Penguin Rep feels the squeeze
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- December
- 4
Got a note from Joe Brancato, the plenipotentiary of the wonderful Penguin Repertory Company in Stony Point.
It turns out that the belt-tightening we’re all feeling is hitting the tiny theater particularly hard.
County executive C. Scott Vanderhoef has declined to fund the theater for the past several years, even though they used to receive in the area of $12,000 per year as an arts provider. And even though groups like Riverspace in Nyack and various puppet shows receive funding from the county. And Antrim and Elmwood Playhouses in Wesley Hills and Nyack.
The exec and his team don’t like that Brancato runs a professional (Equity) house and pays people and reasons that, if they just didn’t pay people, they’d have all the money they’d need.
And now a new blow: Stony Point has informed Brancato that it won’t pony up the $3,000 it was scheduled to give to the 2009-10 season.
Brancato points out that these governmental decisions have a chilling effect on other giving, too.
“Without the ($3,000 from Stony Point) and at least the $12,000 from the county, we are left
unable to say we get such support and outside foundations simply laugh. Why
should they support when our “own” do not.”
Not a great environment in which to try to plan a season. Writes Brancato: “We are in for a bumpy ride, if any ride at all.”
This entry was posted
on Thursday, December 4th, 2008 at 4:15 pm by Peter D. Kramer.
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Peter D. Kramer
