Purpose
Theater in Asylum believes transparency enables the sharing of power and responsibility. We commit to being open with how company decisions are made and money is spent. Below please find an overview of our finances in 2025. This is also on our website’s transparency page, a page we launched in 2021 as a way to showcase our finances and decision-making.

Note: This is a financial summary of our work in 2025. For a non-financial review, please see our 2025 Year in Review.

Big Picture Takeaways of Theater in Asylum’s 2025 Finances

• We projected to spend $20,578, but actually spent $17,208.
• We projected to earn $23,585, but we actually earned $28,799.
• We netted a profit of $11,591.

We did really well this year! TIA tends to have two budget modes: production years and development years. 2025 was a development year, with multiple workshops (developing Faust Syndrome), Cold Readings, and a cabaret. 2026 will be a production year and we are budgeted to spend more than we earn next year, so we are grateful to have a surplus this year. 

2025 Major Projects & Expenses

• Book Club: We held one book club in 2025, reading Devil’s Contract by Ed Simon. We always offer to purchase the book for anyone who needs help acquiring it. This year no one requested a book, and therefore this program cost $0.
• Faust Syndrome Workshops: In March, we held a dinner party to read the first full draft of Faust Syndrome, with all readers volunteering. This was in Paul’s apartment, incurring no space or production costs. In June, we held a script workshop that cost $700. The space was donated and no production costs were incurred. In August, we held a staging workshop that cost $1,908. This covered  space, production, and hospitality. There was no ticket revenue.
• The 7 Deadly Sins Cabaret: This night of new works by both Theater in Asylum and four invited lead artists cost $4,592.* $3,300 was spent on people**, $366 on space, and $926 on production costs. Artist stipends were $150 each. Tickets were sold on a sliding scale, $0-$35. We brought in $556 in ticket sales. We won a grant from the Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC) for $3,500 and also from the Puffin Foundation for $3,000 to use towards the  cabaret. All in all, this cabaret netted $1,524. If we did not have any funding outside of ticket revenue with an audience of 60 people, we would have had to charge $77 per ticket. Instead, with the support of BAC, and Puffin, we are proud to have offered tickets on a sliding scale, including free tickets available to anyone who needed one. 37 attendees opted for a free ticket.
  
• Cold Readings: We hosted seven readings this year with about 70 people attending, averaging 10 people per reading. The readings were all hybrid, held in-person and online. Six of the readings were facilitated by Theater in Asylum’s annual staff, and one was facilitated by a guest facilitator, who was paid a $75 stipend. We also hired a pianist for our one musical reading whom we also paid a $75 stipend..*** For in-person attendees, light refreshments were  provided, which cost  $117. We also had $40.18 in supplies and materials. The in-person space for the readings was entirely donated this year, saving approximately $540. The total cost of this program was $307. Because we direct attendees to donate to other groups doing good work (and not to TIA), the revenue for this program was $0.
• Admin & Subscriptions: We have a number of admin costs, including monthly subscriptions. Some of these costs include: ART/NY ($50/year), Fractured Atlas ($20/month), Zoom ($16/month until we cancelled it in May), Google ($45/month), Quickbooks ($41/month), Web Hosting ($75, we pay on multi-year cycles), CubeSmart Storage ($25/month), Brass Taxes & our tax filing ($720 this year), Philadelphia Insurance ($855), printing ($383), mailing ($172), general supplies ($76).
• Development: We paid a $600 fee to the IRS this year to review our 501c3 application. While we submitted this fee in June 2025, as of January 2026, our application has still not been assigned to an IRS staff member. Also with development this year, we tithed a portion of our tickets ($30) to the Indie Theatre Fund.

*We pay our 4-person annual team a stipend for all their work with the company. They then do not receive project stipends, including for their work on The 7 Deadly Sins Cabaret. We used grant money to pay these admin stipends during the portion of the year they worked on this cabaret. We also pulled the annual insurance cost ($855) into the Cabaret budget as well. When those stipends and insurance costs are pulled into the Cabaret budget, the total cost of the Cabaret is $6,881.

**This figure does not include TIA annual team stipends, which are included in our annual budget.

***TIA annual team  are not paid for facilitating Cold Readings. Instead, they receive a stipend for all their work with TIA during the year.

How We Paid People in 2025
General Note: All people who work for Theater in Asylum are contractors. Theater in Asylum has no employees. 

Annual Team
The annually contracted team members  listed below each received $100/month and did not receive project stipends.

• PR & Marketing Manager (1)

The annually contracted team members listed below each received $1,200/year and did not receive project stipends.

