What Happened to the City’s Four Newest Theatres?
Seven years ago, The Pulse did a cover story entitled “All the City’s a Stage” which focused on four fledgling theatre companies fresh on the Chattanooga arts scene. We wanted to find the persons profiled in that story and see how their theatres have evolved since then. Did they achieve what they set out to, and were they still arts makers in Chattanooga?
Did these founders see something missing in Chattanooga that inspired them to their quest? In the 2013 article, one of those artists said that, “There is a perception here that community theatre is professional theatre.”
One was motivated by the lack of professional (as in paying) theatre. One noticed no permanent theatre dedicated to the classics. One saw an underworked community ready to make another artistic home. Another posited that, “There’s also still a certain fear factor when it comes to alternative theatre. Alt-theatre is in its adolescence here. Let’s see where we are in 10 years.”
It must be revealed from the outset, however, that only one of the four theatres are still operating. While that seems deflating, it doesn’t automatically mean that what unfolded was disappointing. The process of theatre making can frequently be uplifting, even if the results are temporary and short-lived. And sometimes new expressions from young theatre thinkers can send ripples across a theatre ecosystem that live in memory for a long time.
That said, what happened? Did the seeds of these theatres not fall on fertile ground? Were they not watered or properly tended to? That’s what this article aims to learn; why doesn’t Chattanooga have four growing theatres today? And what happened to the new theatres from 2013?
The Creators
Garry Lee Posey grew up in Chattanooga, studied theatre at Catawba College and Ole Miss, then brought his master’s degree home to found the Ensemble Theatre of Chattanooga (ETC). Janis Hashe moved to Chattanooga in 2006 after having studied Shakespeare in London. She found a city which supported a symphony/opera, two ballet companies, and a variety of other arts organizations…but not classical theatre. She set about founding the Shakespeare Chattanooga (SC).
Daniel Pound grew up outside Memphis and graduated from Chatt State’s Professional Actor Training Program. He observed lots of Chattanooga-based theatre workers looking for an artistic home, so he founded the Nine Worthies Theatre (NWT) inspired by chivalricideals from the Middle Ages. Mike Rudez went to the McCallie School, then studied theatre at the Tisch School of the Artsat NYU. After graduation he founded the Theatre for the New South (TNS) which aspired to a high-quality, experimental aesthetic.
Posey’s main objectives were to create a theatre that paid artists for their work, and to provide opportunities which theatre workers did not typically enjoy in this area, including work with new playwrights, devised theatre, and non-traditional casting. Hashe had been an Artistic Director (Theatre of NOTE in Hollywood), and saw an opening for classes and full productions of Shakespeare which might one day evolve into a larger, regional Shakespeare Festival.
Pound sought to build a theatre around a dozen or so artists committed to building an artistic home, then “see what happened.” Rudez said he would, “love to see Chattanooga become a theatre hub for the Southeast,” one which aspired to make “the type of theatre that we had to travel out of town to see.”
ETC started in 2007, beginning the Chattanooga small theatre Renaissance, followed by Shakespeare Chattanooga in 2008, the Theatre for a New South in 2011, and finally the Nine Worthies Theatre in 2013. ETC made their mark in part by paying artists, something unusual in a city exclusively populated with unpaid, community/amateur theatre. Shakespeare Chattanooga hit the ground with productions and educational offerings. TNS began producing experimental works, and NWT provided an additional place for Chattanooga artists to practice their craft.
Space Issues
One topic dominates this story. “There are very few traditional performance spaces in Chattanooga today, and there were even fewer nearly ten years ago,” notes Rudez. Recognizing that crucial deficiency of the local arts ecosystem, TNS arrived at a smart solution. “We realized early on that if we wanted to do the type of work that interested us, we would need to use non-traditional spaces because they were often cheaper, and more readily available than the existing performance spaces of the time.”
Where would Chattanooga audiences see TNS productions? Community or recreation centers, warehouses, art studios, and vacant restaurants. Plays were purposely matched to locations for an immersive effect. “We used to say the space itself was a character in our production,” underlines Rudez. “Because we had no physical space to call our own, we have to develop a resourcefulness and pragmatism with our work.”
Shakespeare Chattanooga started by renting space at the Chattanooga Theatre Centre. Further productions took place in Renaissance Park, First Baptist Church, the Jewish Cultural Center, the Ripple Theatre in Brainerd, Barking Legs, Grace Episcopal Church, and the Highland Center, which the group had hoped might become their home. NWT was similarly nomadic, producing in the St. Andrews Center, and a space at the Salvation Army. Pound laments, “Our third show, which never finished rehearsals, was going to be in a backyard setting behind Barking Legs Theatre. We were nomads, doing theatre where we could.”
