Statute of Limitations

As far as I can tell there is effectively no longer a statute of limitations on paying the employer's part of income taxes. Because the statute of limitations (3 years) only begins after you've filed. Maybe I'm reading it incorrectly.

And that's the end of me talking about this for a while. Tomorrow I start doing fun stuff. Here are today's kissing rabbits.

Running the Numbers

Let's make some assumptions. Because, you know, assumptions are fun. Let's pretend that the nut of the 177 MacDougal Street space is $20,000 a month.
And let's pretend there's 2000 square feet of space.
Both of these numbers are imprecise, but somewhat accurate.
If we were to have each square foot "pull its weight" in revenue per month, it would have to bring in $10 a month in revenue.
Of course this is absurd. Bathrooms, for instance, are not revenue - generating. They're at best a loss leader. But you don't want to get rid of them because they don't bring in money. Trust me on that one.

So when looking at the different parts of the space, think about what is good or bad about each part. And figure out how much the place is worth per square foot. You'll notice there's an "x" in there. I don't know what that number is.
Obviously the amount of money the theater itself makes per square foot is greater than the windowbox. But maybe the windowbox is so nice we want to keep it just because. Is the bookstore worth keeping as a bookstore? Would it make more money if we put offices for resident theater companies in the same space and charged them per month to be there? What about the Cafe? Does it make sense to make the cafe and the box office the same space and use the box office space as cubicles for resident theaters?
I don't know the answers. But it'll be interesting to run the numbers.

Project Planning -- An Interview

The Vicereine of the Queen of Mars consented to an audience with Her Regent on the subject of project planning. And thus were the notes taken by Our Royal Secretary:

"Project planning is great for planning -- but it's terrible for execution. The dangerous part of project planning is when you run into a situation where you say "Now I can't stick to my project plan."


"Project planning tells us how late we are and why.

"It's nice to have target dates and know what you're doing and if something comes up, you know how to react. In other words project planning is good for figuring out things but you can't beat yourself up for not meeting your project plan's deadlines.

Our meeting with the Vicereine (artist's depiction).

"The exception to all of this is routine tasks which are done over and over where you want to optimize your process."

A Personal Realization

You know, most people suffer from a cognitive bias of illusory superiority. I suffer from it's opposite. I figure I'm pretty smart, but that doesn't make me able to do analysis and make decisions better than other people in and of itself. Because that's one of the smart things I know.
So I presume most people to be smart.
And then when they do dumb things my logic flow goes like this:
1. They can clearly see the eminent and obvious facts just as I can
2. Therefore they are up to something vastly more nefarious instead.

I suspect I should just assume people are dumb and not evil. That would sure make me feel better at least. Someone does something dumb (or worse yet) a group of people do something dumb and it's probably just because they're dumb. Not because they're trying to pull a fast one.

But my experience tells me that "being dumb" and trying to pull a fast one are (or can be) hand-in-hand. That may be mostly the embarrassment of being caught being dumb -- it makes people cover stuff up so you can't see how dumb they were and that (certainly seems) evil.

Here's my dad running the numbers on his own lemonade stand.

I should probably be less harsh with people who can't read a cash flow or P&L statement. I literally grew up on those. On the train home this evening I remembered that, no kidding, my dad had me write out my expenses and projected sales for a lemonade stand I had out on Clive Street one summer. I ran the numbers and my profit projected was rather low. But I knew that essentially I was going to get a "subsidy" in the form of sugar and lemonade mix from the government my mother, so my business was (for an 8-year-old) fairly viable (if seasonable). 

