Some Behind the Scenes Financial Info

Posted by Bruce Miller
Let's face facts. The recession has kicked Barksdale Theatre in the shins just like it has everyone else. Sadly, recovery in the nonprofit sector lags about two years behind recovery in the for-profit sector.

Contributions donated by governments, corporations and foundations are based on earnings from the previous, not the current, fiscal year. So these contributions always fall one year behind recovery. In fact, they usually fall two years behind. Institutional givers tend to hang on to their funds until they have two years worth of evidence that the recovery is real, not just an aberration.

They're wise to do so.

Ask any nonprofit and they'll likely tell you that 2010-11 contributions from governments, corporations and foundations are at a five-year low. Gifts from individuals are starting to turn the corner, thank goodness.

That means we're re-energizing our efforts to ask for financial support from the community. Just like our good friends at public television and radio, we're going to have to keep asking until our budget revenue goals are met.

We're also increasing our cost-cutting.

Our biggest expense cuts thus far have been the elimination of six staff positions (mostly through attrition), elimination of company contributions to staff retirement plans, 25% reduction in company contributions to staff health insurance, and a graduated, across-the-board reduction in staff salaries (with those earning the most taking the biggest cuts).

The last few years have been all about belt tightening. No one here makes very much. At least we all know that the suffering here is reflective of the financial pain felt by much of the nation.

Our priority now is to protect current staff positions from additional job elimination and salary/benefit cuts. If we are able to maintain that status quo, our next goal is to restore salary reductions. Thereafter we want to decrease stress by restoring some of the cut positions. Finally, we're committed to funding a staff pay raise, something our incredibly loyal employees haven't seen in four years.

This hoped for recovery and progress won't be easy, but we're giving it our best shot. Competition for ticket buyers, school field trips, and contributions increases regularly. Competition is good, but it can also put a strain on earned revenues.

We've already made all the big expense cuts we can make. Expenses this year between our two nonprofit companies are more than $100,000 under budget. So now we're going after some smaller expenses.

Starting immediately, we're eliminating two long-established perqs: closing cast parties for Barksdale productions (we eliminated closing parties at the end of shorter Theatre IV runs about four years ago), and company dinners held between the afternoon and evening tech rehearsals of Barksdale shows.

We will have nine Barksdale mainstage productions next year--five on the Signature Season and four at Hanover Tavern. Each closing party is budgeted at $200, and each tech dinner at $350. Annual savings, therefore, will be about $5,000.

We know many of you who work with us on our shows will miss these fun fellowship opportunities. We'll miss them too. We also know you wholeheartedly support our efforts to keep Barksdale growing and going strong.

Thanks for your understanding, talent and hard work.

--Bruce Miller

Labor Day - A Time to Celebrate Jobs in the Arts

Posted by Bruce Miller
Today, Barksdale and Theatre IV employ 30 arts professionals working in full-time jobs. We employed 39 full time workers just over three years ago. We’ve had to reduce and reorganize staff due to financial pressures associated with the national recession--particularly cuts in funding to the Virginia Commission for the Arts.

Thirty seems like a lot of people, and it is. But when you consider all we do (33 different productions, many of them touring throughout Virginia and 32 surrounding states, plus all the ancillary activities), we’re significantly understaffed. Several of our current staff members are carrying the responsibilities of one and a half or two different jobs. Most of our staffers log 50 hours a week, and several routinely exceed 80 hours a week.

In addition to these 30 full-time positions, we employ:
• seven or eight box office and costume shop workers who are paid on an hourly basis,
• four talented interns who work seasonally for weekly stipends,
• a master scenic artist who currently is contracted semester by semester,
• approximately 22 touring actors who keep Theatre IV’s national tour going strong, and
• legions of freelance actors, directors, designers etc whose talents power our mainstage productions.

One full-time staff position is being kept open for a past staff member who is still in recovery from a major illness.

We also budget approximately $20,000 per year for hourly production overhire.

All told, Barksdale and Theatre IV currently invest $1.9 million annually in Virginia’s workforce. If that doesn’t seem like a lot to you, then you’re not one of the ones losing sleep every two weeks worrying about how we’re going to meet payroll. There’s no grand fund set aside somewhere to cover these and other expenses. We pay out only what we bring in. To meet budget, we need to sell approximately $70,000 per week in tickets and tour shows, and raise approximately $30,000 per week in contributions. During this recession, meeting these goals has been, and will continue to be, very challenging.