• Artistic Directors (2)
• Managing Director (1)

Because of Theater in Asylum’s current legal framework, payment to Paul, Katie, and Kathryn (the three partners of the LLC) are paid the company’s “profit.” Their pay, legally, is designated as “profit disbursement.” Although not legally required, all profits beyond the $100/month ($1,200 total each)  administrative stipend amount were re-invested into the company.

The 7 Deadly Sins Cabaret 

• Collaborators (22): $150 stipends. 
• This cabaret was made possible with project-specific grants from the Brooklyn Arts Council and the Puffin Foundation. Had we not won either of these grants, we were not planning to have this cabaret.

Cold Readings

• Guest facilitators (1): $75 per facilitation
• Guest Pianist (1): $75
• Readers and listeners are welcomed on a volunteer basis.

Faust Syndrome Workshops

• March reading: all volunteer
• June script workshop: 6 full stipends ($100) + 2 half stipends ($50)
• August staging workshop: 5 full stipends ($300) + one photographer stipend ($50)

Grants
We had a good year with grants!

This past year we applied to:

• BAC’s Brooklyn Arts Fund (up to $5,000): We won a grant for $3,500.
• ART/NY’s Small Theaters Grant ($5,000-$10,000 across 2 years): We lost this grant, but we made it into tthe final round which earned us a $250 stipend. 
• The Puffin Foundation (variable grant sizes): We won this grant for $2,000.

Learnings and observations for future grant applications:

• We continue to see that we are significantly more successful  at winning grants for our cabarets (where funds are spread thinly across more artists) than we are for our productions (where funds are invested deeper across fewer artists). With The 7 Deadly Sins Cabaret, we won two project specific grants, one from the Puffin Foundation and one from the community-adjudicated Brooklyn Arts Council Brooklyn Arts Fund. For 2026, we again are trying to win funding for a single production. Fingers crossed!
  

Fundraising

• Our 2025 fundraiser (running August-September) yielded $18,513 before fees and $16,744 after fees. This was 120% of our $15,000 goal. There were 96 donors with an average donation of $183 and a median donation of $108. This fundraiser celebrated our 15th anniversary.
• General support donations throughout the year yielded $5,689 after fees. There were 57 donors with an average donation of $108 and a median donation of $27. This general support fund includes three superstar monthly donors.

We are still resetting from having skipped our typical  end-of-year fundraiser in 2024. In 2025, we held a fundraiser in August-September, which did really well and raised $16,744 after fees. We plan to hold two fundraisers in 2026: the first being in late spring focusing on Faust Syndrome, the second being a smaller end-of-year fundraiser. Then, beginning in 2027, we hope to resume a regular cadence of fundraising at the end of each year. The change in the fundraising timeline in 2024 was tied to our pursuit of becoming a 501c3. Once we learned from the IRS that any application received after February 2025 has still yet to be assigned for review, we determined we needed to move forward with a fundraiser not on our regular cadence. Our application was submitted in June 2025.

Ticketing
60 people attended The 7 Deadly Sins Cabaret in person, with tickets on a sliding scale from $0-$35.

• 4 people paid the “Hero” price at $35/ticket.
• 12 people paid the “General” price at $25/ticket.
  
• 7 people paid the “Student/Artist/Low-income” price at $15/ticket.
• 37 people paid $0 in advance and donated what they could at the door.

Keeping a free ticket option available at every event is a priority for us. We do not want cost to be a barrier to seeing our work. Free tickets are obtainable to anyone who needs one, no questions asked. 

Revenue Take-Away
Our Community of Donors are what makes our work financially possibleIndividual donations are by far our biggest income-source (77.9%). We are incredibly lucky that this is even possible, as we have a community that is both generous and able to donate a combined $22,434. Ticketing accounted for just 1.9% of our income and grants accounted for 19.3% of our income this year. 

We are deeply grateful to have all these avenues of financial support, and we acknowledge and want to praise two incredible institutions without whom we would not be able to make our work. They have helped us year after year.

The Episcopal Actors’ Guild (EAG), where Paul works, provides us free rehearsal space as a perk of Paul’s employment. This saved us rehearsal costs for all our programs throughout the year. 

The Jalopy Theatre is another tremendous supporter, working with us to provide space that is within our budget. Jalopy also lends us incredible trust with their lighting system, auxiliary spaces, and ticketing.

Detailed Numbers

Looking to 2026
Major Projects

• Becoming a 501(c)3. Who knows! According to the IRS website, no new 501(c)3s have even been assigned for review since at least February 2025. We have no idea when our application will be approved, but a major overhaul of our systems will need to happen when our status is approved.
  
• Faust Syndrome. We are planning a reading series in the winter and a possible workshop in the spring, all leading to a premiere production in the fall.
  
