“We need help.”
That’s the message Bob Kirlin, chairman of the Brown County Playhouse Board of Directors, delivered to the Brown County Convention and Visitors Bureau board last week.
Over the next two days, he shared the same news with the Brown County Commissioners and Nashville Town Council: The Playhouse is in need of community support and donations to keep its doors open.
This is the seventh year the 425-seat theater has been open under local control as a 501c3 nonprofit organization. Overall, though, its history in Brown County is much longer.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]The Playhouse will celebrate its 70th birthday in 2019. It put on its first show in July 1949 in a barn and tent that used to stand where the theater building is now, on South Van Buren Street downtown.
The Playhouse was a joint project between local businessman A. Jack Rogers and Indiana University theater director Lee Norvelle. Norvelle described it as “an attempt to do for theater in Brown County what has been done in the field of painting.”
IU shuttered the Playhouse in 2010, and a nonprofit community group stepped in to take it over in 2011. The Playhouse has been the only dedicated stage downtown since 2013.
Since a local board has been managing it, it’s hosted a variety of acts — concerts featuring local and nationally touring musicians, plays, live radio shows, magic shows, youth musicals, nostalgia musical groups and movies.
Ticket sales continue to increase each year, but they’re not enough, and neither are the donations people are already giving.
Kirlin said the Playhouse “eats money.”
“We’re having some problems,” he said. “If we are going to stay in business and make sure we’re not closed, we have to increase our ability to raise funds.”
The Playhouse board plans on 40 to 50 percent of the budget coming from donations. The rest comes from ticket sales.
In 2014, 38 percent of Playhouse income came from donations. By 2017, that number had dropped to 13 percent.
In 2017, the Playhouse brought in $290,000 in ticket sales. The second-highest source of income was concessions at $55,000.
The venue needs $405,700 to meet its expenses each year. It is running about $45,000 to $50,000 short for 2018.
That much isn’t needed just this year, but every year, Kirlin said.
When asked if the Playhouse had a long-term sustainability plan, Kirlin said that the focus is currently on just keeping it open. Their plan is to go before multiple boards and visit retail stores and restaurants to ask for donations as part of a major fundraising effort, “to see what we can do to get this (donation) figure back up to stay in business,” Kirlin said.
The money raised would go toward operations and salaries, Kirlin said.
The Playhouse does have an $80,000 line of credit, said Playhouse Executive Director Suzannah Zody. However, it is for emergencies only, like when the Playhouse has to replace its 30-plus-year-old heating and cooling units.
Earlier this summer, the Brown County Community Foundation hosted a Giving Dinner at the Playhouse to try to boost its donations.
Last year was the first year the Playhouse’s budget ran in the red, Zody said. “We’ve always been able to be in black. It’s just because fundraising wasn’t there,” Zody said.
Bringing in revenue
Maintaining the Playhouse is important to the local economy, according to projections handed out at last week’s meetings.
People who attend Playhouse shows bring in an estimated $909,000 to the community annually by staying overnight, dining and shopping.
Board members estimate that of the 18,000 tickets sold last year, 35 percent stayed in a hotel, spending at least $100. “Every ticket we sell, we get a zip code. We track that zip code. That 35 percent is two hours or longer from Brown County. Indianapolis (visitors) are not in it,” Kirlin said. It would include visitors from Chicago, Cincinnati and Louisville.
Those lodging dollars amount to $630,000 in revenue, with $31,500 going to the innkeepers tax, the Playhouse reported.
“We are working hard to bring people in to contribute to the hotel tax. That needs to be a consideration, the amount of people we bring into Nashville, when thinking of putting money into this organization,” said Playhouse board member Keith Baker. He is also president of the county council.
If 40 percent of ticket buyers spend at least $20 at restaurants in town, that would equal about $144,000 in revenue, with $1,440 going to the town of Nashville’s food and beverage tax.
If ticket buyers spend $25 in town on T-shirts or other souvenirs while here, it would result in $135,000 of revenue to the community. That would equal about $9,389 in state tax, according to Playhouse estimates.
The county commissioners did not promise to donate, but commissioner Diana Biddle said she had an idea on how to get money to the Playhouse. She said she would follow up with Kirlin; she declined to elaborate on the record.
Kirlin asked the CVB board to consider sponsoring the Playhouse Christmas program this year for $3,500, because it brings 1,800 people to the community during the town’s slow season.
CVB Board President Bruce Gould said the CVB “totally supports the Playhouse,” but the group did not commit to donating. It referred Kirlin to the Brown County Convention and Visitors Commission, a different board.
“We are absolutely behind you guys. We appreciate everything you’ve done and understand your nonprofit position,” Gould said.
“We don’t want this Playhouse to go away. If this continues, it will go away,” Kirlin responded.