That's why I vigorously support continued state funding for the Virginia Commission for the Arts. Last year, the House initially voted to do away with the VCA entirely, a move that would have put many if not most of Virginia's arts organizations out of business. Thankfully, wiser heads prevailed, and the Commission was saved, with funding significantly reduced. The funds that Barksdale and Theatre IV are receiving this summer from the VCA are $40,000 less now than they were two years ago.

The arts are a labor intensive industry, which is good for Virginians and the state economy. On average, Virginia’s arts and cultural organizations spend 44.2% of their revenues on labor, 37.2% on other production expenses, 9.8% on facilities, 7.4% on marketing, and 1.4% on state and local taxes and fees. This is a nonprofit industry.

In 2000, Virginians for the Arts, our statewide advocacy group, did an economic impact study in cooperation with the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the Virginia Association of Museums. The study was prepared independently by The Wessex Group, Ltd., located in Williamsburg. The findings of the study indicate that a decade ago, arts and cultural organizations comprised a major sector of the Virginia economy.

In 2000, 12,507 Virginians were directly employed by arts and cultural organizations (full-time and part-time). They were paid $157.8 million in salary and benefits. An additional 6,344 full-time Virginia jobs were financed indirectly by the economic impact that arts and cultural organizations have on Virginia’s support businesses and independent contractors. All told, in 2000, $306.6 million was paid to 18,851 Virginia workers by Virginia’s arts and cultural organizations.

Additionally, the 2000 study found that arts and cultural organizations in Virginia annually generate $849 million in revenues for Virginia businesses and $342 million in revenues for Virginia tourism businesses through spending by out-of-state visitors who come to see Virginia’s arts and cultural organizations. That’s a total injection into the Virginia economy of nearly $1.2 billion.

I know, it’s a lot of numbers, and they’re eight years out of date. But they’re important. If we don’t celebrate employment in the arts, nobody will. Many of those who make decisions about state funding simply don’t care about the intrinsic value of the arts, but they might care—they ought to care—about how the arts positively impact Virginia’s economy.

Fiscal conservatives routinely herald "small businesses" as the engine that creates jobs and drives the American economy. And rightly so. Why they fail to include nonprofit arts organizations among the ranks of small businesses is beyond me. The thousands of jobs that we, as an industry, generate each year in Virginia are just as real, just as vital as any other jobs.

We who work in or care about the nonprofit arts sector need to make sure that Virginia's arts jobs are recognized. We need to remember that Labor Day not only marks the closing of our neighborhood pools, plus the beginning of the Virginia public school year and the NFL and NCAA football seasons, it also represents our chance to remind all Virginians that the nonprofit arts sector and its tens of thousands of jobs represent an irreplaceable force in the state economy. The arts are not a frill or a nicety. We are a cornerstone industry, crucial to the Commonwealth and its financial well-being.

--Bruce Miller

Legislators Propose Elimination of Arts Funding

Posted by Bruce Miller
I'm absolutely heartsick about today's news from the House Appropriations Committee. Here's a letter I've written to the T-D. I have no idea if it will run, so I'm printing it again here. PLEASE fax or call your legislators ASAP. Legislator contact information can be found on the web at http://legis.virginia.gov/1_cit_guide/contacting_my.html.

Editor - Times-Dispatch:

The House Appropriations Committee is proposing the elimination of the Virginia Commission for the Arts. I have been the artistic director of Theatre IV, The Children's Theatre of Virginia, for the last 35 years. In an effort to create significant cost efficiencies, the staff of Theatre IV also has managed Barksdale Theatre for the last 8 1/2 years.

As a nonprofit administrator, I have always been trained to speak publicly only of success. With regard to this new proposal, it would be irresponsible for me to pretend optimism when I know first-hand the certain disaster that will follow the passage of such misguided legislation.

Every day, Theatre IV and Barksdale, two of our state's most exemplary nonprofits, deal with the fact that Virginia historically and consistently funds the arts at a level lower than any state in our region. We continue to serve over 600,000 Virginians annually, despite the fact that the legislature eliminated direct funding of arts organizations four years ago, and over the last two years has already reduced indirect funding (through the Virginia Commission for the Arts) by 30%.