• Cold Readings will continue, with money allocated for a few guest facilitators and a pianist for another musical reading.
  

Grants
For the upcoming fiscal year, we applied for the following grants:

• ART/NY’s Small Theaters Grant ($5,000–$10,000 across 2 years): Should hear back about this grant in February 2026.
• Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, LMCC (up to $5,000): Should hear back by March 2026.
• The Actors’ Equity Foundation grant (up to $1,000): Rolling, unclear when we will hear back.

Ticketing

• We are planning to offer tickets to Faust Syndrome on a sliding scale from $0-$45.
• $0 tickets will continue to be available to anyone who needs one, no questions asked.
• Cold Readings will continue to be free for all attendees.

2026 Payment Structure

• Annual Team: We are planning to keep our contracted, annual team stipends at $100/month($1,200 a year) for all work during the year (annual staff does not receive project stipends). The annual staff will consist of two Artistic Directors, a Managing Director, and PR & Marketing Manager. Once our 501c3 status has been approved, we plan to hire a bookkeeper. We recognize that this may not be possible at $100/month and are exploring our options. 
• Faust Syndrome development: We have $1,200 set aside for artist pay for developmental activities throughout the year. TBD how this will be divided.
  
• Faust Syndrome production: We are currently planning to pay full collaborators a $900 stipend, partial collaborators a $450 stipend (50%), and hourly labor $25/hour.
  
• Cold Readings: Facilitators will continue to receive $75 per Cold Reading facilitation. Readers and listeners will continue to be welcomed on a volunteer basis.
  

2026 Projected Spending Summary

• Admin:    $3,973
• Development:    $530
• Personnel:    $27,450
• Space:    $7,680
• Production:    $9,250
• Contingency:    $2,311
  
• Total:    $51,194

Thank you
We are so grateful to this incredible community that continues to make so much possible. Thank you for holding us accountable and always asking us to be better. More of our transparency commitments, as well as previous years’ reports, may be found on our Transparency page. We also always invite feedback. Our contact info may be found on our Community page. Thank you all for making Theater in Asylum a vibrant community and fruitful for all involved.

With gratitude, 
Paul, Katie, and Kathryn
Theater in Asylum

P.S. Please consider donating to Theater in Asylum!

Thank you to everyone who made our 15th year a success! We accomplished great deal and could not have done it without this  community. Below, we will review some of our activities of the year. You can also catch up on our crowd-sourced lists of art we loved this year (film & television, music, books, theater). If you're in a position to do so, please consider making a year-end donation to support our work in 2026. Once again, thank you!

Reflections
Research & Artistic
2025 was a busy year of development. Faust continues to be our obsession. A year ago, the piece honed in on a binary between heaven as solidarity and hell as being alone. The piece has continued to evolve to focus on violence, arrogance, and hubris. When war, genocide, and empire continue despite all our peaceful efforts to end them, what other tactics might one turn to? What spurs the resistance fighter? What spurs the violent oppressor? How does someone move to take brutal action, even if it is toward a noble cause? These questions are troubling, and continue to drive our research and development.

2025 began with the first full-length reading of the then untitled Faust project. Come summer, we dug deeper into the material with two workshops: one focused on the script, one focused on staging that incorporated puppets. Towards the end of summer, a title emerged: Faust Syndrome. We believe Faust isn’t a singular phenomenon, but a syndrome that has afflicted people and societies for millenia. Throughout the year, our Cold Readings series continued to be a lively source of inspiration. We read nine plays throughout the year, mostly based on the Faust myth.

In November, we presented a 20-minute excerpt of the piece at The 7 Deadly Sins Cabaret, alongside four other new pieces by artists in our community. TIA’s piece featured John, the first of multiple Fausts in Faust Syndrome. After having agreed to Mephistopheles's deal, John wakes from his first good night of sleep ever and is led by Mephistopheles on a tour of the original seven deadly sins, along with three newer sins. The scene ends with John encountering the new sin Callousness, which will make possible the violence John will later commit in the play. The excerpt featured beautiful puppets by Sean Devare, operated by Francine Pinheiro, and was our first foray into the medium. We are toying with the idea that people in Faustian bargains transform into puppets for the Devil (progressively more susceptible to the manipulation). The Cabaret was a great success, not just for TIA but for all the artists presenting. The feedback from the audience was thrilling, and we look forward to implementing the feedback and getting this story closer to production in 2026.