Theater Companies

So this show, She Kills Monsters, got a good New York Times review.
The Flea are kind of an interesting company. They have a resident company, the Bats, who (it is my understanding) aren't really told when they audition that if they get into the company they'll be expected to volunteer some number of hours each week y'know, cleaning floors and stuff. Other than my obsession with being incredibly up-front with people about things, The Bats seem like a good model for a theater company.
+++++
Here's the thing with being a company in New York doing extended runs of shows with (to the producer) reasonable (read: $25) ticket prices. You really have to be non-Equity. What I mean by this is that the producer simply cannot sign an Equity contract.
You cannot do a long run under a Showcase code contract. Showcase code only provides for performances:

Up to 12 within four consecutive  weeks. At least half of the total
number must be presented on a weekday (Monday through Friday) and in no event may
there be more than one two-performance day per week
Step Option:  4 additional performances may be added at a stipend of $10 per member
plus minimum transportation, per performance  

So you can't do an extended run. Nor can you do, for instance, every Friday and Saturday night for 12 weeks.
In addition, the ticket price is limited:

(i) Up to $18, TDF voucher acceptable

Now note that the Producer is incapable of making a pile of filthy lucre on any off-off-Broadway show. The best any producer can do is to not take a bath on the show. So we're not worried here about actors being given the shaft while the producer is in a hot tub smoking a cigar and playing with those heavy gold chains producers invariably wear around their necks.
Where is my gold chain, by the way?

But in addition to that, it's my feeling that Actor's Equity is harmful to theater in New York City. This is part of why I think Chicago has more interesting and innovative theater. But that's for another time.

Saving Theatresource

• I'd like to save Theatresource. Not the "virtual company" I mean the place at 177 MacDougal Street. I've always liked it there. What can we do?

There are two main paths I've seen.

• What are you, the Kwisatz Haderach?

Dude, there are very few people who are going to get that joke.

• Yes, but all of them read this blog.

You got me there.

• So what can we do again? What's the first option?

We can force a takeover of the 501(c)3 Corporation.

• Wait, really? We can?

Yes. It's complicated and messy. But it's possible. Although by-and-large the Board is basically inured from challenge because there are no "Members" of the Corporation.

• I... can't find the Bylaws of Manhattan Theatresource online anywhere on the website.

Shocked. Shocked I say.

• Don't most organizations like this put up their financials and such on their web site?

I believe I'm having the vapors. Someone call for my manservant to bring me a mint julep.

• Stop it and tell me why we should or shouldn't conduct a hostile takeover of the Board.

The advantage of having the Manhattan Theatre Source, Incorporated 501(c)3 is that as an organization that's been around for 11 or so years (as I remember in my foggy brain it took about a year to get the not-for-profit status) is that grants are easier to write for the organization.

• So: money. There's the potential for money for whomever has control of the Board of Directors of the 501(c)3.

That, and the fact that the lease is in the name of the Corporation.

• So that all sounds like perfectly fine reasons for a hostile takeover.

It does.

• But by the look on your face, you don't think we should do it.

Nope.

• Why?

Going back in time -- the financial catastrophe we just got over came about because back in the day of Lanie and Jim (at least as the story is told) we weren't paying SUI and we were putting Lanie and Jim on 1099's.

• Is that... or was that... legal?

Not even slightly. I'll even take some blame for that because I never realized that was the case. I would have yelled and screamed about it at the time if I'd known about it.

• But what does that mean? The Source owes what... the Social Security and the other employer side of the income taxes on the employees they put on 1099s?

Wow. I hadn't even thought of that. SSI. I... I actually don't know what the deal is with that. That's Federal. Thanks for making this seem even worse.

• So wait, what were you going to say?

New York State came after Manhattan Theatresource for what was initially about $50,000 in penalties and interest and such for SUI.

• That's why Theatresource was behind in rent over the Summer.

Yes.

• And now you're wary of the liability tail the organization still has?

Yeah, indeed. Up until talking to you I was worried about it in the abstract. Now I'm worried about in the concrete -- meaning Social Security taxes. The Federal Government likes to collect on those, and they will penetrate the Corporate shield through to anyone who is on the Board and anyone who can write checks. I've seen it happen. It's not a pretty sight.

• I'm here to help you sleep better at night.

Well, all of this indicates to me that we'd be better off negotiating with the landlord and starting a new theater at 177 MacDougal Street. With a new 501(c)3. One that's never had any employees or "liability tail."

• So. A new organization. What would that be like?

I don't know. Open.

• What? Are you genetically predisposed to oversharing?

Yeah. It's a bit of a defect of mine.

