theatre bay area
2014
ANNUAL REPORT
LETTER from the EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Throughout 2014, we at Theatre Bay Area have been engaging in a robust strategic planning process that has challenged us to reevaluate everything we do. We have sought to better understand our place in the larger arts ecosystem, to measure the impact of our current programs, to listen carefully to our members and the broader field and to imagine a Bay Area where theatre plays an integral role in the lives of individuals and communities across the region. The process has been at times exhilarating, frustrating, encouraging, overwhelming, and energizing, with hours of long discussion brightened by sudden moments of clarity. More than ever, we are humbled and inspired by the exceptional community of theatre makers in our region. By the work they create, day after day, night after night, in neighborhoods, cities and towns as diverse as the people of this most diverse area. More than ever, we are convinced that too many individuals and communities around the Bay Area are missing out on this extraordinary art making, on what we think of as the “particular power of theatre”—that is the especially powerful way that theatre can illuminate the world, reveal our shared humanity, spark empathy and understanding and connect us with our neighbors, our loved ones and ourselves. All while prompting us to laugh, think, rage, sing or cry. Our member artists and theatre companies are enriching lives, building community and making the Bay Area a better place, every day—one class, one performance, one play at a time. In boom times and bust, Theatre Bay Area’s purpose is to support the work of these art makers by realizing our mission: to unite, strengthen, promote and advance the theatre community of the Bay Area, working from our conviction that theatre and all the arts are essential to our society and to our own personal enrichment and growth. We are deligthted to share with you in these pages how we lived out our mission in 2014 as we look forward to serving our community in the months and years ahead.
BRAD ERICKSON Executive Director
Cover: Erika Chong Shuch and Margo Hall in A Midsummer Night’s Dream with California Shakespeare Theater. Photo: Kevin Berne.
unite, strengthen, promote and advance Our mission is to
the theatre community in the San Francisco Bay Area, working on behalf of our conviction that the performing arts are an essential public good, critical to a healthy and truly democratic society, and invaluable as a source of personal enrichment and growth.
Brian Herndon in Edward Gant’s Amazing Feats of Loneliness with Shotgun Players. Photo: Pak Han.
unite MEMBERSHIP For almost 40 years, membership with Theatre Bay Area has been the primary way to plug into the Bay Area theatre community, providing access to opportunities and the ability to connect to likeminded theatre artists all over the region. With more than 2,100 individual members (including actors, directors, playwrights, technicians, designers, audience members and administrators) and some 350 theatre company members, Theatre Bay Area is an artist-driven organization that is proud to serve our membership with exclusive benefits, free and discounted tickets and services, career development opportunities, recognition, networking, advocacy efforts and much more.
ANNUAL CONFERENCE For years now, Theatre Bay Area’s Annual Conference has been the place where hundreds of theatre makers come together to network with colleagues, make new contacts, address key issues, exchange ideas and recharge for the coming season. The 2014 conference offered professional development workshops, roundtables, speed consulting, a playwrights’ cabaret, vendor fair and nationally renowned speakers and thinkers assembling under the umbrella of “Connect. Learn. Celebrate.” Convening again at Berkeley Rep and the Aurora Theatre, more than 400 attendees engaged in a day of conversation and learning.
Being a member of Theatre Bay Area has given me a great
opportunity to be connected with arts organizations
large and small, from Napa to San Jose to the East Bay. It’s nice to have one place to go and find out what’s happening. Theatre Bay
Area plays a lynchpin role in connecting the artists in the greater Bay Area. - Kuo-Hao Lo, scenic designer
GENERAL AND REGIONAL AUDITIONS Connecting artists with opportunities is at the heart of what we do, and our annual General Auditions and Regional Auditions are the most prominent ways we link Bay Area actors with Bay Area theatres. Through a rigorous application process, more than 350 actors were chosen to participate in 2014’s General Auditions, held at San Francisco’s Marines’ Memorial Theatre, where they would be seen by almost 100 theatre professionals. Later in the year, 100 actors were seen at the annual South Bay Regional Auditions held at San Jose Stage.