In the last 16 months, Theatre IV and Barksdale have eliminated 6 positions and have plans to eliminate 2 more (20% of our lean work force). We have reduced salaries by up to 17%, cancelled company contributions to retirement plans, and increased the percentage of health insurance premiums that must be paid by the employee. To adjust to the eliminated positions, many on our staff work 80-hour work weeks just to keep our nonprofit companies alive.

The elimination of state funding to the Virginia Commission for the Arts will cost Theatre IV and Barksdale Theatre an additional $190,000 per year. That will mean the elimination of seven more jobs. Despite all our best efforts, we will not be able to operate under these conditions.

What the House Appropriations Committee is proposing is the elimination of the nonprofit arts infrastructure that tens of thousands of hard-working Virginians have taken decades to build. Hundreds of jobs will be lost. The economic repercussions will not be positive; they will be disastrous.

To avoid causing lasting harm to economic development, education, tourism and quality of life, please ask your legislators to oppose the current proposal of the House Appropriations Committee.

Sincerely,
Bruce Miller
Artistic Director, Theatre IV and Barksdale Theatre

Oh the Weather Outside is Frightful

Posted by Bruce Miller
There's good news and there's bad news.

Let's do the good news first. Yesterday in sunny Las Vegas, a 22-year-old VCU broadcast journalism major named Caressa Cameron won a $50,000 scholarship as she was crowned Miss America 2010. Many congratulations to Ms Cameron for representing Richmond, her home town of Fredericksburg, and the Commonwealth so well. Your good news is GREAT news. All of us at Barksdale and Theatre IV are proud of you.

And the bad news? As Ms Cameron was basking in the sunshine and paparazzi flashes of Vegas, her friends back home in Richmond were finding themselves buried under a foot of snow. (It measures 14" in my backyard in Bon Air.)

I know, I know. Snow is also good news! Unexpected time off, sledding down wintry slopes, chestnuts roasting on an open fire. In many ways, snow is festive and fun.

Not to be a buzz-kill, but there's another side to the story. When you are responsible for a $5 million annual budget for a nonprofit touring theatre, all that pretty white stuff that brings activity to a standstill across a wide swath of the mid-Atlantic quickly becomes the stuff of nightmares.
For years now, the snow begins to fall, my kids jump up and down in jubilation, and I sit in the corner and sulk.

This past Friday, Theatre IV opened our wonderful mainstage production of The Song of Mulan. Due to the snow, we've had to cancel two Mulan performances on Saturday and Sunday, costing us --at least on paper--approximately $8,000.

The good news is that, traditionally, most of our wonderful ticket buyers will accept a transfer to another performance, so the actual loss will be in the hundreds rather than the thousands. Nonetheless, it's painful for all concerned.

Also at Theatre IV, we currently have four shows on tour to schools nationwide: Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad, Hugs and Kisses, I Have a Dream - The Life and Times of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Sojourner Truth. If we have to cancel half of their bookings this coming week, which seems optimistic considering the geographical breadth of this storm, we will lose an additional $12 to $20 thousand--depending on which shows get cancelled.

And in this case, the losses are truly losses. Our tours are virtually sold out for the rest of their runs. In almost every case, there will be no opportunities to reschedule performances.

Then there's the matter of First Baptist of Ivy Gap, the fun and heartwarming new comedy that was scheduled for all day and evening tech rehearsals yesterday and today at Hanover Tavern, leading to an Opening Night on Friday. Both days of tech have been cancelled, due to the fact that it would be irresponsible to require cast and crew to trek across 30 miles of unplowed roads to park in an unplowed lot. At the end of the day, Ivy Gap is only a play--not worth the potential loss of life, limb or crankshaft.

At this moment, without having the full day tech rehearsals, I don't see how it will be possible to open on time. Nothing is definite yet, but if we have to postpone our well-sold opening weekend, that could cost Barksdale an additional $12,000.

Add it all up, and we're looking at a potential loss of $40,000 or more. In this already chilly economy, a loss of this size would be crippling. And it's only January.

We've weathered these storms before, and we'll weather them again this time. But if you get a friendly call from any Richmond box office asking if you'll accept an exchange rather than require a refund for a cancelled performance, please consider the situation we nonprofit theatres are in, and be kind.

