At Santa Monica Airport since 2001
The curtain rises because you raise it.
For more than two decades, Ruskin Group Theatre has turned an airplane hangar, and now a former WWII armory, into one of Los Angeles’ most intimate homes for live theatre. Here’s why keeping it alive matters, and exactly what it takes. Our community helped raise $1.5 million to build this new home. Now we need your help to fill it with live theatre, pay artists, and keep tickets within reach.
Explore below: see what it costs to put on a play and how much your donation makes possible. Try the interactive calculators to see your impact.
What it really costs
One play. Four actors. $43,416to reach opening night.
Here is the honest budget for a modest four-person production on our stage. Every actor rehearses 120 hours at $18.47 an hour, and every hourly artist comes with payroll taxes, insurance and processing fees. This opening budget covers rehearsals, design, build and marketing. Run costs are separate: cast and stage-manager pay, plus payroll taxes and fees, are added for every performance.
And that’s before the building. It doesn’t include our $14,500 monthly rent, the staff who open the doors every night, or the theatre’s monthly insurance, all of which come on top of it.
Creative team
$6,000.00- $3,500.00
Director
Flat fee
- $2,500.00
Playwright
Royalty / commission
Design & build
$18,000.00- $8,000.00
Set
Design, materials & build
- $3,500.00
Costumes
Design & wardrobe
- $3,000.00
Lighting design
Design fee
- $2,000.00
Props
Sourcing & build
- $1,500.00
Sound design
Design fee
Actors & stage management
$13,405.60- $8,865.60
Actors (×4)
120 rehearsal hrs each @ $18.47/hr
- $2,640.00
Stage manager
120 hrs @ $22/hr
- $1,900.00
Assistant stage manager
100 hrs @ $19/hr
Marketing
$4,000.00- $4,000.00
Marketing & promotion
Production marketing budget
Payroll taxes & fees
$2,010.84- $2,010.84
Employer taxes, insurance & fees
≈15.0% on all hourly wages
Total to get one play to opening night
$43,416.44
That’s 480 hours of actors in a rehearsal room, plus 220 hours of stage management, before opening night.
Then the curtain rises
Every performance is another payroll.
Once the show opens, we play 4 performances a week. Each night, all 4 actors are paid for 2.5 hours at $18.47 an hour, and the stage manager is paid for 4 hours to run the show. Payroll taxes and fees apply to every hour.
- $184.70
Actors (×4)
2.5 hrs each @ $18.47/hr
- $88.00
Stage manager
4 hrs @ $22/hr
- $40.90
Payroll taxes & fees
≈15.0% on hourly wages
- Per performance
- $313.60
- Per week (4 shows)
- $1,254.42
Opening night plus a 6-week run
$50,942.96
$43,416 to open, plus $7,527 for 24 performances.
Still before rent, front-of-house staff or insurance.
Interactive gift calculator
Be part of the next curtain call.
A play begins long before the applause. It begins with someone like you saying: this story deserves a stage. Your gift puts actors in the rehearsal room, gives designers the tools to build a world, and helps keep intimate, live theatre here in our community.
Together, we raised $1.5 million to build this home. Now, help fill it with stories. Give today and become part of the work that makes the next opening night possible. Every amount helps pay the people who bring it to life.
Try it: choose a gift amount below
Tap an amount or enter your own in “Other.” Watch the rehearsal hours, production share and gift impact update instantly.
Percentages include opening night plus 24 performances. Gifts support Ruskin’s work wherever they are needed most.
4.7
hours of an actor in rehearsal, taxes & fees included
0.20%
of the opening budget plus 24 performances
$100 covers almost a whole day of rehearsal for one actor.
When the lights come up, you’re part of what made it possible.
Ruskin Group Theatre is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Gifts are tax-deductible.
Interactive box-office calculator
An intimate room has a hard ceiling.
The Kaplan Family Stage seats 82. That closeness is the magic of Ruskin, where you can see an actor breathe. It also means there are only so many tickets to sell, and every extra performance adds $314 in cast and stage-manager pay. Move the sliders to see how far box office goes toward a $50,943 production: $43,416 to reach opening night, plus the run.
Try it: drag the sliders
Adjust ticket price, performances or attendance. Your box-office results update instantly. Start with our 24-performance run.
Your live results
1,476 seats sold
$51,660
in ticket revenue
Covers 100% of artist & production costs
A rare sell-out
Even here, the surplus of $717 still has to pay the $14,500 monthly rent, the staff who open the doors and our monthly insurance, and carry the next show while it rehearses.
- First curtain
- 2003First curtain
- Productions
- 180+Productions
- Stages · 82 & 65 seats
- 2Stages · 82 & 65 seats
- Raised by our community
- $1.5MRaised by our community
Our story
From an airplane hangar to an arts center.
For more than twenty years, Ruskin has been a home where new and seasoned Los Angeles artists make work that is immediate, intimate, and deeply human.
2001
Ruskin Group Theatre begins
John Ruskin founds Ruskin Group Theatre in Santa Monica, creating a home for intimate, artist-led theatre.
2002
A theatre in an airplane hangar
With co-founder Michael Myers, Ruskin opens a 60-seat theatre at 3000 Airport Avenue, inside the former Gunnell Maintenance airplane hangar, right across from the school.
2003
Opening night
On February 14, the Ruskin Group Theatre raises the curtain on its first production, “Career.”
2003–today
Over 180 productions and counting
More than 180 productions and hundreds of café plays, including the world premiere of Rex Pickett’s “Sideways The Play,” the West Coast premiere of “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” and Arthur Miller’s “A View from the Bridge.”
2021
Two doors down, a new home
Having outgrown the hangar, the company begins renovating 2800 Airport Avenue: a historic building that served as an armory in World War II, later housed the Museum of Flying, and then Santa Monica College classes.
2026
The Theatre Arts Center opens
On February 14, 2026, exactly 23 years after opening night, the new arts center opens, with the 82-seat Kaplan Family Stage and the intimate 65-seat Audre. The community helped raise $1.5 million for the renovation, alongside $3M from the City of Santa Monica for the building’s shell and core.
“Theatre is something you feel, not just watch.”
Why it’s vital
Small theatres are where culture actually gets made.
Artists get paid
Every actor, designer and stage manager on our stage earns a wage. Your support turns passion projects into paid, professional work in an expensive city.
New plays get born here
From world premieres to café plays, Ruskin is where Los Angeles writers see their work stood up, rehearsed and put before an audience for the first time.
A Westside home for the arts
Theatre, live music, spoken word and visual art under one roof, in a courtyard where neighbors gather before the show and linger after.