BAY AREA PERFORMING ARTS SPACES Launched and operated by Theatre Bay Area in partnership with Dancers’ Group and Fractured Atlas, with generous support from the Hewlett Foundation, this searchable database of performing arts venues and facilities has enjoyed tremendous growth. In November of 2013, we listed 449 spaces; one year later, we list 612 spaces across 11 Bay Area counties. Correspondingly, site visitors engaged with the site more deeply over the past year, conducting an average of 92 searches per day in 2013 and 102 searches per day in 2014. Sahana Vishwanath, Astha Tripathi, Renuka Balwalkar, Lipika Sadaram, Shruthi Thatikunta, Nilufer Jain, Shachi Kumar and Rajiv Nema in Amavasya with Naatak. Photo: Ashima Yadava.
strength THEATRE BAY AREA MAGAZINE Theatre Bay Area magazine continued to be the flagship of our communications services. By writing about the community’s news, successes, milestones and challenges and by maintaining the highest journalistic standards, we strengthened and unified the thousands of individuals working to make our theatre community thrive. Over the last year, we published two terrific plays by local playwrights—Octavio Solis’s Se Llama Cristina and Aaron Loeb’s Glickman Award-winning Ideation—and features on topics as varied as local theatres casting farther and farther in advance, the logistics of parenting while working in the theatre, and the idea of regional theatres adopting the NFL’s model of requiring interviewing at least one applicant of color for leadership positions. In 2014 we also celebrated the long-awaited return of show listings to the print magazine. The magazine worked together with Theatre Bay Area’s up-to-the-minute online journalism to keep Bay Area theatre makers informed, engaged and energized around important issues in our community.
ONLINE JOURNALISM Theatre Bay Area has also expanded the reach and diversity of its online journalism. As part of our recent website update, we launched TBA Online, the digital home for Theatre Bay Area’s journalistic content. In the 2014 fiscal year, we developed a new web-exclusive professional feature series on financial planning for artists (authored by a playwright/investment manager) and published 34 individual pieces of webonly journalism, covering a wide range of topics of interest to the Bay Area theatre community and the larger field. Topics have included arts philanthropy and Silicon Valley; drag performance; all-female casts in shows with male characters and new building regulations for theatre companies following changes to the Americans with Disabilities Act. We continue to seek diversity in our freelancer pool, welcoming new writers of color. Demonstrating our commitment to gender parity, 50% of our web journalism features were written by women.
BLOGS The transition to the new website in February 2014 allowed us to expand and differentiate our web content in ways that had not been possible previously. We created two new blog channels: TBA Backstage, which shares TBA news and opportunities with our membership, and The Roar of the Crowd, an artist-driven blog that highlights members’ creative processes and projects. Some highlights from the Roar blog include a post on a prominent Bay Area artists’ salon and its successful “Performance Across Disciplines” session; a piece by award-winning writer Peter Sinn Nachtrieb describing the national playwright residency initiative that is funding his three-year staff position at Z Space; and a feature by NAACP Award finalist Arisa White about the process of adapting her poetry for the stage.
hen By laying out a clear plan I’ve been able to hold myself more accountable for my professional growth. It’s increased responsibility but also empowering. Ultimately, the program gave me the tools I needed to mature professionally and I am so grateful for the opportunity. - Benjamin Pither, AEA actor, ATLAS participant and Titan Award winner
Kat Cole and Colin Epstein in A Wake presented by 13th Floor Dance Theater at ODC. Photo: Pak Han.
AUDITION AND JOB LISTINGS Our new online career center allows members to subscribe to different types of job and audition listings, so that they get notified via email each time a new opportunity appears. The new system is also much more interactive than before, allowing prospective applicants to click through directly to start an email to a potential employer or to visit a hiring theatre company’s website.
TALENT BANK Another way we connect artists to opportunities is through our online Talent Bank. Members of Theatre Bay Area can post their resumes in any number of fields (including acting, directing, playwriting, administration, music, teaching, design, tech and more) so that those looking to fill position may contact them. Members can also post supplemental material with their profiles (such as an excerpt from a play, design sketches or photos) to offer a more complete picture of their work.
