Theater faces final curtain

By Guy D’Astolfo

Playhouse productions will be moved to the suburbs.

YOUNGS-TOWN — The struggling Youngstown Playhouse will not return to its Glenwood Avenue theater, which it has occupied for 50 years.

Rand Becker, president of the Playhouse board, said Monday that the theater company will finish the 2008-09 season in locations as yet undetermined. Becker also confirmed that John Holt, managing director since 2005, has left the Playhouse.

The Playhouse’s future has been up in the air since October, when it announced that it would go dark for the winter. Exorbitant heating costs, a decline in grant money and a building wracked with physical problems forced the decision.

Monday’s developments do not come as a total surprise, as many in the theater community had been waiting for the other shoe to drop since that October announcement.

The Playhouse originally held out hope that it would return to its building in the spring. But its financial outlook has not improved, said Becker. Also, a water pipe burst last week in the unoccupied building — they don’t know exactly when — exacerbating the problem. The burst was upstairs in the costume area and caused some ceiling tiles to fall.

The building already needs extensive plumbing work and has a leaky roof.

The Playhouse board has received offers from numerous organizations and schools to use their facilities. It is now trying to determine what plays it will produce to finish out the season and where they will be staged.

“A terrific number of venues have called us to offer space,” said Becker, who was pleased with the show of community support. The list has been narrowed to six locations, but Becker would not reveal them. All are in the suburbs.

The Playhouse season runs from August to June. Five productions remain on the schedule, and to fulfill its obligation to season ticketholders, the Playhouse will attempt to do most or all of them before the season ends.

The productions might not be the five on the original schedule. “West Side Story,” originally scheduled for May 29-June 13, will definitely not be produced because to pull it off would require a system of ropes and pulleys. The other plays on the original schedule include “And Then There Were None” (Nov. 7-15); “Big” (Dec. 5-20); “Blood Brothers” (March 13-28); and “A Streetcar Named Desire” (April 17-25).

A revised schedule, with locations, is expected later this week.

The move to suburban locations is both a trial run and a harbinger of the future, said Becker. When the Playhouse opened in 1959, its South Side neighborhood was solid middle class. It declined in the past few decades and is now plagued with crime, which crimps ticket sales. The theater has kept paint handy for years to cover the graffiti that crops up on its walls on a regular basis.

The Playhouse board’s executive committee will tackle the future of the building after it irons out this season. One obvious solution is to sell it, said Becker. The board is also exploring fund-raising methods toward an eventual goal of building a new theater.

The Youngstown Playhouse is not alone in its financial problems. As the economy continues to slide, theaters nationwide are feeling the pinch. The 35-year-old Carousel Dinner Theatre in Akron announced over the weekend that it has permanently closed.

As part of its evolution, the Playhouse is also going to change its management structure. Holt recently stepped down as managing director by mutual consent, said Becker.

“We are scaling back on our paid staff,” he said. “After this season, we will hire a part-time business manager and a part-time artistic director.” Holt handled both of those responsibilities.

“Combining those jobs doesn’t work,” said Becker. “It’s too big of a job and it leads to burn out. We’re not doing that again.”

The board will run the theater’s business and artistic departments in the interim.