Many, many thanks.

--Bruce Miller

A Day in the Life of a Theatre Checkbook

Posted by Bruce Miller
It was my turn to sign checks this morning. Lucas Hall, our accounts payable manager, sends out checks two to four times a week. He rotates signing privileges among four of us, so that one of us doesn’t get stuck signing 100 to 150 checks at any one sitting.

In light of recent discussions about the significant costs of sustaining a professional nonprofit theatre operation in Richmond, it was interesting to me, as I was signing away about $25,000 this morning, to record this one tiny snapshot of what Barksdale and Theatre IV spend almost every working day of the year.

I was lucky. This signing didn’t include a show payroll. Show payrolls take the longest.

Here’s what we paid out to vendors today, rounded to the nearest dollar:

$ 3,522 – quarterly payment, Hugs evaluation
$ 598 – partial payment, printing of TIV 09-10 mainstage brochure
$ 778 – printing of TIV annual appeal
$ 553 – annual development trip expenses
$ 610 – HVAC maintenance, Empire & office
$ 145 – copier maintenance, office
$ 450 – set and costume storage – one month
$ 1,096 – partial payment, TIV 09-10 tour brochure
$ 112 – one night, Millie security
$ 1,199 – ad buy, newspaper
$ 3,380 – monthly electric, Empire, office, one actor house
$ 2,919 – monthly water/sewage and gas, Empire
$ 500 – website ad buy
$ 2,173 – set materials this month
$ 3,485 – monthly rent: office, parking, actor house
$ 354 – t-shirts for summer camp
$ 146 – brake repair, one tour van
$ 342 – ad buy, university student directory
$ 200 – monthly IT services, office & box office
$ 239 – Empire dumpster
$ 97 – gas for production van
$ 166 – copier maintenance, Empire
$ 25 – overflow answering service, TIV America
$ 278 – utilities, one actor house
$ 2,010 – monthly phone / Internet

These bills add up to approximately $25,000. All told this week, we paid out approximately $139,000. Our average weekly payout is $96,000. All told this year, we’ll expend approximately $5 million.

People often ask, “Where does your money come from?” Many people think there’s some sort of fund from which we draw to pay our bills. There isn’t. That $96,000 average weekly expenditure comes from the $96,000 we need to bring in each week. If the money doesn’t come in, it doesn’t go out.

In the case of Barksdale Theatre and Theatre IV, on average, $38,275 comes in each week in Richmond ticket sales, $33,480 comes from tour revenue, $1,490 comes from miscellaneous revenue (playbill ad sales, concessions, facility rentals, special projects, etc.) and $22,275 comes in from contributions and special events. This means that approximately 23.3% of our revenue is contributed. The national average for a professional theatre is 40%.

I’ll crunch these numbers a little more in an upcoming post.

--Bruce Miller

Betting Our Bottom Dollar

Posted by Bruce Miller
Between December 2007 and March 2008, the Boards of Trustees, Phil and I made two big, proactive decisions. We scheduled the elimination of five positions from the staff of Barksdale/Theatre IV, and we announced three Depression Era plays/musicals for our upcoming seasons.

It may not have been clear to everyone at the time, but for those of us whose job it was to keep our eyes on the books on a day to day basis, the writing was on the wall.

The positions we eliminated amounted to approximately 11% of our total administrative workforce (staffers, not actors and other theatre artists). Like all RIF actions, these eliminations were painful. They continue to strain our operations.

The eliminations were also necessary. They reduced annual expenditures by approximately $140,000.

The five positions that were eliminated, two by attrition, included Associate Artistic Director, Special Projects Manager, Marketing Associate, Group Sales Manager, and Receptionist/Bookkeeping Associate. If and when the economy rebounds, we hope to be able to restore each of these sorely needed positions.

The shows we announced related to the Depression, but they were all upbeat and inspirational, and reflected the current zeitgeist. They were Barksdale’s productions of A Sanders Family Christmas at Hanover Tavern and This Wonderful Life at Willow Lawn, and Theatre IV’s production of Annie, which just opened on Friday at our historic Empire.

The public seems to appreciate our decision. These have been three of the four biggest hits of our 2008-09 Seasons (Driving Miss Daisy being the fourth).

