City’s stage scene is in a bind

April - 22 - 2010 Author: Elizabeth Moore Respond

BY MISHA DAVENPORT AND LEWIS LAZARE Staff Reporters

A Red Orchid Theatre is hoping the check is in the mail.

The State of Illinois can’t pay its bills, and that includes grant money the Illinois Arts Council has promised to various not-for-profit theater companies in Chicago, putting many of them in a financial squeeze.

» Click to enlarge image The Mercury Theater at 3741 N. Southport is in foreclosure. And while Million Dollar Quartet (top), the high-profile tenant at the Apollo Theatre, 2540 N. Lincoln, is going strong, the owners of the building in which that theater is housed face problems with their bank.
(Rich Hein/Sun-Times)

CHECK, PLEASE

Ten of the not-for-profit theaters still waiting on grant money from the state, and the amounts they were awarded: Bohemian Theatre Ensemble, $1,580 Chicago Children’s Theatre, $7,140 Chicago Dramatists, $8,500 Chicago Theatre Group (The Goodman), $30,700 City Lit Theatre Co., $2,930 Court Theatre, $17,500 The House Theatre of Chicago, $5,640 Lookingglass Theater Company, $8,870 A Red Orchid Theatre, $3,600 Theatre Building Chicago, $8,470

A Red Orchid could make very good use of the $3,600 it was awarded but has yet to receive.

“We used to see the grant money in December,” said Kirsten Fitzgerald, artistic director for A Red Orchid Theatre in Old Town. “Last year was the first year we [received] it late, and we’re crossing our fingers that we’ll get it again in May like last year.”

The Illinois Arts Council may control the pen — the agency approved more than $6 million for arts grants allocation in fiscal year 2010, less than half of 2009′s $13 million — but the checkbook falls squarely under the jurisdiction of the Illinois comptroller’s office, which issues the actual grant money.

As of April 21, the backlog of payments to all programs receiving state funding totaled $4.6 billion. Carol Knowles, press secretary for the comptroller, said the office was federally mandated to make Medicaid payments to doctors, hospitals and nursing homes within 30 days. General state aid to schools and state payroll is also given priority.

Knowles would not comment on when the 2010 arts grants would be paid. She further acknowledged that “the backlog of state bills was “at a historic level.”

Many not-for-profit theater companies have been waiting months longer to get their 2010 arts council grants than they did for 2009 funding, with no indication when the money might arrive.

A theater official noted that arts grant applications for 2011 were due last week.

“We applied again for next year,” said Amanda Farrar, the managing director of the Chicago-based Barrel of Monkeys theater troupe. “If we don’t end up receiving this year’s grant, it will have an impact on our programs in the fall.”

Impact on programming because of funding shortages is something A Red Orchid Theater company on the Near North Side is familiar with. In anticipation of further reduced income from ticket sales and contributed income (donations and grants), the theater troupe cut one show from its current season — producing only three shows instead of four.

Along with slow-moving government funding, theaters also are dealing with a shortage of private donations.

“Corporations and foundations have also seen their endowments shrink because of the market and are giving less [to help fund the arts],” said Kathryn Lamkey, central regional director for Actors Equity.

“People don’t want to appear extravagant right now,” she said. “Unfortunately, supporting the arts is viewed as an extravagance.”

It is a tough time, real estate-wise, too, for several of Chicago’s smaller stages. The Mercury Theater at 3741 N. Southport is in foreclosure. The Lakeshore Theater at 3175 N. Broadway closed its doors April 10. And while “Million Dollar Quartet,” the high-profile tenant at the Apollo Theatre, 2540 N. Lincoln, is still going strong at the box office, the owners of the building in which that theater is housed are facing problems with their bank.

Sean Cercone, Theatre Building Chicago’s executive director, said the situation is anything but rosy for his group.

“Ninety-nine percent of our revenue was from [show] rentals, which was declining,” he said. “Theater companies were having cash-flow problems because of not receiving grants, so they limited the amount of productions or the number of performances. On top of that, we are also recipients of an IAC grant. It lead to the perfect storm, limiting our ability to do our own core programming.”

One of TBC’s remaining assets — its theater building on West Belmont Avenue — will be sold to a group of investors as soon as May.

“We’re in the middle of a fire,” Cercone said. “Next year is shaping up to be the worst funding cycle in generations, and that will have large implications for theater companies throughout Chicago.”

Still, there are indications that some of the theater community is showing signs of rebounding.

Theater Wit, for example, has managed to open a new venue on West Belmont Avenue that boasts three performance spaces. Financing for the new $1.32 million theater came from three primary sources: a family trust, $350,000 from board members and a $460,000 loan from Chase Bank.

“Money is tight, but theaters are surviving,” said League of Chicago Theaters spokesman Ben Thiem. “We’re not hearing the panic from our members we were hearing a year ago.”

A league survey of member theaters in January 2009, at the height of the economic downtown, indicated 50 percent of Chicago theaters were experiencing increased or steady ticket sales. Of the 50 percent that were experiencing decreases, 60 percent of those companies reported the decrease was due, at least in part, to programming.

Sales also are up about 13 percent this year over last in terms of number of tickets sold at Hot Tix, the discount booth for the league’s half-price ticket program. That suggestst people are looking for the best ticket deals.

Contributing: Dave McKinney and Hedy Weiss

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