New theaters brave uncertainties of weak economy

"Little Women." Through Dec. 23. 8 p.m. Thurs.-Sat., 3 p.m. Sun. $27. Fabrefaction Theatre Company, 999 Brady Ave. $27. 404-876-9468. www.fabrefaction.org

In August of 2008, 22-year old Christina Hoff was thrilled to secure a permanent playhouse for her fledgling Fabrefaction Theatre Company. Previously, Hoff and her creative partners, mostly New York University students, staged summer plays in an Atlanta warehouse space she’d found on Craigslist. She thought the venue was an ideal home, strategically located in Westside, just a few blocks from Actor’s Express.

“We signed the lease on our space, and two months later the economy tanked. How’s that for timing?” says Hoff, who’s been learning hard lessons about keeping a theater afloat ever since.

Of course, the perfect time to start a theater company is probably never. Like most of the arts, theater demands the utmost dedication of time and energy with no promise of financial jackpots. The global economic slump, however, has raised the challenges even further.

“This may be the worst time ever,” says Ed Howard, who has struggled to launch a new company, Marietta Theatre, in the space of the recently shuttered Theatre in the Square. But even at a time when some of Atlanta’s oldest and most respected companies face difficult tidings, new theater artists have eagerly taken the stage.

“We had no idea what it would be like,” Hoff admits. “When some of our most loyal patrons saw the new space, they thought, ‘Fabrefaction has a theater – it’s a happy ending!’ (But) now that we have a theater, we need support more than ever. They’re tightening their purse-strings when our hands are out the farthest.”

For new theater companies, the actual playhouse can be a paradox. A theater building provides a company with not just a stage and seats, but administrative offices, storage space, signage to attract passers-by and a tangible symbol of the theater’s identity. An itinerant company doesn’t have to worry about leases, light bills, insurance premiums, taxes and other forms of overhead, but they’re always on the hustle, trying to find a venue for their next show.

Another group of college students with high creative ambitions came together four years ago to form what would become The Collective Project. The company specializes in original off-beat shows like the current production, “The Theory of Everything,” an evening of short plays with a changing line-up decided by audience vote.

In winter of 2008, Corey Bradberry and some of his fellow students at Kennesaw State began producing plays off campus. They found enough success to form their own theater company, although Bradberry’s professors advised him to postpone it until the economy improved.

“We had professors encouraging us to go to graduate school instead, with the reasoning that by the time we’re done, there’d be more work. That wasn’t necessarily the case,” says Bradberry.

Instead of leasing its own facility or bouncing around from one space to another, Bradberry aligned The Collective Project with the Goat Farm Arts Center, where it is a resident theater company.

“The Goat Farm is like our big brother watching over us,” he says. “Being at the Goat Farm has allowed us to focus on creating, rather than spend that time finding performance and rehearsal space. This year has been a real experiment as our first long-term season. We’re trying to get a snowball effect from show to show. The year’s not over yet, but we’ve been in the black for our first shows this season.”

Serenbe Playhouse, located about 30 miles south of Atlanta, also found a theatrical home under the wing of a larger organization. In 2008 New York actor Brian Clowdus and his Atlanta-based family visited the idyllic planned community of Serenbe. Despite his plans to attend graduate school at the University of South Carolina, as well as the dire economic headlines, Clowdus approached the Serenbe Institute of Art, Culture and the Environment with the idea of establishing a theater there.

Presenting musicals and fresh takes on classic fare, Serenbe Playhouse turned logistical limitations into a selling point. While in grad school, Clowdus wasn’t available during the academic year, so the company launched three-show seasons in the summer. Because there were no appropriate venues in the vicinity, Serenbe produced its shows outdoors in unusual locations, such as courtyards and open-air markets. In 2011, “The Ugly Duckling” took place primarily on a stage literally built just below the surface of a pond.

To succeed, Clowdus says, new companies need to distinguish themselves from ones already in operation. “We can’t compete with the Alliance Theatre. If you’re starting a theater company these days, you have to either be doing it better than everyone else, or doing something different that anyone else,” says Clowdus.

Before Theatre in the Square unexpectedly closed its doors last March, playwright Ed Howard was planning to direct “Tuna Does Vegas” as the 30-year-old theater’s final show of season. Co-creator of the popular “Greater Tuna” comedies – in which two actors portray all the residents in the tiny town of Tuna, Texas — Howard announced plans this fall to launch Marietta Theatre with two productions before year’s end. Teaming up with the Springer Opera House in Columbus, he hoped to raise $100,000 to cover the cost of a year’s lease and staged the light-hearted, one-woman show “The Summer of Daisy Fay” in the space.

He only managed to raise $25,000, however, so he cancelled plans to stage “A Tuna Christmas” this year. “I dove in head first, and I must say I got over my head,” Howard admits. “You have to raise the money first. A wish and a prayer are not enough.”

Howard hopes to reopen Marietta Theatre this spring, but he plans to raise enough money to run a theater for a year — at least $200,000 – before he re-opens.

Artistic director Grant McGowen established Pinch n Ouch Theater while living in New York, then moved the company to Atlanta in 2010. Fond of terse, witty playwrights such as Neil LaBute, Pinch n Ouch staged its first Atlanta shows in high-profile theaters such as the 14th Street Playhouse.

Now Pinch n Ouch has a permanent venue more in keeping with its budget at the Druid Hills Baptist Church on Ponce de Leon. “We’ll never be able to do big, technical productions, but it’s really intimate and the acoustics are strong. It’s clean, comfortable and has free parking. That’s like bonus, bonus, bonus. And the rent is affordable, which is a first for us. Even producing at the 7 Stages Back Stage, we had to sell out every show to break even.”

The soft economy teaches theater companies to make the most of limited resources. Pinch n Ouch has experimented with guerrilla marketing by handing out discount fliers to audiences leaving big shows at the Fox Theatre. Marietta Theatre’s first production was a one-woman show. Fabrefaction’s fall staging of Stephen Sondheim’s musical “Assassins” belied its relatively low budget by creating an ingenious set patterned after a carnival shooting gallery to accommodate its large cast.

No matter the economy, it appears that scrappy theater artists will continue to find ways to ply their craft and stage plays. So even in the midst of a zombie apocalypse, don’t be surprised to see a group commandeer a ruined building to stage a world premiere musical about the foibles of life among the undead.