Foothills
theater reports troubled season
Regrouping efforts in full swing
by Jennifer
Krahe
CAVE CREEK As the show begins, all light in the theater grows dim.
Eyes widen. Blink once. Twice. The audience quiets itself, settles
into their seats, faces forward, and takes in a collective breath,
anticipating. This ancient ritual reaches back 2000 years to the
banks of the Nile, and the genesis of performance art itself in
the form of short, uncomplicated religious plays.
That timeless ritual replayed itself once again, not in Mesopotamia,
but on stage at Cactus Shadows Fine Arts Center this past Sunday.
Desert Foothills Theater was offering to the public its last show
of the season: "Forever Plaid."
Just as theater itself has humble beginnings that became a vibrant
worldwide phenomenon, DFT has its own modest, storied past: performances
in the desert with nothing but a canvas tarp for protection and
impromptu dress rehearsals in the middle of El Pedregal. After their
next venue, Pierre's Playhouse, was consumed by fire, the expansive
400 seat Cactus Shadows Fine Arts Center became their home.
To look out the doors of the Center at the Sonoran Desert is to
look back into the theater's past. Sadly, it seems that the DFT
has a somewhat
questionable future.
There is no formal schedule set for the 2006 2007 season. While
rumors abound that the season has simply been cancelled, Susan Vanik,
the President of the Foothills Community Association, assures "as
long as there is a Foothills Foundation, there will be a Desert
Foothills Theater." (The Foothills Community Association functions
as an umbrella organization under which DFT falls.) The theater,
she reports, is planning one major show and smaller shows in smaller
venues. In the foundation's opinion, the Desert Foothills Theater,
as it exists within the Foundation's jurisdiction, remains intact.
DFT, however, has a somewhat different perception. "I can't
speak for Susan and the Foundation but the theater regards its situation
as desperate. We had a full season planned and it was cancelled
due to lack of funds," says Vickilyn Hussey, the publicity
director for DFT. "At the end of this season it looked like
we were projecting a $35,000 deficit. The theater owed the foundation
$35,000 with the matching donation campaign; we only came up with
$15,000."
"DFT," Hussey reports, "is very grateful to the foundation
and its gift of $35,000. The foundation expects that each of its
programs raise its own funds. That's not unreasonable." But
if the expectation is that the theater step in and raise the rest
of the money, Payne's frustration is that no one realizes the theater
is in trouble.
DFT does not blame the volunteers, who are the heart and soul of
the organization, or the community, or the media. It just seems
that the public was not aware of the theater's dire situation. "Because
the theater has been around so long, everyone thinks its fine,"
says Payne.
"But we are $65,000 down from previous years."
Payne's assessment is likely correct. It would seem that some in
the community are simply unable to comprehend the amount of money
needed to put on a show. Payne remembered a donor's promise of fully
funding a fourth show for the 2005 2006 season. Upon seeing the
price tag of $18,000, the donor balked, and gave $1,000 instead.
The theater is well aware that it is becoming increasingly more
difficult to secure donations from companies, whether it be because
they've restructured their giving due to their own financial troubles,
as APS did, or their main office is not in Arizona, let alone in
the Foothills area.
Grants are available, but they are limited and limiting. Hussey
points out that funding can be dependent on what shows a theater
is doing, and for whom. If a theater is not doing a children's show
in a particular season, for example, and grant funding is only to
be used toward a children's show, then a grant is not given-a frustrating
situation to say the least.
DFT, however, is not anticipating "going dark" forever;
the paring down of the upcoming season is a re grouping of sorts,
albeit amid a very serious financial crisis.
The resolve in DFT Chairman Toby Payne's voice is unmistakable.
A student of theater all his life, he admits the financial troubles
of DFT opened his eyes. Certainly not a stranger to solving the
theater's woes, he is tackling the current predicament with the
fervored devotion of one who understands the importance of theater
within the community. With the realization that funding is the only
way to breathe life back into the organization, Payne is concentrating
on corporate sponsorship opportunities and community donations.
The first action he took was to disband the current steering committee.
Amid mixed support and dissent, disappointed with its lack of action,
he is seeking savvy, highly motivated fundraisers to fill its shoes.
The issues posed by an unaware community and inaccessible corporate
funds are compounded by the undeniable quality of the DFT shows
themselves. Hussey suggests the continuously flawless productions
put on by the theater are keeping the funding problems a secret.
Apparently when financial problems set in, the average theater goer
expects there to be a noticeable drop in the quality of the productions.
Not so with Desert Foothills. "This past season has been the
theater's strongest," Payne reports.
Thirty years after Anne and Carl Nusbaum built Desert Foothills
Theater from quite literally the ground up, the community is graced
with
theater worthy of perpetuation. If Toby Payne and the Foothills
Foundation can bring the organization out of its financial trouble,
the lights will dim on the eve of the 2007 2008 season, the audience
will blink once, twice, and another spectacular season will soon
open.
Both the Foothills Foundation and the Desert Foothills Theater are
united in their optimism that if members from the community step
forward, this could be a season of fundraising and 2007 2008 could
be a full season of Broadway shows. The goal is the same.
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