Organizational
As you surely know at this point, Theater in Asylum is moving to become a nonprofit 501(c)3. On June 29, 2025, we submitted our “1023” documentation to the IRS to make this change. Unfortunately, the IRS website has stated for five months: “If you submitted after Feb. 26, 2025: Your application has not yet been assigned. Please check back later. Don’t contact us at this time because we can’t provide a status of your application.” We are at a loss. Can it be true that no new nonprofits have been approved in almost a year? We continue to operate in our current structure and prepare for the eventual day we become a 501-c-3.

Financial
The year is almost over, and overall we had a positive year financially. We are ending in the black, with money saved up to fund next year’s production year. For Theater in Asylum, production years typically cost three to four times more than non-production years. Early next month, we will close the books on 2025 and will publish our annual transparency report. 

Looking Ahead
2026 will be a big  year for us, with our largest production yet: Faust Syndrome. We are very close to securing a venue for a Fall 2026 premiere, and plan to perform the show ,for three weeks. At some point in the year, we hope to officially become a nonprofit,  which in turn will necessitate a large administrative reorganization. There’s a lot on our plate, but we’re eager to dig in!

2025’s Major Events and Projects
FAUST SYNDROME

Another great year for Cold Readings! 

• What | This program, which gathers our community to read and discuss a published play cold (without rehearsal), aims to spur theater literacy and a confidence in speaking about theater. This year we read 7 plays, including 5 adaptations of Faust, and 1 musical. 1 reading was guest-facilitated, with 6 by TIA staff. Our oldest play was written in 1592 and our newest was from 2018.
• When | We read in January, February, March, April, May, September, and October 2025.
• Where | Most were at the Episcopal Actors’ Guild with an option to attend via Zoom.
• Who | Our Cold Readings averaged 10 attendees per reading this year.
• What We Read | This year, we continued looking at adaptations of the Faust myth with a few general plays on religious themes towards the end of the year.
• Amplifying Good Work | As always, we used our Cold Readings program to amplify the good work of other organizations. You can see all these organizations in our Giving Tuesday post here.

Book Club

• What | This year we gathered to read Ed Simon’s Devil’s Contract: The History of The Faustian Bargain as part of our larger investigation into the Faust myth. The book chronicles society’s relationship to devil’s bargains, from the first century’s Simon Magus through today’s dilemma over artificial intelligence.
• Who | We had about 10 people join us at this book club.
• When | January 8, 2025
• Where | We met on Zoom.

2025 Timeline

• January 8 - Book Club: The Devil’s Contract by Ed Simon
• January 11 - TIA Holiday Party
• January 22 - Cold Reading
• February 19 - Cold Reading
• March 19 - Cold Reading
• March 29 - First full reading of our Faust project
• April 16 - Cold Reading
• May 14 - Cold Reading
• June 17-18 - Faust script workshop
• August 4-8 - Faust staging workshop
• August 18 - Fundraiser launch
• September 24 - Cold Reading
• October 29 - Cold Reading
• November 5-16 - Faust cabaret rehearsals
• November 20 - The 7 Deadly Sins Cabaret

2025 by the Numbers

• Event attendees: approximately 320
• 2025 Donors: 118
• Paid artists: 41
• Paid full-year staff: 4
• Admin meetings: 41
• Cold Readings: 7
• Rehearsal Hours: 35
• Live performances: 1

Previous Years in Review

• 2024
• 2023
• 2022
• 2021
• 2020
• A review of our first 10 years (2010-2019)
• More about Theater in Asylum

​Thank you!

Each year, Theater in Asylum releases a list of plays, books, movies, and more that delighted us, challenged us, and changed us. Below is a crowd-sourced list of theater our community loved in 2025.

Thank you to the community who made and loved art this year! Please consider donating to Theater in Asylum so we can keep it going in 2026.

Each year, Theater in Asylum releases a list of plays, books, movies, and more that delighted us, challenged us, and changed us. Below is a crowd-sourced list of books our community loved in 2025.

Thank you to the community who made and loved art this year! Please consider donating to Theater in Asylum so we can keep it going in 2026.

Fiction

• All Fours by Miranda July
  
• The Charioteer by Mary Renault
  
• David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
  
• Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
  
• Doctor Faustus by Thomas Mann
  
• Entitlement by Rumaan Alam
  
• The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions by Larry Mitchell and Ned Asta
  
• James by Perceval Everett
  
• Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
  
• The MaddAddam Trilogy by Margaret Atwood
  
• Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar
  
• The Past Is Red by Catherynne M. Valente
  
• The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar
  
• Rouge by Mona Awad
  
• The Spirit Bares its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White
  
• Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
  
• The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jiminez
  
• Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
  
• The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett
  
• Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
  
• Trespasses by Louise Kennedy
  
• Yellowface by R.F. Kuang