THE INSIDER The open rate of Theatre Bay Area’s weekly email newsletter speaks for itself—at just over 40% for 2014, it’s double the industry standard. The Insider’s popularity has major benefits for our advertisers; with stats like these, the Insider is the way to target working theatre artists with information about classes, services and more.
ATLAS (ADVANCED TRAINING LEADING ARTISTS TO SUCCESS) ATLAS gives actors, directors and playwrights a new way of looking at their career development and a way to evaluate how they can best fit into the Bay Area theatre landscape. Through a series of workshops coupled with personalized artistic feedback and other career evaluation tools, participants are encouraged to take control of their own careers. First by defining what success means to them individually and then identifying steps to achieve these goals, artists write a personalized career plan to help them achieve their vision of the future. Select ATLAS participants receive a Titan Award, each awardee receving a small grant to help implement their plan and a year-long mentorship with the professional of their choice. This year, 37 artists participated in the ATLAS program.
INTERNSHIP PROGRAM Through our internship program, aspiring theatre professionals work with an advisor from Theatre Bay Area staff to gain hands-on experience in nonprofit arts administration. Our recent interns have gone on to employment at arts groups across California and as independent professional Bay Area theatre artists.
LEMONADE FUND The Lemonade Fund is a confidential resource for theatre workers with terminal or life-threatening illnesses who are in need of supplemental financial assistance to improve the quality of their lives as they deal with medical conditions. Since 2000, Theatre Bay Area has distributed more than $100,000 through the Lemonade Fund to theatre workers in need throughout the Bay Area, much of it made possible by generous donations by fellow artists.
Mark Anderson Phillips, Carrie Paff, Jason Kapoor and Michael Ray Wisely in Ideation at the San Francisco Playhouse. Photo: Jessica Palopoli.
promot TBA AWARDS PROGRAM AND EVENT For more than a decade, theatre makers across the region have urged us to launch a credible and highprofile awards program with goals of raising the profile of theatre in the region, honoring artistic achievement and building community. After years of research, community input, program design and enthusiastic response from the field, the inaugural year of the TBA Awards culminated in the first annual awards ceremony on November 10, 2014, at American Conservatory Theater’s Geary Theater. This year’s event was introduced by Broadway diva Betty Buckley and hosted by comedians Will Durst and Marga Gomez. In a three-hour ceremony, Bay Area theatre luminaries presented awards in 68 categories, as well as three Legacy Awards to Jill Matichak, Joan Mankin and Beach Blanket Babylon.
WHAT’ S PLAYING Theatre Bay Area’s new online show listings aren’t just eyecatching and easy to scan; whereas previously they were searchable only by region, users can now also narrow their search results by genre, date, ticket price, company, venue and artist names. For our company members, the new interface is a one-stop shop for listing shows online, publishing them in the magazine and registering them for the TBA Awards Program.
TIX BAY AREA TIX Bay Area offers performance tickets, many at discounted prices. Through partnerships with the Destination Center and Goldstar, TIX’s flagship booth in Union Square is stronger than ever. As the go-to destination for San Francisco tourists looking for entertainment, the TIX booth is seeing more repeat tourists and has increased its offerings. TIX’s digital reach is robust: our popular Theatregoer e-newsletter recently reached 21,000 readers, and our website tixbayarea.org saw 28,000 unique visitors.
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AUDIENCE DATABASE The Audience Database is the newest incarnation of Theatre Bay Area’s collective patron list, one of the largest and most comprehensive audience databases in the nation. By putting all their patron contacts in one confidential database, companies are able to comparatively analyze the demographic, geographic, and purchase patterns of their patrons, share database hygiene costs and assist one another with marketing through targeted list trading. The Audience Database is one of the largest and most comprehensive community networks in the nation, and our users continue to affirm its value through conversations, surveys and usage.
