bills, bills, bills #37

a week in the life and wallet of a Broadway producer’s assistant

editor’s note

This month features one of our youngest-ever columnists and one of the lowest weekly spending totals we've covered in three years of Bills, Bills, Bills. The low spending was made possible by event freebies during a busy Tony Award season week, where free snacks and drinks lurk around every corner. While perks like free theater tickets and food are nice, they shouldn't replace a living wage.

At my first New York theater admin job in 2012 (my salary was $34,000), I estimate that I drank nearly $1,000 worth of free K-cups in my first few months. (The Keurig machine was later replaced by a knock-off brand; I drank less coffee after that.) If you worked a theater admin job in your twenties, read on for a nostalgia trip where "two gin and tonics and a bunch of free sliders" brings back instant memories.

Lauren Note: I’ve added a few footnotes to provide expanded definitions for some terminology within this diary for our non-industry readers. (I also reference Jen Silverman’s excellent novel We Play Ourselves, which you can buy here.)

Job/Position: Producing assistant for a Broadway producer. We have some long-running shows and a new show opening on Broadway in one week so we are very much actively in production. I do a combo of production-related tasks, office-related tasks, and personal assistant-type tasks. I work 10 AM-6 PM, Monday through Friday, always in person. I graduated college last year and have been working here for about five months. I’m working a lot of overtime right now because we’ve been in tech/previews/opening night prep.

Location: NYC

Age: 23

Annual Income: $42,640 before taxes (paid weekly). Including my tutoring side gig and a good amount of petty cash, my total income is approximately $52,000.

Debt: I am very lucky in that I have no debt! My parents paid for my college and I haven’t had to take out any sort of loans. Because of this, I was able to pocket almost everything I made in college and over the summers. I pay my statement balance on my credit card every month and try to make every purchase with it to earn points.

Credit Cards: I have a current balance of $2,230.85. This is pretty atypical for me but I put some big purchases on it this month like plane tickets and my acting class.

Checking: Currently $2,867.05 in my checking, but I see it as $636.20.

Savings:

• High Yield Savings: $10,227.10

• Stocks: $9,949

• Roth IRA: $12,556.52

Monthly Expenses:

• Rent: I have a very lucky rent control situation and pay $800/month, including utilities and internet.

• Gym: $32.65

• AMC A-List: $24.95

• Spotify: $5.99 (still on the student plan)

• 1 Substack Subscription: $7

• Max, Hulu, Netflix, Apple TV+: $0, mooching off parents

• NYT: $0, mooching off parents

• Phone Bill: $0, mooching off parents

Annual Expenses:

• Squarespace: $192

• Actor’s Access Pro: $68

• Google One Storage: $19.99

Monday

I woke up this morning and went to the gym, baby! Proud of myself for making it today. (It will be a theme this week on motivating myself to wake up.) I have some cottage cheese and head to work, which is thankfully only a few blocks from my apartment. It was just my birthday so I am still rolling on leftovers and a lot of sugar. I’ve got like three key lime pies and a box of 10 cookies in my fridge. I bring the cookies to work to share with my coworkers and subtly continue the celebration of my own birthday.

Today was a pretty standard day. I started by pulling the wrap report¹ for one of our long-running shows and sending it out to all of the co-producers. This part of my day makes me feel like a hacker with three screens going as I “crunch the numbers.” I deal with various other investor questions and house seats². I try to start filing the big pile on my desk but I barely make a dent. Other than that, nothing very interesting happened. There was some leftover catering from an event that someone else in my office held, so I saved my lunch for tomorrow and ate their scraps from Dig Inn for a late lunch/dinner.

I go home at 6 PM and quickly change for a Broadway-adjacent-concert-event I’m attending because my boss didn’t want to. It was one of the whitest and oldest rooms I’ve ever been in. It was a little jarring, honestly. But it was cool to be there. I took my boyfriend who also commented on these demographics. We had party passes but decided to call it a night. I got home around 10 PM and could at last relax. I ate some late night spaghetti.

Total Spent: $0

Tuesday

I had a crazy-ass dream so when my gym alarm went off I said absolutely not. Keep sleeping, girl. I wake up at 9 AM and have a piece of cinnamon raisin toast with cream cheese. Breakfast of champions. When I get to work, I make myself a coffee even though I feel pretty energized. I just like the taste! I am told that I need to go to the opening night party venue for a walk-through—score. I love an outside task (and an opportunity to get my steps in.) I meet up with the press team and we check out the venue, planning where the step-and-repeat might go, where the celebrities might sit, and where our “war room” will be when the reviews come out.³ Cool stuff!

