Local theater groups battle financial crunch
By KEVIN P. CRAVER - kcraver@nwherald.com
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| Brendan Gaughan does push-ups on the ground as a group of auditioners for the play "Leading Ladies" at Woodstock Opera House participate in a warm-up exercise. (Nick Dentamaro – ndentamaro@nwherald.com) |
The economy could mean that the show might not go on for Woodstock’s TownSquare Players Inc. theater group.
And although all the world is a stage, the Riverview Theatre Company and Theater Undreground narrowly avoided losing theirs before Richmond balked at temporarily closing Memorial Hall as a cost-saving measure.
Household entertainment budgets have shrunk with the economy, and although Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke projected Tuesday that the recession is “very likely over,” he warned that a full recovery would be long way away, especially with an unemployment rate pushing 10 percent.
That means trouble for the TownSquare Players, who have been around for 41 years, President Paul Lockwood said.
“Unless we find a way to significantly reduce our expenses or significantly increase donations and ticket sales, we could be losing about $10,000 of money we can ill afford to lose,” Lockwood said. “We have a limited amount of savings, and if were to take that kind of a hit, I can’t promise that we will be around for a 42nd or 43rd year. It’s pretty tough.”
Economic woes have hit live theater great and small. Crain’s New York Business reported Monday that Broadway theater attendance this summer dropped 9.3 percent from last summer. That same day, the venerable Apple Tree Theatre in Highland Park abruptly closed its doors after 26 years, citing finances.
The National Endowment for the Arts has seen an increase in the number of theater groups asking for funding, said Carol Lanoux Lee, the agency’s acting director for theater. A 2008 analysis by the Theatre Communications Group, which promotes nonprofit theater, estimated that half of the 1,919 theater groups with federal tax-exempt status ended 2008 in the red.
“We as a funder are being approached by more and more of them, and I think part of that has to do with the economy,” Lee said.
But while a deep and painful recession is undoubtedly a significant factor, another could be supply and demand. A December 2008 NEA report revealed that the number of theater companies doubled between 1990 and 2005 to just under 2,000, while the number of adults who attend nonmusical shows dropped 4 percentage points to 9.4 percent. The number of adults who attend musicals has stayed steady but remained flat compared with population increase.
In an ironic twist, the economic downturn gave birth to the Riverview Theatre Company in Richmond, which is in its third season. President Angie Kells decided to pursue her dream to run a theater company when she lost her clerical job. Her first show, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” took place in a church basement before the company could afford to become a resident company at Memorial Hall.
Riverview is faring the financial storm by staying small and shunning productions that would be popular but expensive, Kells said. The company got tax-exempt status earlier this summer, which widens its fundraising and donation options. Its latest production, “The Woman in Black,” begins a six-night run Oct. 2.
“Our goal has always been to pick shows people want to do, that people want to see, and doing it in the most economic way possible. That’s the way we’ve survived,” Kells said.
Lockwood said TownSquare plans a blitz to let advertisers, donors and residents know about what community theater has to offer, and what the community will lose without it. The Theatre Support Group analysis concluded that nonprofit theater pumped $1.8 billion into local economies in 2008.
“I think to a large degree it’s the economy, but also there’s a reluctance from some people in the community to see local theater because they think, ‘I should save up my money to go see a big show in downtown Chicago, and that will be my one theater experience of the year,’” Lockwood said.
Theater groups nationwide are working to increase their customer base by appealing to younger audiences, Lee said. The average age of adults attending nonmusical shows has increased from 39 in 1982 to 47 as of last year, according to NEA Research Director Sunil Iyengar.
Crystal Lake resident Dick Foertsch said that the theater tended to appeal to older audiences as he waited at Woodstock Opera House to audition for TownSquare’s upcoming comedy, “Leading Ladies.”
“I think the shows we do at the Opera House appeal to middle- to older-age people in large part,” Foertsch said. “This is the thing they fall back on now because there’s so much garbage out there.”
