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No Progress In Efforts To Save New Jersey's Surflight Theater

By: Jul. 21, 2016
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Founded in 1950 by Joseph P. Hayes, Surflight Theater has been a Beach Haven, New Jersey mainstay and its oldest professional AEA theatre company. Since 1975 it has also been the home of the nationally famous Show Place Ice Cream Parlor, complete with singing service staff belting out tunes with every scoop.

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But in 2012, Hurricane Sandy flooded the building, causing $750,000 in damages. The venue reopened in 2013 but rising costs and decreasing financial support from the flood-damaged community forced the company to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

In February of 2015, the theater's website posted the sad announcement that they were ceasing operations.

To Our Loyal Patrons, Donors and Volunteers:

On behalf of the Board of Trustees, I regret to advise you that due to continuing difficult financial circumstances, Surflight Theatre is forced to cease operations after 65 seasons and file for bankruptcy.

This was an extremely difficult decision, and it was not made without trying every possible action to save the theater we all love. Over the past few months, we and Surflight staff have worked tirelessly to improve the theater's financial condition through a variety of means, including appeals for emergency funding, seeking refinancing of our burdensome debt and making cost reductions. Unfortunately, these efforts were unsuccessful.

We sincerely thank you and all in our community who have supported Surflight through the years. This generous support has enabled Surflight to impact the careers of aspiring actors and others involved in live theater - a large part of our theater's mission. We thank you for supporting Surflight's youth programs, which have helped children become confident in front of an audience and attain other life skills. Your patronage has filled the theater's beloved Show Place Ice Cream Parlour with laughter over the antics of our singing waiters. And, of course, your support has allowed Surflight to provide quality live stage performances to our residents and visitors for 65 years.

Finally, we wish to recognize all the members of the Surflight staff, who have worked extremely hard and with great dedication to bring everyone the best Surflight experience possible. We applaud them and wish them well as they continue their extraordinary careers.

Sincerely,
Dave Kreines, chairman

Surflight Board of Trustees

As reported by The SandPaper, despite efforts by community officials, there is no progress being made in the effort to have the building in operation once again as a theatre.

In February, Beach Haven Mayor Nancy Taggart Davis announced that she and Long Beach Township Mayor Joseph Mancini had been considering a plan for LBI's municipalities to purchase the Surflight complex, which includes the theater building, ice cream parlor, offices, cast house, set construction shop and a single-family house, and then lease it to a group that would run it as a community theater.

TD Bank, the first lien holder on the property because of an unpaid $2,014,604 mortgage, set an asking price of $2.9 million, a price that has not come close to being offered. Necessary repairs have been estimated to cost $500,000.

"I'm still working on assembling a coalition of backers," says former Surflight Artistic Director Steve Steiner. He adds that some important pieces had been added recently that he he didn't wish to reveal to the public at this time.

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