I get back to the office and eat the spaghetti I packed. There is ANOTHER catered event with leftovers so I pack those in my Tupperware for lunch tomorrow. People brought in a lot of baked goods today for some reason so I also always had one of those in my mouth. I keep doing my computer work and at some point my boss asks me to go to Sweetgreen, so I do. More steps! I get his salad and drop it off before leaving for the day.

I hop on the train downtown ($2.90) for my acting class that I have every Tuesday ($450 for 8 weeks, so $56.25 today). We do a bunch of improv and some people workshop their final scenes, which we are presenting next week. I love this class so much and it helps me stay creative. It’s kinda like the gym. Plus the people are really interesting and have such different lives than me, which is sometimes hard to find.

I get back on the train to go back up to the theater ($2.90) and watch the preview performance for our new show in the green room with my boss. I don’t really do anything during previews but he likes for us to be there to show the rest of the cast and crew that we’re in it with them. I admire this! I mock up and design another last-minute opening night gift that we order ($600 on the company card). The show ends at 11 PM and I scurry home. I catch up with my roomie who I feel like I haven’t seen for days and head to sleep.

Total Spent: $62.05

Wednesday

Once again I wake up to try to go to the gym and…I fail. I am tired. I take the extra hour of sleep. I have an egg and feel I need some fruit, so I ask my roommate if I can have one of her oranges. She says yes. Love her. I make some peppermint tea to find some zen before what is to be another chaotic day.

Instead of going into the office, my coworker picks me up in his car and we drive downtown to fetch the opening night gifts. The gift was actually my proposal: I found the local vendor and negotiated a price and everything, so I was really happy to see it through to fruition. We also picked up some prints that my boss wants to get framed. We got back to the office to unload everything, but I was right back out again to go to the framer. Then, I had to run back home to greet the exterminator, who is helping me track down a dead mouse smell in my apartment. He is not very helpful but he lays down some poison and promises to come back tomorrow to fill some gaps in the floor ($0, covered by building maintenance).

Part of my job is organizing my boss’s tickets to all the shows he needs to see: every Broadway show, but he also attends a lot of Off-Broadway, regional, and London productions. Today he’s seeing We Had A World at MTC so I go pick up the physical tickets from the box office. Finally, I return to the office. It was a bit of a chaotic day, not only because I was running around everywhere but there were also some big name celebrities dropping by the office for meetings. It was one of those days where I really felt like I was “doing the thing.” Like I really felt like a part of the industry. I eat my leftover sandwich that I saved from yesterday.

After a full day of office work, my boss’ date for the show tonight cancels, so I get to tag along with him. Yay for free theater! I liked it a lot. I thought it was beautifully written and beautifully performed. But the night is not over yet, we head back over to our show for the second act of the preview performance. We watch the show and then go to the production meeting. Nothing much happens again, but it’s nice to be part of the community making the show happen in real-time. I get home around 11 PM and my boyfriend who is too good for this world bikes up to see me. We haven’t been able to see each other as much since I’ve been in production, but it was lovely to catch up a little and then go to bed. Shout-out to him.

Total Spent: $0

Thursday

When my boyfriend sleeps over I kinda have to wake up earlier because he starts work at 9 AM, so this did finally get me to the gym. Woohoo! I get paid and it’s higher than usual because of all of the overtime, so that’s fun (+$820.58). In celebration, I stopped at a deli and bought two protein bars as a pick-me-up ($10.38).

I’m off to work once more, but not for long, as the exterminator is coming back again. I go home for the full two-hour block in which he said he’d be coming…aaaand he didn’t show. Whomp. I eat lunch at home and head back to the office. I make a second appearance at the deli to pick up my boss’ lunch. I work! On various office things. I enlisted the interns to help me assemble the opening night gifts with tags and ribbons and such, which takes like three hours. We watch The Bachelor while we do this.

I’m supposed to go to the preview performance for our show again tonight, but I tell them that I’ll be late because I have to tutor. I go home at 6 PM and eat the rest of my spaghetti for dinner. I officially have no food left. At the eleventh hour, my tutee cancels the session for basketball practice (hypothetical +$100, gone!).

This is okay because I am exhausted. But since I’ve already said that I’ll be late to the preview, I decide to do my laundry. There are machines in the basement of my building, which is very nice. I do two loads of washers and one load of dryer ($6.75). Once that’s all done, I go catch the second act of the preview. The cast is killing it despite a ton of script changes being thrown at them every night. All was calm on the producer front. When I get back home, I make a donation to Zohran Mamdani’s NYC mayoral campaign—and you should too! ($25).