‘Not a business’
Playhouse Board member Kathy Anderson said that when the Playhouse reopened under local control, it was an all-volunteer effort, but it’s moving up from its startup position and it now needs employees to operate.
Zody is the only full-time, salaried employee. She has a team of five part-time employees who work seven to 15 hours a week. “I can’t be at every door, popping popcorn and working the ticket window. I can put them in places where I can’t be,” Zody said.
Payroll costs are $75,000 annually. “These things are necessary for us to have ongoing business, open 52 weeks, four nights a week,” Anderson said.
The Playhouse also has more than 100 volunteers who work about 20 hours a week doing security, building sets and making theater repairs.
Zody said technical expenses in the last three years have “shot through the roof.” The Playhouse recently invested in new lights and sound systems. Kirlin said the Playhouse still applies for grants for upgrades to the theater, like lights on the theater’s stairwell.
The Playhouse’s highest expense is productions, at $197,900 per year.
Baker said community theater is different from commercial theater. “We’re not a business,” he said. Other community theaters in Indiana are funded at least 50 percent by the community, he said.
“It’s hard to make enough money in musical performances to provide for community theater and stage plays that are important to the culture, the types of play and art we need to see in the community,” he said.
Gould said that when the Playhouse first opened, everyone wanted it and loved the idea, so they chipped in. He said the public may think now that they don’t still need donations. “I think Playhouse has been taken for granted. That’s a major problem,” he said. “These figures don’t lie.”
Gould said the Playhouse still has local support, but maybe not the money to back it up.
Kirlin disagreed. “We’re seeing less and less locals,” he said. “When we first opened, we’d see all kinds of local people.”
Zody said the level of local participation depends on the type of show. “I don’t feel like community support has fallen off. I agree with Bruce; it’s been six or seven years now, people have become complacent about support financially. We need to focus on that,” she said.
Innkeepers tax?
Brown County Convention and Visitors Commission member Mike Patrick said he’d talk with his board about whether or not innkeepers tax money would available to help the Playhouse. Gould said the CVC might be the “right place to go” for money, since the CVB’s budget is “tight right now.”
The CVC is responsible for collecting the innkeepers tax in the county, a 5-percent tax charged on room rentals.
The CVC pledged the innkeepers tax as a backup revenue source for the Maple Leaf Performing Arts Center, a $12.5 million, government-owned, 2,000-seat venue that will be built starting next month in Nashville.
The CVB receives 95 percent of the innkeepers tax from the CVC, but the amount it receives could decrease if the Maple Leaf doesn’t make enough to cover its mortgage payments.
Patrick said he would get the Playhouse on the July CVC meeting agenda.
“Whatever they decide will affect what we do. If they support you, then that will be it,” Gould said of the CVC.
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Donations can be made to the Brown County Playhouse at browncountyplayhouse.org. Click the button at the bottom of the homepage that says “Show Your Support.”
Checks payable to the Brown County Playhouse can be sent to P.O. Box 2011, Nashville, IN 47448.
Sponsorship opportunities also are available.
The lowest level is $50, which gets the donor’s name in a program for a live performance.
The highest donation level is $5,000. That donor would sponsor a multi-run show, like the Playhouse’s Christmas program. They would get a full-page ad in the programs, their own slide before a movie for a year, and their name on the Playhouse Facebook page and website. They also would be named as a donor on all materials, get 15 VIP tickets and a star plaque, and would be listed as “Presented by” in all promotions.
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Before the Playhouse made its presentation to the CVB, CVB Executive Director Jane Ellis proposed changes to her own budget based on the availability of innkeepers tax money.
The board approved her setting aside $50,000 for radio advertising.
Advertising this year had a “slow start” because there hasn’t been money to do it, Ellis said.
Innkeepers tax money which the CVB is used to having available to it went to finish the construction of the new Visitors Center and start the Maple Leaf. Those appropriations “wiped out” the innkeepers tax rollover fund and the CVB started the year with less money than normal, she said.
Total operating cash for 2018 is projected at $525,197.46, with $392,121.96 due in expenses and a $50,000 line credit that needs to be paid back. That equals the $83,075.50 the CVB is projected to have at the end of the year.
However, when looking just at revenue the CVB is planning to bring in this year after expenses, and not at any cash it might have on hand, Ellis is budgeting a net income loss of $32,622.71.
The CVB was able to spend $20,000 on three outdoor magazine advertisements; it’s also budgeting $1,000 for Facebook post “boosts.” The total amount budgeted for advertising campaigns is $88,800. Another $51,288.91 is budgeted for marketing and promotions, such as events and email campaigns.
According to the CVB benchmark report, website traffic is down from nearby cities.
Ellis said using the $50,000 for radio advertising would help build relationships for when the Maple Leaf needs to start being advertised. That ad campaign also would help the Brown County Playhouse, she said.
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