Flat Rock Playhouse survives

From the Hendersonville Lightning, a run-down of today's Flat Rock Playhouse press conference:

Playhouse officials announced in a news conference today that the theater had met its $250,000 fundraising goal to finish this season, was on the way toward a goal of $500,000 by the end of the year and would launch the 2013 season as planned with performances in Flat Rock and at the Playhouse Downtown....

Lynn Penny, the development director, said that the Playhouse has raised $253,000 in cash not pledges. The goal was met through a combination of the Playhouse effort plus community support and a crucial $100,000 gift from an unnamed donor, which Penny said the Playhouse had fully matched....

The Playhouse still wants to get all the way to $1 million, the amount that [Bill McKibbin, president of the Flat Rock Playhouse Board, and Vincent Marini, producing artistic director] say is needed to stabilize the Playhouse finances.

"We've only had less than a month to raise $250,000," Marini said. "Ultimately to get to a million we're just going to need a little more time. The fact that we may be close to a half million dollars by the end of the year would be an incredible achievement by the Playhouse and its supporters and everyone involved."

During an hour-long news conference, Marini went over the financial losses of 2010 by higher cost, an unprecedented drop in ticket sales and a lack of donations and described the efforts toward recovery. The Playhouse's 2013 budget projects revenue over expenses of $58,000.

The Playhouse officials also said:

• The Playhouse has set two public meetings next week to present the business plan and ask questions. The meetings are noon Wednesday, Dec. 19, at the Playhouse Downtown and 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the main stage in Flat Rock....
• The theater does not plan to open a separate facility outside Henderson County. "This is perhaps the biggest misconception that I want to deal with today, that the Playhouse ever considered opening a venue outside of Flat Rock Hendersonville area. [ed. - Well, perhaps this help wanted ad for "a full time Producer to manage a new touring venture for the Playhouse in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina" had something to do with creating that misconception.] That is not accurate. We were always looking toward the possibility of actually getting paid money to tour our productions at venues run by other people, so we would have a prod that someone in another city would pay the theater a fee to bring that show, when it closes here. We'd get a fee that made a profit. I don't see how anybody in their right mind would turn that down. Most theaters around the country already do that ... There's absolutely no way the Playhouse should not find a way to monetize its existing product."...

There's a lot in there, so read it all.