But when it comes to lack of performance spaces, it has been ETC which has suffered the most. Over the past 11 years, ETC — like a homeless wanderer — has produced at Barking Legs, the St. Andrews Center (now Mercy Junction), Eastgate Town Center, the Highland Center (formerly Brainerd Middle School), the Family Justice Center, then back to Barking Legs where they have been for the past two seasons.
The dearth of available performance venues alone may well reveal why these (or any) fledgling arts groups fail. Put bluntly, if arts groups are constantly forced to be on the move, patrons, over time, will struggle to find them, frustrating audience building and overall ability to develop. Every great arts group in Chattanooga has one thing in common: they have a home. These four did not.
The Money Part
It’s hard to discuss home issues without looking at larger financial issues, so I asked the group about their financial health, if they had adequate budgets and/or ability to fundraise.
Though Rudez reports that every production, “paid for itself with enough left to seed the next production,” TNS never acquired their 501(c)3 non-profit status and therefore could not raise money on a significant scale. They did have several GoFundMe-type fundraisers for individual shows, with modest results.
Did they have the money they needed to make the art they wanted? “No.” says Rudez. “I can’t speak for all the company members, but the type of art I wanted to make would have included compensation for our time and labor. I was never able to make that happen. The profit margins on our productions were very small, and making the decision to pay ourselves and our artists would have meant not having enough to mount the next production.”
Likewise, Shakespeare Chattanooga did not achieve their 501(c) 3 status, and thus, were not eligible for the vast majority of grants. Hashe explains, “From the very beginning it was my intension to create a board and form a nonprofit. We were financed on a shoestring budget, with most of the money coming from my shoestrings.” All Shakespeare Chattanooga productions split the box office between the partners, and actors were always guaranteed a portion of the proceeds…if there were any after expenses.
Shakespeare Chattanooga did do some fundraising events which raised “a few hundred dollars at a time.” Their Othello Projectreceived a $3,000 grant from ArtsBuild (in partnership with the Theatre Centre), and their Songs, Sonnets, & Soliloquysreceived $10,000 from CreateHere, an entity aspiring to build Chattanooga’s cultural economy through arts, economic and cultural development initiatives.
But the Great Recession of 2008 didn’t care about plans made. “Even the well-established arts groups in the city were struggling to maintain funding.” In short, Hashe could not outlast the Recession, and she left town before her dreams could be realized.
NWT also did not achieve their 501(c) 3 status. Pound laments, “We made the art we could, the best we could, with what we had.” He characterizes their first production as having “no budget”. “We borrowed and used props and costumes and sets and used what we had at home.” NWT also gave a percentage of their ticket sales to company members, which amounted to between $50 and $100 apiece. As time went on, their shares increased, but their fundraising did not. “We never got donations of money that I recall.”
He muses, “Of course, it would have been easier and maybe we would have lasted longer had we gotten financial donations, but we made art that we loved. At the end of the day, I felt everyone involved was proud of what we did.”
When it comes to contributed and earned income growth, ETC has evolved the farthest of all the companies. Budgets at ETC have ranged between $18,000 and $70,000 per season, averaging about $30,000 a year now. “We produced with what we had and made the most of it,” explains Posey. “We did struggle while at Eastgate because we were not prepared for the increase in overhead and we certainly found some very tight financial moments.”
But although they are 11 years old, they have never received any funding from ArtsBuild or the Tennessee Arts Commission (though they have received some project grants for about five of their 80 productions). They have enjoyed some support from individuals, as well as matching employee grants from foundations associated with Unum and Starbucks and Cigna.
In general, the longevity of any arts organization depends, in large part, on the balance between production and fundraising. Put another way, it’s not enough that a play can be produced; a theatre — fledgling or not — must foster at least two revenue streams which spring from those productions: ticket sales and contributions.
That three of these four companies were unable to identify these revenue streams may have more to do with their brevity on the scene, or that training programs spend the majority of their time on craft rather than the art of fundraising which supports the craft. But the fact that three companies did not survive may also say something about the lack of funding and funders in Chattanooga. Did the four theatres, by and large, not find the funding they needed, or were trying to set up shop in a town with so few funders?
The Art
When it comes to the work, each group quickly remembers a handful of special shows. Hashe recalls memorable “Twelfth Night” and “The Othello Project”. Their final show, “A Midsummer Night's Dream”, was set in Athens, GA, and featured music of the bands from Athens. “We were very fortunate to attract some talented performers, some of whom appeared in every Shakespeare Chattanooga production and reading.”
Pound remembers NWT’s most successful show was “Romeo and Juliet”, as it was artistically rewarding and was finally starting to attract local press. Rudez thinks his company’s strengths were the company members themselves. When he thinks of the best examples of TNS, he mentions Medea and Noraas they “captured who we were as a company.”
