Two Theater Groups Make a Play for More Space
The Audrey Herman Spotlighters Theatre and Chesapeake Shakespeare Company have plans for their next act: bigger digs. (All the world's a stage, but truth be told, actors like being in actual buildings.)
Spotlighters Theatre in Baltimore has outgrown its Mount Vernon home, in the basement of the Madison Apartments, where it's held performances since 1962. The theater wants to double to 12k SF and hopes to find a property within the next year, says executive director Fuzz Roark (pictured against a backdrop of theater posters.) Ideally, the theater would like to submit a proposal to lease space in a city-owned building for below market rates in a neighborhood that needs revitalization, Fuzz says. The theater is considering Baltimore’s west side (near Everyman Theatre and the Hippodrome), midtown's Howard Street and Waverly.
Fuzz expects to hire a consultant within the next month to conduct a feasibility study on how much it can raise in a capital campaign. He estimates it would cost $3M to $5M to lease and renovate a building. The renovation would start in 2017 and the theater would move in 2019 before its lease expires at the end of the year.
Spotlighters' new location would hold as many as 130 seats, up from its current 70, and feature a second performance space with as many as 125 seats that it could rent to local theater, dance or music groups. The theater also needs more room for its growing theater education programs for high school and college students and additional storage and dressing rooms.
Its season next year includes Dangerous Liaisons and Evita while the 2014-15 season included One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest (pictured) and Rocky Horror Picture Show. Its operating budget has grown from $55K per year to $150k in the last decade, Fuzz says. Spotlighters’ landlord Daniel Kline, president of Delancey Street Capital, says he hopes the theater stays but understands if it needs to move since there is no space to expand at 817 St. Paul St.
Also plotting an expansion is the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company. After a successful first year in its new downtown home in the historic Mercantile Trust building at Redwood and Calvert streets, the theater is eyeing more space next door at the Merchant's Club Building at 206 E Redwood St (pictured).
The theater has signed a short-term lease for 3k SF, which it is using for rehearsals and classrooms, says founding artistic director Ian Gallanar (pictured). The theater hopes to negotiate a longer-term lease in the future and could take up half of the nearly 17k SF building, Ian says. That wouldn’t happen for at least a couple of years.
The expansion would allow them to grow the classroom space and have a secondary performance space with 100 seats for small chamber performances and conduct professional training and workshops, says Ian. The building is owned by Helm Real Estate Holdings, which purchased it earlier this year. It’s headed by Chesapeake board member Scott Helm.
The theater company continues to hold summer outdoor performances in the ruins of the Patapsco Female Institute Historic Park in Ellicott City. Ticket sales at the downtown location (pictured) were 12% higher than it had projected for the first season. It has also grown its staff from nine to 13.