THE WILL GLICKMAN AWARD
The Glickman Award celebrates excellence in playwriting by selecting the best new play to premiere in the region each year. Named in honor of Bay Area playwright and screenwriter Will Glickman, this award has been presented annually since 1984 and has been administered by Theatre Bay Area since 2004. The winner is chosen by a panel of leading Bay Area theatre critics. In 2014, the award was presented to local playwright Aaron Loeb for his play Ideation, premiered by San Francisco Playhouse in the fall of 2013.
Theatre Bay Area continues to serve as my lifeline to current information about who’s doing what and where things are happening. I value and honor the vital role TBA plays on a national level and their advocacy for Bay Area artistry, reminding folks on the other coast that cutting-
edge theatre is alive and thriving in our community. - Lisa Steindler, artistic director, Z Space
Shaun Bengson and Abigail Bengson in Hundred Days at Z Space. Photo: Mark Leialoha.
advance ADVOCACY Arts advocacy creates an arts-friendly ecosystem by rallying people to our cause. Theatre Bay Area works with key advocacy organizations both locally and nationally to secure arts-positive public policy. Over the course of the past year, we have regularly appeared before governing bodies at city halls, in Sacramento and in Washington, DC, in order to make our case. We have informed and rallied the field, providing updates and advocacy tools that have empowered theatre makers and supporters to make their voices heard as they have engaged with their school boards, their city councils, their legislators and Congressional representatives. This last year, a grassroots campaign led by Californians for the Arts (CFTA), an association in which Theatre Bay Area plays a leadership role, led to a breakthrough in state funding for the arts. After a decade of rock-bottom investment in the arts (placing California last or next to last in terms of percapita spending) the work of California’s art advocates, including Theatre Bay Area, paid off with an increase of $5 million to the California Arts Council (a jump of 500%). CFTA and Theatre Bay Area look to build on that victory, locking the increase in place and increasing it this year and in years to come.
CA$H GRANTS (CREATIVE ASSISTANCE FOR THE $MALL AND HUNGRY) CA$H grants provide invaluable financial support to individual theatre and dance artists and small, professionally oriented companies Since its inception, the program has granted more than one million dollars. In the past year, the CA$H program awarded 18 grants of $2,000 to individual artists and 12 grants of $4,000 to small-budget organizations throughout the Bay Area.
TITAN AWARDS In 2014, Theatre Bay Area was honored to offer six Titan awards to participants of the ATLAS program in order to support them in the furthering of their careers. This year’s grantees included four actors (Sarah Moser, Alexander M. Lydon, Wiley Naman Strasser, Philip Watt), a director (Noelle GM Gibbs) and one actor/director (Clay David). Titan grantees are also matched with mentors to advise them on their career development.
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At a time when small organizations and visionary artists have found very few opportunities available to them that will support their artmaking process, Theatre Bay Area has been
instrumental in providing consistent and ongoing support for the development of these dynamic new works. - Lenora Lee, artistic director, Lenora Lee Dance
RHE ARTIST FELLOWSHIP Through an exciting new partnership with the RHE Charitable Foundation, Theatre Bay Area was pleased to offer the first RHE Artist Fellowship to actor Reggie White. With this $15,000 grant, Reggie was able to undertake a bicoastal project aimed at increasing his national contacts. Mentorship was provided to help him maximize the award.
INTRINSIC IMPACT Intrinsic Impact measures the deeply felt, highly personal impact of the theatrical experience on the audience. In 2009, we launched a nationwide study with the aim of helping theatre leaders to deepen the impact of the work on their stages. This past year, the project continued with two new cohorts of Bay Area theatres engaging in the work. We have begun surveying dozens of companies from around the country to better understand how theatre leaders and artists are using the research to design and implement new methods for deepening the engagement of their audiences and the impact of their work.
TRIPLE PLAY How can theatres excite an interest in new work, attract new people to their stages and deepen the engagement of their audiences? Triple Play—a new national initiative supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and led by Theatre Bay Area and our partners at Theatre Development Fund in New York—posits that the answer lies in bolstering the “triangular relationship” between audiences, artists and the theatres that produce them. Over the course of the past year, we have commissioned studies from renowned arts researchers, hosted theatre community conversations in six cities around the country, engaged the field at major national convenings, and launched groundbreaking research on the motivations and responses of audiences towards new theatrical work, utilizing playwrights themselves as researchers. Look for more on this project in the year ahead.
