The Show Must Go On
Also read: "The Organization Becomes the Art"by Anthony Chase
Live theater is among the most resilient of the arts. Its imminent death has been predicted for generations and yet, the Theater endures, benefiting from the fact that at its most basic level, theater is entirely primitive. With nothing more than an actor and someone to watch, theater can happen—in a garage, on the steps of a church, in a prison cell, or in the town square.
 |
|
Area actress Leah Russo, dancer
Kristy Schupp (as she appeared in last season’s Zooma Zooma at Studio Arena), and actor Joseph Demerly re-enact last-minute preparations before the curtain goes up. Photo by Jim Bush. |
Luckily, the theaters and other cultural organizations had warning and were able to brace for the impact, and at the eleventh hour a consortium of foundations came up with a one-time emergency allocation to make up 25 percent of the lost county funds for last year.
To be clear, not all local theaters received funding in the first place, and of those that did, some received very little. Part of the challenge in allocating government funding rests in the fact that there are so many different kinds of cultural organizations. There are museums that maintain objects and archives; then there are organizations like the zoo, which has weekly financial needs that cannot be postponed; there are cultural tourism projects like Darwin Martin House, upon which the future vitality of the region may rest. With limited funding, how do we decide among them?
When there is no money, the answer is easy. Nobody gets anything. The danger is that when you have to decide between your zoo, an orchestra, a museum, and a theater, the cultural health of the entire region suffers. Not all organizations are equally equipped to survive over the short haul, so an entity that must have an immediate and constant flow of funding for its basic survival can become the bottomless pit that drags down all the rest —more of a liability than an asset.
The twenty-five community volunteers on the Erie County Cultural Resources Advisory Board (ECCRAB), are responsible to review, evaluate, and make recommendations to the County Executive concerning annual cultural funding requests. At the moment, ECCRAB has been asked to be ready with guidelines for a possible allotment of funds for the coming year. There has been no official word of how much, how the allocation would be decided, or when, but the group is, nonetheless, beginning to talk about a process.
Ironically, Buffalo’s economic decline has stimulated the growth of theater in this region. In the 1980s, as storefronts and office spaces became vacant, theater companies, taking advantage of dirt-cheap rent prices, moved in. The theatrical impulse was further fueled by the high concentration of college and university theater programs in the region, which continued to produce high-quality performers, directors, designers, and technicians. So today we have an abundance of talent but limited operating funds.
The bottom line at most theaters, especially when external funding is tight, is, quite literally, the “bottom” line. It all boils down to that inelegant theatrical expression, “putting butts in seats.” Even Shakespeare in Delaware Park, an ostensibly “free” theater festival, depends upon large numbers of people sitting on Shakespeare Hill and making free-will contributions; a rainy summer can seriously damage the outdoor festival’s financial health. It would seem then, if a theater can’t sell enough tickets, it should go out of business, but the equation is far more complicated. As a theater grows, this income can be augmented with donations, government support, or by special packages (advertising trades, for example) or with special events. Shakespeare holds a big Elizabethan fundraising gala. The Irish Classical Theatre held a big Irish Wake as a fundraiser. Alleyway, with its mission to support new works, has a small audience but augments its income by subletting the empty space in the Greyhound bus terminal building it rents from the city for a dollar a year. Wendy’s restaurants promote Theatre of Youth on paper tray liners.
Still, the largest percentage of costs is almost always covered by box office, and a dip in box office can cause greater panic than a dip in government funding.
At MusicalFare in Snyder, the loss of $28,000 in county funding did not come as a surprise, just a disappointment.
“We moved ahead looking for funds elsewhere,” explains artistic director Randall Kramer. “We instantaneously went from a surplus to a deficit situation, when what had been promised was taken away. Foundation money came through and (State Senator) Mary Lou Rath came through for us with a one-time request.”
For Theatre of Youth, the loss of $61,632 in county funding represents an 8 percent cut. Their earned income is 70 percent of the budget, which, at $7 a ticket, is quite an accomplishment.
“We do it on volume of people,” explains managing director Robert Brunschmid. “The school time performances play at nearly 100 percent of capacity. We have room for growth on the weekend, where we only play to 65 percent or our 473 seats. We have the potential to fill 2,800 seats a week.
“A year before we lost our funding Bob Skerker of ECRAB advised us that a change was in the wind,” adds Brunschmid. “We took the heads-up seriously and prepared with a strategic financial plan.”
 |
“I often get calls about a young person who is in trouble, but who is artistically inclined,” says Bain. “They always want to put these kids in some kind of program. And yet, when money is tight, cultural funding is the first thing cut. It doesn’t make sense.”
Mike Sawicz of the Irish Classical Theatre Company explains that his theater saw the writing on the walls years ago, and has been taking steps to reduce the percentage of government funding. “We have been aware that we need to do what we can to broaden our audience,” says Sawicz. “The donor base is also dwindling as people leave this area.”
The trick is to keep advancing without losing quality.
It can be an artistically dangerous situation when boards of directors lose confidence in artistic direction based on what they see in the ledger book, rather than on what they see on the stage. Public funding, at least in part, is intended to protect theaters from the fickle nature of the box office and allow artistic risk taking. Nationally, some of the largest not-for-profit resident regional theaters are struggling with this reality. As the need to fill more seats becomes more critical, they put more and more commercial fare on their stages.
At ICTC, the choice of plays passes through many hands. There are many factors. Artistic merit is the most important. “For instance, She Stoops to Conquer [the eighteenth century restoration comedy] was the most popular show of our last season, but it cost $1,200 for dry-cleaning alone,” says Sawicz. “It was a great show and it played to full houses—more than any other show in our season, but it was also the most costly.”
 |
Studio Arena cannot ward off a loss of funding with minor measures. $10,000 in savings does little to offset a $108,000 loss of funding. The theater is also tied to certain infrastructure: its theater on Main Street and eight apartments for visiting actors.
With its $5 million dollar budget, a loss of $108,000 in county funding represented only a 2 percent dip to Studio Arena Theatre. Still, where do you find $108,000 lying around?
“Our real concern is next year,” confides Ken Neufeld, the executive director. “Our mandate requires a certain level of production and certain contractual obligations. We have seen a 17 percent staff reduction. At the same time, we have put an increased number of actors on the stage. We have been able to do that by co-producing with other theaters.”
The imminent announcement of a new artistic director for Studio Arena bodes well for a new period of energy and creativity at the theater. But the new artistic leader will still have to deal with the often-competing tug of the financial and the artistic bottom line. That’s the nature of show business.
Anthony Chase writes on theater for Artvoice and other local and national publications and can be heard on “Theater Talk” every Friday morning on WBFO.
SUBSCRIBE NOW
Back to the Table of Contents
Back to Top