Author Topic: Theatres That Have Closed--Can You Say "Emergency?"  (Read 83327 times)

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smejs

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Re: Theatres That Have Closed--Can You Say "Emergency?"
« Reply #30 on: Apr 15, 2009, 12:58 am »
Quote
... all of it does mean that are fewer work weeks out there, lower pay and more competition.

To echo Matthew, I recently turned down a summer SM job.  I was choice number 1 of 70 applicants.  And it wasn't that well publicized of a job, nor an "oo, I gotta have that one" job.  A very decent, job, don't get me wrong, but the competition is steep out there.  (And heck, if I'm gonna work outside for the summer, I think I'll river guide instead!)

lauria

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Re: Theatres That Have Closed--Can You Say "Emergency?"
« Reply #31 on: Apr 18, 2009, 12:07 am »
Good News (?)

North Shore Music Theatre has put out an update. They're now looking to raise $2 Million by the end of July to do a truncated season:

Quote
North Shore Music Theatre (NSMT) officials announced a turn-around plan today that would deliver a six-show musical theater season, along with its traditional production of A Christmas Carol and other concerts and educational programs, at nearly half the cost of previous seasons, a $4-million savings in annual expenses. The plan's success hinges on the theater's ability to raise $2 million in donations by this July to jumpstart a new business model and launch a 2009 season.

RuthNY

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Re: Theatres That Have Closed--Can You Say "Emergency?"
« Reply #32 on: May 05, 2009, 09:46 am »
Foothills Theatre in Central MA Suspends Operations

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/128821.html
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planetmike

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Re: Theatres That Have Closed--Can You Say "Emergency?"
« Reply #33 on: May 31, 2009, 08:04 am »
The Gray Ghost Theatre Company in Manassas, VA has cancelled their July 2009 production of The Gray Ghost, a Civil War drama focusing on the life of John Mosby. I was the stage manager for this year's production (my first paid gig!). Pre-production work has started, auditions and casting have been completed. But with state and county grants down, the Board wasn't sure if using all available resources was wise, so they cancelled the show for the 2009. They hope to be back next year.

MatthewShiner

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Re: Theatres That Have Closed--Can You Say "Emergency?"
« Reply #34 on: Jun 16, 2009, 06:09 pm »
http://www.playbill.com/news/article/130286-North_Shore_Music_Theatre_Is_Out_of_Business

North Shore Music Theatre Is Out of Business

By Andrew Gans
16 Jun 2009

North Shore Music Theatre, the not-for-profit theatre company based in Beverly, MA, has closed its doors after 55 years.

North Shore officials announced June 16 that the theatre has failed to raise the $2 million needed to launch a 2009 season. Although more than $500,000 in pledges have been made, time has run out to raise the balance.

Theatre board chairman David Fellows said in a statement, "In the last two months we have been able to make progress toward our fundraising goal, but sadly, this is not enough to fund a 2009 season and keep the theater open . . . Without a season this year, we are unable to address the substantial debts of our creditors and restore the theater's economic health."

Fellows also told Salem News that the theatre is seeking buyers but may declare bankruptcy. "It is heartbreaking," he said, "but realistically, our debts are overwhelming."

The theatre's debts include large mortgages on its property and buildings and debts to vendors, the State of Massachusetts, and subscribers who paid in advance for the 2009 season. Theatre officials "are in discussions with its senior creditor and are reviewing the options available for liquidating and maximizing the value of the theater's assets for its stakeholders, as well as identifying potential buyers of the property who might consider a lease back of the theater," according to the statement.

Fellows told Salem News that the theatre will have to pay off banks and that it is "very unlikely" an estimated 4,4000 subscribers will be reimbursed.

Fellows also stated, "We are grateful to our loyal supporters and urge all who care about musical theater and arts education on the North Shore to support any effort that would preserve this cultural resource for future generations."

North Shore Music Theatre, which began operating in 1955, is the largest non-profit producing theatre in New England.

