What’s a Theatre Company to Do When the Economy Crashes?

This special guest post was written by Pamela Rosen, a Silicon Valley-based business writer who moonlights in the theatre as an actor, director, and acting coach.

As we begin to emerge from the “great recession,” Bay Area theatre has a vastly different landscape than it did during the boom years. Well-established, respected companies have disappeared —victims, it would seem, of the terrible economy. Yet, there are plenty of theatre companies in the Bay Area that flourished during the recession. It makes me wonder: how did the successful ones do it? What caused others with solid audience bases to fail? And most importantly, what can struggling theatres do now to shore up their futures?

Keeping it real in good times

When times are good, it’s easy for theatre companies to breathe easy and focus only on producing great shows. But so many companies plan from year to year and not for the future. When ticket sales are good enough to keep a company afloat, who wants to go out and raise money? It’s hard to convince a Board of Directors to work even harder to raise cash when money is flowing in from the box office.

In 2008, our economy fell apart quickly, and not many even came close to predicting how severe the recession would be. Many theatre companies reacted by putting on traditionally crowd-pleasing shows they thought would draw big audiences. But splashy, family-oriented productions of Oklahoma and Annie couldn’t bring in the family if the tickets were priced out of the family’s budget. Incomes fell in 2008—but production costs didn’t. Without a long-term plan or a contingency in place, companies were simply not agile enough to adjust budgets or ticket prices.

One producer at the now-defunct Alameda Civic Light Opera (ACLO) explains, “We looked out into the audience during Annie and saw half-filled houses. Meanwhile, families were walking away from the box office after seeing the ticket prices, carrying crying little girls. It’s not like the audience wasn’t there, but the shows weren’t affordable anymore.”

With dramatic scenes like that, it’s unlikely ACLO would be have been able to recoup their losses with last-minute fundraising. The window of opportunity had closed. The board was too busy trying to pay the bills and keep the doors open and couldn’t take on the additional, now more difficult task of fundraising.

“The loss of ACLO is a huge void in the community,” says ACLO director Cary Litchford. “I miss the company terribly and they had a lot of heart and soul.”

Building Relationships and Raising Funds

Theatre companies fare much better if they have long-term 3-5 year plans and Boards of Directors with members who understand that their individual and group responsibility is first and foremost fundraising and community outreach. The Willows Theatre Company in Concord closed its doors in November of 2009 and moved operations to its smaller cabaret house in Martinez, but is now roaring back. How did they manage it? With the company’s closure, the surrounding businesses and restaurants also suffered a drop in business. The Willows had developed such close relationships with those businesses that the theatre had become indispensible. An outcry from those businesses, The Willows’ key stakeholders, enabled The Willows to reorganize and return. Because The Willows had been making money putting on smaller, lower cost shows during the depths of the recession, they were ready to move back in and operate again in two venues, each feeding the other. Today, they have a new artistic director and a solid five-year plan.

One for the money, two for the show

An upstart non-profit company in San Leandro, Curtain Call Performing Arts, arose as a direct result of the recession, with a goal to provide affordable theatre to everyone regardless of the state of the economy. To do this, the Board created a unique charter: raise the all the funds to mount a show before a production begins, then charge no more than $12 a ticket. They’ve mounted three productions this way, and even offered $1 tickets to children with a paid adult during a specified matinee.

Though this method currently makes it impossible to schedule production dates in much in advance, it’s an interesting model. The board is forced to continually innovate with creative fund raising and volunteer coordination. They’ve come up with clever ideas. “Our concert choir, Cantare, is one hundred percent volunteer operated,” says founding member Andrea Gorham. “Its sole purpose is to raise funds. CCPA partners with other nonprofit art groups in San Leandro to put on benefit concerts featuring Cantare.” Curtain Call partners with other arts organizations to share the profits and the audience. They’ve built an impressive audience base, and, through the choir, a large pool of volunteers.

Though it’s not a model that many companies will likely embrace, other companies could take a page from Curtain Call’s book. They might also learn a lesson from The Willows, which stayed in business in the middle of a recession by mounting smaller, less expensive productions and maintaining strong relationships with external stakeholders who revived The Willows' mainstage.

All over the Bay Area, theatre companies are still struggling. Those with a long term plan, an understanding that the purpose of a board of directors is to raise money and develop external relationships, that also have the flexibility to scale productions costs to swing with a volatile economy, will flourish. We’re not out of this yet. For some companies, it’s too late. But there’s still a chance for others to mobilize and heed the lessons of the last three years. What steps has your company taken to weather the economic downturn?

