When people's budgetary belts tighten, the arts are often one of the first things to get cut from extra spending. Community theaters in and around Charlottesville are feeling that penny pinching in their bottom lines. However, the stages have managed to suffer through and survive the bad economy.
Even though a number of community theaters in the area are not-for-profit, they still need to make money. It can take tens of thousands of dollars to put on a production, which has some shops living play to play, but they're hoping not for long.
Play On! Theater is located in the IX Building on Second Street. For manager Alex Citron, the stage there is like a second home, which makes it especially painful to watch donor dollars dwindle.
"It's been harder every year for us to get that money," Citron said.
Play On! opened six years ago, when Citron says was likely the worst economic time to start up. He says right after they started shows, the housing market was collapsing and everyone seemed to be closing up their wallets.
Filling the seats isn't the problem. Citron says audience counts have actually gone up since he opened the theater. But he says ticket sales won't supply more than 60 percent of what it takes to keep things up and running.
As a result, fundraising has been the biggest challenge for the crew, especially because no one at Play On! is assigned to that task full-time, and none of the staff is paid. Instead, any efforts on that front are done in Citron's free time, and he has had to get more and more creative with his tactics.
"Simply appealing to them in the sense that, hey the arts are an important component of any thriving community, so as a member of the community, you should be able to dig in and give us a little money. That may not have quite the traction that it did when money was freer five years ago," Citron explained.
The lack of foundational funding has forced Play On! to put on more commercial productions, rather than more experimental or theatrical works.
Citron also says when he moved into the IX Building, there were big plans for the space. Now, development in the area has stalled out, which could be affecting their visibility.
"That's been one place that we've really in a concrete way seen the affect of the slower economy is just in the development of the area around us here," Citron said.
A few blocks away in the heart of downtown Charlottesville, Live Arts theater has been around for about two decades. Artistic Director Julie Hemburg and Executive Director Matt Joslyn say they watched other big-name production houses shut down as the recession hit the country hard, but they credit the supportive arts community and hundred of dedicated volunteers for getting them through those tough times.
"That we have survived is an incredible testament to this community," Hemburg said. "We all feel that this is ours, meaning we have to take care of it."
Joslyn explained Live Arts' rich and diverse donor pool has allowed them to still pursue the type of art they set out to do. He is able to commit a majority of his time to seeking out businesses and talking with wealthier neighbors to build a stable foundation for the theater and its productions, sometimes those that are more challenging and risky than box office hits.
"We need to be able to survive the ebbs and flows of the economy, of our local community, of the huge smash hit shows, and the ones that didn't do so well at the box office," Joslyn said. "We need to be able to survive that if we're going to be a relevant arts organization."
Back in 2008, the economic downfall hit Live Arts hard. It took the staff well into the following year to survey the damage, but then it was all about tapping into their financial resources and committed donors.
Joslyn added, "We really went through all of them over six months and said, okay, now's the time. Its time to step up. Its time to double down. Its time to really build a foundation here, and we started down that path."
Hemburg and Joslyn admitted the theater's long-standing reputation in the community likely attributes to their success.
"The longer you're around, the more experiences people have had, the more invested they become, the more that they feel that this is a vital, vital asset," Joslyn said.
Leaders at both Live Arts and Play On! mentioned while there is competition for donor dollars, audiences, and talent around Charlottesville, the area theaters work together much more than they go head-to-head.
"Cooper-tition is the word we talked about a lot," Joslyn said.
That "cooper-tition" can be seen in the creation of the Theater Alliance of Central Virginia. The organization was created a couple years ago, bringing together about a dozen theaters in and around Charlottesville and allowing them to share ideas and resources.
"Live theater is kind of like grapes," Citron added. "They grow best in bunches. And we're all very committed to that idea that a thriving theater community benefits all of the theaters individually here."
"{There are} a lot of passionate people here who love theater," Hemburg said.
