Trustees Bolster Endowments
Gifts either by or on behalf of theatre trustees have aided endowment fund campaigns currently underway at two theatres. On Oct. 10, following announcement that Baltimore’s Center Stage was the recipient of a $500,000 Challenge Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, long-time Center Stage board member Howard Head stepped forward with a gift of $500,000 in matching funds. NEA Challenge Grants require a three-to-one match in new or increased funding, and Head’s gift will enable Center Stage to raise the remaining $1 million on a one-to-one match. The successful completion of the match will increase Center Stage’s endowment fund to $3.5 million, well on the way to the $4 million goal.
Within days of the Baltimore announcement, the New York Shakespeare Festival renamed its Other Stage Theatre, one of the six theatres in the Public Theater complex, in memory of Susan Stein Shiva, who had been a member of the festival’s board for more than 15 ears. As a part of the dedication, family members unveiled a plaque commemorating a $1 million gift made to the Festival by the Shiva family.
The New York Shakespeare Festival has a long tradition of naming theatres after generous contributors. Within the Public Theater, the Anspacher Theater, Martinson Hall, Newman Theater and LuEsther Hall were all named in honor of Festival supporters. Papp noted that half the Shiva gift would be added to the Festival’s endowment fund, which now stands at about $17 million, while the remaining $500,000 would be used to help finance the 14 works that the Festival will produce through next summer.
Grants Roundup
Corporations are underwriting specific productions at many theatres this season. Signal Engineered Products Group will underwrite Theatre by the Sea’s first production of the 1984-85 season, Ain’t Misbehavin’. The Seven-Up Company has given $17,500 to the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, the bulk of which will be used to sponsor a new series of holiday performances for children at the theatre and on tour. Theatre for young audiences is also the focus of a grant from AT&T Engineering Research and Education Centers to the McCarter Theatre Company. Their $5,000 grant inaugurates McCarter’s new corporate sponsorship program and will go toward the development and continuing operation of the “Crackerjack’s” series of plays for children.
Sixteen theatre companies received awards from the San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund for 1984-85, totalling $465,500. Among the recipients were American Conservatory Theatre ($265,000), Eureka Theatre Company ($19.000), The Julian Theatre ($20,000), Magic Theatre ($32,000), One Act Theatre Company ($14,000) and Theatre Rhinoceros ($14,000). These awards represent a five percent increase in the Fund’s total over last year.
Brooklyn Academy of Music is one of several theatres to recently receive grants for operating support. BAM received $150,000 from the Rockefeller Foundation for production and touring of large-scale works in theatre, music and dance; the Star Theatre of Flint, Mich. received $125,000 from the Mott Foundation for its summer season of plays, musicals and concerts; and the Monsanto Fund awarded $25,000 to Repertory Theatre of St. Louis for its production of A Raisin in the Sun, which opened the theatre’s 1984-85 season.
The Wilma Theater was awarded $32,500 from the Glenmede Trust Company via the Mabel Pew Myrin Trust for general operating support during its 1984-85 season…Dayton-Hudson Foundation recently announced grants to Arizona Theatre Company ($10,000) and the Cricket Theatre in Minneapolis ($25,000), both for general support….The James Irvine Foundation has awarded the Berkeley Repertory Theatre a $50,000 grant to purchase and install a computer system…Theatre Communications Group has received three unrestricted grants from the Dayton-Hudson Foundation ($12,500), the Mabel Pew Myrin Trust ($10,000) and General Electric Foundation ($5,000). Another $1,500 grant for general support comes from the Xerox Foundation.
