By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
The Black Swamp Players want to cast people in a new role – financial supporters of the community theater troupe.
The 52-year-old company is on the verge of launching a capital campaign to raise funds to complete the acquisition of its new home on Oak Street in downtown Bowling Green.
A year ago, in July the Players announced that they had reached an agreement to purchase the church turned day care center for $175,000 through a lease arrangement. At the end of the two-year lease the Players would come up with the remainder of the purchase price.
The Players have already paid $35,000, in two lump sums, using money that already had been donated, said board president Heath Diehl
They also will owe three months of rent, $4,500, that the owner deferred because they had no revenue coming in because the theater has been shuttered as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
The timing of the purchase was unfortunate, but Diehl indicated that’s in keeping with the troupe’s history, which was born without a home, yet continued making theater wherever they could whether it was in a court room, retail space in a mall, or church hall.
The Oak Street Theatre would finally give the Players a place to call their own.
The pandemic, however, has put a crimp in the drive.
Ordinarily, Diehl said, they would have a silent phase when they would approach major givers for larger sums of money, and then they would reach out to the general public, announce what they had in hand, and the amount they still needed to raise.
But they can’t have face-to-face meetings readily with those donors, so they’ll launch the campaign with the intent of completing both phases at the same time.
“We’re starting this capital campaign regardless of being restricted by not being able to visit people,” he said. “We just need to do it all now.”
“We’re coming for you,” Deb Weiser, of the Players’ board, said wryly.
Over the years, the Players have largely depended on sale of season subscriptions and individual ticket sales. Weiser said they’d ask subscribers if they wanted to donate an extra $50 or so.
Ads in the programs also provided a revenue stream. But several years ago, the board found a lack of volunteer help and that fell by the wayside.
Weiser said she was the last person to try to sell ads for the program, and at that time a number of advertisers declined to continue. So they had pared down programs.
But going to a larger program with more advertising would provide more revenue.
The Players also intend on renting the space.
The Horizon Youth Theatre planned to present its Festival of Shorts at the Oak Street Theatre, but that like all live theater fell by the wayside as restrictions on gatherings were imposed.
That meant a monthly series of Monday performances in the space had to be canceled just as it was starting.
“COVID kind of cut us at the knees,” Diehl said.
A one-night dinner-theater fundraiser that was to be held this weekend had to be canceled as well as the final production of the season in April.
As of now, Diehl said, the Players still plan to stage Neil Simon’s “I Ought To Be in Pictures” in late September. The final decision needs to be made in July, he said, so there’s time for auditions and then rehearsals.
All this would take place in the Oak Street venue.
“With a few relatively minor tweaks that space can be used as a theater,” Diehl said. “I think our first season is going to be pretty bare bones. As someone who hopefully will act and direct in that season, that’s pretty exciting to have something that’s bare bones and a clean slate.”
Any funds for renovation will have to be raised after the building is paid for.
Top on the list of renovations is installing a rest room on the main floor. Right now, the rest room is downstairs.
There will be a ramp for this season though.
Weiser is optimistic that grants will be available to renovate and fix up the venue once they own it. That money, however, is not there to help with a purchase.
As they launch the capital campaign, the troupe is also looking toward establishing a long-term fundraising mechanism, something that has been lacking, Diehl said.
“At this point we’re putting all our effort into the capital campaign, so we have a space we can continue to operate out of.”
The campaign chairs – Lee and Milt Hakel and Kathy East – are enthusiastic about the troupe’s mission, and optimistic they can raise the funds. They are being assisted by veteran fundraiser Sharon Hanna.
“Everyone involved believes we can do it,” he said.
Once the building is theirs, Diehl said, the troupe will have more visibility in the community.
When the Players can perform again is a question.
Weiser said she’s been monitoring action on the state level, and can’t find any guidelines specifically for live theater. The closest are for movie theaters.
Diehl said that there is a great deal of confusion in the theater community. Some like the Toledo Rep, which just announced auditions for a production, seem to be forging ahead.
“Sooner or later,” Diehl said, the Players will be back on stage, and in a theater they hope they will soon be able to called their own.
