Community cast raises curtain on new theater task force

By Heather Murray

Community Board 4 chairperson J.D. Noland has always viewed the Chelsea-Clinton area as “traditionally a theater community,” home to countless actors, stagehands, playwrights and the theaters that showcase their work. He was once one of those theater folks himself, performing at Lincoln Center as a member of its Repertory Theater Company under Jules Irving, stage managing for the controversial Boston production of “Hair,” which was shut down for six weeks in 1970, and working on a number of Off-Broadway productions.

But in recent years, Noland has seen signs that the thriving theater community he knows and loves is struggling to survive in Midtown, as small theaters are priced out of the area or demolished to make way for new West Side development.

He thinks Board 4 might be able to help local nonprofit theaters survive—and thrive—in the area, so he helped form a new Theater Task Force ready to address these issues.

Task force chairperson and board newcomer David Pincus knows all too well the struggles of small nonprofit theaters. “I’ve been kicked out of every neighborhood I’ve been in” while working with various Off-Off Broadway companies, he said. Pincus currently works on 36th St. between Eighth and Ninth Aves. as the managing director of the WorkShop Theater Company, but noted its lease is up in a year and a half. “I’m tired of being kicked out of my neighborhood,” he added.

In addition to his job with WorkShop, Pincus also moonlights as a legal secretary. Although he’d like to spend all of his time at WorkShop on theatrical pursuits, he also has to worry about raising the $10,500 a month necessary to pay the rent.

Noland also invited Millie Glaberman and Howard Smith, co-chairs of CB 4’s Quality of Life/Education, Libraries and Cultural Affairs Committee, to join the task force. Glaberman and Smith both have a background in the arts—Glaberman as an aspiring thespian, and Smith in theater and stage management. Other members include Carmen Matias, whose husband is a director; Kathleen Treat, whose husband is an actor and Board 4 member; Joe Restuccia, a former director and producer; Anna Hayes Levin, a lawyer who became interested in the plight of small theaters in her current role as the chair of the Clinton/Hells Kitchen Land Use Committee; Chuck Spence, who works with nonprofit theaters and is a member of the land use committee; Paul Ames, who works with the Actors’ Equity Association; and Renee Stanley, who lives in the West 40s and has been a stage manager for the past 30 years.

“I remember when this area had dozens and dozens of Off-Off Broadway theaters,” Stanley said at the task force’s first meeting on Monday. “Everywhere you turned there was something else that was crackling and exciting, and we have lost that.”

Pincus came to the first meeting armed with statistics showing that the Midtown West area has the largest number of Off-Off Broadway venues in the city at 78 out of a total 200 citywide, noting the number was higher a few years ago. Although the community currently counts nearly 40 percent of all these venues within its borders, only 32 percent of actual productions took place there during the 2007-08 theatrical season. Many companies renting out space for productions opt to go elsewhere due to high rents on the West Side, New York Innovative Theater Foundation data indicate.

The foundation’s executive director, Shay Gines, said there’s a need for the new task force, “especially with a lot of the construction and the development that is going on.”

Gines said her foundation has seen 25 percent of the city’s 99-seat-or-less theaters close up shop in the last five years, more in the Midtown area than anywhere else. Her organization is examining ways to support small theaters, which she feels “are the foundation of theatrical life in New York City.” She noted that although around 40,000 people work in Off-Off Broadway each year, “there are virtually no statistics whatsoever to gauge Off-Off Broadway’s impacts on New York City.”

Her organization plans to change that. Employees are working on a four-part survey process to gather a baseline of statistical information about Off-Off Broadway nonprofit theaters. They released a survey of producers’ spending budgets in April, and are now working on getting 6,000 artists working in the field to respond to a demographics survey by the end of the month. The third part of the study will focus on Off-Off Broadway audiences, and the fourth on a comprehensive economic impact study.

Pincus brought up the economic impact study Monday night as a goal for the committee to work toward. “I’m of the belief we should campaign for a true economic impact study with Boards 3 and 5, and conceivably other boards as well,” he said, citing examples of two European cities where such studies have affected public policy.

Pincus suggested not only collaborating with Boards 3 and 5 on the study, but creating a joint theater task force to address Off-Off Broadway’s plight in all three districts. Board 5 is home to the city’s theater subdistrict, and Board 3 to the second-largest number of Off-Off Broadway venues after Midtown West.

Pincus has met several times with former CB 5 chairperson David Diamond and CB 3 Arts and Cultural Affairs Task Force chairperson Paul Bartlett. Diamond is affiliated with the Barrow Group Theater Company, located in the same building where Pincus works, and Bartlett, aka Robin Eublind of the satirical street theater organization Billionaires for Bush, used to work in Off-Off Broadway with The Living Theater. Bartlett said his task force is meeting to discuss the economic impact study later this month.

“We’re very happy Community Board 4 is starting up a theater task force,” he said, adding that his board’s Arts and Cultural Affairs Task Force, which has a much broader mission to support all CB 3 arts and cultural affairs organizations, was “an awful lot to take on” when founded in the fall of 2007. Bartlett said he is concerned about the viability of Off-Off Broadway theaters in the heated real estate market.

He initiated a discussion on the proposed joint task force with his board members at their last meeting, noting “the reception was very favorable,” and will continue that discussion later this month. Whether or not a joint task force is formed, Bartlett said, “We will collaborate in one manner or another and still coordinate our activities.”

He has high hopes for this task force, which he described as proactive rather than reactive and bureaucratic, which he feels many committees have become.

CB 4 members Levin and Restuccia questioned whether the task force should push for an economic impact study or go a different route. Levin said she felt a lot that would come out of an economic impact study is “intuitively obvious.” Restuccia said to Pincus, “I think you’re barking a little bit up the wrong tree. A study is fine, but it’s still a study.”

Restuccia contended the root of the problem the task force wants to solve is skyrocketing real estate values. “Production of affordable space—that should be the goal, and we should figure out how to do that,” he said.

Pincus suggested that money somehow be paid out to support theaters already in the district rather than building space for brand-new renters.

“Our community has been down this path before, and it sucks,” Restuccia replied, recalling the $25 million Time Square fund for affordable housing doled out in the 1980s that divided the community. “Money is something you fight over. It’s much more effective to have a direct nexus between a project and a product.”

Restuccia recommended looking for a group to handle theater property management to take the burden off those running the theaters.

Levin added that the task force could look into how a private nonprofit would be set up to develop, own and operate theaters. “We need a Clinton Housing for the theater world,” she said.

Pincus said he would contact Board 3’s district office to create a map of all Off-Off Broadway venues in the community.

Noland told Chelsea Now it was a productive first meeting and that a number of good ideas were introduced to follow up on. These included the economic impact study, theater property management, using special zoning to help facilitate the production of affordable theater space, conducting outreach through town halls, and working with arts organizations, local theater companies, other community boards and the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs.

Pincus said that the economic impact study could possibly be funded by one of 10 theater subdistrict council grants the city is offering, ranging from $50,000 to $200,000. The task force also spoke about how a grant might be secured for theater property management. The grants are open to all organizations or consortia that offer theater-related cultural programs based in the five boroughs, that have been providing cultural services for two years, and that had an operating income of $200,000 or more in 2007. Intents to Apply are due Oct. 31, and detailed information on the grant program can be found on the Department of Cultural Affairs Web site.

“We want to be sure all of the theater groups that we’re aware of are aware of this grant opportunity,” Levin said.

Pincus has invited Diamond, Bartlett and others he has consulted with to attend the next meeting, which will take place on Oct. 29.