UPDATE: As of Monday, October 10th, the challenge has officially ended and we are proud to announce that we made it! In fact, we have exceeded our goal of $90,000 by over $14,000. We cannot fully express our gratitude to those who have shown how much they value what we do.
UPDATE: Internationally known psychic and medium Michael Brooker will be holding a special gallery-style reading on October 1st at Wayside Theatre in support of our campaign. Mr. Brooker, who has practiced his craft for over 30 years, even consulting for the BBC, will be donating all proceeds from the evening to our $90,000 fund. Read this flyer for more details. We hope to see you there!
UPDATE: Thanks to the generous support of our donors, the campaign has earned over $70,000 so far! We're so close to our goal, and we could not have done it without the help of those listed below:
List of Donors to the Emergency Campaign
The list will continue to be updated as we receive more donations.
An Important Message from the Artistic Director
Introduction
Thank you for taking the time to come read this information. More than likely you’re here because you received one of our emergency appeal letters or emails that pointed you this information. Whether that’s the case or you’ve come here on your own, this webpage is intended to provide some much-needed context for Wayside Theatre’s Emergency Campaign. Again, thanks for taking the time to read this. We know it is long, but we strongly believe this information is vital for those who are considering helping Wayside Theatre keep its doors open and the magic of theatre alive.
The Emergency Campaign
For the reasons you will read in this document Wayside Theatre has reached a make or break moment in its 50-season history. It’s no secret that the theatre, like many of its sister arts organizations, has been struggling since the economic crash of 2008. Wayside Theatre’s staff and Board of Directors have been working diligently to keep the theatre alive and kicking, but we’ve reached the point where we either need some emergency funding or we’re going to have to close the doors on this historic professional theatre.
To be blunt, we need to raise $90,000 in the next 45 days in order to stay open. There’s no middle ground here. Many of our creditors and business partners have been as generous as they can be throughout these last few years, but as they struggle to meet their own financial challenges, they’ve gone as far as their good graces can allow them to go. The story you are about to read will tell you how we arrived at this point. It’s filled with some amazing facts and it might make you wonder how we’ve managed to get this far. The simple answer to that is the passion and the desire that the artists, educators, and volunteers who care about creating live professional theatre at Wayside Theatre have kept things going through their sacrifice and that passion. If you choose to help us out in this campaign, we urge you to do so with the utmost haste. The simplest and most direct way to do so is to call our Box Office at (540) 869-1776 and make a donation over the phone. You can also hit the Donate button on this webpage and that donation will come to us securely via PayPal. Of course checks are always welcome.
Wayside is my second home and the people here are my second family.
- Wayside Guestbook
Our Story
Wayside Theatre has always struggled financially. As a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) corporation it depends on ticket sales and donations to meet its costs. Culturally, socially, and politically, the reasons arts organizations were set up as not-for-profits have changed substantially from the original intent. Initially this type of organizing principle was set up in the 1960’s so that theatres like Wayside Theatre would not have to rely on the commercial pressure of the box office in order to bring the arts to communities like our Northern Shenandoah Valley. As stated, that has changed and while Wayside Theatre still finds itself in constant search of funding, it lives and dies at the box office.
The Double-Edged Sword
Nothing demonstrates the conundrum that is Wayside Theatre as much as its current situation. The opening show of the 50th Anniversary Season, Reunion: A Musical Epic in Miniature, was loved by the small numbers of audience members who saw the show and praised highly. But it proved not to be a show that captured the public’s imagination. That said, a concurrent campaign to match a donor’s $50,000 challenge yielded almost $20,000 during Reunion’s four-week run. Many of those contributions were made because of the quality and content of that show. The second show, The Nerd, a more commercial comedy, yielded more ticket sales, but during its same length of run only generated about $4,000 in donations towards that $50,000 challenge. The double-edged sword is easy to see. Audiences who respond to the more commercial fare are, by and large, not interested in becoming donors to the theatre, while those who crave more adventurous and thought-provoking programming are. Unfortunately, in the latter case, those numbers are not enough to sustain the theatre’s efforts via ticket sales and/or their generous donations. Likewise, those patrons who do donate are not as interested in investing in the theatre when its programming veers towards the commercial.
In and of itself that ongoing challenge would be big enough to keep the theatre and its staff and board working hard to make ends meet. But in the last 15 years, Wayside Theatre has had to find a way to meet that challenge while navigating a minefield of events - each of which could have forced the theatre to close its doors numerous times.
Tracee and I had our first date here in 1996. We saw Ten Little Indians. We came back and visited the theatre again on our way down to Williamsburg. We have been married for twelve years so the theatre is good luck!
