Artspace is a nonprofit gallery for the visual and performing arts. Artspace's mission is to support the development of the arts and artists from all backgrounds, through exhibitions, education, and opportunities that create resilient and thoughtful communities through the arts.

Drinks will be available in the lobby before the performance begins. There is one small step to enter the space. If you have any accessibility questions or concerns when you purchase your ticket, please contact us via the form on the ticketing site.

How do I get there?

Artspace's address is 2833-A Hathaway Rd., Richmond, VA 23225, just off of Forest Hill Ave. If you're driving, parking is free and plentiful. If you're riding the bus, the nearest bus stop is 923 - Forest Hill and Melbourne, served by local route 2A or express route 64. This bus stop is no more than a 3 minute walk from the gallery.

Adrian Einspanier’s (they/them) plays include Lunch Bunch (PlayCo and Clubbed Thumb; New York Times and Time Out Critic’s Picks), House Plant (New York Theatre Workshop’s Next Door; “highbrow / brilliant” in New York Magazine’s Approval Matrix; Lambda Literary Award Finalist), I LOVE SEAN (Playwrights Realm Writing Fellow), The Convent of Pleasure (Cherry Lane’s Mentor Project), MADONNA col BAMBINO, created with composer Deepali Gupta and director Caitlin Sullivan (Ars Nova’s ANT Fest and the New Ohio’s Ice Factory, curated by New Georges), Doctor De Soto and Other Stories by William Steig, conceived by Miranda Haymon and co-written with Miranda Haymon and Seonjae Kim with music by Ellen Winter (upcoming tour TheaterWorksUSA), and I forgot to tell you (The Brooklyn Rail, June 2021 Issue).

Their work has also been developed and presented by Ars Nova’s Play Group, Clubbed Thumb’s Early Career Writers’ Group, the New Georges Jam (former co-leader), and Williamstown Theatre Festival’s Directing Studio. They have been a resident at Millay Arts, the Hambidge Center, Sewanee Writers’ Conference (Walter E. Dakin Fellow), Cape Cod Theatre Project (Noel Coward Foundation Writer in Residence), SPACE on Ryder Farm, Mercury Store, and Erik Ehn’s annual Texas Silent Writing Retreat. A recipient of Darren Aronofsky‘s Protozoa Pictures and Los Angeles Media Fund Theater Fund commission and the 2023 Lotos Foundation Prize, they teach at NYU Tisch, HB Studios and the National Theater Institute, and have recently developed work with A24 and Breaking the Binary Theatre.

Candace Hudert is an award-winning multidisciplinary theatre artist from Richmond, VA. Ze makes work that is clown, that is queer, and that seeks to stretch the world into a more empathetic, curious, and inclusive place than what it is today. Most recently in Richmond, Candace won a Richmond Theatre Community Circle award for Outstanding Sound Design on 5th Wall's production of H*tler's Tasters. Previous to that, fey assistant directed and sound designed Buried Child (dir. Chelsea Burke) with Firehouse and directed I Tried to Say I Love You But I Had a Cigarette in My Mouth at the Basement. E has trained at the Kennedy Center, Accademia dell'Arte, the National Theater Institute, Sarah Lawrence College, and Mooseburger Clown Arts Camp. When not in a theater (unlikely), you can find him in his garden, making video games, or being bitten by his cat for no reason.

Hello! This is Candace, your producer and director here. Before I had produced a play, I had wondered:

Just what DOES it cost to put up a show like this?

There aren't many collated resources to answer this question! Major props to the Birmingham Black Repertory Theatre Collective for leading the charge when it comes to budget transparency via their impact reports. Meeting some of their former and current leaders lit a fire in me as a producer to share more of the nitty gritty of putting on a show here in Richmond.

So what did it cost to put up Lunch Bunch?

Here are our rough numbers:

• Personnel (Actors, Designers, Crew, Photographer, Social Media Manager): $3,200
• Space: $0*
• License and Scripts: $790
• Design Materials (Props, Costumes, Scenic, Sound, Lights): $300* (Final number TBD)
• Marketing (Programs, Posters, Postcards): $365
• Pad (Incidentals like food, unexpected props, and website costs): $200
• Total: ~$4,900

* Keep in mind, as the producer, I did not need to buy most of our lights or sound equipment, as I was able to borrow most of what we needed from other local artists who I have worked with before. This would have raised our cost exponentially.

In that same vein, since I am an Artist Member at Artspace, I did not have to pay for the use of the space. This was the biggest hurdle to putting this show up: the high costs for space pretty much everywhere makes producing shows untenable for independent artists. I am so thankful to all of the other Artist Members at Artspace for helping facilitate this show.

And to top it all off, everyone who made this show agreed to give their time in kind at far below market rates. This would not be possible without their generosity.

How'd you pay for the show then?

Our biggest income comes from tickets, of course, so thank you to those that do come and see the show. Second was selling ads, which we sold $400 worth. These ads were the only way I could justify printing physical programs, and came from me literally walking into stores to ask local small business owners and asking friends who own their own businesses if they would buy an ad in the program. Otherwise, the funding for this show came from my personal savings. This has been a project I've wanted to do for so long and I was determined to do so before the end of the year - success!

In order to make back what was spent on this show in ticket sales alone - keeping in mind our standard ticket price of $18, taxes, and processing fees - we'd have to sell at least 300 tickets, or 50 tickets per show. This number obviously does not include complimentary tickets - though having a full house is a gift on any day of the week. In short, it's unlikely that this production will break even. Which, frankly, is okay, as this was expected! My goal was to have a complete show that people here in Richmond could see and enjoy, which we have done.

I hope this breakdown of costs helps you to better visualize what theatre companies are asking for when they set their prices, plan their seasons, and offer subscriptions. It's a labor of love, absolutely, but that doesn't mean there aren't costs associated with making it a reality.