• So what can you tell me about this new organization?

1. It doesn't exist yet, at least not in the form we need it in.
2. Whatever happens will involve a rollercoaster of "there's no way this can happen" to "oh, everything is better than was expected even a week ago" to "there's no way this can happen" over and over again for the next few months.

• What should I do then?

Do you have a 501(c)3? Do you want to start a theater?

• Are those things co-requisites? 

Nope.

• So is there going to be a theater at 177 MacDougal in 2012?

I give it a 70% chance.

• Now, I don't mean anything by this but uh. Well... if it were required in order to make the theater viable, would -- I mean you guys in what they call "DigitalSource" -- would you move out? I mean, if that's what was the difference between making it work and not?

Yep. If that's what it took, we'll pull up stakes and move elsewhere.

• Where?

Have you heard of the Brooklyn Artists Gym?

• I just wanted to know your commitment to this thing. But now I feel all bad and nervous. The whole situation is anxiety - producing. Can I see a picture of a bunny?

Here ya go:

See? A bunny. How bad can things be?

Town Hall Meeting

So the 2011 Innovative Theater Awards Stage Manager of the Year made an emotional and impassioned speech about how she felt duped by the Board and the managers of Theatresource and then left the "town hall" meeting the Board had called at 8pm on a Saturday night because she, unlike anyone on the Board, actually does theater and had to make her call.
As the Stage Manager was standing outside the theater pulling herself together, Jennifer Thatcher breezed by and  dripping with sarcasm and as snotty a tone possible said "It's too bad you can't stay."

Yeah, "too bad".
So that's basically where we're at.
+++++
In addition to being a nasty piece of work, we also discovered that Jennifer Thatcher is spectacularly incompetent. Apparently the reason Theatresource is closing is because she ran cash flow projections for the very first time.
The irony is that she still doesn't understand what the "nut" is for running Theatresource. And she's the Managing Director(!).
A couple years ago when there was the first and only a meeting of the Advisory Board she was asked what the nut was because each year Theatresource was "surprised" by the tax bill that came in at the end of the year.
So she gave them a number. "And does that include the taxes?" asked a member of the Advisory Board who can, you know, read a balance sheet. Jen Thatcher: "Uh, no."
And still she thinks the nut to be (ironically) lower than it actually is. All you have to do is look at the YTD and see that contrary to what Thatcher said in the meeting, the nut is about $20,000 a month, not $15,000 a month.
And we can't make that nut with rentals and ticket sales. Never could. It's unlikely we ever will. Nobody has a model which shows you can make the nut with rentals and ticket sales. Nobody ever has.
We have to make the nut by grants and donations and fundraising and all the other things the Board has simply not done.
+++++
The other issue which is frequently cited as the reason Theatresouce is closing is that the rent is going up. Paraphrasing Thatcher at the town hall "When we first moved in here the rent was $6000 a month, now it's $9700 a month".
Yes -- after 12 years the rent has been going up. This board signed the lease. They know this. Everybody knows this. Rent goes up. So, incidentally, does what we charge people to rent the theater.
I used to have respect for the people on this Board. And at least they all decided to show up, with the exception of the President of the Board, Courtney Birnbaum, who couldn't be bothered to attend. But they seriously, at a fundamental level, cannot read their own balance sheets.
Why on earth this isn't published on the Web is anyone's guess. But here's the YTD of the 501(c)3 for your dining and dancing pleasure.

Ben on the Tubes

Our own sexy Ben Thomas did this spec ad for Doritos. I would totally embed the video if I were technologically capable of such a feat.
Instead, here's a picture of Ben riding his copier into the sunset.

Can't Stop The Excitement!

I visited the Brooklyn Artists Gym yesterday. It's a very awesome space with a groovy mission and a positive vibe. And boy, the membership rates are very nice. The semi-private space is super-sweet too. The one that's coming available is next to the space's office, with a window. It's (I'd guess) about ten foot by five foot for $319/month.
It's also very close to the pie shop Four & Twenty Blackbirds.
The thing is that the way the BAG is structured is that they price per member. So it would become unwieldy for us to move there because we always have other people around. I mean, not always, but... you know what I mean. So would each person get a membership? I don't know if there's an elegant solution to that problem for us, whilst looking for new space.
But if you're a painter or sculptor, the Brooklyn Artist's Gym seems like heaven.

