“Sandhills Theatre Company is for the first time in anyone’s memory suffering financially,” said David Frump, president of the Sandhills Theatre Company (STC) board. “We need to do more theater in the community to ease the overhead. STC is just like any other business and we need to grow with the community to profit.”
STC has presented more than 100 live stage productions and filled about 150,000 seats since its creation in 1980. The nonprofit company is based at historic Sunrise Theater in downtown Southern Pines.
At a press conference this morning, STC was to announce a slate of more aggressive fund-raising plans and a schedule of cultural offerings that includes five traditional community theater offerings along with three productions by small professional companies. Also on the new schedule are two youth productions created by STC’s staff through a new program called Youth Onstage Productions, Frump said.
“When Missoula comes to town, there are hundreds that come out for auditions indicating a real need,” Frump said.
The visiting professional companies, according to the proposed 2003-2004 season, include the Opera House Theatre Company of Wilmington, Burning Coal Theatre Company of Raleigh and Flat Rock Playhouse. The STC board has not yet approved the line-up. The new season starts in September.
“Our big dream is someday to sell out completely to subscribers,” Frump said. “We are announcing a new way of doing business at the theater company with new programs we believe in and we need the community’s help.”
Sandra Epperson, managing artistic director, said, “This theater company has experienced a financial see-saw that started in 1981 with strong ticket-sale records and extremely low production and operating costs, with much of the needed operating income contributed.
“A one-time major foundation donor further strengthened the balance sheet.”
This favorable financial mix began to change with an interim move to Owens Auditorium at Sandhills Community College in 1990, Epperson said. During the three years the Sandhills Little Theater (the former name of the theater company) produced shows at the college, audiences shied away and chose to see productions at the Temple Theater, Cape Fear Regional Theater and the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.
Epperson joined the theater in July 2000. She said the move to SCC “critically harmed“ the STC budget. She said the harm was done before the problem was visible and analyzed.
“This diluted Sandhills Theatre Company’s traditional audiences,” Epperson said. “The company soon found itself traveling the path of deficit financing, slowly eating away at reserves.”
The STC board then took several steps to overcome losses on individual productions including returning to the Sunrise Theater, restructuring ticket prices and more aggressive budgeting.
“As is the case with most nonprofit theater companies, overall operating requirements are a substantial percentage of the cost and the company’s bottom-line forecast remained negative,” Epperson said.
To combat the current accumulating financial burdens, Frump said, the board has planned several public fund-raising programs. This season, the board has already tried to beef up the budget with a season ticket drive that included a telephone campaign and separate pleas for donations from individuals through a 16,000-letter mail campaign and personal visits to past supporters. In addition, the fund-raising efforts also included visiting businesses for contributions.
Future fund-raising will be carried out in the public, but no specifics were provided.
“In the 20-year history of the company, this is the first large-scale fund-raising drive we have ever had,” Frump said. “Sixty percent of the funds for operating comes from the box office, and the rest comes from contributions and community involvement. We have done so well for so long without turning to community support but the numbers show contributions and season ticket sales are both down.”
According to Frump, the attendance is holding, but season ticket sales — the bread-and-butter of the company — are off.
“I attribute this to the economy, but as our community grows so do the needs of its people. And I think the public wants more cultural offerings and we want to be the group to deliver it,” he said. “It’s extremely important to the community to have theater offerings.”
Investing in the future requires immediate and long-range plans, Epperson said, including future development of an on-going grant writing program and an operating endowment and continued partnership with the Sunrise Preservation Group to keep the Sunrise Theater as the home base for every appropriate part of this program.
“Without substantial incremental funding now, Sandhills Theatre Company will not survive,” she said. “We are counting on all active community persons and organizations to join us in a crusade, both immediately and for the long haul.”
Frump said the STC board is satisfied to be working with the SPG in the Sunrise Theater.
“We have learned to live with the limitations of the theater and believe in SPG’s mission,” Frump said. “SPG has done a marvelous job of making the theater available to us and we are pleased with the overall offerings at the venue now. We are happy at the theater and we recognize and appreciate the job the preservation group has done to keep it up and keep it part of the community.”
STC is in the middle of its current season and is preparing to present “Macbeth,” which opens Friday, Feb. 14.