Susie Haubenstock’s review of Annie appears in this morning’s Metro section. “In tough times,” the headline trumpets, “this musical is just what the doctor ordered.”

“Think that Annie is just for kids? The 1977 powerhouse musical by Thomas Meehan, Charles Strouse and Martin Charnin is a favorite of young audiences, surely, but rarely in history has it seemed so appropriate for older ones as well. Theatre IV’s current production is big and stylish and full of fun—and loaded with Depression-era nostalgia that’s all too pertinent today. But being Annie, the attitude is sunny, hopeful and positive—a real tonic for us veterans of bailouts and layoffs.”

“The story of those plucky orphans under the yoke of the tippling Miss Hannigan still works like a well-oiled machine. There’s a super-sized cast of 26 people and one irresistible dog, and a sumptuous scenic design by Mercedes Schaum. No skimping here. Robin Arthur’s direction hits just the right note—she’s an ace with the orphans, who are cute but never cloying, and her choreography (especially for Easy Street) is fresh and funny.”

Susie continues to praise the entire cast, the remaining designers, and the production as a whole.

So no matter what your age, if you need a lift from the recession-riddled headlines, trundle on down to the historic Empire and take part in Barksdale and Theatre IV’s own stimulus program. You’ll have a GREAT evening in the theatre, laugh and cheer, and help our nonprofit companies triumph, God willing, over this economy that continues to kick us in the shins.

We need you. Hope to see you at Annie, Well, I Ought to be in Pictures, and all our other upcoming productions.

--Bruce Miller

Thank You Governor Tim Kaine!

Posted by Bruce Miller on Behalf of Alan Albert, Virginians for the Arts
This just in:

"ARTS FUNDING SPARED FURTHER CUTS IN GOVERNOR'S BUDGET PROPOSAL

We are relieved -- relieved and grateful -- to announce that Governor Kaine's proposed 2009 Budget Bill makes no further cuts in arts funding in the Commonwealth. The 15% cut applied to the present state fiscal year (FY 2009) is carried forward into FY 2010 in the Governor's proposal. This means that the total general fund appropriation for the arts will be reduced by slightly more than $930,000 over its original budgeted level for 2010 -- virtually the same reduction already put into place for the current fiscal year.

In a budget-writing season fraught with painful decisions, the arts community is enormously grateful to Governor Kaine and Secretary of Education Tom Morris for recognizing the vitally important role that state funding plays in keeping our cultural infrastructure intact during this very difficult time for nonprofit arts and cultural groups.

But our work has just begun. The Governor's proposal is just that -- a proposal -- and the General Assembly will place its own stamp on the spending plan over the next two months. It is more important now than ever that arts supporters meet with or at least write to their legislators and stress the importance of not making further cuts to arts funding. The very survival of many arts groups, already buffeted by the economic downturn, literally rests in the balance, and the outcome is far from assured.

If you have not contacted your legislators yet, please do so today. Tell them that the arts community is doing its part -- taking cuts every bit as deep as, for instance, higher education and the worst-hit of state agencies -- but cannot take further cuts without losing key components of our cultural infrastructure.

And while you are at it, please take a moment to thank the Governor and the Secretary of Education for what they have done. In the current climate, their actions are the most positive outcome for which we realistically could have hoped. Those actions are courageous and deserve our praise.

Alan Albert
Legislative Counsel
Virginians for the Arts"

Write Governor Timothy Kaine:
The Honorable Timothy M. Kaine
Office of the Governor
Commonwealth of Virginia
Post Office Box 1475
Richmond, Virginia 23218

Write Secretary of Education Thomas Morris:
The Honorable Thomas R. Morris
Secretary of Education
Commonwealth of Virginia
Post Office Box 1475
Richmond, Virginia 23218

--This message was written by Alan Albert, Virginians for the Arts

Final note from Bruce - This is really a wonderful sign of support from Governor Kaine. Please write to thank him, and Secretary Morris. Let's bury their desks in thank you notes. Remember, when Governor Wilder was faced with a less troubling recession in the early 80s, he cut the Virginia Commission for the Arts disproportionately from every other agency, costing individual nonprofit arts groups devastating cuts of approximately 65%. Governor Kaine has held fast at 15%. He gets it!!! Let's please all thank him.