Bunny butt.

• 
  

No matter what happens I suspect that we will have to move our office by the beginning of the year -- even if that only means moving it upstairs in the space we're in now.

• 
  

In other news, one of the territories we sold to is having trouble with the deliverables on Day 2. It may be the HD to PAL conversion. Sigh. We don't know. We'll have to look and see. It could be motion artifacts which were an "artistic decision". We won't know 'till we hear some timecode numbers of the scenes. I have, of course, offered to deliver the picture on a hard drive.
Showbiz. The excitement never stops.

Ways Theatresource Can Make Money Without Spending a Dime

One issue that Theatresource has always had was the non-efficient use of space. Relatively little of our space is revenue-generating.
On the other hand, the space when you first walk in the door it seems very... inviting? People take a deep breath and say "Oh, I love this place" when they walk in. And it seems to me that's mostly the space in the front of the theater and leading up to the landing.
But let's take a look of the non-revenue-generating parts of the space and what can be done.

First a couple assumptions about the finances of a theater operating at 177 MacDougal Street. I'd estimate that the absolute minimum "nut" of the space is $20,000 a month. That's $240,000 a year. Note that I'm talking about "absolute minimum" here. I think that we need to get the total revenue up to about $500,000 a year. But under $240,000 a year and the City Marshal arrives and serves you papers.

Right now the little office I'm in called "DigitalSource" (blame Mitchell for the name) is downstairs in the back-most office. What you need to do is to entice us to move elsewhere. Because the space we're in could be used as a rehearsal room right away. As soon as we're out of there it becomes a rehearsal space -- no construction is needed. It's a little on the small side for a rehearsal room, but hey, it's usable. And there's no issues with noise. Believe me, I've played guitar in there at impressive levels with no complaints.
Let's make up some conservative numbers. Let's make the room $15/hour and rent it for 20 hours a week for 50 weeks.
That's $15,000 a year.* Or, er, 1/16th of your budget? Approximately?

We're trying to keep our numbers very conservative here.

Now what if we had dedicated desks for resident theater companies? I've seen every price under the sun for open workstation space in New York. So again, let's be conservative. Let's say we can rent 5 different workstation spaces to what we might call "resident theater companies" at $300 a month. That's another $18,000 a year with no cost outlay.

The City Samanas playing in the windowbox.

Start a theater company. Non-equity company, get 30 members at $300 a year. That's another $9000 a year in revenue.

Have people pay to be a member of the theater. Those people would have (say) voting rights and such. They pay $150/year. A hundred members is $15,000 a year.

So that's another $57K a year we can add to the revenue of this space without doing any capital outlay.

Other, less concrete things we can do would include focusing on grant money, bringing in new theater companies to produce, and raising donations by individuals and corporations. I know, these are all radical ideas, but with people focused on them, they can be done. (Yes, calling them radical ideas is sarcasm son.)

But we need (as an organization) e'en more money than that. How can we do that? Well, some of those things will require a capital outlay. And another blog post.

*There's no way that the space DigitalSource is in is rentable for the summer months without installing air conditioning. So while this idea works right now because it's the middle of November, it won't work starting in April or May without getting some HVAC in there.

That's funny

Hey, what 501(c)3 didn't bother to apply for grant money from the Mayor's Office for the last three years? Why that would be Manhattan Theatresource.
Funny that now there "isn't enough money to keep the place going".
Weirdly, I'm not even the one whose the most pissed off around here. Not by a long shot.
But clearly, something very fishy is going on with the Board of Directors and closing Theatresource.
Why don't you come on by:
Saturday November 19th, 2011 8pm,

177 MacDougal Street
New York, NY 10011

to the "meeting" the Board has called.
I know, you didn't get your invitation, right? Well the Board has been very selective about who was sent information about this meeting of the "tribe".
Plus, of course, they scheduled it exactly when anybody working in theater couldn't make it.

