An Interview With a 17-Year-Old Theater Accountant

by Dan Barker

Rascal Arts is a teen-run theatrical production company founded by 10 graduates of Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School Class of 2015. They soon will stage their first independent production, The Tangibles, an original play written by ensemble member India Kotis.

These youngsters mean business. So much so that one of their performers, Margaret Leisenheimer, also serves as the company’s accountant. I recently had the opportunity to ask this bright young woman about her life, her strange dual affinity for acting and accounting, and her future.

DB: Hello Margaret Leisenheimer! Do you think you could tell me your entire life story in a few sentences. You know, bring us all up to speed.

ML: Sure thing! I have lived in Maspeth, Queens since I was born. I went to a Catholic elementary school near my house called St. Stanislaus Kostka. When I was in about the seventh grade, my school started an after-school theater program, which was when I really fell in love with acting. One day in eighth grade during the high school application process, my teacher asked if anyone wanted to audition for LaGuardia High School, a public high school in Manhattan specializing in teaching visual and performing arts. I decided right then and there that acting was something I wanted to pursue, so I signed up, auditioned, and the rest is history!

During my time in high school, I was diagnosed with an Arnold Chiari malformation, which is a brain deformity where the cerebellar tonsils herniate out of the hole at the base of the skull, and scoliosis, the curvature of the spine. I needed two surgeries to correct them which was pretty scary at first, but then an organization called The American Syringomyelia & Chiari Alliance Project (boy is that a mouthful) reached out. I started working with them and organizing fundraising walks which is how I got my start with organization and fundraising. So when I was approached about Rascal Arts, I knew that this was something I could do to help us out a bit.

That is much longer than a few sentences, sorry about that.

Not at all! So many questions now!

Yay!

When your drama teacher introduced the idea of auditioning for high school, had you known about LaGuardia? It sounds like it was kind of a casual thing, but I know getting into one high school or another in New York can be anything but casual.

My school was really small, so we didn’t really have a drama teacher or a guidance counselor. It was just one teacher for about 30 kids, and we had one day where our teacher asked who wanted to audition for performing arts high schools. My cousin who had worked at LaGuardia as a temporary guidance counselor had suggested LaG to me because she had seen how much I loved theater, and she always spoke about how much she loved it there and how nice all of the kids were. I had done some research before I raised my hand to audition, but I really had no idea what to expect. I practiced my monologues at home, and hoped for the best at my audition.

Honestly, I had always planned to go to a Catholic high school, and everything was set for that path. But when I got accepted into LaG I just couldn’t pass up an opportunity like that.

LaGuardia is public, so in theory, you get there and matriculate based on your talent alone? Whereas I suppose you’d have to pay to go to a Catholic school.

Yup. It was free to go to LaG. You get in based on talent and academics. Catholic school would have cost around $10,000 a year.

Tell me about the family dynamic of making that kind of decision. Were your parents supportive? Did you have to sell them on the idea of preparing to become a professional artist?

My parents were extremely supportive. They always knew I wanted to be an actor. At first, they were a little unsure of me going to a performing arts high school and traveling to Manhattan every day on my own, but they eventually grew to accept my decision. They ultimately wanted me to make the decision in where I ended up.

What do your parents do?

My dad is a steamfitter, and my mom works as a court assistant and an accountant.

Siblings?

I have an older brother who majored in Economics at SUNY Oneonta. He is now working in compliance in NYC.

When did you begin to realize you were dealing with some medical anomalies?

Right before my sophomore year began, my back started to hurt me. My mom noticed that it looked a bit curved, so I went to the doctor who sent me to see a spine surgeon at Mount Sinai. He told me I needed to get surgery because my curvature was around 46 degrees. I needed to do a full body MRI before they could do anything. They called me in about two days afterwards and told me I had an Arnold Chiari malformation which caused a cyst of spinal fluid to form in my spinal tube which pushed up against the bone which caused scoliosis. Who knew?

You said it was scary at first. I’ve heard it said we fear what we don’t understand. You’ve come to find a community, or, I guess ASAP found you? What have you learned about what’s going on in your body and how other patients and this and possibly other institutions are working on this kind of thing?

