Articulations

Two weeks before it was to leave its longtime home on Fourth Street, six days
before the final performance of its last production in that space, Capitol City
Playhouse was closed by the Internal Revenue Service. Upon arriving at the
theatre on the morning of December 2, Playhouse Artistic Director Richard Brown
discovered that IRS agents had padlocked the building, preventing him or anyone
else associated with Cap City from entering the building. The seizure was
related to the theatre’s failure to pay payroll taxes from the first quarter of
1996. According to Stuart Bradford, the IRS’ Communications Manager for South
Texas, Cap City owed $16,628.70 in employers’ withholding taxes from the
period, and, as payment had not been made by the end of the third quarter, a
federal tax lien for that amount was filed on October 2. Brown acknowledges the
debt but says the theatre had been in negotiations with the agency and was
making payments. He expressed surprise at the seizure.

The shutdown caps an extremely painful autumn for the Playhouse. It began in
August when Cap City’s financial woes prompted the layoff or forced leave of
most of the theatre staff. Then, in September, founder and producing director
Michel Jaroschy was told by the landlord that the theatre would have to leave
its home space of 14 years to make way for a bar. Only a month later, Jaroschy
died suddenly of a massive coronary. And a month after that, the man who had
presided over Jaroschy’s memorial service, veteran Cap City volunteer Ken
Murphy, also died. Plus, a major fundraiser intended to be held at the Austin
Music Hall fell through at the last minute.

Despite the tragedies, Cap City persevered. A proposed final show for the
Fourth Street space, The Glass Menagerie, proceeded on schedule. Brown
assumed the role of artistic director, and the board, led by President Tom
Kennedy, pursued the search for a new space. According to Brown, the
perseverance was paying off. The Glass Menagerie was doing the best
business of any Cap City effort this year, and a fundraiser on November 25
brought in $3,000. But apparently all that wasn’t enough to suit the feds. The closure affects not only Cap City’s production of Menagerie but
also the Gala Gilbert & Sullivan All-Star Revue, an annual party and
fundraiser by the Austin Gilbert & Sullivan Society, which was scheduled
for Sunday, December 8. At press time, the society’s executive director, Robert
Mellin, was pursuing an arrangement with the IRS that would allow the group to
hold the event in the space as planned, but he had received no commitment. In
the event that the society will not be able to use Cap City, Mellin says that
the gala will be held elsewhere. For more info, call 499-TIXS or 472-4772.

This is a sad way for this historic venue to close. Whether or not Cap City
survives in some form, it’s a shame that the Cap City of the past 14 years
didn’t receive a send-off fitting its value to this community.

This article appears in December 6 • 1996 and December 6 • 1996 (Cover).