$1M-aid matches offered for endangered downtown Little Rock theater

The Arkansas Repertory Theatre at 601 Main St. is shown in this file photo.
The Arkansas Repertory Theatre at 601 Main St. is shown in this file photo.

Two foundations have offered to assist the endangered Arkansas Repertory Theatre -- with the condition that the theater help in its own salvation by matching two high-dollar grants that total more than $1 million.

The Rep will receive $75,000 up front from the Siloam Springs-based Windgate Charitable Foundation toward the Rep's "Our Next Act" campaign. John E. Brown III, the foundation's executive director, describes the remaining $925,000 of the $1 million as "a challenge grant" that the Rep will have to match. Brown concluded his letter with "We wish you great success in the coming year."

The John & Robyn Horn Foundation also has approved a challenge grant of $25,000 designated for "general support." The Rep will have to match that amount as well.

The theater's board of directors announced April 24 that, facing a substantial debt -- board Chairman Brian Bush has acknowledged it exceeds $2 million -- and in the wake of precipitous drops in ticket sales and contributions, it would suspend current operations, including canceling the final production of the Rep's 2017-18 season, and cease planning for 2018-19.

Two-thirds of the staff, including Producing Artistic Director John Miller-Stephany, will step down by Tuesday. The remainder will run the Rep's nearly sold-out summer "Education at the Rep" program.

As of Wednesday, the Rep had raised $113,000 from nearly 400 donors, pulling in $17,000 alone from Tuesday's "Rally for the Rep" outside the theater. Earlier it had announced that it would need between $750,000 and $1 million in short order to get its head above water financially and be able to consider planning for the future.

Before suspending operations, the Rep had raised $1.7 million toward a $5.2 million capital campaign. But after failing to meet budgets on a single show this season, filling only 47 percent its seats, it didn't have enough cash on hand to pay bills and pay the production costs for God of Carnage, the season's final show, which would have gone onto the Rep stage June 8-24.

"It's a vote of confidence," Ruth Shepherd, who takes over July 1 as the Rep's board chairman, said of the two matching grants. Shepherd is heading a committee of current and former board members charged with "re-visioning" for the theater and coming up with a plan for its future by early August to present to patrons, donors and lenders.

"With these gifts, these foundations have said loud and clear, 'We believe in the future of a redesigned Rep.' So now we need everyone to help us earn that match," she said. "These challenge grants make it possible for those who love the Rep to double their gift."

The Windgate Foundation funds "significant" educational programs in the visual arts, arts and crafts and art history preservation efforts and provides funding to educational institutions for the development and support of the arts, scholarships and instructional programs, according to its website. It also funds other programs that serve the established charitable purposes of the foundation.

The 15 recipients of the foundation's largest grants, 2005-16, include the Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock, the Fort Smith Regional Art Museum, Hendrix College in Conway, John Brown University in Siloam Springs, the North Little Rock-based Thea Foundation, the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, as well as museums and schools in Philadelphia; San Francisco; Tempe, Ariz.; Gatlinburg, Tenn.; and Asheville and Penland, N.C.

Metro on 05/05/2018

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