I was scared because I didn’t know what a Chiari malformation was or knew anyone that had it, but during my recovery from brain surgery I received a letter from ASAP talking about how they felt the same way. It was just the fact that I knew that other people had experienced what I was going through and made it through that made me feel better. When I had recovered, I joined ASAP, and I wanted to start fundraising right away, because I knew that even though I was feeling better, a lot of other people weren’t. At my first fundraising walk, I raised over $5,000, which meant I was able to attend their annual conference. I would have been able to attend their conference had I not raised $5,000, but I was able to go for free since I raised that amount. I met a lot of people with Chiari and its associated illnesses, and it was really inspiring to see people coming together to learn more about what they were going through and how medicine is improving.

At the conference I met lead doctors in Chiari malformation research and surgery, and learned how the technology to detect Chiari malformations is improving. There’s a lot of work done with MRIs, and the surgeries have improved vastly. In the past doctors would remove a large portion of the back of the skull and place some type of plate there. Now, like in my case, they’ve realized the deformity is really in the size of the hole at the base of the skull, so they just remove a small portion from that area to make the hole a bit bigger, so your brain can have more space.

How do you explain your fundraising success? Pure passion? Big support system? have you found you have innate or learned skills in this area?

It really has to do with having a great support system, and making sure to get your message out there. I would post the link to my fundraising page on Facebook nearly every week, and, as the event got closer, every day. I made sure to talk to local business owners if they wanted to become sponsors, and whenever I saw my friends or family I would remind them of my walk that was coming up and tell them how they could donate. As far as monetary donations, it mainly comes from family and friends. We don’t have a set number as to what we ask from people to donate, we just ask if they could give whatever they can.

People donate skills, time, and space as well. We had our director’s father, who is a photographer, volunteer to take promotional photos for us. Our benefit space was organized through our social media manager’s dad. Our production manager’s friend designed our poster.

A lot of what I learned came from trial and error. The greatest lesson I learned was that you should never be nervous to ask someone to donate to your cause.

That’s an incredibly useful attitude to have cultivated and to understand at such a young age. I hope you always feel that way. How does that fearlessness about asking for help, financially or otherwise, translate to a creative production? Is it harder to ask for money when it’s not about life and/or limb, but about truth and beauty?

That’s a really good question. I would say it’s about equal. I think the power lies in asking the question of whether someone would like to donate. All you can do is tell people what you’re raising money for, and if they feel compelled to donate, they will.

With Rascal Arts, we decided to go with a benefit which helped raise a lot of money for us, because we were able to give something back to our donors. In return for them buying a ticket, they were able to see some people perform, and we arranged for Mark Hollman and Greg Kotis, the writers of Urinetown, do a bit of a talk-back. The benefit was facilitated by our production manager, Leilah Rosen. She and I would talk a lot about fundraising opportunities and setting ticket prices and choosing the space. Rose Stoller, head of our social media presence, was really instrumental in getting the word out about the event.

A true team effort! As the team’s accountant, what does your day-to-day look like? What did you do today, for example?

My day was pretty good. In the morning, I checked our budget and our checking account balance to make sure all our numbers added up, and then I left for rehearsal. This rehearsal mainly focused on re-blocking some scenes, and then running it through. During our break from rehearsing the show, I sat down with our PR representative and assistant stage manager, Paige Simunovich, who talked to me about booking the space and double checked to see that we had enough funds to cover it before we solidified anything. Then I sat down with Leilah and discussed how much specific props would cost and if we could swing them. All of the numbers added up, and the show is ready to roll. After that, we ran the show until about 8:00pm and then sat down for our director, Lily Berman, to give us notes.

Let’s talk numbers! What’s the production’s budget? How much were the props and space? What other expenses do you have? What don’t you pay for?

The production’s budget at the moment is $3,000, which includes a cushion for any unforeseen expenses Rascal Arts may face. The space costs $1,602. This is still under what I originally budgeted the space to be, which was $1656. Props cost us approximately $190.

