Funding shortfall forces Bay Area Children's Theatre to suspend season
BERKELEY -- Arts organizations, hard-hit by the pandemic, have been struggling just to survive. Now, one of them has had to make a tough decision.
When COVID-19 shut down Broadway for 18 months, it felt like the curtain was coming down on the arts community everywhere. Now, live theater is back but -- just as with the disease -- there are lingering problems.
The Bay Area Children's Theatre production of "Giraffes Can't Dance" is a dazzling musical about a giraffe named Gerald who discovers his potential when he learns how to dance but first he has to overcome some pretty daunting obstacles, like the other animals who doubt his ability.
"Giraffes can't dance!" they all yell while laughing at him.
Staged in the round at the Osher Studio Theatre in Berkeley, everything about the production is professional, from the music to the lighting to the actors themselves. It all combines to create sounds, movement and colors that put a look of awe on the faces of the young children.
"Art itself -- whether it's theater, whether it's visual arts, performing arts -- it allows people to escape from the world but also see the world from a different perspective," said Jeffrey May Hyche, who plays Gerald in the production. "It also allows stories to be told and also morals to be taught through these stories as well."
As much as they believe the show must go on, it simply can't in the current economic climate. The BACT, which has performed for more than a million kids over its 19-year history, has announced it is suspending next year's season until it can figure out a business model that works.
"Arts organizations in particular were hanging on by a thread before COVID, particularly in the Bay Area. It's expensive to live here," said BACT interim executive director Sharon Dolan. "And then there's a pandemic, you know? And just, sort of, layer on layer and then this exorbitant inflation is kind of the ice cream on the cake, you know? It was just one too many things."
She said everything is costing more, including the actors. AB 5, the state law that designated them as employees rather than independent contractors, made hiring them more expensive.
"I mean, it's a good thing -- it's a good thing for the actor. So, it's a tough call to name that but it is definitely a factor," Dolan said.
BACT is now soliciting donations just to keep "Giraffes Can't Dance" going until the end of its run in June. Then the governing board will have to figure out a way to cut costs, which Dolan said will involve some kind of scaling back.
"For sure, yeah," she said. "Personally, I've gotten several e-mails in the last three weeks from performing arts organizations saying 'We need to raise $3 million in the next month or we're not going to have another season.' You know, several organizations are in a similar position."
For now, they're just calling it a "pause" but is there a danger the company could go out of business entirely?
"I mean, I think for every arts organization ever, there's always danger, you know?" Dolan said. "Because we're all sort of living on the edge and this is what we want to shift so we're not living on the edge."
Unlike some other cultures, Americans have always considered the performing arts to be a luxury, often the first thing cut from a budget. But to see the effect it can have on kids -- well, after COVID, it may be just what the doctor ordered.
