to be surprised that we are being charged per ticket to go and see our dc's primary school christmas play?

[molyholy]

Is this normal? It is due to 'production costs' apparently. Never happened before. Parents supply the costumes.

No charge at ours but limited to 2 tickets per family.

We have been asked for a "donation" of £2 per ticket but when I failed to enclose the said "donation" I was told that I couldn't have any tickets until I did .... Surely a donation is voluntary?

No charge for us either & the school limits tickets to two per family. You can go on a waiting list for any tickets handed back in.

oh, yes. up to £5 each around here. plus raffle tickets. this is primary.
2 shows each for 2 kids.

Every single year and they also kick off if your child doesn't attend every performance, even if it is after school (two consecutive nights) and ends at 9pm. They then thank you for your donations, which admittedly if you didn't give, you couldn't watch any of the four performances. Money grabbing exercise boils my piss every year.

My school asks for donations at the KS1 nativity, which go to charity, the cost of the performance (script, licence, costumes) comes out of the school budget, However when we do a bigger production every two or three years in the local theatre we charge and that just about covers theatre hire, costumes, script, licence etc. It does cost to put productions on and even though those written specially for primary schools have a reasonable licence cost, it can really help to recoup some of the outlay in these days of extra tight budgets..

southwesterly , I don't understand. How can a child be in the play if they don't go to the performances??

Manic - There are four performances over 2 days (daytime and evening). My DC as pupils of the school are in each performance and as such would like some family and friends in the crowd for each. They are reluctant performancers. As such and as it either occurs with the school run or working relatives can only make the evenings, tickets have to be purchased for pretty much each performance. Until I became that mum who said no to the extra performances that interfere with other activities on one night or the next year, they were just too shattered. The school pupils don't pay - just siblings, God/grandparents and then anyone remotely connected to them who want to watch.

I can understand your issue with the paying (think multiple relatives attending is the main reason my head has said I can't charge - the cost would be huge for some families). So that's fair enough.

I still don't get the 'extra' performances though. Do you mean you think your children should be in the play but not perform at every performance? You think there should be optional performing? I just don't understand how that could work. How can you be in a play but only some of the time? What happens to your child's part when they aren't there??

How can you be in a play but only some of the time?
Share the role with another child - both learn the role and usually an additional minor part (often done with large professional productions).
What happens to your child's part when they aren't there?? It get's played by someone else. For main parts they usually find a child who knows it if they are ill or such.

Presumably also fine if your child is one of seventeen Angels or snowmen or whatever, and it really makes no difference whether there are 15,16 or 17 in the crowd?

I imagine if cast in a major role the child would need to be there, unless you'd arranged alternating casts beforehand (eg DS play had two sets for the main roles, who did one show each).

£2.50 a ticket here, which I happily pay. The PTA sells mince pies and hot drinks for 50p each too. It's a lovely event. Nobody minds paying.

Oh well, yes, sure, if you had alternating casts that would be pre arranged and totally different. But it sounded rather like the poster was thinking,

'Oh, my child's tired/busy tonight. They've already performed once so I don't think we'll go tonight.' Which, if it was a generally accepted thing to do, would be really strange and just wouldn't work.

Double casting takes twice as long to rehearse. Time which schools often don't have.

I think I might be the winner here. Our secondary school is doing a show and is charging £7.50 a ticket :o My dd isn't in it but a couple of her friends are so she may want to go. I think it's extortionate!

Ours charges £2.50 but they use a licensed script and provide the costumes. The money goes to the PTA. EYFS and KS1 do separate plays so it can add up if you have a child in both plays and gps etc want to go too but I think it's a good fundraiser and not too expensive for most people.

Considering the costs to just licence & hire the scripts/scores for a secondary school show csn run into thousands I think£7.50 is a bargain. (& the rights holders usually want a percentage of ticket sales)

I paid £4 for a school music concert this week. I don't know how much the school musical will be yet.

Is it an attempt to keep the screeching toddler out, do you think?

Our tickets are free but each child is issued with 2 one for afternoon and one for evening. Up to us to negotiate swapsies. Parking is terrible, its held at the village hall off a road that is supposed to be a 40 but used to be a 50 so everyone drives at 60 on it. But its always good fun. There is a raffle as well, and generally they sell school calendars too

Our school limits tickets and collects for a local charity before and after the performance. DVDs are £3 and photos are 50p each.

No charge for us. One thing I really do wish they would introduce though is allowing the parent governors best front vow seats! Oh and allowing all the grandparents to sit at the font!

miaow - I can see that that makes sense for nursery. I don't like the idea of 'non critical' parts though, to be honest. I don't see the point in having a child in a show if their role isn't important. Of course some parts are small but there will still be holes in dance routines, small interactions that can't happen and unbalanced harmony lines in the singing if random children aren't there on random nights.

Our kids school charge £1 a ticket with a max of 3 per family to be purchased. They put the production on for 2 nights.

Our primary school never charged. There was always a collection for the children's chosen charity at the end.

I don't think most people would mind a small charge, but it's almost more trouble than it's worth to collect and there is a danger of irritating parents unnecessarily at an expensive time of year - or causing genuine problems to the less well off. The number of tickets each child could have was limited in the first instance.

I wouldn't have thought there were many costs involved in putting on the show to be honest.

I think the secondary school always charges for plays, concerts etc.