Despite tight budgets, shows go on

For the Boulder Valley’s community theaters there’s no business like show business.

But it’s the love of live theater, not fortune and fame, that sustains the mostly volunteer, nonprofit organizations. Acting classes, collaboration with arts and education groups and the pursuit of public and private funding keeps the curtain rising.

Many organizations like the Peanut Butter Players, a professional children’s theater group, stay solvent by offering theater classes as well as producing four productions per year.

“There is a strong cultural base in Boulder,” says Jo Anne Lamun, producer and director. “People want their children to experience the arts.”

The audience usually is about 60 percent adults, she notes. The summer musical production can involve up to 250 children that range from 5 to 18 years old. Each child pays $30 to participate in a production. In addition to summer plays, Peanut Butter Players present “Lunch Bunch at the Boulder Theater” during the year. The actors and crew are paid professionals.

The annual $100,000 budget is supported by class fees, memberships, ticket sales and funding from the Scientific Cultural Facilities District and private foundations.

“We are doing well in terms of number of people attending shows and participating,” Lamun says. “We have had a good response to after-school classes and had to turn people away because we don’t have enough room at the Toad Stool Playhouse.”

To keep up with the demand, Peanut Butter Players is moving to temporary headquarters in the Lafayette Tech center. “A new building, called The Harlequin Center for the Performing Arts, should be completed by the summer of 2005. This will allow us to expand into dinner theater. The theater is available for other community groups to use as a conference center and performance space,” Lamun says.

Nomad Theatre, a nonprofit professional theater group that produces drama, comedy and family shows, experienced a loss in ticket sales in 2003. This year, although ticket sales have reached previous levels, Nomad has cut back from four to three productions and has extended the duration of each run.

Nomad has been around for 52 years, but reopened as a professional theater five years ago, explains Erin Anderson, program manager. Unlike similar professional groups in Arvada or Aurora, Nomad Theatre is not funded by the city. The $320,000 annual budget is generated from about 70 percent single ticket and season subscriber sales and 30 percent from Scientific Cultural Facilities District funding, small grants and individual donations. Nomad has two full-time administrative staff members. All technicians, equity and nonunion actors are paid per project.

“We are trying to think outside the box,” says Anderson, referring to budget issues. “We are trying to bring in more outside entertainment such as films and concerts in cooperation with other arts to the theater. This offers audiences more diversity and gives the theater a source of revenue.”

The Lafayette Community Players, a nonprofit all-volunteer community theater group, concentrates on four productions ranging from Shakespeare to the Twilight Zone, Madge Montgomery, artistic director explains.

“We are trying to do things that are well written and provide a lot of roles to community actors,” she says.

The group performs at the Mary Miller Theater, a city owned historic building that originally was a church. The Lafayette Players’ $13,000 budget is generated from 60 percent ticket sales with supplemental funding from the SCFD and small grants from the Boulder County Arts Alliance.

“We feel like we are in a period of growth. We have an energized board and are really in an upswing,” Montgomery says. “Since the theater only seats 90 people, we have been sold out most of Twilight Zone performances.”

Not all productions fill the coffers. The group did one play about the effects of Chernobyl. “That wasn’t as much of a crowd pleaser. But we want to keep stretching,” Montgomery adds.

“Collaboration is key as funding gets tighter. We can share resources and find imaginative ways to do projects,” she adds. Lafayette Players have worked with the Lafayette Public Library on a production of “Frankenstein” and the Louisville Arts and Humanities to present a work of Shakespeare.

The Upstart Crow Theatre Company, named after a reference to Shakespeare, focuses on full-length uncut classic theater including Greek classics, works by Shakespeare, Ibsen, Shaw and Chekhov, explains Joan Bell, manager. The 24-year-old nonprofit group is based in the Dairy Center for the Arts and works with an annual budget of $60,000 per year.

About 50 percent of revenue is from ticket sales from five performances while the remainder comes from grants and private donations. “We also get donations in in-kind services such as dry cleaning and free advertising,” Bell adds.

For the past four years company members have received $60 per production. Each actor, crew member or director may spend up to eight weeks preparing for a performance. Noncompany members receive $35.

“It’s for love, not money,” Bell says with a laugh.

Bell says ticket sales have decreased due to the economy. Prices range from general admission at $18 to $15 for students and senior citizens. Boulder County middle and high school students are admitted free.

The more area theater options the better, says Cheri Freidman, executive director for the Longmont Theatre Company, a nonprofit company entering its 46th season.

“When there is more theater, more people will go to the theater,” she says. “This will be a banner year for Longmont Theatre. Last year we were in the black for first time in three years.”

Friedman attributes the success to show selection, a recovering economy and increase in donations and grant money.

Each year the group produces comedies, dramas and musicals for fives shows on its main stage for adults and three second-stage shows for families. Ticket prices range from $13 to $15. About 65 percent of patrons are from Boulder County; the remainder drives in from metro Denver, northern Colorado and southern Wyoming.

Longmont Theatre’s $172,000 annual budget comes from about 65 percent of ticket sales, advertising sales and concession income. The remaining revenue is a result of grants and donations from sources like the SCFD.

Collaboration is important for the Longmont organization. In addition to working with the local YMCA for an after-school program, it offers a six-week, tuition-based summer program for children.

The amateur group, Conviviality Cabaret, is celebrating its fifth annual summer theater event, and it is applying for nonprofit 501 c (3) status. The group, which performed original comedy scripts, has attracted as many as 150 people to performances. In past years, the group presented its version of “Saturday Night Live,” a spoof on “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “Alice in Wonderland.” The theater is part of a larger association that organizes entertainment, music and improvisation performances.

“The group is getting too big for my back yard,” says Anne-Marie Boles, a founder. By applying for nonprofit status, Boles hopes to secure funds for a permanent venue. There is no budget and ticket sales were based on donations.

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