STRATEGIC PLANNING This year, Theatre Bay Area also focused on advancing ourselves as an organization by engaging in a robust strategic planning process (generously supported by the Hewlett Foundation). We have worked with top consultants and tapped our staff, board and advisory committees for their thinking. We have conducted a “listening tour,” convening theatre makers throughout the region to better understand their challenges and aspirations and to solicit feedback on our emerging plan, based on a theory of change that envisions a Bay Area where theatre plays a central role in the cultural and civic life of our region. Naima Shaloub, Ryan Nicole Austin, Wilgens Pierre and Brooklyn Fields in Xtigone with African-American Shakespeare Company. Photo: Lance Huntley.
FINANCIALS PROGRAM REVENUE
9%
2% PUBLICATION SALES 2% INTEREST & OTHER <1%
ADVERTISING:
DISPLAY, ELECTRONIC, CLASSIFIED
14%
FUNDRAISING & EVENTS
IN-KIND CONTRIBUTIONS
<1%
MEMBERSHIP DUES
30%
FEE FOR SERVICE
16%
8% CORPORATE SUPPORT 2%
INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTIONS
TICKETING SERVICES
27%
THEATRE BAY AREA STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITY GOVERNMENT SUPPORT
23% FOUNDATION SUPPORT
67% DEVELOPMENT
12%
MANAGEMENT & GENERAL
7%
REVENUE Membership Dues Ticketing Services Advertising Display, Electronic, Classified Fee for Service Fundraising & Events Program Revenue Publication Sales Interest & Other TOTAL EARNED REVENUE
FY12-13 $204,552 $174,569
FY13-14 $194,058 $177,799
$98,519 $39.788 $22,822 $88,455 $14,734 $45,599 $689, 037
$94,902 $105,619 $15,136 $60,444 $11,669 $137 $659,764
PUBLIC SUPPORT Foundation Support Government Support Corporate Support Individual Contributions In-Kind Contributions TOTAL PUBLIC SUPPORT
FY12-13 $405,411 $157,300 $11,280 $37,513 $3,289 $614,794
FY13-14 $471,707 $165,306 $15,500 $53,375 $2,695 $708,583
TOTAL REVENUE & PUBLIC SUPPORT
PROGRAM SERVICES
81%
$1,303,831
EXPENSES Program Services Management & General Development TOTAL EXPENSES
FY12-13 $1,050,796 $109,200 $136,938 $1,296,934
CHANGE IN NET ASSETS
$6,897
$1,368,347 FY13-14 $1,143,718 $96,645 $169,867 $1,410,230 $(41,883)
THEATRE BAY AREA STAFF Brad Erickson Dana Harrison Dale Albright Sam Hurwitt Brandi Brandes Alan Kline Laura Brueckner Kimberley Cohan Kendra Oberhauser Katharine Chin James Nelson Toni Press-Coffman Robert Sokol
Executive Director Managing Director Program Director Editor-in-Chief Development Manager/Bookkeeper Marketing Resources Coordinator Digital Content Manager Listings Editor Membership & Marketing Associate Marketing Associate Field Services Associate Grant Writer Awards Program Manager
THEATRE BAY AREA BOARD OF DIRECTORS
David Gluck Beverly Butler Kathy King Janice E. Sager
President Vice President Treasurer Secretary
Cristian Asher, Gina Baleria, Stuart Bousel, Don-Scott Cooper, Kim Daniel, Edward H. Davis, Brad Erickson, Pat Harden, Dana Harrison, Mark Jansen, Jennifer Kawar, Yehonatan Koenig Lisa Mallette, Andrew Smith, Anne W. Smith, Devi Vat-Ho, Chuhan Wang, Bruce Williams
FUNDERS OF THEATRE BAY AREA California Arts Council
The James Irvine Foundation
Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
Kenneth Rainin Foundation
The Fleishhacker Foundation
National Endowment for the Arts
San Francisco Grants for the Arts/
RHE Charitable Foundation