--Bruce Miller

Appearance of Theatres Fails to Pass Muster

Posted by Bruce Miller
I received the following unsigned letter in my office this morning. It’s worth sharing.

“Oct 2, 2008

Dear Mr. Miller:

I write to you without including my name in the interest of simplicity, and hope that I do not offend.

I have found much to love and enjoy in the numerous Barksdale productions that I have seen over the past few years. My first was The Full Monty; the most recent was Guys and Dolls. Doubt was, for me, the most powerful.

When attending Barksdale productions, I feel you should know what a big impression the atmospherics of the Willow Lawn and Empire venues have made on me, and I do not mean in a positive sense.

The Willow Lawn lobby cries out for re-modeling. It puts one in mind of a neglected moose lodge. Its current appearance is jarring and does not do justice to, or reflect, the level of excellence on stage. This is not an expensive proposition and could be solved with some cans of paint and a few trips to Ikea. It needs light colors, modern lighting and sleek, updated furniture. You have talent on your technical staff who would no doubt do a fabulous job of re-modeling.

The Empire Theater is obviously a treasure and beloved by Richmond. I remain mystified, however, by the abject and, frankly, embarrassing appearance of the outside presentation of the theater. It looks abandoned and neglected. The marquee must be lit up! The front of the Empire Theater needs to be lit up to look alive and welcoming! Right now, it looks like it is closed and waiting for demolition. The presentation window boxes which face the street are not lit and do not feature the posters of the show that is currently playing. I cannot understand this. It’s as though what is going on inside the theater is beside the point based on what the outside of the theater is telling the public. One of the presentation windows has broken glass. This makes a very bad impression of neglect.

I realize that keeping a theater in running order is very expensive. The solutions to the above problems, however, do not require huge investments of money.

Best of everything and keep up the otherwise very good work.”

I agree with much of what is included in this letter, and appreciate receiving it. I’ll respond in a subsequent blog posting. Please feel free to offer your opinions.

Hope to see you at our rundown theatres!

--Bruce Miller

This Labor Day, Celebrate Arts Employment

Posted by Bruce Miller
Today, Barksdale and Theatre IV employ 37 arts professionals working in full-time jobs. It was 39 a few months ago, but we’ve had to reduce staff by two due to financial woes associated with the national recession.

This seems like a lot of people, and it is. But when you consider all we do (33 different productions, many of them touring throughout 32 states, plus all the ancillary activities), we’re actually understaffed.

In addition to these 37 full-time positions, we employ:
· several wonderful box office workers who are paid on an hourly basis, · several talented interns who work on a seasonal basis for weekly stipends,
· several skilled part-time workers who put in less than 40 hours per week in various capacities,
· tens of touring actors who keep Theatre IV’s national tour going strong, and
· legions of freelance actors, directors, designers etc whose talents power our mainstage productions.

We also budget $15,000 per year for hourly production overhire.

All told, Barksdale and Theatre IV invest approximately $2.2 million annually in Virginia’s workforce. If that doesn’t seem like a lot to you, then you’re not one of the ones loosing sleep every two weeks worrying about how we’re going to meet payroll. There’s no grand fund set aside somewhere to cover these and other expenses. We pay out only what we bring in. To meet budget, we need to sell approximately $70,000 per week in tickets and tour shows, and raise approximately $30,000 per week in contributions. During this recession, meeting these goals has been, and will continue to be, very challenging.

That's why I vigorously support continued state funding for the Virginia Commission for the Arts. Additional state cuts will mean additional layoffs, and additional layoffs, at Barksdale and at other nonprofit arts organizations statewide, will ultimately increase rather than decrease Virginia's financial woes.

The arts are a labor intensive industry, which is good for Virginians and the state economy. On average, Virginia’s arts and cultural organizations spend 44.2% of their revenues on labor, 37.2% on other production expenses, 9.8% on facilities, 7.4% on marketing, and 1.4% on state and local taxes and fees. This is a nonprofit industry.

In 2000, Virginians for the Arts, our statewide advocacy group, did an economic impact study in cooperation with the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the Virginia Association of Museums. The study was prepared independently by The Wessex Group, Ltd., located in Williamsburg. I mentioned this study in a previous post. The findings of the study indicate that eight years ago, arts and cultural organizations comprised a major sector of the Virginia economy.