Self-Producing: A Case Study

When’s the last time you saw the phrase “all remaining performances are completely sold out”? It’s everyone’s dream but how often is it a reality? A few weeks ago, I was among those that got to see a performance in the sold-out run of Becoming Julia Morgan at the Berkeley City Club (it closed January 9th). I was struck by the steady stream of audience members filing in (and those turned away) and was even more inspired by the fact that Becoming Julia Morgan is a self-produced project. I checked in with Belinda Taylor, the playwright, and producer Sabrina Klein to see how the experience of self-producing played out.

Former Theatre Bay Area (then Callboard) editor-in-chief Belinda Taylor finished her first play a few years ago after being commissioned by Klein (who at the time was the executive director of the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts and former executive director of Theatre Bay Area. Becoming Julia Morgan, a play investigating the life and legacy of the architectural legend, had an award-winning, sold-out run in Sacramento in 2006. The next step seemed obvious: mount a Bay Area production. But Taylor found it a bit harder for the idea to gain traction than she had anticipated, especially since Klein had since left JMCA. So what to do? Klein came on as producer and Barbara Oliver (legendary director and a founder of Aurora Theatre) joined up as director, and the nucleus of a huge self-producing project began. Klein says, “It’s not like we said ‘Hey, let’s produce the play on our own!’ It was more, ‘Ok, no one else believes in this play as much as we do, so let’s make it happen on our own.”

Once the core group was established, the planning began in earnest. Luckily, this trio of esteemed professionals had varied experiences and a network of resources to tap into. A wide array of new contacts became interested in the show and supported the road to production. Playwrights Foundation became the fiscal sponsor. After a nudge from a colleague, Taylor found a couple who owned a Julia Morgan home and was willing to offer it up as a venue for a fundraiser. Various vendors contributed wine, food and other items for a silent auction at the fundraiser. Add to that list the performers who donated their time to the fundraiser in order to give attendees a preview of the show, and this first fundraiser raised about half of what was needed to get the show going. A second fundraiser at a private residence raised the remainder. After securing pro bono PR work from Taylor’s colleague Gary Carr of Rising Moon Marketing; PR, things really started moving. Peets Coffee in Berkeley came on board and store manager Scott Soo-Hoo (of the Vine Street location in Berkeley) even created a “Julia Morgan Roast” for the run of the play. Taylor says, “My friends in Bay Area theatre and in Bay Area media were definitely an added bonus.”

Klein refers to a number of benefits of self-producing: “We were not tied to any mission outside this one show. We could brand ourselves strictly as experts on Julia Morgan and as three women who love architecture, history and Julia Morgan’s work, giving us a common bond with a lot of non-theatre people. We had no reputation to prove or to overcome (the flip side of having no reputation to build on!), which can be a positive. We were incredibly agile, responding to opportunities as they came up. Many small companies are like that, but we really felt it was a strength in our case too.”

Her biggest recommendations for the self-producer: Ask for advice and build on existing resources. In this case, what the team lacked in both infrastructure and access to a deep rolodex was offset by the expertise of those in the team members' inner circle. The members relied on their fiscal agent, Playwrights Foundation (to help with insurance, Actors' Equity and liability issues), CentralWorks (to help them understand what it would take to produce and perform in the space), neighboring theatre Shotgun Players (who provided a number of referrals and recommendations for the creative and support team) and, of course, Barbara Oliver (whose reputation helped bring quality designers into the mix). And you never know where someone in your circle will lead you. For example, Anne Smith got an invitation for the first fundraiser in March (the show opened in December) and instantly invited the team to appear at the Commonwealth Club in August. About 50 people who love Julia Morgan (or architecture, or historical female role models, or some combination of the three) showed up, including four who ended up as donors and one who ended up as a volunteer and who then made even more connections for the production in the world of architecture.

Klein closes her advice with a note that a great ticketing service matters. In this case, the Julia Morgan team used a combination of Brown Paper Tickets and, yes, Theatre Bay Area’s own TIX (www.tixbayarea.org).

Aside from logistics, were Klein and Taylor pleased with the final results? "It was an experience like no other," says Taylor of watching her play performed at the final preview. "Everything came together: costumes, lights, sound, scenery, props, actors. My play was on its feet. I was somewhere on cloud 9. Dazzled. Astonished. Grateful.”

Have you ever self-produced? If so, what was the experience like for you? Have you ever wanted to self-produce? What’s holding you back?