Chattanooga Theatre Centre welcomes Todd Olson as new executive director
TODD OLSON IS CHATTANOOGA THEATRE CENTRE’S NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Todd Olson settles into an overstuffed brown chair in his office at the Chattanooga Theatre Centre that seems to swallow him up. There is a matching mammoth chair and a big leather couch in the sitting area as well.
“I came here because of the furniture,” he jokes as he considers his first three months on the job as executive director of the 94-year-old organization.
The furniture is just one of the amenities that made him want to leave Maryland and his job as executive arts director with Columbia Festival of the Arts, but the fact that he has an office inside a building and a parking lot that is 100 percent dedicated to the CTC is something that he has never had in his career.
“I was attracted to this city, this staff and this building,” he says. “Having a home is a big thing. Everything you need is all here, and it was planned so well. We can have two shows going at the same time, with classes in another part of the building and heavy power tools going in the shop without it bothering anybody.”
The 40,000-square-foot facility has a 380-seat Main Theatre and a 200-seat Circle Theatre. It also has scene and costume shops and storage space, dressing rooms, classrooms and rehearsal space, an office suite, a ticket booth and lobby. And it can generate non-theater-related income from the parking spaces it owns.
Very few community theaters own buildings and, if they do, they are often older buildings that have been converted. At both of his prior jobs, Olson says, they had to rent space from universities or other venues.
Just driving in to the CTC and seeing parents lined up dropping their kids off for classes is a new experience for him and one that makes him happy. As much as he likes the building, he has a somewhat sinister goal for it.
“One of the things I’d like to
do it wear this building out,” he says.
To do that, he will have to do what all arts organizations in this city and elsewhere are trying to figure out, and that is raise money. The CTC has a $1.1 million budget. It will produce seven productions on the main stage and three children’s productions in addition to “Beauty on the Beast” on the Main Stage in the 2017-18 season.
It will receive $63,750 from ArtsBuild this year, but that is a reduction of $43,350 (40 percent) from the year before.
Olson says he has been working with the staff on ways to reduce costs.
“We have a $1.1 million budget, but we make $100 decisions all the time. The staff is experienced, and they know what can be reduced. Budgets are like a fine engine; you keep fine-tuning and fine-tuning.”
He says one of the things they’ve done was to take a hard look at previous marketing campaigns, and they’ve found ways to actually reduce the ticket prices for the next season.
He’s also looked back at all of the shows produced in the last 30 years to identify trends. It helps him understand the local market, to a degree, and also to get a sense of what has worked and not worked in the past.
Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.