Arizona Theatre Company has raised the $2 million necessary to keep the organization on stage, the group announced Monday .
“I’m ecstatic,” said Michael Kasser, a member of the ATC board of trustees. Kasser had guaranteed $1 million from Tucson if Phoenix could match that.
Last week, the board decided to give notices to employees on Monday. Soon after, many donors began to open pocketbooks rather than just give verbal support.
“It mostly happened on Friday,” said Kasser. “We had the cooperation of both mayors (Tucson’s Jonathan Rothschild and Phoenix’s Greg Stanton), who were very supportive.” With their help, and the work of the board, substantial donations came in at the last minute. “It was so heartening.”
Kasser’s commitment to ATC goes back nearly two decades, as both a contributor and an audience member.
“I personally think we could not afford to lose such an important cultural icon,” he said when explaining his support.
ATC has tried to crawl out from under its crippling debt since 2013, when poor management and a fractured board put the company in jeopardy.
The most recent effort has been dizzying, said David Ira Goldstein, ATC’s artistic director.
“The last two months have been a roller coaster of excitement to utter despair to total elation,” he said.
“Things would come through, then they wouldn’t come through. Last Friday was one of the most exciting in my 25 years — we raised over $700,000 just after we planned to liquidate. … This is a story about a heroic effort made by both cities, and how both cities came through,” Goldstein said.
ATC has about 40 employees in Tucson, where it is headquartered, and three in Phoenix, where it stages a full season, making it the only theater company in the country to present full seasons in two cities.
Tim Fuller isn’t on staff, but has been the company’s official photographer for more than 40 years. ATC’s survival impacts his bottom line, but that’s not why he’s relieved it won’t close.
“The Temple of Music and Art would not exist today except for the fact that ATC moved into it,” he said. “It was on the edge of becoming an office complex, when ATC said ‘we need a home’ and took it over. That gem would not live without them.”
He also credits the company with the growth of the downtown arts district.
“The arts district is alive and vibrant because of ATC,” Fuller said.
“To me, having theater locally generated really makes the town a more wonderful and vibrant place. ATC’s loss would be terrifyingly depressing.”
ATC’s acting Managing Director William Russo has spent time in some of the country’s more prestigious nonprofit theaters, such as the American Repertory Theater and New York Theatre Workshop. He was surprised at the last-minute save. But more than that, he said he was “gleeful.”
ATC has great “gratitude to all our subscribers, audiences, donors,” he said.
“The support shown is really humbling. That the communities made it possible — that’s overwhelming.”
But the success doesn’t mean the work ends, he added.
“We have a great responsibility to take that support and move forward and fix some of the inherent problems. … We have to work toward a recapitalization of the organization so it doesn’t face this dilemma again.”
Goldstein agreed.
“We can’t be in this situation ever again,” he said. “Now is the time to really recapitalize and secure this asset for the next 50 years.”
One of the big changes that will be made over the next season is its artistic director. Goldstein stepped down in 2013, but stayed on at the board’s request until the company was more stable.
The search for his replacement is high on the “to do” list, said Russo. Now that the company is on more solid ground, it is expected that the search will draw some major talent.
“I don’t think we’ll have a lack of great candidates with wonderful visions for the future,” said Goldstein, who won’t be involved in selecting his successor. “We can honestly say to anybody who wants to come here that our community, our staff and our board all realize the importance of the arts to a 21st century community.”
