Donation Gives ART an Infusion

It took the Alternative Repertory Theatre little more than a month to go from contemplating institutional death by fiscal starvation to the most flush financial condition of the theater’s 13-year history.

The capper in ART’s rescue came last week, with the announcement of a $50,000 sponsorship grant from BMC Software, a Houston-based company with a branch office in Irvine.

Earlier in the week, ART’s founders and leaders, Patricia L. Terry and Gary Christensen, had announced that a separate emergency appeal for donations brought in $15,000 from the Santa Ana theater’s fans and subscribers, guaranteeing that ART would be able to carry on for at least one more season.

Now the theater has its biggest-ever fiscal cushion, Terry said Monday. The grant and donations will buy ART time and leeway to address its biggest challenge: increasing attendance to ensure long-term prosperity.

ART has seen its season subscriber base shrink to fewer than 300 since moving to the Artists Village in downtown Santa Ana 15 months ago. Terry wants to double that for next season.

ART began putting its new resources to work last weekend, taking out its first newspaper advertisement larger than a small notice to plug its current production, “Psychopathia Sexualis,” a light sex comedy by “Moonstruck” screenwriter John Patrick Shanley.

The one-year sponsorship from BMC is more than double the theater’s largest previous grant. In 1998 it received $22,000 in community development money from Santa Ana to help outfit its 82-seat space in the Grand Central Art Center.

The corporate sponsorship grew from a lucky happenstance. Tim Johnson, a BMC executive, entered a chili cook-off at a late-summer festival thrown by his Santa Ana neighborhood and sat down to eat with City Councilman Brett Franklin.

Johnson mentioned he was heading a just-formed committee at BMC geared to raising the company’s profile through local donations. Franklin, a supporter of the Artists Village, which Santa Ana officials believe will prove an engine of downtown revitalization via the arts and night life, recommended ART as a possible grant recipient.

In making the grant, Johnson said it was a plus that Alternative Repertory Theatre is viewed as a link in the city’s downtown development strategy, and that ART, though small and struggling, has proven hardy and dedicated over a long haul. Rather than give to an already-successful arts organization, he said, BMC wanted to direct its money where it could make a clear difference.

Early this year the seven-member community relations committee Johnson co-chairs at BMC saw ART’s production of “Long Day’s Journey into Night,” Eugene O’Neill’s dark epic of family disaster. The play’s run fared miserably at the box office, precipitating ART’s call in February for emergency donations. But it was a solid production, and Johnson and others at BMC liked it.

Negotiations continued, and on March 23 the company’s chief financial officer in Houston OKd the $50,000 grant. ART and BMC held off announcing it until all the details were in place.

The commitment is for one year. But, Johnson said, “we expect to be associated with the theater for quite some time . . . and help them grow to the next level.”

As sponsor, BMC will have its logo on all ART advertising, mailings and theater programs. It also is identified as the theater’s principal sponsor on a new version of the sign ART posts outside the Grand Central Art Center each performance night.

Johnson and Terry said the grant, to be paid in four quarterly installments, has no strings attached. Terry said the theater’s artistic independence is “very clear” under the agreement. Johnson will join ART’s board of directors next month; Terry said the theater is especially eager to have his marketing expertise.

The infusion of cash does not mean ART will splurge on more lavish productions, Terry said. “We need to be conservative and stay fiscally healthy, and focus on getting our name out and getting more butts in seats.”