Olympia Family Theatre, which has closed its all-ages space and reduced staff hours, is hard at work on raising the money it needs to keep the theater on solid footing going forward. Six weeks after sending an open letter (https://olyft.org/oft-needs-your-help/) to the community, the theater is making substantial progress on its goals.
As of Tuesday, Dec. 17, the theater had raised $8,400 of its $20,000 goal on GoFundMe (https://www.gofundme.com/f/olympia-family-theater-needs-your-help), and its holiday production of Honk was selling briskly.
“The public support has been very inspiring,” said Mark Alford, the theater’s executive director. “We’re extremely grateful to everyone in our community pitching in to help the theater.
“The response to our campaign … is buying us needed time to restructure the theater for a sustainable future,” he said. “With our community’s help, we will remain a center for the arts in Olympia for years to come.”
“The shortfall is relatively small but hits at a time of year when cash flow is down,” said Dean Shellman, chair of the non-profit theater’s board. In the past, much of the OFT’s fundraising has happened in the spring, when the theater hosts its gala.
The board is looking into new fundraising opportunities while considering the best ways to make needed budget cuts without changing the audience experience, she said.
Besides temporarily reducing staff to part-time hours and closing the adjacent all-ages space, “we’ve made administrative cuts and small cuts to our production and education budgets for this season,” Shellman said. “We’re carefully looking for savings opportunities that don’t change the experience for our audiences and students. OFT provides magical moments for families, and that won’t change.”
The theater is still feeling the effects of the pandemic, Shallman said. “Theaters were among the last spaces to open back up after COVID, and audiences have been slow to return,” she said. “Reconnecting with our core audience, and cultivating new ones, is a top priority. Our education programs also took a big hit. We received relief funds during that time, but those are now gone. “
The theater is looking at all kinds of possible ways to rebuild those connections. “Everything is on the table,” Shellman said. “I’m particularly interested in expanding outreach and hopefully making new and interesting community partnerships that can be mutually beneficial.
“We will look back pre-COVID, to when OFT was thriving, and see what we can replicate,” she added. “We’ll look at the work Lily Raabe did when she took the reins from Jen Ryle and see what worked well there. And we’ll work with current staff on their great ideas.”
OFT is far from alone in its need for support. Theater Artists Olympia, known for tackling little-produced and often dark shows; Broadway Olympia Productions, which mounts ambitious musicals; and Juice Box Theater, which makes short shows for the youngest audiences, remain homeless after the loss of OlyTheater (https://www.olytheater.com/) in the Capital Mall.
Even Harlequin Productions, Olympia’s largest theater company, depends on donations, as artistic director Aaron Lamb has been reminding audiences at the company’s “A Christmas Carol.” Local and regional theaters in general spend far more producing shows than they make through ticket sales, he said.
WHAT
Honk
WHEN
7 p.m. Dec. 20 and 21 and 3 p.m. Dec. 21 and 22. Masks are required for Sunday shows.
WHERE
Olympia Family Theater, 612 4th Ave. E., Olympia
HOW MUCH
Tickets are available on a sliding scale.
LEARN MORE
https://olyft.org/