San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund
The San Francisco Foundation
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
The Shubert Foundation The Zellerbach Family Foundation
ADVISORY COMMITTEES THEATRE SERVICES COMMITTEE
Lisa Mallette, City Lights Theater Company, chair Suzanne Appel, Cutting Ball Theater; Daren A.C. Carollo, Berkeley Playhouse; Anne Nygren Doherty, New Musical Theater of San Francisco; Robin Dolan, California Shakespeare Theater; Patrick Dooley, Shotgun Players; Amanda Folena, Broadway by the Bay; Jeanette Harrison, AlterTheater; Melissa Hillman, Impact Theatre; Barbara Hodgen, New Conservatory Theatre Center; Brian Katz, Custom Made Theatre Company; Ken Levin, Berkeley Playhouse; Clark Lewis, Roustabout Theater; Seth Macari, Aurora Theatre Company; Leslie Martinson, TheatreWorks; Nina Meehan, Bay Area Children’s Theatre; Michelle Mulholland, Golden Thread Productions; Karen Altree Piemme, Red Ladder Theatre Company; Alan Quismorio, Bindlestiff Studio; Julie Saltzman, Aurora Theatre Company; Beverly Sotelo, California Shakespeare Theater; Jonathan Spector, Just Theater; Lily Tung Crystal, Ferocious Lotus.
INDIVIDUAL SERVICES COMMITTEE Stuart Bousel, chair Beryl Baker, Megan Briggs, Marjorie Crump-Shears, Barry Eitel, Jr., Jerome J. Gentes, Leon Goertzen, Sylvia Hathaway, Marissa Keltie, Aaron Murphy, Alan Olejniczak, Shirley Smallwood, Dalia Vidor, Lily Yang Marilee Talkington in She Rode Horses Like the Stock Exchange by Amelia Roper with Crowded Fire. Photo: Pak Han.
Brittani McBride, Kreona Turner and Robert Cornn in A Raisin in the Sun at Oakland School for the Arts. Photo: Jennifer Duff. Ben Needhan-Wood, Terez Dean and Christian Squires with Smuin Ballet. Photo: Keith Sutter. Students at Young Actorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Theatre Camp. Photo: Bridget Homer. Trish Mulholland in The New Electric Ballroom with Shotgun Players. Photo: Pak Han. Adrian Roberts and Carl Lumbly in Fences at Marin Theatre Company. Photo: Ed Smith. Dashawn Franklin, Kelvyn Wallis, Maurice Jones, Alex Prieto, Katherine Blake, Robert Paige, Marques Conerly in Caught Up with Gritty City Repertory. Photo: Lindsay Krumbein. Rami Margron, Natalie Greene and Soren Shane Santos in Super:Anti:Reluctant with Mugwumpin. Photo: Pak Han. Charisse Loriaux and Eric Gutierrez in Nightmare on Puberty St. with Kaiser Permanente Educational Theatre. Photo: Jared Randolph. Kathryn Zdan and Michael Anthony Torres in The Late Wedding by Christopher Chen with Crowded Fire. Photo: Pak Han. Evan Johnson in Pansy at New Conservatory Thaetre Center. Photo: Lois Tema. Corissa Johnson, Beatrice Tesorero, Dannia Ciolo, and Mary Grace Burns in Dive with MEnD Dance Theatre and Bindlestiff Studios. Photo: Aileen Pagtakhan. Amanda Eckstut in The Taming of the Shrew with College of Marin. Photo: Robin Jackston. Sarah Moser and Wes Gabrillo in Eurydice with Palo Alto Players. Photo: Joyce Goldschmid. Noelani Neal and Safiya Fredericks in Into the Woods at the San Francisco Playhouse. Photo: Jessica Palopoli. Matt Citron, Jennifer Le Blanc, Elena Wright, Sarah Dacey Charles and Lynne Soffer in Silent Sky at TheatreWorks. Photo: Mark Kitaoka. Antoine Hunter in San Francisco Trolley Dances 2014 presented by Epiphany Productions Dance Theater. Photo: Andy Mogg.
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