Syracuse Stage held an open house this year, something that hasn’t happened in 30 years.

Jeff Woodward, the managing director for the Syracuse Stage, said he felt that it was about time. He said the theater’s financial past is the reason that they haven’t been able to hold the event.

The open house on Sept. 26 had more than 400 visitors. A second performance of the event was moved from the Black Box Theatre in downtown Syracuse, to the Syracuse Stage’s auditorium because of a larger-than-anticipated audience, Woodward said.

The theater was able to host the long-overdue open house due to the recently received grant of $77,000 from the Future Audiences from the New Generations Program, created by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Theatre Communications Group.

This is the ninth year that the program has handed out grants, which will be distributed to Syracuse Stage over the next two years. Syracuse Stage is one of the 13 theatres across the country to receive the grant. This is the first time that the grant was awarded to the local theater.

Syracuse Stage lost funding last year from corporate sponsors and ticket sales because of the economic climate. The theater’s annual budget was cut from $5.1 million to $4.6 million, Woodward said.

‘We hope the grant will turn the tide on the audience decline. We hope over the next couple of years to restore what we lost,’ Woodward said.

The theater plans to use the grant to strengthen existing programs at the venue and to create new ones to help bring in a larger audience, Woodward said.

Some of the new programs are the ‘LGBT Pride’ nights, which is one night of a show’s run that is specifically geared toward the LGBT community. Another new program is ‘LIVE in the Sutton,’ opening-night parties where the audience can mingle with the cast and listen to jazz music provided by a local radio station, WAER 88.3.

Another new event is the ‘M&T Bank Pay What You Can Night’ where people can come see a dress rehearsal of a show for a suggested price of $5, when tickets for a show usually range from $24 to $36. The discounted performances are usually the last dress rehearsal before a show opens.

Some programs will use some of the grant money to better promote some of the theater’s post-performance events. ‘Actor Talkback’ allows audience members to ask the cast and crew questions after specific performances of each show.

The stage was also able to give more funding to the ‘Welch Allyn Signed Interpreted Performance Series,’ geared toward deaf and blind audience members.

‘It is great to have national recognition and support behind our existing programs and the additional programs that will help build audiences for the future,’ said Patrick Finlon, marketing director for Syracuse Stage.

The company applied for the grant with a two-step process – a preliminary application that indicated the theater’s ideas to bring in a larger audience. The second application required information about the theater’s history and budget.

Woodward said the process took about four months and the application had to be approved by a panel of theater professionals from around the country.

Woodward said Syracuse Stage is already seeing improvements due to the grant’s aid. Over the past week, the theatre has averaged about 400 people for their audience, more than the weekly average last year.

With two weeks left in Syracuse Stage’s current show, ‘Picasso at the Lapin Agile,’ the theater has already sold as many tickets in one week as it expected to throughout its entire run.

‘No show last year made the ticket budget this early,’ Woodward said. ‘Both our subscription and single ticket sales are ahead of last year.’

Woodward attributes the larger audiences to some of their new programs.

‘From my observations, I have seen the events drawing a new audience into the Stage,’ Woodward said.

The ‘Under 40’ program, for example, brings in a younger audience. Anyone under the age of 40 can purchase tickets for six shows for a total of $90. The theater has seen an increased interest in this program, Woodward said.

‘We’re really trying to re-imagine Syracuse Stage both artistically and who’s in the audience. This grant will really help us do it,’ Woodward said.

krkoeteri@syr.edu

Published on October 20, 2009 at 12:00 pm