Average Salaries vs. Starting Salaries

• According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average annual salary of directors and producers, as of 2008, is $64,430. The middle 50 percent earned an average between $41,890 and $105,070 as of 2008. Simplyhired.com lists the average annual salary for a theater director at $70,000 as of 2011. These figures are considerably lower than the starting salaries for theater directors at a number of professional theaters (theaters under Actors Equity Association agreements).
  
  

Artistic Director Salaries

• New York City, with its ubiquitous theater presence, is home to a number of professional theaters ranging from those who produce Broadway shows, such as the Roundabout Theater, and those that produce off-Broadway works, such as the Manhattan Theater Club. In a March 2008 blog for Playgoer, the salaries for several New York City artistic directors were listed. Todd Haimes, artistic director of the Roundabout Theater Company, earned $672,228 annually compared to Lynne Meadow, artistic director of the Manhattan Theater Club, who earned $395,824 annually. On the lower salary end Tim Sanford of Playwright Horizons earned $125,347 annually while Charlotte Moore of the Irish Repertory Company earned $31,200 annually.
  
  Outside of New York City, theater directors often earn six-figure salaries. Chris Coleman, artistic director of Portland Center Stage in Portland, Oregon, earned $153,000 as of 2011. Joe Dowling, artistic director of the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota, earned $682,229 annually according to a 2010 article by the "Minneapolis Star Tribune."
  
  

Managing Directors

• Generally, the salaries for managing directors are comparable to the salaries of artistic directors. In his blog for Theater Ideas, Scott Walters lists the salaries of the artistic directors at two of the country's top professional theaters at $325,000 and $400,000 annually as of 2008. In comparison, the salaries of the managing directors at these same institutions were $308,000 and $208,000 annually as of 2008.
  
  

Community Theater

• Some community theaters hire theater directors to serve in the same capacity as those working in professional theaters. In fact, some community theaters have budgets that rival those of professional theaters, and salaries for their theater directors may also be in the six-figure range. An example is the Theater of Western Springs in Illinois, which had an $800,000 budget as of 2011. The Jubilee Theater in Fort Worth, Texas, paid its director between $65,000 and $75,000 annually based on a 2010 job posting by the theater.