NSMT announces plan it hopes will make '09 season a reality
North Shore Music Theatre, trying desperately to survive, announced a new plan yesterday to dramatically cut costs so it can launch a season this summer. But the nonprofit Beverly theater said it must still raise $2 million by July in order to put on six musicals and its holiday production of "A Christmas Carol."
Last December, the company, founded in 1955 and the largest nonprofit theater in New England, announced it had reached a crisis point: It would need to raise $4 million by the spring in order to survive. The theater's leaders blamed the economic downturn, disappointing ticket sales, and the fallout from a 2005 fire that left it with a roughly $5 million debt in 2007.
So far North Shore has raised about $400,000. In January, layoffs took effect for many employees, and North Shore began to come up with a new plan: to co-produce shows with other companies, thereby saving North Shore large sums of money spent on expenses for such things as travel, auditions, and lodging when creating a production on its own.
"Under this co-production model, I don't need as much money before we put on a show," said David Fellows, chair of North Shore's board of trustees. "The second part is I make sure I make money off every show I do."
Fellows declined to say which companies North Shore planned to collaborate with, saying that the leaders of the other companies first need to notify their respective boards. But he said they are all companies outside New England that are "more prestigious than we are."
Fellows said he's confident that with this plan in place, the company will be able to raise the $2 million. If it can't, North Shore will continue to raise money with an eye toward a 2010 season. Fellows added that some money has already been pledged, though he declined to say how much.
"With small donations - $100 up to about $1,000 - people were willing to give us that money, not confident whether we'd be here," Fellows said. "Even if we don't survive, they did their part. Someone who is going to give the theater $100,000, that's real money. They want to know the theater's going to be there. One of the answers we have for them now, which we didn't have two months ago, is here's the answer to that."
Geoff Edgers can be reached at gedgers@globe.com. 