How University Theater Guild Turns Consistent Profits Despite Being Student-Funded

By Joseph Sweeney

Reporting Texas

The University Theater Guild will host their third and final show of the semester, ‘Into the Woods,’ at the William C. Power Student Activity Center from April 18 to 20. 

An adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s musical of the same name, the show is a mash-up of various fairy tale characters, from Cinderella to Little Red Riding Hood. 

“Little Red Riding Hood is visiting her granny, and she gets attacked by the wolf. Cinderella is going to the festival to meet the prince, and they all interact,” said ‘Into the Woods’ Director Katelyn McIntyre. “They finish their tasks and live happily ever after, but then in act two, they realize they’re not quite as happy as they thought they were.”

But before they could even hold auditions, the Guild had a long battle of logistics and fund-raising ahead. 

And although financial barriers are arguably scarier than the big bad wolf, Guild Treasurer Emma Goolsbey said they provide the Guild with more creative freedom than other theater organizations on campus.

“We can do weirder and stranger shows that a university-sanctioned organization couldn’t do,” mechanical engineering senior Goolsbey said. 

Whereas other theater organizations mainly produce student-written works, the Guild, on account of being completely self-funded, is able to adapt already-established properties, Guild Treasurer Ashley Decherd said.

Beyond ‘Into the Woods’, the Guild adapted properties such as ‘Percy Jackson’ and ‘Carrie: The Musical’ in previous semesters. 

But before purchasing sets, costumes or background instrumentals, the Guild has to pay a licensing fee for the stage play itself. For ‘Into the Woods,’ Decherd said the Guild spent $1,800 on licensing alone. 

“We’re getting more and more ambitious, and our budgets (are) getting bigger and bigger, but the funding for that is not necessarily there,” said Decherd, a human dimensions of organizations senior. “There’s certainly challenges, but we’ve learned to find ways that work for us.”

Ticket sales cover the licensing costs of the next show as well as instrumentals. Everything else — props, costumes and set designs — are either repurposed from previous shows or purchased through fundraising campaigns. 

“We’re theater kids. We are goofy,” Goolsbey said. “We’ve done pie-in-the-face fundraisers on Speedway, one of which made us $300.”

For ‘Into the Woods’ alone, the Guild raised over $1,000 through a GoFundMe campaign from family, friends and other campus theater organizations, said Guild President Breanna Klotzbach.

The Guild has entered several recessionary periods since its inception in 1998, civil engineering senior Klotzbach said, leading to directors paying out-of-pocket to cover production fees. And though the Guild now turns consistent profits, allowing for larger-budget shows, the Guild must learn to fight on another front. 

“There are new theater organizations on campus,” Klotzbach said. “We love them, we do, but it’s hard for any group to get a full tech-week in the black box.”

As more and more groups prepare to take the WCP stage, less and less space is available for Klotzbach and her fellow performers, leading to crunch time and practicing in less ideal spaces, such as classrooms in Parlin Hall, where most rehearsals are now held. 

But despite the challenges that come with running an organization like the Guild, Goolsbey said the memories and friendships members make deem it more than worth it.

“Doing theater for the past four years is how I found my home,” Goolsbey said. “I got so much out of it and I’m hoping that people in the future, after I graduate, can find their home here too.”