Another Atlanta theater company is in financial trouble and turning to the public for rescue.
Actor's Express, the highly regarded 23-year-old theater, sent an e-mail plea to supporters on Wednesday afternoon that terms its situation "a true life or death moment."
The company, which is $140,000 in debt and struggling to pay bills, is seeking $50,000 over the next four weeks and an additional $150,000 before its fiscal year ends July 31.
The metro area's mid-size theaters, which don't have the resources of the Alliance Theatre but can't operate on a shoestring like smaller Equity and nonprofessional groups, have been especially hard hit by the economy. In the last year, Atlanta's Horizon and Synchronicity theaters, Marietta's Theatre in the Square, Roswell's Georgia Ensemble Theatre and Stone Mountain's ART Station all have gone public with campaigns to address cash shortfalls or to reduce long-term deficits.
Actor's Express leaders, operating with a budget of $650,000 this year, cite reduced corporate donations and slumping individual ticket sales and subscriptions as the biggest factors in its mounting debt.
"We know it's not as much as other theaters have had," board chairman Bruce Cohen said, "but we just realized that we can't continue to operate from the position of acquiring more and more debt. We've got to address the situation."
Artistic director Freddie Ashley inherited some shortfalls in 2007 when he became the fifth leader in seven years of the Westside theater known for mounting premieres and edgy stagings. But he said those bills have been retired and the current debt is from his watch.
"The issue at hand is operational," Ashley said. "It's the lack of liquidity. The amount of debt we're carrying eliminates previously pursued options to address those shortfalls."
While cuts in corporate giving have crippled Actor's Express, foundations have extended steadfast backing. For instance, the Charles Loridans Foundation awarded it a $25,000 grant in December and the the Metropolitan Atlanta Arts Fund gave it $65,000 last May.
Through the Nonprofit Toolbox program of the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, the arts fund's parent group, Actor's Express is also working on a strategic plan that will guide it for three to five years.
But for now, the present is the more pressing concern.
When Lara Smith became managing director last August, she revamped the company's financial reporting so that its debt was not treated as separate from operations. Having that red ink "always in our face" helped the theater pay down $10,000, Smith said. But additional operational losses are expected in a season that continues with the March 17 Atlanta premiere of Michael John LaChiusa's musical "See What I Wanna See" and concludes in June with David Hare's "The Judas Kiss."
"You only have one shot at a ‘give-us-money-or-our-doors-will-close' campaign. That's a once-in-a-lifetime thing," Smith said. "So you want to make sure that you've exhausted all other possibilities before you do that and that's exactly what we've done."
Cohen said the board will approach "on a one-to-one basis" organizations and individuals who have previously provided substantial support to the company, which took the audience choice award for outstanding season at November's Suzi Bass Awards (Atlanta's Tonys).
"I'm hopeful, because Actor's Express is 23 years old and has a reputation throughout Atlanta, the Southeast and the nation as one of the finest theater companies," said Cohen, president of Vision Properties Inc. "However, I am concerned. I think there is a tremendous amount of fatigue on the part of givers."
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