For more information visit www.NSMT.org.
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Tempest

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Re: Theatres That Have Closed--Can You Say "Emergency?"
« Reply #35 on: Jun 17, 2009, 12:25 pm »
That is really, really sad.  I know plenty of folkspeople who have fond memories of working at North Shore.  I applied for an internship, back when I was in college, but ended up going somewhere else that summer.  What a bummer.
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VSM

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Re: Theatres That Have Closed--Can You Say "Emergency?"
« Reply #36 on: Jun 25, 2009, 10:10 am »
Center Theatre Group in LA:
Not closing, thank God, but undergoing lots of "changes..."

Center Theatre Group, the West Coast's largest nonprofit stage company, has laid off 12 employees -- a tenth of its full-time staff of 120. Those who remain will absorb one or two weeks' unpaid furlough in the coming year, with the highest-earning third losing two weeks.

The cuts also include an end to automatic 5.25% contributions to employees' 401(k)  retirement accounts. Along with postponed shows and other reductions, they are expected to save the company $2.1 million during the fiscal year starting in July, officials said. Even so, CTG projects a $1.9-million deficit for the coming year. [An earlier version of this story made it sound as if the new cuts by themselves would save the $2.1 million.]

The cuts were "across the board" in various departments, a spokeswoman said. Among those losing jobs is Ann Wareham, a 27-year veteran of the organization. She was one of three associate producers who help shepherd shows to CTG's three stages, the Ahmanson Theatre and Mark Taper Forum in downtown Los Angeles and the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City.

Artistic director Michael Ritchie couldn't be reached for comment Thursday. In April, he said donations were off 8% to 10% from the previous year and ticket revenues were down 5% to 10%.

Despite those declines, Ritchie said at the time, "all in all, this is a very solid organization financially."

CTG's most recent available audited financial statements show that it enjoyed surpluses of $6.2 million in 2006-07 and $4.9 million in 2007-08, the two years  before the economy began to sink. Expenditures totaled $53.3 million in 2007-08.

The staff cuts come on top of the previously announced postponement of one show at the Taper from this season until 2010, Martin McDonagh's "The Lieutenant of Inishmore."  Another production, "Heddatron," a robot-inhabited version of Ibsen's "Hedda Gabler" that had been scheduled for the Douglas, was postponed indefinitely, leaving that theater dark this summer.

CTG joins a long list of Southern California arts organizations that have laid off employees since last fall, including the J. Paul Getty Trust, Museum of Contemporary Art, Orange County Performing Arts Center, Pasadena Symphony Assn. and Los Angeles Opera. Opera Pacific went under entirely.

Among theaters, the Geffen Playhouse suspended its own productions on its smaller stage, the Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater, to cut costs, instead offering a guest production, "Louis & Keely Live at the Sahara." South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa dropped one of its traditional holiday shows, "La Posada Magica," from the coming season, and the Laguna Playhouse abandoned expansion plans, instead selling a property it had planned to convert into a second stage.

Ordo ab chao

juliz1106

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Re: Theatres That Have Closed--Can You Say "Emergency?"
« Reply #37 on: Sep 13, 2009, 12:04 pm »
Another one bites the dust:

Apple Tree Theatre, my home as Resident SM for the last 4 seasons, has closed permanently, as of Friday afternoon.  I was notified by voicemail.
I was finishing up my pre-pro week for the first show of the season, and am now out of work for the season.  This theatre had been around as long as Steppenwolf, and had been struggling for a long, long time.  Sad to see it end.

http://leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com/the_theater_loop/2009/09/apple-tree-theatre-falls.html

After 26 years of productions on Chicago's North Shore and 40 years of educational programs, Apple Tree Theatre's board of directors plans to release a note Monday saying the Highland Park theater is going out of business, effective immediately.

In the note, Apple Tree says its doors will close, with the entire 2009-10 season canceled.

"This decision has not been made without a great deal of soul searching," the note says, "and only after exhaustive efforts to explore every possible avenue of financial support that would enable us to keep the doors open and the wonderful services and traditions alive."

The note says further that the theater has laid off all its staff (there were six full-time positions, along with numerous instructors and actors who had expected to work with the theater). Students of the theater are told they will either receive refunds for their tuition or be offered alternate options.

"It's the right business decision to make," said executive director Mark Weston on Saturday. "But it's very emotional for many of us."

Weston said that he was working with other area theaters to honor Apple Tree subscription tickets. "I want to do right by our core believers," he said. However, subscribers won't be able to get their money back.