In 2000, 12,507 Virginians were directly employed by arts and cultural organizations (full-time and part-time). They were paid $157.8 million in salary and benefits. An additional 6,344 full-time Virginia jobs were financed indirectly by the economic impact that arts and cultural organizations have on Virginia’s support businesses and independent contractors. All told, in 2000, $306.6 million was paid to 18,851 Virginia workers by Virginia’s arts and cultural organizations.

Additionally, the 2000 study found that arts and cultural organizations in Virginia annually generate $849 million in revenues for Virginia businesses and $342 million in revenues for Virginia tourism businesses through spending by out-of-state visitors who come to see Virginia’s arts and cultural organizations. That’s a total injection into the Virginia economy of nearly $1.2 billion.

I know, it’s a lot of numbers, and they’re eight years out of date. But they’re important. If we don’t celebrate employment in the arts, nobody will. Many of those who make decisions about state funding simply don’t care about the intrinsic value of the arts, but they might care—they ought to care—about how the arts positively effect Virginia’s economy.

Labor Day originated in 1882 when the Central Labor Union of New York City asked the nation to take a day to value America’s workforce, the engine that always has and always will power our nation. This made sense to the U. S. Congress, and so they made Labor Day a federal holiday in 1894. Today, Labor Day is honored by all 50 states.

We who work in or care about the nonprofit arts sector need to make sure that we also get in the game. We need to remember that Labor Day not only marks the closing of our neighborhood pools, plus the beginning of the Virginia public school year and the NFL and NCAA football seasons. Labor Day is our chance to remind all Virginians that the nonprofit arts sector and its 18,851 jobs represent an irreplaceable force in the state economy. The arts are not a frill or a nicety. We are a cornerstone industry, crucial to the Commonwealth and its financial well-being.

--Posted by Bruce Miller

The Show Must - Ah Choo! - Go On

Posted by Bruce Miller

So you know that cold/flu bug that seems to be wiping out everyone you meet? Well, that same destroyer of throats, noses, sinuses and any and all other body parts having to do with breathing, talking and basically standing upright seems to have hit 4/5 of the cast of Swingtime Canteen.

The only healthy songstress—at least we hope she’s still healthy—is Vilma Gil.

It all started last week with Jan Guarino. We love Jan. So apparently did some airborne virus. Our five wonderful singers were all doing just fine until, with little warning, Jan shows up one night sounding like a frog—and feeling like a frog who’s been run over by a beer truck. Trooper that she is, she went on stage all smiles and, only on occasion, had to cut one of her songs or quickly summon the other women to join her at the microphone to cover the melody.

Jan was feeling so badly on Monday we cancelled Tuesday’s performance to give her a little rest before shows began again on Thursday. I went out to the Tavern Thursday night to see how Jan and the show were doing, only to find the entire dressing room now packed with wheezing, sneezing, coughing women.

All dressed up in their 1940s gowns and hairdos, they looked lovely but were starting to sound like the Andrews Sisters with a foghorn filling in for Maxine.

So why not send in their understudies? As most of you know, that answer is simple. We don’t have understudies. The economic model of a 156-seat theatre performing four times a week is this. You count on selling at 75% capacity (approximately 470 tickets per week). With subscriber, group and other discounts, you plan on averaging $32 per ticket (approximately $15,000 per week). To that earned revenue, you add approximately $4,000 in contributed support (contributions make up just about 21% of gross revenue).

From that $19,000 in gross weekly revenue, subtract:
$2,300 for talent and nightly personnel;
$2,200 for royalties and music rental;
$2,100 for weekly allocation towards sets, lights, costumes and sound;
$2,000 for rent and other facility expenses;
$1,900 for ad buys, brochures, subscriber campaign allocation;
$1,600 for playbills, box office, Internet ticketing and credit card fees;
$1,500 for marketing, promotion and group sales personnel;
$1,100 for development and accounting personnel and audit allocation;
$900 for support facilities (offices, shops, rehearsal hall) and website allocation;
$550 for insurance and business fees; and
$2,850 (15%) for overhead.

Which leaves nothing, nada, zero, goose egg for understudies.

