Net Total for the Week: $379.64

If I spent this much every week, that would be $2,490 of spending each month (that said, I spent a couple hundred dollars on holiday gifts, so this number would likely be lower; I also ordered a lot of takeout, although groceries are also expensive). Plus rent, that’s $4,215.56. Since, at this point, I was only making $1,000 a month from a grant, that leaves me $3,215.56 in the red. 

Clearly, this was unsustainable. I’m extremely grateful that after composing this diary I then found long-term stable work and I feel very privileged to have had any savings or money from relatives, but…something has still got to change. With NYC rent prices continuing to soar, I am continuing to consider any and all possible “parallel careers.” And I keep reminding myself that a lifelong career in the arts is a marathon, not a sprint.

Unless I really am determined to somehow get into crypto. Then I guess it’s time to sprint.