Small Budgets: Doing so Much with so Little in a Drama Program

Episode 127:  Small Budgets: Doing so Much with so Little For many drama teachers the dwindling production budget is an ongoing struggle. How do you put up a full production with limited funds? Beth Goodwin has the double whammy she works in a small school with a small budget. And yet her visuals are consistently stunning. Listen in to find out how she does it! Show Notes * Alice * The Absolutely Insidious and Utterly Terrifying Truth About Cat Hair Episode Transcript Welcome to TFP – The Theatrefolk Podcast – the place to be for Drama teachers, Drama students, and theatre educators everywhere. I’m Lindsay Price, resident playwright for Theatrefolk. Hello! I hope you're well. Thanks for listening. Welcome to Episode 127. You can find any links for this episode in the show notes at theatrefolk.com/episode127. So, today, Beth Goodwin is who we’re going to talk to and she is a guidance secretary with a love of theatre. She’s been putting on plays for 16 years at her school and we’ve been lucky enough that she’s done a lot of ours, and I say “lucky” because her production pictures are stunning. I’m going to include a couple in the show notes. They are filled with color. They are filled with vision. The pictures make the plays come to life and I can only imagine what it’s like to be there in person. After seeing the latest pictures, I wanted to talk to Beth, and that’s when I learned that what she does is she is in a small school and she has a small budget and I was doubly amazed by what I saw. I know this is something that a lot of you who are listening can relate to – small school, small budget. Even if you are in a big school, you might have a very tiny budget. How do you create visuals on a budget? So, let’s hear what Beth has to say about that. LINDSAY: All right! Hello everyone! I am thrilled to be talking to Beth Goodwin today. Hello, Beth! BETH: Hi. LINDSAY: How are you? BETH: I’m fine. LINDSAY: Good, good, good. Tell everyone where in the world you are. BETH: Well, we are in Corinth, Maine. This is Central High School and we’re a little northeast of Bangor. LINDSAY: So, are you a Stephen King fan or not? BETH: Hmm. I won’t say anything. LINDSAY: You’ll defer? You’ll defer? BETH: Yeah, horror stuff is not my cup of tea. LINDSAY: Now, you have been doing plays for a long time at your school. BETH: Yeah, since 2000. LINDSAY: I was looking back; you’ve been a long-time customer of ours. That’s how we know who you are. BETH: Good! LINDSAY: We’re stalking you. No, no, no, of course not. Where we have really been blown away is with the pictures that you have sent us from your shows because they’re so colorful and visual. And so, we’re going to talk about, first of all, how you do that and, one thing you shared with me is that you come from a pretty small school. BETH: Yes. LINDSAY: What’s your size? BETH: It’s about 370, I think. LINDSAY: In total? BETH: Yes. LINDSAY: Okay,