-Wayside Guestbook
The Lord Fairfax Controversy
In the middle and late 1990’s Wayside Theatre was engaged in serious discussion with Lord Fairfax Community College about moving its operations to a planned arts center that was to be built on that campus. This came after many years of frustrating negotiations with the organization’s founder, Leo M. Bernstein, over who should be responsible for the theatre’s then and current home at 7853 Main Sreet. Mr. Bernstein leased the property to the theatre for $1.00 per year. But he and the Board of Directors disagreed over who was responsible for the care and maintenance of the theatre facility. Consequently, the quaint and charming home of Wayside Theatre continually deteriorated. Seeking a way to continue the mission of the theatre without having to meet the challenges of the aging facility, Wayside Theatre entered into those discussions with LFCC.
Unfortunately, this was a contentious and controversial issue. The Board of Directors and members of the community were divided over this potential move. Some did not want to see the theatre leave its main street home. Others were greatly in favor of the move. No clear strategy was defined in this early going to bridge that gap. More to the point, fundraising for the new arts facility continued using Wayside Theatre as one of the principal draws for those funding dollars. Donors made pledges to LFCC believing - and at the time they had no reason not to - that they were contributing to the future of Wayside Theatre. We can identify over $360,000 in commitments, pledges, and donations which were made with Wayside Theatre in mind.
Sadly, due to changes in the economy and costs for the new facility exceeding the original planning, that new arts facility never came to be.
This occurred as Wayside Theatre entered the new millennium, and found many of its own fundraising efforts thwarted by these events. Potential donors refused support for Wayside Theatre on the grounds that they had already given when they donated to the LFCC arts center.
When those plans for the new arts center altered, however, funds directed towards the original project with Wayside Theatre in mind were absorbed into future plans for LFCC. Attempts were made to recover some of those funds at a later date, but that did not come to be.
I will always be thankful for Warner giving me my first professional design job out of grad school. Providing me a new family to be a part of. Wayside will always be home.
- Christopher M. Ham, former Lighting Designer
Taking Care of Business at Home
Undaunted, Wayside Theatre continued to offer professional theatre and added a new Education program to its efforts while it looked to expand its offerings to full year operation. Concurrently, Wayside Theatre identified two huge concerns that needed to be met. The aging facility needed to be renovated and the theatre needed to seek a second venue in order to expand its programming opportunities and provide a home for its growing Education programs. While plans were being made to those ends, Wayside Theatre also had to pay off a large debt from the 1999 season if it was to move forward.
That debt was paid off by the middle of the 2000 season and, believe it or not, things looked to be moving forward for the organization until the tragedy of September 11, 2001.
Like many businesses, especially those that depend on consumers’ disposable income and donations, Wayside Theatre saw its business almost collapse in the autumn of 2001. It took on debt to keep the theatre open and continued to move forward with its long range planning for the renovation and the expansion, while it adjusted to new realities. But the effects of those events in 2001 would have a lingering effect. As the economy suffered, this forced the state of Virginia to make drastic cuts in the Virginia Commission for the Arts funding to arts organizations. After reaching a high of $50,000 per year, Wayside Theatre saw these funds cut back to just over $20,000 in the year 2002. Individual donations also were reduced significantly in the years following 2001.
Southern Crossroads, The Nerd, and all the other great plays the Wayside puts on. How lucky we are to have you!
- Wayside Guestbook
Renovation and Expansion
Again, adjustments were made for the short term, as the long range planning continued. A part of that planning required that Mr. Bernstein gift the building to Wayside Theatre. After several years of negotiating that occurred in 2005, and at the same time Mr. Bernstein pledged $100,000 for the renovation and the expansion. With the building continuing to decay, efforts accelerated and an eventual cost for the renovation and the expansion was budgeted at $1.2 million dollars. When the organization reached commitments of just under $800,000 it was decided to go forward with the project and ground was broken in 2007.
Wayside Theatre opened a temporary home at the former Avtex Plant in Front Royal Virginia for the 2008/2009 season. While the intent was always to reoccupy the theatre’s traditional home in Middletown after the conclusion of the renovation, there were serious talks of using this Front Royal location as a second venue for Wayside Theatre in the future. Unfortunately, as with the Lord Fairfax Community College situation, these talks were met with contentious divisions within the Wayside Theatre’s Board of Directors and the community. Discussions continued and deal was almost reached that would have offered Wayside Theatre a dual-venue operation with some much needed necessary funding to operate the second venue. But, literally at the last minute, local political concerns scuttled the plans and funding and Wayside Theatre was forced to abandon those efforts.
Concurrently, as construction continued and Wayside Theatre planned to open its newly renovated home in Middletown, the real estate market was beginning to show signs of the crisis that we would all feel in the autumn of 2008. This led to over $500,000 of the commitments towards the renovation and the expansion that were tied to real estate being pulled. At the same time, Mr. Bernstein chose not to follow through on his leading $100,000 donation to the effort.