So, many MANY thanks to the heroines of this story, our noble actresses who approach those vintage microphones night after night feeling miserable but looking like they’re on the top of the world, singing gamely on even though they know they’re not sounding their very best. Like so much in the Greater Richmond theatre business, our actors and other theatre artists carry the day, night after night and show after show. They bear much of the weight of our industry on their shoulders, even when they’re feeling lousy. All of us, administrators and audience members alike, owe them our undying gratitude.

--Bruce Miller

Playing to a Diverse Audience

Posted by Bruce Miller

For the last couple of decades, we’ve all talked a lot about the desirability of performing for a diverse audience. In many instances, what we have meant by a “diverse audience” is one that includes a greater racial and ethnic mix. This worthy and important goal is always a major component of our planning at Barksdale and Theatre IV.

There are also other ways to build diversity. At Barksdale, we work hard to achieve economic diversity. Our many discount and needs-based ticket programs are centered on our refusal to allow lack of funds to be a roadblock to anyone who’d like to see one of our shows. We have never and will never turn anyone away based on their inability to pay.

We also have developed initiatives to increase age diversity. Barksdale Theatre Workshop consists of several efforts meant to connect us with high school and university drama enthusiasts. The Bifocals Theatre Project is a popular program designed to maintain and increase the loyalty of our senior audience. Contemporary plays like The Little Dog Laughed, Brooklyn Boy, Melissa Arctic, 5th of July, etc. have been selected each year specifically to encourage more participation from audience members in their 20s, 30s and 40s.

When considering the many ways in which an audience can include diverse individuals, one should not overlook that dividing line that separates those who experience theatre as an art form from those who appreciate theatre purely as entertainment. If you are trying to attract a relatively large audience in Richmond—and make no mistake, that's exactly what Barksdale is trying to do—you will most likely find yourself trying to appeal to both camps.

Our budgets rely on selling six to ten thousand tickets to each production. Looking at the big picture, Barksdale and Theatre IV need to sell $70,000 worth of tickets and tour shows every week in order to make ends meet. When performing for audiences of this size, we know that some ticket buyers will come with a sophisticated and knowledgeable approach to theatre, and others will come for a night on the town.

Yes, I know of the instances when great art and great entertainment are found in the same show. Those are the plays and productions we cherish and cheer. I also know of the great many plays that are more likely to appeal to the “challenge and thrill me” crowd than to their “show me a good time but don’t make me think” brothers. And vise versa.

My recent blog post about the Broadway stagehands strike made me consider anew the diversity of the audience we are building. One commenter clearly felt that it was not necessary or appropriate for me to “explain” the strike negotiations because he/she and his/her peers were “already following the news.” A couple subsequent commenters supported my efforts to report on the labor dispute, admitting that they relied on the Barksdale blog to fill them in because they made few efforts to keep up with national theatre news through other outlets.

Within the Barksdale family, we're proud to have both those who take theatre seriously and those who want to have some serious fun. We welcome and try to program to both perspectives.

Amy Berlin (pictured to the left with one-time writing partner P. Ann Bucci) rightly called me to task months ago when I awkwardly compared Barksdale’s mission to produce “the great comedies, dramas and musicals—past, present and future” to the missions of Greater Richmond’s other theatres. I don’t want to make the same mistake again.

So, without comparing any one theatre to another, I’ll simply state how proud I am that Barksdale produces plays on our Signature Season at Willow Lawn as important, diverse and artistically satisfying as The Constant Wife by Somerset Maugham; Mame by Jerry Herman, Lawrence and Lee; Brooklyn Boy by Donald Margulies; Intimate Apparel by Lynn Nottage (pictured above with Adanma Onyedike and Katrinah Carol Lewis); Into the Woods by Sondheim and Lapine; The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers; Moonlight and Magnolias by Ron Hutchinson; Doubt: A Parable by John Patrick Shanley; The Little Dog Laughed by Douglas Carter Beane; and Guys and Dolls by Frank Loesser.

And for those who want lighter fare, we offer our more commercial County Playhouse Season at Hanover Tavern—our “Pops Series,” if you like to use symphony nomenclature.

In coming blog posts, I’m going to give some thought to the various institutional pros and cons of trying to appeal simultaneously to those who are arts savvy and those who are entertainment enthusiasts. As always, I encourage your thoughts as well.

--Bruce Miller