We didn’t spend anything on the set because all of it was donated from various sources (which is awesome!). We haven’t spent any money on costumes or little items we would all have in our homes like cups, plates, and utensils.

Did you learn how to budget in school? At ASAP? From your number-crunching mother and brother?

The company and I had a lot of help from a theater company called Young Gotham Arts that came from LaG a few years ago. They were really great about telling us how to format a budget where we could cut it down, and how to find items that wouldn’t break the bank. Also, Lily knew a woman who had worked as a theater accountant, who taught me about what my job really is and where I fit in the production scheme of things. Having advice from people that went through it before was really helpful, and made things a lot easier down the road.

In one of our drama classes in school called Career and Financial Management, we were given a mock budget and told to fill it in based on our annual salary which was about $27,000 (the average actor’s yearly income after taxes). I really learned how to budget and limit spending from this, which now comes in very handy.

At ASAP, I learned how to sell things and account for all of the money that was handed to me in person. It made me more responsible, and definitely more accountable which is super important as a theater accountant.

My mom really helped me out a lot with how budgeting and accounting works. She would answer any questions I had, and taught me how to manage a checking account.

Tell me about The Tangibles.

The words of the playwright herself, the great India Kotis:

When 18-year-old Raina’s high school sweetheart breaks up with her on the very night they were going to consummate their relationship, she finds herself alone in her family’s empty apartment with a broken heart. She invites her nearest and dearest over to commiserate, but, as it turns out, they are all suffering from their own disappointments. “The Tangibles” is about saying goodbye to the people you love without realizing that’s what you’re doing, tying up loose ends you didn’t know were there, and growing up in the blink of an eye.

How many people are on the cast and crew?

The cast is seven people, while the crew (including our lovely director, Lily) is five.

Are you in the cast as well as the accountant?

I play Zoe who is disliked by pretty much everyone at the party due to some history she has with another character in the play called Willow. Zoe’s also pretty mean herself and not afraid to say what’s on her mind.

Villains are the most fun!

I think so too!

I wonder if India had costume budgets in mind when she concocted her dramatic premise. The story sounds conveniently contemporary. Actually, contemporary is a bad word. It sounds timeless is what!

It really is a timeless piece, and our budget thanks India for that every day.

India, Leilah, Lily, Rose, Paige, Margaret… All you guys are girls! Is that on purpose?

I think it just sort of fell together that way. Most of us are. Only our lighting designer and two of our actors are boys.

I just want to make sure you have an opportunity to declare a feminist agenda if you’d like, but I guess it’s just that you’re a bunch of professional pals doing your jobs.

Yup! Although feminism is something we all support.

When’s the show? How much are tickets, and how many have you sold?

The show runs July 16 through July 19 at 440 Studios near Astor Place. Performances start at 7:30 p.m. every night. Tickets are $20 for adults and $15 for students. It’s a thirty seat house. We sold out by Tuesday morning.

After you wrap, what’s next for you and for Rascal Arts?

Rascal Arts plans to do another season next year, and we have put aside some funds for that.

As far as what’s next for me, I plan to audition a bit during the rest of the summer, take driver’s ed, and then start school at Binghamton University in the fall. I don’t quite know what I want to major in just yet, but I certainly do like accounting, so we’ll see.

That sounds more reasonable and level-headed than I ever remember being as a young adult, let alone what I’d expect from a Laguardia graduate. You’re not going to bust out One Night Only and live lofty stardom dreams or die trying?

Haha. That’s plan A after college.

Why do you like accounting? I mean, you really like it, don’t you? I think that’s something that might baffle people.

I really like how structured it is and how it makes you think. It’s not so much about math, it’s about finding the appropriate place to put a number. It’s sort of like solving a puzzle. Each amount of money is it’s own little piece and once you place them all together and they fit your budget, it’s like you’ve solved the puzzle.

I love that feeling! Maybe I’m in the wrong line of work. Alright Margaret, we have talked a lot. I’ll leave you to your money puzzles and villainy. Break a Leg!

Sounds good. Thank you so much for speaking with me. This was really fun!

Dan Barker is a storyteller living in Manhattan.

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