The Tipping Point
So, when did this group of artistic entrepreneurs realize their theatre could not continue? Two of the companies seemed done in by reasons having to do with venue, and the other two struggled to survive after a kind of personnel mass exodus.
Posey reflects on a hiatus ETC took beginning in 2016. “None of us wanted it to be the end, but we certainly treated it like it was. And it could have been. With the exception of some die-hard loyalists, it seemed like we were done when “Godspell” closed in February of 2016.”
He speaks of yet another venue that came with high hopes for a permanent space…but that inevitably fell thru, leaving the company depressed. Again. Posey’s disappointment is significant because ETC seems to have survived for over a decade by repeatedly mitigating disappointment. They still produce today.
Hashe recalls a 2015 family decision. “I needed to move back to California to help care for my mother. I had hoped SC could continue, and did what I could to increase that possibility. We stored the costumes, props, and material we had accumulated at the Highland Center.”
But it’s always hard for a founder to handoff the reins to another who is inevitably less invested. When there is no one to “steer the ship” and grow partnerships the way the leader did. It’s even harder when the venue which held so much promise…gets sold to buyers less committed to supporting the arts. Shakespeare Chattanooga had lasted about seven years.
Pound recalls a fateful production of “Twelfth Night” which, for myriad reasons, lost four core cast members AND four Board members. And to lose so many important workers during the rehearsals for a show was prophetic. “It was a sign that NWT wasn’t going to survive.” Personally, Pound felt a unique pressure. “I was married less than three years, with a three-year-old, and was trying to run a theatre. It just wasn’t smart of me to continue.” NWT had not lasted one year.
As for TNS, two core company members were accepted into west coast MFA programs. “It was a bittersweet moment because while I was so happy to see two amazing artists move on to these prestigious programs, I knew it was going to mean the end of our company.” Knowing that replacing these core members might well have invited compromises to the overall artistic quality, Rudez made the difficult decision to fold as a company after three years.
Where Are They Now?
Today Janis Hashe is a freelance journalist near San Francisco and continues to teach "Shakespeare for the Elizabethan Impaired" at a community college. Daniel Pound stayed in Chattanooga, became an at-home Dad to two sons, and did what theatre he could. In 2016 he moved to Arlington, TN and founded the Arlington Community Theatre (ACT) where he has produced 15 productions. In 2012 Mike Rudez became the General Manager at the Hamilton Place Starbucks. Garry Lee Posey remains the Founding Artistic Director of the Ensemble Theatre of Chattanooga.
Lessons
When asked about things they might have done differently, many cite things relative to understanding funding sources, getting their 501(c) 3 sooner, and recruiting more hands-on deck. Some lament what the economy did to their companies, either in 2008 or now.
Pound made an interesting, if deeper observation. “In retrospect, I would have taken my time. I was fresh out of college, I wanted to be more than what we were capable of being. I fell into the trap that most artists in their 20’s fall into... I wanted it all now. I was too ambitious for my own good. My heart was in the right place, and my passion was there, but I didn’t want to take the time. I thought my talent would pull me through. I was using my drive and heart but not my brain. But those mistakes made me better and taught me the lessons that have helped make ACT successful today.”
I asked the group if they had any unique perspectives on Chattanooga’s theatre scene? Their responses were usually about wishing “the theatre scene was more connected at the top.” Which reminded me that seven years ago Pound said, “I’d like to see the theatres in town become more of a community.” The other prevalent sentiment was imagining what could be done “given the right people, some solid funding, and support from the city.”
Rudez focused on a larger point. “I think Chattanooga falls into the trap that a lot of mid-sized cities do. We think it’s necessary to import our culture, rather than developing it internally. Broadway touring productions are great, and they do far more artistic and fiscal good than harm. However, it’s not NECESSARY we do this. We have great artists here. They’re our neighbors, and I feel it’s important to celebrate, and value them. I also think Chattanooga theatre artists do a horrible job selling the idea that investing in art pays dividends. Artists raise property values. Artists transform cities into regional travel destinations. We aren’t pushing that narrative, and we have to own it, and do better.”
Epilogue
So, seven years ago there was a burst of artistic energy in Chattanooga. Where did that all go? Some is still here, but most of it spread to other professions, other Tennessee towns, and other states.
Which is ironic because in the 2013 article Rudez made the observation, “There’s always been a talent drain out of Chattanooga. Theatre people go off to the big cities. Not just actors, but directors and design talent.”
The state of any art is always with the artists, so how can Chattanooga keep those artists who have the big dreams? As Terrence McNally said, “The big dreams are the only dreams worth having.”
The lessons of these four theatres surely have to do with incubation, funding, and space. Is having such diverse, professional theatres possible in Chattanooga? Because great arts cities seem to have them. So, if all of Chattanooga is a stage, then how, going forward, does it harness those bigger dreams and finally realize its own greatness?