Total Spent: $42.13

Friday

Once again, I had a crazy dream! I suppose this is stress and exhaustion. I cannot make myself go to the gym. My boyfriend texts me a picture of his spilled coffee and it makes me feel so sad so I bought him some Dunkin’ as a surprise ($6.53, Girlfriend Points: +10,000). I majorly struggle to get ready for work today and can only muster up jeans and a hoodie as an outfit. Most people don’t come in on Fridays, so it doesn’t really matter. I beat myself up for being a few minutes late when in reality…I am the first one there. Sigh. I spend a few more minutes panicking that I was supposed to be somewhere else.

Today I’m kinda tired and over it, but we must push through. I forgot a lunch of any kind but my boss asks me to get him lunch so I buy myself a bacon egg and cheese as well ($0, thank you company card). It was a pretty chill day, as Fridays usually are. We did a lot of chatting and kiki-ing. I spend some time memorizing my scene for my acting class and just working on the character in my head. Since the office was held down, I went to the theater and watched rehearsal and photo call. I leave at 5 PM which brings me great joy.

I stop at Target for some much-needed groceries, conditioner, and Ziploc gallon bags ($39.13). I am so happy to go home. I don’t feel like cooking so I eat a Trader Joe’s frozen chicken tikka masala that I’ve had for maybe six months. It absolutely slaps. Boyfriend comes over and we catch up on Severance and The White Lotus.

My manager emails me a self-tape appointment, which stresses me out because I am so deeply overwhelmed. I spend a little bit of time recalibrating my life to figure out when I can learn and do this tape. Since he is a G, he gets me a 12-hour extension which is majorly helpful. Less stress! I decide that I am too pooped to go to the preview tonight and my boss says that’s A-okay. Instead, BF and I go see Opus at AMC ($0, included with A-List). We get home at a very calm 10 PM and pretty much immediately go to sleep. I harbor a bit of guilt for not going to the preview.

Total Spent: $45.66

Saturday

I was able to wake up and have a lovely morning with my boyfriend today. My roommate was out of town so we took our time making coffee and eating breakfast. On weekends I try not to sleep in too much because I just feel depressed that the day is gone so fast. We made coffee with my moka pot, a weekend delicacy. I ate my overnight oats and he mooched off of my eggs.

Then, another weekend delicacy: “long gym”. I went to the gym for like an hour and enjoyed it and didn’t feel rushed. I even used the steam room briefly. When I got back home, I started to learn the songs for my audition. I eat an egg and an English muffin for lunch. I call my scene partner for my acting class to rehearse the scene that we’re performing on Tuesday. She’s traveling abroad so we can’t rehearse in person, but it’s all good. It’s more of a workshop than a performance anyway.

At 2 PM, I plan to go to the theater for the matinee, but I get a text from my boss telling me to go to the office instead. I head to the office and help out with some opening night seating things, along with organizing lists for everyone receiving the gifts we’ve made. I make more gift tags. You can never have too many gift tags. I send a memo to all the investors updating them on the show and reminding them about the opening. I left the office around 5 PM and went to my parents' house to use their piano. I need to submit some videos of me playing piano for this audition, so I make some tapes of me playing a couple of songs while they aren’t home. I go back to my place and eat a makeshift frozen wonton, kale, and rice dinner which…lowkey slapped.

The day is not over yet! I go to the 8 PM preview and watch from the green room. I work on the sides for this audition and chat with the crew. I had invited some friends as seat fillers so after the show, we went to Sardi’s and grabbed a cheeky theater drink ($19, technically $48 on my card but my friends paid me back). Finally, the day is over. Going to sleep with a little dread that I have to work tomorrow again.

Total Spent: $19

Sunday

Today I wake up and quickly make myself breakfast before tutoring from 10 AM -12 PM (Tutoring: +$100). After that, I cooked some chicken that I had been marinating for a day. (Didn’t even eat it, just put it away for the week.) Then, I finally had some time to truly clean my apartment. I vacuumed and wet wiped the floor, scrubbed the toilet, sink, and bathtub, etc. A proper weekly reset. It felt good. I’m one of those people who needs their space to be clean in order to feel sane. I worked on lines and songs for this audition while I made a quick lunch and headed to the theater for the matinee.

Another successful preview! While I was there I did some rounds of looking through Actor’s Access and submitting to things. Some of the things I submitted for had asked for specific video reels which I hadn’t yet uploaded, so I bit the bullet and paid to upload reel footage ($66). It’s quite expensive but you do it once and never pay again. Hope it’s worth it? I guess I’ll never know what a casting director wants to see.

After the show ended, I went to have Sunday night dinner with my parents. This is just a tradition we have to make sure we see each other. (Plus, it alleviates cooking a meal for myself.) We had some ravioli and broccoli. I eagerly wait for a text from the company manager to come back to the office to help stuff tickets for opening tomorrow. He texts! He asks if I want dinner, which I don’t need anymore.

