The Little Theatre is a nonprofit organization devoted to staging plays for children. The theater has a very small full-time professional administrative staff. Through a special arrangement with the actors' union, actors and directors rehearse without pay and are paid only for actual performances. The Little Theatre had tentatively planned to put on six different productions with a total of 108 performances. For example, one of the productions was Peter Rabbit, which had a six-week run with three performances on each weekend. The costs from the current year's planning budget appear below. The Little Theatre Costs from the planning Budget For the Year Ended December 31 Budgeted number of productions Budgeted number of performances Actors and directors wages Stagehands wages Ticket booth personnel and ushers wages Scenery, costumes, and props Theater hall rent Printed programs Publicity Administrative expenses Total 6 108 $ 250,560 66,960 50,760 109,920 88,560 61,560 13,920 77,760 $ 720,000 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 costs of scenery, costumes, props, and publicity vary with the number of productions. It doesn't make any difference how many times Peter Rabbit is performed, the cost of the scenery is the same. Likewise, 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 analyze, 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. Not surprisingly, actual costs were considerably higher than the costs from the planning budget. (Grants from donors and ticket sales were also correspondingly higher, but are not shown here.) Data concerning the actual costs were as follows: The Little Theatre Actual Costs For the Year Ended December 31 Actual number of productions Actual number of performances Actors and directors wages Stagehands wages Ticket booth personnel and ushers wages Scenery, costumes, and props Theater hall rent Printed programs Publicity Administrative expenses Total 7 168 $ 430,800 102,500 81,900 132,200 127,600 87,900 18,300 95,500 $ 1,076,700 Required: 1. Prepare a flexible budget performance report for the year that shows both spending variances and activity variances. (Indicate the effect of each variance by selecting "F" for favorable, "U" for unfavorable, and "None" for no effect (i.e., zero variance). Input all amounts as positive values.) The Little Theatre Flexible Budget Performance Report For the Year Ended December 31 Actual Results Flexible Budget Planning Budget 7 6 Number of productions Number of performances Actors' and directors' wages 168 108 $ Stagehands' wages Ticket booth personnel and ushers' wages Scenery, costumes, and props $ 430,800 102,500 81,900 132,200 250,560 66,960 50,760 109,920 Theatre hall rent 88,560 Printed programs 61,560 Publicity 127,600 87,900 18,300 95,500 $ 1,076,700 13,920 Administrative expenses 77,760 Total $ 720,000
