Interview: Bud Martin - DEALING WITH COVID-19 at Delaware Theatre Company

Who would have imagined my 73rd birthday would have been so calamitous? Yes, that was the day the world changed for all of us. 'Normality' will never be the same. There will be fond memories of yesteryear sequestered in your hippocampus. (A brief 2 wks ago).

The new reality. Is there anything that feels 'normal' in a pandemic?

Two weeks ago, you had your normal role in life. Days were scheduled and itemized, with tasks and objectives and boxes to check off. ('Okay, gotta do this, gotta do that'). You had bought tickets for your next performing arts event and were looking forward. You knew from where your next pay check would come.

What was Social Distancing? Huh? Was that like the girls on one side and the boys on the opposite at junior high canteens?

Overnight it would become THE catch phrase.

Now?

Consider this scenario for an actor rehearsing a new show as a metaphor for all of us. Four weeks ago, you were at first day of rehearsal. You envision opening night. Each day draws you closer. You have thrilling expectations to advance your career.

Then 2 weeks ago. Overnight...yes overnight... 'opening night unknown' transitions into REALLY unknown and bitch slaps you in the face. Your show is cancelled. Expectations - and your pay check - puff...vanish...as dust in the wind.

How does an actor or an institution play its/his/her role in an economy when the economy no longer exists?

Continuing this metaphor for most businesses... how does an arts institution - that financially lives from event to event to event, day to day - survive with no one buying a ticket or a meal?

'Aisle Say' Going Forward

We are taking the next months to interview professionals and gain their perspective on the present and the future state of the arts in Delaware.

Through my column, "Aisle Say", I have been privileged to attend hundreds of performing arts events over the past 30 years. My priorities have been The Grand, The Playhouse, UD REP Ensemble, Candlelight Dinner Theatre, First State Ballet Theatre and DE Theatre Co.

While all are professional groups, they are all completely divergent in how they do business. We realize COVID-19 hit them - and society - with the shock and the force of the Thailand tsunami of 2004.

This maiden column will incorporate comments from Bud Martin, Executive and Artistic Director of the DE Theatre Company and Paul Weagraff, Director of DE Division of the Arts.

Bud is currently sheltering in place at his farm in Unionville PA. "If this is what retirement is like, I don't want to retire", he said with a chuckle.

In the short term, DTC's last show, MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET, was cancelled. Martin said that advance ticket sales were great, beating all preset goals. "We had invested a lot of upfront money in the production with various technical aspects. This was going to be the highest grossing show of the season. We paid all the creative team".

'We normally have a 5-show season. What we hope to do is reschedule MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET next year to make it a 6-show season. We've informed our subscribers and are hoping they will not be asking for refunds. As with every other arts organization we hope that single ticket buyers donate the cost of their ticket to us rather than ask for refunds".

Aside from the existential uncertainty that is our new reality and the question as to the date when normalcy is achieved, scheduling and rescheduling is certainly a nightmare for everyone. Martin muses, "when that day finally comes, will audiences feel comfortable in their seats"?

DTC had to let the part time staff go. Martin said his board came through big time and gave all of that good people 2 weeks' severance. So far none of the 14 full time staff has been furloughed. He comments that "we are self-insured for unemployment compensation which normally pays 60% of salary but I am hoping that the state may pick up the other 40% if we must furlough some folks".

DTC's annual fundraiser was cancelled, as was the first session of "Summer Stage" for kids. That project funds DTC's education fund throughout the year. Martin hopes they can get the late summer second and third sessions of "Summer Stage" up.

DTC is a member of LORT (League of Regional Theatres). LORT is the largest professional theatre association of its kind in the United States, with 75 member Theatres located in every major market in the U.S., including 29 states and the District of Columbia. LORT Theatres collectively issue more Equity contracts to actors than Broadway and commercial tours combined.

LORT administers the primary national not-for-profit collective bargaining agreements with Actors' Equity Association (AEA), the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC), and United Scenic Artists (USA). It also deals directly with personnel and management issues involving Theatre staff, artists, and craftspeople.

