So it is very very sad to me that we have to consider that expenditure,” Recht said. We want to spend our money on the arts, not on security. “It is our mandate to be doors wide open to the community. The board is considering hiring security for the building and examining how to fit that into the budget. “In this day and age, the reality is that people’s passion, no matter how well intended, can have a serious impact on others,” said Carter, who was rattled by the incident but not intimidated. One person, a former board member, pushed past staff members into locked office space at Beverly Arts Center and confronted Carter, yelling and demanding answers, Carter and Recht said. Still, some Beverly Arts Center community members, particularly cast members from the recent productions, are dejected by what they feel is a lost opportunity for live theater at the center. In fact, all of the youth shows, and at least four of the scheduled five mainstage shows planned for the 2023-2024 season will still be produced, including the winter showcase “Christmas Schooner” and the summer showcase, though perhaps less lavishly than the most recent shows.Īt least one of the plays will be moved to a different date to potentially make room for a presentation or show “that allows us to intentionally look at voices that need to be elevated that normally haven’t been,” Carter said. Carla Carter, who joined the center in July 2022 as managing director. “All of the aesthetics of the arts and the genres of the arts deserve their moment in this building to shine,” said Interim Director Dr. The budget for live theater will be reduced in an effort to ensure that all of the arts taught and created at the multidisciplinary community center are funded. Patrons and several cast members who recently worked with Pease and Keeley were shocked by the news and expressed concerns about the Beverly Arts Center’s financial future and dismay at what they believe will be a decline in the quality and quantity of the center’s live theater productions.īut Beverly Arts Center will not be getting rid of live theater, Board President Stacey Recht clarified last week. Recht joined the board in 2017 and is the second longest-serving member of the current board. Treasurer Sonja Brisard said the nonprofit theater’s 2023 fiscal year will show a net negative consistent with prior years. Every year prior dating back to 2011, except 2014 when the Beverly Arts Center received a bank loan, the center saw a net negative revenue of approximately $200,000 on average, according to the organization’s public tax records. In fiscal year 2022 the Beverly Arts Center had a positive net revenue of approximately $79,000, and $60,000 in 2021 due to COVID relief funds. Therefore, the Board was forced to reduce the expenses for Live Theater.” Credit: Beverly Arts Center “Hello Dolly” at the Beverly Arts Center. “Budgeting for the 23-24 season has been challenging in unprecedented ways. ![]() Unfortunately, we are unable to sustain the financial demands of these events,” a press release read. “In addition to the brilliant acting and directing of our recent live theater productions, the impressive stage design has dazzled our community. The announcement cited economic challenges much like theaters across the country are facing due to the ongoing effects of the pandemic, as well as challenges keeping up with the costs of their recent higher-end theater productions. Then, last Friday, approximately one month after “Hello, Dolly!” closed, the center’s board announced it cut the live theater budget, eliminated the position of artistic director Kevin Pease, who joined Beverly Arts Center in October 2021, and did not renew the one-year contract for technical director Rick Keeley. 111th St., as a leading theater producer on the South Side. It was one of several live theater productions in the past year at the community arts center that seemed to indicate a promising future for the center, 2407 W. BEVERLY - Forty seven performers and a 10-piece live orchestra brought the stage at the Baffes Theater at the Beverly Arts Center to brilliant life this summer in a gorgeously designed production of “Hello, Dolly!”
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