On a treasure hunt for funding
COVID-19, social distancing have sent theaters of all sizes into crisis mode
Even as many businesses tentatively start to reopen, the reality is that live theatrical and musical performances are likely to be among the last to return. And when they do, they’ll be altered considerably for the foreseeable future.
Which means the creativity and innovation that were already necessities for making it in the arts are turning out to be handy tools in fending off the COVID-19 threat to the entertainment industry’s life and livelihood.
Ticket sales — the money that consumers shell out — make up only part of what keeps most performing arts companies afloat. Sponsors, donors and grant makers are another big chunk of funding, and that’s in jeopardy, too, as those sources reassess their spending priorities — and await an all-clear for live performances.
Many producers from Broadway and beyond are already looking for a small-scale 2021 comeback, even as organizations have kept their fall season schedules intact for now.
In Pittsburgh, the budgetary boost from the Allegheny County Regional Asset District (RAD) Fund — your tax dollars at work — has been slashed by 20% for libraries, museums, performing arts groups and more.
“It’s time to get creative, get flexible, do things you’ve never done before,” said Shaqui Scott, manager of grants and membership for the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council. “You’ve got to change up entire operation models, but I feel like that’s something organizations are already moving toward on their own.”
He offered the example of Stage Right of Greensburg. “Since the pandemic hit, they kept their feet moving the entire time,” he said. “They are still doing lessons and productions and getting support.
“The trick is to figure out where you fit and how you can make it work programmatically, within the constraints of your budget, in a way that’s safe, effective and meets the mission of your organization.”
The Arts Council, like the groups and individuals it represents, has learned to pivot — transforming its own Emergency Fund for Artists to include the current crisis.
The organization raised more than $200,000 from more than 400 donors, including the Heinz Endowments, The Pittsburgh Foundation, and gifts of $10,000 each from the International Free Expression Project and the Arts, Equity & Education Fund, said the Arts Council’s president and CEO, Mitch Swain.
Council grants are $500 each, for individuals in need of help with necessities such as food or rent. As of early May, the waiting list totaled 165. And on May 26, GPAC announced receiving $17,256 for artists through the VisitPittsburgh 90 Painted Chairs online auction.
Mr. Swain said the group is also administering money raised by the PGH Artists Emergency Fund, fed by a GoFundMe page co-organized by Carnegie Mellon University alumna Julie Mallis, along with Joshua Niko Orange, Alex Neal, Sarah Huny Young, Clark Price and Aaron Clark. That fund stands at more than $31,000 from 500-plus donors. Those grants are a maximum of $250 each.
While the council works to meet the needs of the many and the few, here is a closer look at how three local theaters of varying budgets are weathering the COVID19 storm.
PICT Classic Theatre
Alan Stanford, artistic director of PICT Classic Theatre, said his organization has prepared two budgets for 2020-21 — one for an onstage season, the other for what may come instead.
Founded in 1997 as Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre, PICT has in recent years rented WQED’s Fred Rogers Studio in Oakland for its three seasonal performances. The company provides its own cushioned untethered seats — about 160 — and bleachers, and has an education and community outreach arm. It operates on a budget that ranges from $750,000 to $950,000.
Although the organization doesn’t own a venue, it maintains an office and studio shop across Fifth Avenue from WQED at Rodef Shalom Congregation.
The small nonprofit, which has four employees, only recently came back from a near financial collapse, saved by a new board of directors and scrutinizing every dollar. “And just as we were seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, the problem changed on us,” Mr. Stanford said.
Before the March shutdown due to COVID-19, PICT had made it through two of its planned productions, including the large cast “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Its production of “Da” was lost.
Mr. Stanford is not optimistic about a quick return to the stage and acknowledges that the experience will be greatly altered, possibly for years to come.
His company is among those likely to find a way back quickly, because — out of design and necessity — PICT favors a minimalist production approach.
But there’s no denying the fact that “people are going to be naturally afraid,” he said. “I’m afraid. I’m no spring chicken. I had heart surgery two years ago, I wasn’t frightened at all. Now I am.”
With the help of personal protective equipment grants and loans and The Pittsburgh Foundation, Mr. Stanford figured PICT could pay its rent for another three months as of mid-May. In the meantime, he has shifted programming to online — holding webinars on Fridays.
