Lesson Element
Unit 2: Proposal for a commissioning brief
LO2: Be able to plan and develop a project
from a commissioning brief
Ballpark figures and schedules
Instructions and answers for tutors
These instructions cover the learner activity section which can be found on page 5. This
Lesson Element supports Cambridge Technicals Level 3 in Performing Arts.
When distributing the activity section to the learners either as a printed copy or as a
Word file you will need to remove the tutor instructions section.
The activity
This lesson element will concentrate on developing some of the research skills needed by
learners to plan and develop a proposal. Research in this context is not clinical and
academic but practical and applied.
Learners will need to develop the knowledge and understanding of budgets and logistics to
be able to make preliminary decisions and to begin the process of matching resources to
initial vision and then pragmatic outcomes. These are initial explorations at this stage and
are intended to get estimates and details of local suppliers and begin budgetary and
scheduling discussions.
It may also help to get reasonable and credible ideas of project scale and what is, and what
is not, possible.
Learners will be asked to find specific pieces of equipment and the services and skills of
individuals and then put these into speculative budgets and timescales.
Suggested timings
Activity 1: 1.5 hours
Activity 2: 1–2 hours
Activity 3: 1 hour
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Activity 1
Ask learners to get into small groups and quickly brainstorm a project that they would take
on a small-scale tour of schools and/or community centres. The performance or workshop
details are not the issue as the activity will involve sourcing portable lighting, sound and
staging equipment and producing costings, but an idea of why this equipment is necessary
would be a good starting point.
The exact details are up to them but you could suggest a small stage, two lighting bars with
four lamps on each and a sound system.
Resources for the research will depend on local availability but general sites and directories
will provide some basic prices; learners should take account of costs involved with picking
equipment up and getting it to a company base.
Examples of hire companies that will provide prices and quotes include:
www.hire-a-stage.com
www.hawthorns.uk.com
www.ukstagehire.com
Some of these will ask for details before quoting while others will give some idea of prices on
the site.
This is a short activity to begin the research process and get ballpark figures; learners could
only need to get two prices per piece of equipment – lighting rig, sound system, stage. They
could come back to a subsequent session with these quotes.
Activity 2
Ask learners to consult professional websites to find current rates of pay and allowances for
a small-scale tour. Alternatively you could ask learners to find a range of these pay rates that
they can draw on to produce a fees budget.
A good source of these is at www.uktheatre.org which has a page listing contractual rates of
pay for actors, dancers and technicians as well as creative staff such as directors.
You could also go to the union sites and professional organisations.
Unions:
www.equity.org.uk
www.bectu.org.uk
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www.musiciansunion.org.uk
www.stagemanagementassociation.co.uk
Professional organisations:
Independent Theatre Council www.itc-arts.org
UK Theatre Association www.uktheatre.org
Society of London Theatre www.solt.co.uk
Learners should be asked to make some early decisions on the nature of the proposed
performance and/or workshops and who they will need to pay and over what period. Working
in the day or evening and the kind of venue will also have an impact.
Activity 3
Using some of the speculative decisions and proposals outlined in previous activities
(equipment/people costs) learners should be asked to rough out a schedule for the project.
As in previous activities this activity is to explore the scheduling process itself and does not
necessarily involve final decisions or exact details.
To do this they could asked to fill in a Gantt chart, that could be either be a template supplied
by you or one that they could source themselves.
A simple example based on a word table is given below; examples of charts can be found at:
www.exceltemplates.org
Task
Research
Rehearse
Perform
Evaluate
PIC Week one
All
Jon
All
Sal
Week two
Week three
Week four
Week five
Week six
Additional columns can be slotted in for specific deadlines and production meetings for
example, so in reality each weekly column will need to show all days. But it could be that
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when given the simple chart learners will be asked to add the complications and expand the
chart to account for more detailed scheduling.
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Lesson Element
Unit 2: Proposal for a commissioning brief
LO2: Be able to plan and develop a project
from a commissioning brief
Learner Activity
Ballpark figures and schedules
In this lesson element you will be asked to carry out short research tasks that will give you
some ‘ballpark’ figures relating to a possible project. It will give you the confidence to seek
the best deals and to be realistic about what’s possible – although this is not intended to be
a cost-saving exercise, it is simply to get some figures; it may be that you have ambitious
plans for a project and that would be acceptable – as long as you know the logistics and
costs involved.
You will also begin to think about schedules and timelines based on the information you are
given and on previous lessons where we have looked at organisational needs and demands.
Activity 1
In this activity you will decide on the equipment that you will need for a tour of schools and/or
community centres.
You should assume that as part of the proposal or grant application you intend to put
together you will need to make general statements about equipment hire costs. The issue
with this is that you don’t yet know exactly how the show will turn out as you haven’t started
rehearsing yet! However this is not unusual and sometimes as a company you have to
speculate about the mostly likely scenario, or maybe your optimum needs.
Before you get the quotes in you will need to make some basic decisions about your
potential requirements regarding:
 staging
 lighting
 sound.
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You may not know the details of the show but you know if you will want to dance, do physical
theatre, or play in a band. You may know you want levels, maximum light or minimal
amplification, so these will affect the spec of the equipment needed.
Once these rough requirements have been noted you will need to get the quotes or ballpark
figures. Some sites will require you to fill in a form and submit for a quote but others such as
www.hire-a-stage.com have figures on the page. You may also need to make a couple of
calls.
Bring these figures back to the next session.
Activity 2
In this activity you will produce a budget that estimates fees and costs of personnel and
artists.
Decisions on the possible performance and/or workshop will determine these costs; in other
words, you shouldn’t arbitrarily decide that you want four actors and a technician unless you
believe that this is the most likely outcome of the work you intend to create. However it is
also possible that you will make work for the amount of people and skills that you have in the
group that you are currently working in.
You should assume that workers will be employed on appropriate professional contracts that
include:





weekly rates
fees for creative staff (directors, choreographers, musical directors etc)
subsistence payments
additional payments for overtime, if appropriate
rehearsal and/or performance rates.
You should then consider the timescale of employment and total for these figures to form an
overall pay cost.
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Activity 3
In this activity you will begin to explore how scheduling and timelines work. This will result in
a chart (or series of charts) that provide a graphic representation of all the work that needs to
be done to get a project on the road and completed.
You should start with four basic stages to the project:




research
rehearse
perform
evaluate.
These have been put into a simple chart below. This is merely a simple chart as indicated
and you will need to complete this by adding days of the week, other kinds of meetings or
sub-dividing the four headings to take account of the specific elements in your project. For
instance, research might include days when working individually on character development
or in groups on themes and ideas.
The point of this activity is to have the conversation on the stages of a project and how these
can be codified in a scheduling chart.
Task
PIC Week one
Research
Rehearse
Perform
Evaluate
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Week two
Week three
7
Week four
Week five
Week six
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