UPDATE:
My favorite comment:

"It's not as if they failed. They didn't even try. And worse, they didn't let anyone else try."

Illegal Books

OK, I'll admit it. I am utterly fascinated by the idea of a book banned recalled for "plagiarism".
Personally, I don't believe in plagiarism. Sort of like the way I don't believe in capitalism. It's not that I'm for or against it, I just don't believe it exists.
This comparison of Markham's book to lines from other works reads like a TA's wet dream.
And... I just don't care who he "stole" from.

Maybe it's my music background. But it's standard operating procedure to steal stuff from music. In fact, it's commonly considered that there's a relatively limited amount of music (in any sort of equal-tempered tonal scale at least) that can be written.
And of course there's an entire genre of popular music which actually takes recordings of other artists and creates new works from them. That music is primarily illegal -- and as such it's pretty fascinating by me.
Now that this book is unavailable, I (of course) really want to read it. I mean, if it got good reviews before people discovered that whole sections came from other books, doesn't that still make it a good book?
As it turns out, whole sections of the Manchurian Candidate were lifted from I, Claudius. What if we were to find out that Hamlet and Pride and Prejudice were stolen from earlier sources?
Who? Cares?
If it's good, it's good.
So say I. And as the Lord Regent of the God Emperor of Mars, so say We all.

Labor Laws and Social Media

So here's a funny thing. As an employee in the US you do not have some sort of 1st Amendment right to free speech. You just don't.
Your employer can fire you for any stupid thing you say, Tweet, blog, etc.
I mean, unless it's especially protected speech. That is to say, speech which is protected by the National Labor Relations Act.
Posting a Facebook status where you say "My boss is an ass-monkey" can get you fired. But a post that says "My boss is an ass-monkey for not giving us better wages and working conditions" is protected.
"Candidly discussing wages, hours and working conditions" is something that's allowed under the NLRA. So get over it.

Plus, here's a fantasy ninja sword.

Wait, What?

• So wait, I worked on those huge load-outs of deep storage at Theatresource. We were told at the time that the landlord was insisting that he get back deep storage in order for us to continue.

Yup. You were told that.

• Did the Board of Directors already know that they were going to shut down the theater by then?

It sure looks that way on the face of it.

• So they fooled me into working for two days in order to save Theatresource, when really we were just being duped into doing the hardest part of the move out before we were told it was going to happen?

Well, I'm having trouble imagining how it could be otherwise.

• So who do they think will help them move out of the theater altogether? I mean, I'm not going to do it. I was helping to save Theatresource, not help them to trash it.

Faeries? I don't know. Perhaps there's a band of magical elves living under the stairs.

• Well, I suppose the only important thing was to really clean out was deep storage. The landlord doesn't care about what else gets cleaned out.

Hmm... Yes. That may have been the thinking. Nobody would have helped clean out deep storage if we knew we were going to close. And no other part of the theater is really a mess, and it might help the landlord if he wants to rent to another theater company.

• Who is coming to this "Tribe Meeting" they scheduled on Saturday the 19th of November at 8pm?

Well, nobody who actually, you know, works in theater.

• Why wasn't it scheduled at like 3pm?

Because then the people who work in theater would be able to show up.

• Will the Board of Directors actually be at this meeting they've called?

I've been surprised before. So... maybe. I doubt any more than half of them will show though.

• What is the actual financial position of Theatresource 501(c)3?

Right now there's about $20,000 of debt on the books.

• Oh well that's... wait. What?!

Yeah. For a theater that's not really a lot of money.

• Of course, we've trashed all the future income by cancelling all the shows that we did as soon as they announced they were closing.

Yup. Sure did. Of course, at $4000 a piece we could make up the gap by adding five new members to the Board.

• That would make the Board fairly unwieldy wouldn't it?

Do you think it could be worse than the Board that actually closed the theater?

• You've got a point there. So how do we take over the Board?

I really don't know if it can be done. And I certainly don't know if it can be done before the end of the year.