How much is a scenic designer paid?

Answer 1

The answer to this question varies immensly depending upon market, experience, and demand. Those who start out work virtually for free most of the time just to build up a portfolio. Theatre is not known for great pay and smaller comanies have much less to offer. A community theatre set design can range from maybe $200. per job to possibly $1000. Larger, professional regional companies are usually set up on some kind of scale basis depending upon number of seats, type of show, union affiliation, etc - and generally offer $1000 to about possibly $5000. for a design fee.

Better financially endowed organizations can offer more - and tend to be much more demanding in terms of experience and degree qualifications. When that level is reached, oftentimes a fee is negotiated. All theatre companies are different and have different scales and requirements based on the specific project. The "scenic artists" union (a couple of years back) seemed to quote the design fee for one multi-set Broadway musical to being about 40K (with no negotiating.) These positions are obviously incredibly difficult to obtain.

I read once that the typical expected salary for a scenic designer was estimated to be 45K. Most are not employed year round - and those year round positions are rapidly decreasing because companies find it more affordable to contract these positions in with a variety of people willing to work for less (isn't that sad?)

I estimate - never reaching that Broadway level, that one could fathomly pull in (if very talented and good at booking jobs and travelling) approximately 30K a year. Seems very hard work for very very little pay, huh? SUPPORT THE ARTS PEOPLE!

Cheers!