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Wednesday, February 01, 2023
Lumber Prices Soar 13% As the Housing Market Shows Signs of a Rebound
markets.businessinsider.com: Lumber futures jumped to $524 per thousand board feet, its highest level since mid-October. The essential building commodity is up 21% since encouraging housing market data was released earlier this week, and is up 37% year-to-date.
With inflation and the rising price of everything in today's society it is not a shock to me that lumber prices are through the roof for lack of a better term. I had never associated the housing market with the price of wood though I suppose for the non theater person that is most likely what large quantities of wood are used for. I grew up riding horses and my friends still are equestrian and own horses. This means I have also been accurately aware of the price of Hay for the past couple years. Much like wood the price of hay has also been crazy high going into 202. I feel like the increased price of wood should be made common knowledge in the theater world as it is something technical directors, production managers and scenic designers need to be aware of as things might now take more budget passes going into 2023.
I never really thought about it before, but fluctuating lumber prices would have a huge effect on the theatre creation process. If lumber prices go up after a show has already been budgeted, it could be really disastrous. However, a couple things could be done. The scenic designer could simplify the design, but that would mean they would have to sacrifice parts of their design, potentially shaking things up for the lighting designer. The shop could try to build the original design but with cheaper or less wood. However, this would really compromise the stability of the set, and is really unsafe if the set is one which the actors walk on. The shop or designer could ask the budgeting team to allocate them more money, but that would cut into other departments’ funds when they have already started working. None of the options are great, and realistically, it would probably be a mix of all 3. That is what theatre is all about I guess, thinking on your toes and being able to adapt to any situation.
A lot of people do not realize how much the housing market affects scenic building for theater, mostly because they never have to think about it. The fact that lumber prices are going up again is not the greatest. Because that means that unless a theater’s budget is going up, which let’s face it that is not happening for most theaters, then the amount of materials that they can buy for their sets is going down. This means smaller sets, unless they have a good stock of already built platforms, flats, etc. It is just interesting to see how many different industries have an impact on the theater industry. It was really interesting, during the pandemic, to see how the prices for lumber and sheet goods and such were changing and to see the difference of wood prices before and after covid hit. I think this is something that is important to keep an eye on.
I feel like this is something that a LOT of people don’t think about, and why would they? It is definitely odd that the housing market can determine what a show costs to produce. It is also interesting how prices can change so suddenly – how one week plywood and lumber can cost one thing, and the next week the price has risen drastically. This affected me just around a year ago – I budgeted a show prior to the omicron outbreak, and then the show was built just a month after that began and then suddenly my show was out of budget due to lumber costs rising. I do hope that costs kind of stay stagnant for a bit – it has been so interesting to have been working on shows throughout the past several years and knowing what a $500 scenic budget could afford five years ago and what a $500 scenic budget can afford you now. (Of course that depends on the designer and creativity and what is done with that money, but I’m talking about how much lumber can your show really afford?).
4 comments:
With inflation and the rising price of everything in today's society it is not a shock to me that lumber prices are through the roof for lack of a better term. I had never associated the housing market with the price of wood though I suppose for the non theater person that is most likely what large quantities of wood are used for. I grew up riding horses and my friends still are equestrian and own horses. This means I have also been accurately aware of the price of Hay for the past couple years. Much like wood the price of hay has also been crazy high going into 202. I feel like the increased price of wood should be made common knowledge in the theater world as it is something technical directors, production managers and scenic designers need to be aware of as things might now take more budget passes going into 2023.
Theo
I never really thought about it before, but fluctuating lumber prices would have a huge effect on the theatre creation process. If lumber prices go up after a show has already been budgeted, it could be really disastrous. However, a couple things could be done. The scenic designer could simplify the design, but that would mean they would have to sacrifice parts of their design, potentially shaking things up for the lighting designer. The shop could try to build the original design but with cheaper or less wood. However, this would really compromise the stability of the set, and is really unsafe if the set is one which the actors walk on. The shop or designer could ask the budgeting team to allocate them more money, but that would cut into other departments’ funds when they have already started working. None of the options are great, and realistically, it would probably be a mix of all 3. That is what theatre is all about I guess, thinking on your toes and being able to adapt to any situation.
A lot of people do not realize how much the housing market affects scenic building for theater, mostly because they never have to think about it. The fact that lumber prices are going up again is not the greatest. Because that means that unless a theater’s budget is going up, which let’s face it that is not happening for most theaters, then the amount of materials that they can buy for their sets is going down. This means smaller sets, unless they have a good stock of already built platforms, flats, etc. It is just interesting to see how many different industries have an impact on the theater industry. It was really interesting, during the pandemic, to see how the prices for lumber and sheet goods and such were changing and to see the difference of wood prices before and after covid hit. I think this is something that is important to keep an eye on.
I feel like this is something that a LOT of people don’t think about, and why would they? It is definitely odd that the housing market can determine what a show costs to produce. It is also interesting how prices can change so suddenly – how one week plywood and lumber can cost one thing, and the next week the price has risen drastically. This affected me just around a year ago – I budgeted a show prior to the omicron outbreak, and then the show was built just a month after that began and then suddenly my show was out of budget due to lumber costs rising. I do hope that costs kind of stay stagnant for a bit – it has been so interesting to have been working on shows throughout the past several years and knowing what a $500 scenic budget could afford five years ago and what a $500 scenic budget can afford you now. (Of course that depends on the designer and creativity and what is done with that money, but I’m talking about how much lumber can your show really afford?).
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