There is unresolved tension between LORT and Broadway producers on the one side and (AEA) Actors Equity Association on the other. Is COVID-19 an 'Act of God". LORT thinks so. "Force majeure" is a common clause in contracts freeing both parties from liability when an extraordinary event beyond the control of the parties occur; i.e. war, plague. With regard to the actors in MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET, Martin explains... "the argument between LORT and AEA as well as Broadway producers and AEA, is that the "force majeure" should apply to us. That would allow us to pay actors for any work they had done plus 3 performances. AEA says that the clause does not apply, which would require us to either pay 4 weeks or the balance of their contract. We'll see how that plays out". (I bring this up for contracts had been signed for the performers in MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET).

Mid Term and Long-Term Issues

The Delaware Arts Alliance is the state arts advocacy organization, working with Americans for the Arts at the national level on behalf of the NEA (National Endowment for the Arts). Martin mentions that "Chris Coons is a valuable friend and advocate. (Note: For the past 2 years the Senator has brought the Director of the NEA to Delaware to chat with arts organizations and has offered to create a grant to fund actors with disabilities).

After the 2008 recession, the NEA got $50 million. By law, 40% of that amount would go to states and Delaware received $290,000. In the $2 trillion stimulus package recently passed the NEA asked for $4 billion. What they received was a trifling $75 million. One would reason much thought and discussion went into justifying the $4 billion request. One can only imagine both the torrent of tears and the impassioned epithets at NEA hdq the moment they got the news.

The $75 million received is a slap in the face to ALL arts organizations. And remember, in 2008 arts organizations were at least open and making some money. Now they are shuttered and mired in the quicksand of uncertainty!

Delaware will likely get more than $290,000, but the exact amount hasn't been determined or announced.

Martin also mentioned the Arts Consortium of Delaware, ArtCo, which oversees a Delaware-based endowment fund created in 1993 by corporate leaders, city, county and state entities. The idea was simple. Arts organizations were consistently hitting up the state legislature for emergency repairs. Said entities pooled resources to create the Delaware Arts Stabilization Fund that would lessen the need for arts groups to have their hand out every year. The fund was capitalized at $21 million. 8 non-profits and DE Division of the Arts were singled out and ranked proportionate to their annual budgets: DE Art Museum and The Grand would have top rankings. Also included were DE Symphony, DTC, Opera DE, Christiana Cultural Center, Music School of DE, and Rehoboth Art League, along with the DE Division of the Arts, a state agency. The Fund is managed by DE Community Foundation. Each of the member groups can take an annual draw to support physical plant and related expenses. DE Division of the Arts regrants their portion to organizations that are not part of ArtCo.

These draws help the particular organizations but not a salvation. All 8 non-profits have development arms to seek corporate, philanthropic and individual donors.

This segues nicely into a conversation I had with Delaware Division of the Arts director Paul Weagraff. He has been on several conference calls with arts organizations getting his arms around their financial condition. DDOA's mission is to cultivate and support the arts in Delaware through grants and technical assistance. "Arts organizations in Delaware support more than 4000 jobs and have a $150 million financial impact", says Weagraff. "Our division is under the Secretary of State. Jeff Bullock and I have spoken many times over the past two weeks and he is quite supportive".

'We also are working closely with the DE Arts Alliance, whose energies now are to collect information on all our state grantees; the number of their employees, their financial viability for the short term and investigating funding possibilities with the state, United Way and the DE Community Foundation"

United Way and Delaware Community Foundation have launched a campaign to help support the non-profit sector. Weagraff is in discussion with them about how the arts might be one of the dedicated sectors for some of these emergency relief funds.

Two issues on which Martin and Weagraff agree: emergency relief funding is one thing. But a second layer of stimulus funding is essential. Both leaders have kept in touch with their constituents. To borrow a line from Nellie Forbush from SOUTH PACIFIC fame, the gentlemen are 'cockeyed optimists', as are all theatre folk, through good times and through crisis.

Click here for more info on DE Community Foundation

To post a comment, you must register and login.