Theatres Race the Clock
Tough times for the arts may be slightly less tough if that break in those dark economic clouds continues to hold, but for some theatre companies time is running out. Zilker Theatre Productions has already canceled the production of its first indoor musical, the chamber musical Floyd Collins, which was set for Arts on Real in March 2004. (For more information, call Randy Storm at 479-9491.) Now, two more theatre companies are racing the clock with appeals for funding that would enable them to stage shows they might otherwise have to cancel. The Austin Shakespeare Festival has plans to mount three Shakespearean dramas in repertory in January, plus an indoor Romeo and Juliet later in the spring, but debt from previous productions, combined with lower-than-projected income for its September run of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), has left ASF in dire financial straits. For the shows to go on, the company needs to raise a minimum of $25,000 by the end of the month. Send donations to: PO Box 683, Austin, TX 78767-0683. Meanwhile, the State Theater Company is working to save its scheduled premiere of Nightswim, Steve Moore‘s poetic drama about the rare friendship of Roy Bedichek, J. Frank Dobie, and Walter Prescott Webb and their love of Austin, specifically Barton Springs. State artistic director Scott Kanoff is seeking $85,000 by Dec. 31. For more information, call 692-0509. I mention these at the risk of sounding self-serving, because I happen to be involved in both projects, as an actor in Nightswim and a director and actor with the Shakespeare Festival this season. But the fact of the matter is, these projects would be worthy of support whether or not I was involved with them. And they’re just indicative of financial woes facing arts groups all across the city. If you don’t support these groups, support some arts organization or artist. It’s now or never.
ACoT Gets Down to Business
The Austin Circle of Theaters has a plan to get this city to buy more into the performing arts here, and that plan — which involves promoting and selling a “Let’s Go Austin” arts and entertainment discount card, remodeling and expanding the half-price ticketing outlet AusTix, and developing a performing arts marketing campaign — was impressive enough to get ACoT into Round Two of the Yale-Goldman Sachs National Business Plan Competition for Nonprofit Organizations, which assists nonprofits in starting or expanding profit-making ventures with cash prizes and technical assistance. ACoT was one of 80 nonprofits out of 445 to make the cut in this program of the Yale School of Management, Goldman Sachs Foundation, and Pew Charitable Trusts working jointly as the Partnership on Nonprofit Ventures. ACoT must submit a working draft of its plan by Dec. 15, after which a panel of faculty, students, and alumni from the Yale School of Management and experts in the field will provide feedback to the entrants and select 20 to proceed to the finals. Finalists must submit final drafts of their business plans and, next May, present them at a conference before a panel of judges who will select four grand-prize winners, each of whom will receive $100,000, and four semifinalists, each of whom will receive $25,000, plus hundreds of hours of technical consultations. For information, call 247-2531 (CIRCLE-1) or visit www.acotonline.org.
This article appears in November 21 • 2003.