We've been subscribers for around 20 years. We thoroughly enjoy coming to the Wayside Theatre...You have some of the most talented people in the business.
- Wayside Guestbook
Return to Middletown
Wayside Theatre was left without a home - Middletown was under construction and funds were needed to complete that effort - with a season planned and tickets sold. Where it not for a true “theatre angel,” Wayside Theatre would have indeed seen its end at that point. Former board member and philanthropist, Dr. Byron Brill, stepped up and agreed to loan the theatre the funding to complete the construction. The renovation and expansion were divided into two phases, with all efforts focusing on just the renovation so that the theatre could re-open its doors. Thanks to Dr. Brill, the theatre reopened in July of 2008 to great success and plans on retiring debt were actually working well.
In September of 2008, when the global economy crashed, those efforts crashed with it. Ticket sales again fell to unsustainable levels and donations ceased. Wayside Theatre was forced to change its season following its annual Christmas production due to the shortfall and managed to make it through that 48th Season, but only by taking on more debt.
Heading into the 2009/2010 season, Wayside Theatre looked seriously at changing its entire operations but the decision was reached to go forward with the current model of a subscription season. New realities forced severe cuts in the budget that affected the theatre’s efforts on all fronts, most notably marketing. Intriguingly, our usual methods of reaching local customers (newspapers and radio) were also suffering declines in their audiences, making what efforts we pushed less than successful for the dollars we were able to spend. Towards the end of 2009, a large snowstorm forced the theatre to lose five performances of its annual Christmas production the weekend before Christmas - resulting in a $20,000 loss. A second snowstorm in February 2010 resulted in a loss of five performances of The Buddy Holly Story and another $20,000 loss.
Wayside again adjusted to new fiscal realities and began seriously addressing both long term and short-term debt. Heading into its 50th Anniversary Season a plan was put in place to raise $500,000 for the 50th with an eye towards retiring debt and also keeping operations moving forward. To date we’ve reached commitments of $325,000 towards that goal, but - and this is important - most of those funds will be coming in over a three to four year period as the very generous donors have apportioned their donations over a period of years. To some, that gave a false illusion of Wayside Theatre’s financial picture - which is why it is important to realize the time frame involved.
Throughout the events chronicled above, two things have remained constant. Wayside Theatre, its Board of Directors and staff have worked diligently to both cut expenses and find new forms of revenue. Since 2008, Wayside Theatre’s budget has been reduced from a high of just under $900,000 to $680,000 for this current fiscal year. Second, the artists and educators who create the programming have managed to keep to the high standards that audiences and patrons demand. Some have made sacrifices, including voluntary givebacks of salary, to see that these programs continue.
As Wayside Theatre entered into its 50th Anniversary Season in the summer of 2011, with costs reduced, the organization was relying far too heavily on the box office and individual donors to help it meet its costs. Unfortunately, with the economy still lagging and with an industry-wide slump in ticket sales, we have not met expectations and now find ourselves having exhausted the patience of many who have supported the theatre for quite some time - as well as our creditors and business partners. To say this is cumulative would be an understatement on all fronts, including the energies of those of us charged with the fight to keep going forward. We’ve recently made more budget cuts, including staff reductions. We are renegotiating terms with the Actors' Equity Union for the remainder of the season and looking at further cost pullbacks.
I first came here in 2000. I've done a dozen shows here, and each time I return the theatre family welcomes me with open arms.
-Faith Potts, Equity Actress
The Immediate Crisis
So, where do we stand? What is the real threat? Short term and long term debt stands at $1.1 million dollars. The immediate challenge is to retire $90,000 of the short term debt so that Wayside Theatre can manage and fulfill its obligations and continue operating. The majority of the long-term debt is secured by the theatre property with plans to retire it assuming we can reach a period where we can sustain a positive cash flow.
Wayside Theatre has overcome many obstacles in the past, but to be honest, it may not be able to do so at this juncture without your immediate support. As stated, we need to raise $90,000 in the next 45 days in order to give ourselves a chance to go forward. Our hope is that if you’ve taken the time to read this document, that you are interested in helping us meet that goal. The easiest and quickest way for you to help is to call our box office at (540) 869-1776 to make your donation. We are reaching out to approximately 5000 individuals who have enjoyed a production at Wayside Theatre or have seen their children benefit from our Education programs. We hope as many as possible understand the urgency of this appeal and that together we can reach this crucial goal as quickly as possible.
Thank you for taking the time to read this narrative and understand the issues Wayside theatre is facing. Thank you, again, for your continued support of Wayside Theatre.
Came to see Reunion and had great fun while I was here. Thanks so much for keeping theatre alive!
- Wayside Guestbook
"My resume is littered with theatres that have closed. I will not see a wonderful theatre close, run by great people that I hope to eventually get to work with, without doing something to try to help."
- Don Winsor, Actor