He had predicted a 30% reduction in probable funding overall, before RAD announced it would have a 20% cut across the board. PICT was due to receive $43,000 from RAD.
Money isn’t the only thing on his mind — the health of his patrons is the main concern.
“The things that beset our industry are manifold,” Mr. Stanford said, “but this one, you have to go back to plague times and Shakespeare’s company going on the road to find an equivalent to it.”
New Horizon Theater
Founded in 1992 to present productions from an African American point of view, New Horizon Theater is a renter at sites including the Falk School auditorium on the University of
Pittsburgh campus and the Carnegie Library Auditorium, both in Oakland.
Joyce Meggerson-Moore runs the community theater as a labor of love along with 30 volunteers and board members. The lone employee — an administrative assistant hired this year through a grant — is now out of work, as is the company.
New Horizon’s annual musical performance, scheduled for May 30, and the final show of the season, “One Monkey Don’t Stop No Show,” have been postponed indefinitely.
Her company counts on the musical — it was to be the ’70s group Blue Magic at the Kelly Strayhorn Theater in East Liberty — as a way to reach a wider audience and “pull in those people for our regular plays,” she said.
Even if there was a green light from health and government officials to resume in the fall, each venue presents its own challenges. For example, the tight lobby space in the Carnegie Library Auditorium will be a social distancing concern.
Ms. Meggerson-Moore would like to plan to have the canceled season finale open the 2020-21 season in October, “but we will have to start rehearsing in September, and we don’t know if everything will be open in September,” she points out.
For a small organization like New Horizon, with an annual revenue of less than $150,000, it means renegotiating contracts for the cast, creative team, musicians, accommodations, venues, licensing … the list goes on.
She had been in touch with all of her longtime funders as the fiscal year draws to a close and asked questions, such as: Can funds earmarked for a play this fiscal year be held over if it is performed next season?
“I’m pretty sure they will be open to it, because they understand this pandemic, but I am also waiting to hear if we can also apply for next season, not having used all the funds for this season,” she said.
Despite the uncertainty, she said not to count out New Horizon Theater.
“I am optimistic because we’ve had to work through issues a lot of times,” she said. “A small group like ours, moving from space to space, we are used to problem-solving. It’s just a matter of building back up the audience.”
Pittsburgh Musical Theater
On March 13 — the night local theaters went dark — ticket holders who could not be reached or were caught unaware showed up at the Byham Theater in Downtown to see “The Sound of Music,” performed by the Pittsburgh Musical Theater.
Colleen Doyno, the executive artistic director of PMT, and Ann Urwin, property manager for the Pittsburgh
Cultural Trust, met those disappointed patrons at the closed doors to explain.
Pittsburgh Musical Theater is a nonprofit producing company with a conservatory for grade schoolers up to teens. It has its own West End building — a former school and catering hall — that houses rehearsal studios and the Gargaro Theater, which has 250 untethered seats.
Losing the second week of shows at the Byham is part of the 25% revenue hit Ms. Doyno expects to take for the fiscal year that ends June 30. The initial budget was $1.47 million, not including money raised for improvements to the building — new windows and flood vents are part of the next phase of work on the circa-1915 building.
Back at the start of the shutdown, the staff of 10 — still working — pivoted quickly. All regular classes have been moved online for about 230 students.
About 24 resident artists — actors, designers, etc., involved in productions — are out of a job.
This time of crisis, Ms. Doyno said, has also been a time of growth for the company as they discuss “scenarios of recovery.” One is the use of PMT’s brick-andmortar resources, including rehearsal space and the Gargaro Theater.
“The first thing I said to the cast of ‘Sound of Music’ on the Saturday when they came to get their things … was, ‘Thank goodness we have the building, because when this passes, we have a home.’ Truly we know what that means right now,” she said.
“We can use that building to help others as well,” she continued. “There are so many companies that are our friends that will not have a place to go, will not have studios to use, not have a theater to use. We’re going to be there for them.”
The company got a boost in mid-May when it surpassed its goal of raising $10,000 on the annual Day of Giving on May 5. Even then, there will be a shortfall, from things like unrealized ticket sales.
There is no question in her mind that the building will once again be filled with the sound of music. It’s a matter of when and how.
“We will make our way through this,” Ms. Doyno said. “We are here to stay.”