Bay Area Children's Theatre Owes Over 2000 Creditors as Part of its Downfall

This past week, an auction was launched to sell off what was left of Bay Area Children’s Theatre (BACT). It is part of the bankruptcy proceeding—most of the theaters that folded managed to do it before the court needed to get involved, but not BACT. On May 2, it launched a Save Our Stage campaign through July 1, but the campaign did not start off strong. Just over two weeks after its launch, the theater’s leadership announced it was shutting its doors because of mounting debt. According to the bankruptcy filing, the company had $170,485 in assets (including non-liquid assets that are being turned into cash via this auction) and $793,335.58 in debt. Over 2000 individuals or companies are owed money and, of course, most won’t see it.

The fall of BACT is one of the ones that hit me hardest. Its post-Covid attendance was strong, undermining the rhetoric that if people just came back to the theater, all would be fine. I was there in March, introducing two children to musical theater. I have great photos of my nephew enjoying one of their Play On! audio play kits during the pandemic. But, most importantly, I know how many children BACT introduced to theater at no cost to them. And therein lies the rub—I’ve received multiple emails and calls from people blaming leadership for the failure of theaters. These individuals not only question how theaters failed to adapt quickly enough to the new normal, but also question how you can possibly run a theater that doesn’t exist solely on ticket sales. You shouldn’t rely on the kindness of strangers, they posit. “Theaters should be run like commercial shows,” a reader emailed. (Of course, commercial productions have also received government support in recent years, but let’s put that to the side.)

Fundamentally, our non-profits were never established to subsist on ticket sales. It is well known that the regional theater system we know now expanded because of support from foundations, particularly the Ford Foundation, in the 1950s. The system was set up to rely on outside support because of the idea that organizations performing a public service should receive outside support.

Now, there is definitely mismanagement in our regional theater system—indeed, when announcing its immediate closing, members of the BACT team admitted in interviews that it had incorrectly estimated the burden rising costs would have on the company. If you are owed money by BACT, you surely, rightfully, believe it was mismanaged. But to accuse theaters of mismanagement requires more than to say: “You aren’t paying for your programs via ticket sales.” That alone is not enough to accuse leaders of malfeasance because it ignores that the theaters are contributing to the public good in a way that qualifies them as a charity.

In the last few weeks, I’ve been at ten regional theaters across the country. I’ve spoken to audience members in bathrooms, on patios, and while sitting in my seat. A 21-year-old told me that Alexis Scheer’s Our Dear Dead Drug Lord, currently running at Los Angeles’ Kirk Douglas Theatre, was her first theater experience, but she was quickly corrected by her mother. Her mother reminded her that when she was "seven or eight," her school took her to a musical at the Bay Area Children’s Theatre, and it was that musical that inspired her to take dance lessons, a pursuit that led her to become a cheerleader. This young woman didn’t remember the show, but it influenced her life; it led her to find something she loved. That is an example of what we’re losing as theaters across the country close. That is the reason we need to step up and support our theaters—we need to do it for the next generation. Yes, theaters need to adapt to changing tastes and economics, but we also need to treat them as we would other charities and donate to them.

Industry Trends Weekly is a short column that runs in the weekly Industry Pro Newsletter. You can read past columns and subscribe here. If you have an idea for the column, you can reach the author at cara@broadwayworld.com.