Special Session, March 20, 2020

Present: Jay Steele, Jennifer Maggio, Michael Hirsch, Steve Alhoff, Jordan Selburn, Kim Kay, Barbara Heninger, Kevin Brownstein

Ex Officio: Sara Dean, Doug Hughes

Contents

Actions

Action: Sara (and Jay?) to contact cast, staff, and crew of South Pacific and of the 1940s concert and explain that we must cancel the rest of the season.

Action: Sara and Doug to craft a message to the membership. Membership mail goes out after mail to cast, crew, staff.

Action: Jay (?) talk with Dan about how to provide an online form from a linked email, to let ticket holders either donate their tickets or request a refund.

Action: Board members forward any emails from other groups that have contacted them about cancelling seasons to Sara and Doug, for their reference.

Some additional optional actions under “After COVID-19 (2020-21 Season, other)”

Discussion of Next Steps for 2019-20 Season

Members of the Board met to discuss SBMT’s response to how to handle the rest of the 2019-20 season in light of Governor Newsome’s announcement that all Californians must shelter in place for an unspecified amount of time. Time period is likely to extend well into the rehearsal and performance period for the final shows of the 2019-20 Season.

Executive Director Sara Dean and CFO Jennifer Maggio researched potential costs and benefits of either doing a semi-staged performance of South Pacific in summer (assuming public performances are possible at that time), or ending the 2019-20 season now and cancelling South Pacific and the 1940s concert.

  • We have only few expenses for South Pacific so far:
    • We must compensate Heather Kenyon for set design, which has been completed.
    • We have paid our marketing consultant $250.
    • We have placed ads with the Mercury, but there is no penalty for cancelling them.
  • South Pacific and the concert have brought in about $45K in ticket sales (through season subscriptions
  • We can get 85% of royalties back from the rights holder – approximately $12K-13K of royalty fees.
  • Even if we were to perform a semi-staged with no set and costumes, would still have to invest in royalties and some compensation for staff and musicians.
  • Could we do the 1940s concert late in the year? Would have to use some weeks at theater to rehearse, and one weekend to perform. But, we cannot know
    • When restrictions will be lifted on meeting in groups
    • Whether audience members will want to meet in groups
  • All of our expenses for this third of the year equal $42K. We have $45K of sales for remaining tickets for season. If we can get 50% of those sales in donations, we could make our numbers for the year (because we don’t have the expenses).

We discussed moving South Pacific into the “Joseph” spot for next season, but it was felt that would make the season much more ‘heavy’ to product (two large shows) and too much Rogers and Hammerstein in one season. We did not discuss exchanging any other shows in 2020-21 for South Pacific.

Decision: Cancel the remainder of the 2019-20 season.

Action: Sara (and Jay?) to contact cast, staff, and crew of South Pacific and of the 1940s concert and explain that we must cancel the rest of the season.

Action: Sara and Doug to craft a message to the membership. Membership mail goes out after mail to cast, crew, staff.

Action: Jay (?) talk with Dan about how to provide an online form from a linked email, to let ticket holders either donate their tickets or request a refund.

Action: Board members forward any emails from other groups that have contacted them about cancelling seasons to Sara and Doug, for their reference.

After COVID-19 (2020-21 Season, other)

Suggest that when group meeting restrictions are lifted in California, we create an event (“BBQ & Broadway”) to welcome our audience back. We received a ~$2,000 grant to support any kind of fundraising in response to COVID-19 shut-downs.

When do we start selling next season? Suggest that we should wait until we know we can put on a fall show. When we are sure we can audition and actors can start rehearsing, then we can ask. Maybe June, if we know then.

Suggest that Sara begin to ask how many staff are willing to become volunteers next season. With the loss of income and with AB5, we may need to do this.

Sara will touch base with WVLO, Lyric, maybe other groups on whether they are interested in sharing facilities (rehearsal or set shop space) in order to reduce costs.

How to keep in touch with our membership and audience during this time? Doug and Sara will talk about some online content to keep content going.

  • Sara’s exercise content
  • Zoom classes?
  • Brainstorm….

Respectfully submitted by Barbara Heninger, March 20, 2020