The Little Theater is a nonprofit organization devoted to staging plays for children.

The costs from the current year's planning budget appear below. The Little Theater had tentatively planned to put on six different productions with a total of 108 performances. For example, one of the productions wasPeter Rabbit, which had a six-week run with three performances on each weekend.

The Little Theater

Costs from the Planning Budget

For the Year Ended December 31

Budgeted number of productions..................................6

Budgeted number of performances................................108

Actors' and directors' wages.........................................216,000

Stagehands' wages.........................................................32,400

Ticket booth personnel and ushers' wages.....................16,200

Scenery, costumes, and props........................................108,000

Theater hall rent..............................................................54,000

Printed programs............................................................27,000

Publicity.........................................................................12,000

Administrative expenses................................................43,200

Total ...............................................................................$508,800

Some of the costs vary with the number of productions, some with the number of performances, and some are fixed and depend on neither the number of productions nor the number of performances. The cost of publicizing a play with posters and radio commercials is the same whether there are 10, 20, or 30 performances of the play. On the other hand, the wages of the actors, directors, stagehands, ticket booth personnel, and ushers vary with the number of performances. The greater the number of performances, the higher the wage costs will be. Similarly, the costs of renting the hall and printing the programs will vary with the number of performances. Administrative expenses are more difficult to pin down, but the best estimate is that approximately 75% of the budgeted costs are fixed, 15% depend on the number of productions staged, and the remaining 10% depend on the number of performances.

After the beginning of the year, the board of directors of the theater authorized expanding the theater's program to seven productions and a total of 168 performances. Data concerning the actual costs appear below:

The Little Theater

Actual Costs

For the Year Ended December 31

Actual number of productions......................................7.

Actual number of performances.....................................168

Actors' and directors' wages.........................................341,800

Stagehands' wages.........................................................49,700

Ticket booth personnel and ushers' wages.....................25,900

Scenery, costumes, and props........................................130,600

Theater hall rent..............................................................78,000

Printed programs...........................................................38,300.

Publicity.........................................................................15,100

Administrative expenses................................................47,500

Total...............................................................................$726,900

Elaborate a flexible budget for The Little Theater based on the actual activity of the year.