Apple Tree was founded as the Eileen Boevers Performing Arts Workshop in 1970.
Eileen Boevers mug In 1983, the late Boevers (left, in 2005) expanded operations to include a professional theater company, which she dubbed the Apple Tree Theatre (she lived on Apple Tree Lane). The company started off in the same Highland Park church basement that launched the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, though most North Shore theater-goers will remember the theater as being housed on the second floor of a strip mall in downtown Highland Park.

The Equity-affiliated theater was especially known for its contemporary plays and small-but-bold musicals, many of which Boevers directed herself.

Boevers died last January at the age of 68.

After losing its longtime space, Apple Tree, once an illustrious North Shore theater, has languished in inadequate quarters in the Karger Center in Highland Park, its budget and audience dwindling.

cprted

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Re: Theatres That Have Closed--Can You Say "Emergency?"
« Reply #38 on: Sep 13, 2009, 01:03 pm »
While it hasn't caused any shutdown announcements yet, the BC provincial government is gutting arts funding.  A few months ago, the government announced it was cutting the budget of the BC Arts Council by 40% and just in the last few weeks the government "re-evaluated" contractual multi-year gaming grants that resulted in denial letters being sent far and wide (this was temporarily reversed under enormous public outrage--a small victory in a war that is going very badly for us).

In spite of the government's own economists pointing out that for every dollar the government invests in the arts, it sees a $1.38 return in tax revenue, the arts, culture, and heritage sector in BC has been targeted for massive and brutal cuts which will put companies under.

Overall, this is what the funding picture looks like in BC:
2008/09: $47.8 Million
2009/10: $42.22 Million (as of February's Budget)
2009/10: $23.08 Million (without warning as of September)
2010/11: $3.75 Million
2011/12: $3.68 Million

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/dramatic-cuts-dramatic-fallout-for-bc-arts/article1284602/

crazychicksj

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Re: Theatres That Have Closed--Can You Say "Emergency?"
« Reply #39 on: Sep 14, 2009, 06:15 pm »
Willows Theatre in Concord/Milpitas California is more than likely shutting down sometime this month as well.

stancial

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Re: Theatres That Have Closed--Can You Say "Emergency?"
« Reply #40 on: Sep 17, 2009, 04:10 pm »
Add the Blowing Rock Stage Company in North Carolina and the Alhambra Dinner Theatre in Jacksonville, FL to the list.  Both closed in the past couple of weeks.  The Blowing Rock PAC is now controled by its Board of Directors, which hopes to reopen next spring or summer, but it is doubtful that it will have a professional theatre company attached to it.  There is a theatre angel interested in buying the Ahambra and spending a couple of months upgrading the facilities before reopening, but nothing is definite yet.  Keep your fingers crossed.

ddsherrer

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Re: Theatres That Have Closed--Can You Say "Emergency?"
« Reply #41 on: Sep 17, 2009, 11:03 pm »
My friend was the TD and his wife worked in Admin. at Blowing Rock.  They uprooted their lives to move to NC and are now trying to figure out were to go with two small kids.  They did some amazing work there and the theatre will be missed if the close becomes permanent.
If all the world's a stage, where's my stage manager?

Lauren

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Re: Theatres That Have Closed--Can You Say "Emergency?"
« Reply #42 on: Sep 19, 2009, 05:43 pm »
I used to live near Blowing Rock, and did several productions there (I started working with them as an actor several years ago, before they moved into the new space)- it was a wonderful experience. I, and a lot of people I know are very sad to see it close.
"The truth is rarely pure, and never simple" -Oscar Wilde

Tempest

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Re: Theatres That Have Closed--Can You Say "Emergency?"
« Reply #43 on: Sep 20, 2009, 02:24 pm »
Chalk me up as another one who did a number of shows at Blowing Rock.  Wow.  I had no idea that they were going.  Very sad.

By the by, ddsherrer, that friend with two kids would be Jesse McN would it?
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ddsherrer

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Re: Theatres That Have Closed--Can You Say "Emergency?"
« Reply #44 on: Sep 20, 2009, 10:11 pm »
No, Jamie and Tim Billman.  They moved up there 3 or 4 years ago.
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