| | | Theodore's Little Theatre is a nonprofit organization devoted to staging plays for children. The Theatre 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 costs from the current years planning budget appear below. Theodore's Little Theatre had tentatively planned to put on 4 different productions with a total of 60 performances. For example, one of the productions was Peter Rabbit, which had a six-week run with three performances on each weekend. | | Theodore's Little Theatre Costs from the Planning Budget For the Year Ended December 31 | | Budgeted number of productions | | 4 | | Budgeted number of performances | | 60 | | Actors and directors wages | $ | 162,000 | | Stagehands wages | | 28,200 | | Ticket booth personnel and ushers wages | | 17,400 | | Scenery, costumes, and props | | 34,800 | | Theatre hall rent | | 46,200 | | Printed programs | | 15,300 | | Publicity | | 10,400 | | Administrative expenses | | 46,000 | | | | | | Total | $ | 360,300 | | | | | | | | 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 doesnt 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 pin down, but the best estimate is that approximately 75% of the budgeted costs are fixed, 10% depend on the number of productions staged, and the remaining 15% depend on the number of performances. | | | | After the beginning of the year, the board of directors of the Theatre authorized expanding the Theatres program to three productions and a total of 64 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 appear below: | | Theodore's Little Theatre Actual Costs For the Year Ended December 31 | | Actual number of productions | | 3 | | Actual number of performances | | 64 | | Actors and directors wages | $ | 168,000 | | Stagehands wages | | 29,800 | | Ticket booth personnel and ushers wages | | 18,900 | | Scenery, costumes, and props | | 31,100 | | Theatre hall rent | | 50,800 | | Printed programs | | 15,750 | | Publicity | | 9,400 | | Administrative expenses | | 44,450 | | | | | | Total | $ | 368,200 | | | | | | | | 1. | Prepare a flexible budget for Theodore's Little Theatre based on the actual activity of the year | 
| | 2. | Prepare a report for the year that shows the spending variances for all expense items. (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. | |
