FLAT ROCK — Flat Rock Playhouse administrators have been negotiating with businessmen in North Myrtle Beach a plan to bring shows to the beach but have no plans to own a theater there, the Playhouse director and a chamber executive at the beach say.
News that the Playhouse is considering taking shows to the beach has further electrified an already emotional debate over the Playhouse's financial condition amid a pending decision on granting the theater proceeds from a 1-cent occupancy tax increase. [Ed. - 1-percent occupancy tax increase, not 1-cent (and that makes it a 20% tax rate increase, from 5% to 6%)]
During a turbulent Board of Commissioners meeting last week, Playhouse critic Steve Carlisle [former Playhouse actor, theater professor at Western Carolina University] said that Playhouse leaders "are now in discussions about opening another theater in North Myrtle Beach, S.C." County Commissioner Larry Young, who is leading the charge against giving the Playhouse $225,000 a year from the tourism tax, echoed Carlisle's concern. "They're going to take our occupancy tax money and take it to North Myrtle Beach for the Playhouse down there," he said.
Playhouse critics have got it wrong, the theater's producing artistic director, Vincent Marini, and the chamber official at the beach said.
The Playhouse would not own or invest in the theater, the chamber CEO, Marc Jordan, said in an interview with the Hendersonville Lightning. He said talks have been under way for about 18 months mainly with Marini on behalf of the Playhouse. "We're very interested in it," Jordan said. "We would like to open a venue that would provide a number of performances here for family entertainment. It would be like Flat Rock at the beach."
Jordan said a group of investors has been working to draw up a business plan for the theater, although it has not yet found a performance space it could remodel for Playhouse productions. Jordan disputed the claims made here that the Flat Rock theater is exporting local money for a high-risk venture.
"I can assure that that ain't the deal at all," he said. "That is not at all what they have in mind. It's a revenue generator for them at no risk."...
Read it all, and take a look here. In my opinion, just because the Flat Rock Playhouse won't own or invest in theater space at Myrtle Beach doesn't mean that occupancy tax money won't go to help put on performances there, such as using tax money for travel and/or lodging, etc. It also benefits businesses in Myrtle Beach (restaurants, hotels, shops, etc.) located around wherever they end up finding theater space.
It wouldn't matter if this were just a private business using their own funds, but in this case, tax money is being used, with the proposed tax increase only affecting the lodging industry in Henderson County, and possibly benefiting the lodging industry in Myrtle Beach.
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