Around 8 PM, I go back into the office. Stuffing tickets feels like a rite of passage. We put some music on and begin to cross-check our seating chart with our ticket inventory, solving little crises as we go. We do some double-checking with investors and guests to make sure each seat is properly filled. I go home around 10 PM and my boyfriend comes over to hang with my roommate and me, drink hard kombucha, and watch The White Lotus. It’s the little things. He leaves and I help my roommate with a quick late night self-tape. Ah, such is the life of an actor.

Total Spent: $66

Monday

THE BIG DAY. I wake up at around 8:30 AM to straighten my hair and lay out my dress for tonight. I eat a little English muffin and do not bother packing lunch because today, I deserve a company card lunch. I come into work at 10:10 AM and I am still the first one there.

I immediately needed to print and gift tag another gift from my office. I could write a whole think-piece about how intense and stupid commercial theater opening night gifts are. There are SO MANY. As I suspected, my boss paid for our deli lunches and I got an extra smoothie to hold me over until after the show. I got asked to help wrap and tie a bow around another gift because sometimes my womanly touch is all they need. My coworker brought his car to the office and we run a couple of errands and drive this treasure trove of gifts to the theatre. I help distribute all of the gifts to all of the people who needed them in their different stations.

I rush home around 4:30 PM to make myself pretty. My roommate is going to Target and offers to get me anything, so I ask for an extra deodorant ($10.19). I love the opportunity to dress up! I go all out. I get back to the theater for the red carpet and the madness begins.

The thesis of the whole night was: it is so hard not to be in the way. Obviously, I’m pretty new to this so I can’t always be the most useful person. I can, however, be a vehicle to go get the more useful person, so I just tried to make myself available and stay close to my boss and coworkers in case they needed me. Luckily, they didn’t really.

Everything went rather smoothly! The security working the carpet didn’t do a great job of making a path for celebrities to walk on, so the celebs were just dodging the fans on the street. (Including me, a fan.) But the curtain went up and the show went on! It was a very exciting and starry opening night. A lot of the stars came to the party afterward!

The party was equally confusing for me. I was sort of “working”? But also eating and drinking and mingling? But standing by for marching orders? But again: how helpful can I, a 23-year-old who has done this for five months, really be? Ultimately, I enjoyed myself. I hung out with friends and took advantage of the open bar (two gin and tonics and a bunch of sliders: $0). When reviews came out, I was hoping to join everyone in the war room, but it seemed like my boss needed space and it was best that I stay away from the action. Slight bummer but also part of this job is reading people’s minds and I could tell I would be a nuisance in this instance. Instead, I sneakily read the reviews on my own, sent a text checking in with coworkers, and got the okay to head home at a reasonable hour.

The gifts were given, the show was opened, and at last, I laid myself to rest.

Total Spent: $10.19

Weekly Total: $245.03

1. A wrap report is a snapshot of a production’s financial health: it summarizes ticket sales, broken out by the prior week’s gross gross (total dollars taken in by the box office), net gross (less credit card deductions, etc.), total advance (tickets already sold for upcoming performances), and total gross gross for the week to come.

2. House seats are premium tickets that are not available for sale to the general public. These seats are available to request/purchase directly through the producers. (Theatre owners also have access to house seats. Some creative team members may also negotiate for a pair in their contracts.) Unsold house seats are eventually released to the public—timelines for this vary, I’ve seen anywhere from 36 to 98 hours before a performance. (If you see a celebrity at a Broadway show, they’re likely in house seats.)

3. This is a very NYC-specific scenario—due to the fact that New York productions have longer preview periods than regional shows, press attends the week before opening night. The New York Times review is published online after 10 PM on opening night, which can really make or break the vibe at the after-party. I really love the description in Jen Silverman’s We Play Ourselves about a playwright experiencing this nightmare:

"I felt a shift: one tide going out and another coming in. A hush entered the room like a new wind, living underneath the chatter of conversation. People were unobtrusively glancing at their phones while their conversations forged onward absentmindedly without them. At first I couldn’t understand it. And then I realized: The review was out…I took out my phone, brought up the review, and read the whole thing. It was dismissive and cool and eviscerating. It questioned the right of the play to exist, and beyond that, my right to have made it. It was bewildered by the disparity between the promise I had exhibited and the failure I’d delivered…After I finished reading, I sat on the bathroom floor for a long time. It took time to catch up to what I’d read, and then realize that it applied to me, to my play. That everyone outside was currently reading it and knowing that it applied to me and my play. There was a surprising chasm between the world I had been in before the review came out and the world that I was in now.”