New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Blumenthal: ‘We need to step up’ to help struggling theaters
NEW HAVEN — U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal said it is a matter of survival.
Standing in front of Long
Wharf Theatre, with a backdrop of representatives from eight theaters around the state, the Connecticut Democrat talked about the Save Our Theaters Act that he said needs to pass to hand the institutions a financial lifeline through access to Small Business Administration grants.
The proposed bill now has a veto-proof number of bipartisan sponors if Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., will bring it to a vote, Blumenthal said at a press conference Monday.
The theaters have had to lay off hundreds of staff members, which doesn’t include the far larger number of actors and freelance talent that are now out of work, with millions in lost revenues as audiences disappeared over business restrictions amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Listed among the theaters facing “severe peril” were Long Wharf Theatre, the Shubert Theatre, Hartford Stage, Goodspeed, Eugene O’Neill Center, Yale Repertory, Westport Country Playhouse and Curtain Call.
“It is a spiraling dynamic that is driving this crisis. In the immediate future we simply are not going to see full houses and we are going to need to bridge this gap. Theaters
are one of the areas we need to step up,” Blumenthal said. “The experience of layoffs is a universal one in the cultural world.”
He said Connecticut residents traditionally have been generous in their support of theaters, but those donors now are finding themselves in financial trouble.
The senator called the theaters, many of which have won national recognition, Long Wharf among them, “gems, national treasures. To risk their demise is utterly irresponsible. They are not only cultural tools, they are economic drivers. The restaurants ... the retail stores gain economic traction when people come to the theater.”
Kit Ingui, managing director of Long Wharf, said she believes they are capable of retrofitting the theater to make it safe for returning audiences — though it will be at significant cost.
She said they are handicapped by the reduced indoor seating allowed under the pandemic health rules, but more basic than that, “we don’t believe patrons will be coming back anytime soon. They have been pretty clear to us so we believe we are in for emptiness for a while inside our spaces.”
Long Wharf sent an extensive questionnaire to its patrons to gauge their sentiments about returning to productions before there is a COVID vaccine.
Adriane Jefferson, director of cultural affairs in New Haven, also addressed the issue.
“We are the talent. We are the innovators. We are the cultivators of what drives arts and culture in this state,” Jefferson said of New Haven.
She said a 2017 study by Americans for the Arts showed that arts and culture contribute $800 million to the economy of Connecticut. For every $1 investment, there is is an $8 return.
The senator said theaters provide opportunities and open doors for young people. “It is not just the excellence of the professionals who appear on their stages, but their outreach to communities,” Blumenthal said.
A report by Connecticut’s flagship theaters in late July found that Long Wharf had lost $750,000 in revenue; Hartford Stage, $1.4 million; Westport Country Playhouse, $1.4 million; Goodspeed, a $6.6 million loss projected through the end of the year; Yale Repertory Theatre, $592,400; and Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, about $1.2 million for fiscal 2020.