news-record.com

GREENSBORO - The Greensboro Symphony Orchestra has changed its April concert program to one less expensive to produce.

Ditto for Triad Stage and its June play.

The Eastern Music Festival plans fewer concerts in its summer Fringe series.

Meanwhile, Community Theatre of Greensboro wonders whether it should take the financial gamble of mounting a summer play this year.

Risk. Uncertainty.

Those words pepper dialogue more frequently these days among performing arts organizations as they try to figure out how to produce enticing and affordable shows during an economic recession.

"In all my 19 years at CTG, I have never had so many problems trying to figure out what to do," executive director Mitchel Sommers says. "Which plays? Where to put on the play? How much to charge for the play?"

* * * * *

Many planned their 2008-09 seasons a year ago during better economic times.

Now they present those shows -- and plan next season -- amid national declines in single-ticket sales, grants, endowments, sponsorships and donations that nonprofits count on to balance budgets.

That's left many arts groups with no other choice but to get creative on revising programming that can cut costs but keep audiences coming.

The downtown Broach Theatre programmed shows this year with casts no larger than six -- and more comedies than dramas.

"If you want to cry, open your 401(k) envelope," co-founder Stephen Gee says.

Aside from its popular holiday production of "The Nutcracker" at War Memorial Auditorium, Greensboro Ballet will do more studio series in its Greensboro Cultural Center home, where it can offer lower-priced tickets.

"In the spring, we usually have a bigger show, but I just feel that I don't need to risk that," ballet CEO Maryhelen Mayfield says.

At Triad Stage, "We have been working really hard to balance the equation between artistic risk and fiscal responsibility," managing director Richard Whittington says. "It's a really tough balancing act."

For the downtown professional theater, that act has been complicated by a 7 percent drop in single-ticket buyers since October.

And other unknowns loom.

Will this year's 3,058 season pass-holders renew?

Can it count on donors being as generous they were in 2008?

Will it still receive a grant from the United Arts Council of Greater Greensboro now that guidelines have changed?

"Uncertainty is the theme of the day now," Whittington says.

To cope, the theater replaced its planned June production of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" with a smaller-cast Moliere comedy, "Tartuffe, or the Hypocrite."

That will save about $35,000.

Upstairs in its 80-seat UpStage Cabaret, it cut short the run of its February show, "Mad at Miles," and canceled April's "Shakespeare's R&J."

It still offers music and film there, and Whittington wants cabaret plays to return.

"We have to figure out a way to lower costs," he says.

Next season, it will produce five MainStage plays instead of six, which lowers the cost of a season pass, but also lets it extend runs of popular plays.

"We want to make sure that we do everything we can to keep our shows affordable," Whittington says.

And like some other arts organizations, Triad Stage will look for relief from a new source: President Barack Obama's economic stimulus package. It included $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts. Eligible groups can apply for grants for projects that preserve jobs in the arts.

Even with theaters closing in other states, Whittington believes that Triad Stage will survive the recession.

"We don't want to have a 'Save Triad Stage' appeal out there. That's why we are making tough decisions now."

* * * * *

Other organizations have been making them, too.

The Greensboro Symphony cut nearly $83,000 in expenses this season, president and CEO Lisa Crawford says.

It changed the program for April concerts, for example, so that it doesn't have to hire extra musicians. Instead of flying in a guest cellist, it will bring in a soprano from a place closer to home -- Charlotte.

More budget cuts are in store next season.

The orchestra will play music either in its library or in the public domain, so it doesn't have to pay rental fees that can run $1,200-$2,500.

Most Saturday concerts will move from War Memorial Auditorium to Guilford College's Dana Auditorium, which offers better acoustics but just as important, lower costs.

"We are showing donors and investors that we are aware of what is going on in the world," Crawford says, "and have taken steps to show that we are a wise investment."

At the Eastern Music Festival, it's business as usual -- just with less money. The summer classical series still will bring the same number of guest artists as last year for Saturday concerts.

But to do that, organizers had to trim costs elsewhere.

Student scholarships have been cut by 30 percent.

Teaching faculty have been reduced, although it still has a full faculty orchestra.

Consultants won't be hired.

And perhaps the biggest change: Its summer Fringe series of alternative music will be reduced -- from 12 concerts last year to between five and eight this year.

To fill seats in a tight economy, the series will rely heavily on popular artists from past years.

"We don't have the option of taking risks this year," EMF executive director Stephanie Cordick says. "They have to sell out to cover the costs of the concert."

* 

* 

* 

* 

*

Joe Nierle took a big risk in 2007.

The retired high school drama teacher had left his job with a Pennsylvania theater to move south and start one of his own.

He opened the Open Space Café Theatre on West Market Street in the former home of an Asian grocery store. The 70-seat theater found an audience with a mix of comedies, musicals and dramas.

"I always believed in the theater and that it would succeed," Nierle says.

But with the economic downtown, he worries about the future: Will Open Space still be able to afford its venue?

"It might have to survive without a permanent home, and rent other spaces show to show," Nierle says.

The theater relies on ticket sales for income, and those declined for its February show. So have donations and program ads.

Nierle programmed smaller-cast shows for 2009, cut back on actors' pay and relies on volunteers to help out.

Still, he faces yet another challenge. Although Open Space is a nonprofit, Nierle waits for the IRS to grant the theater federal nonprofit status. Without it, Open Space doesn't qualify for operating grants as other nonprofit theaters do.

So Nierle and his board of directors hang on, hoping that ticket sales for its comedy, "Flanagan's Wake," help to keep the theater alive.

"If we can't get grants or money soon," Nierle says, "we are in real financial trouble."

Contact Dawn DeCwikiel-Kane at 373-5204 or dawn.kane@news-record.com