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Francis Wilson Playhouse
Building a Foundation for the Future
Our Mission
To Entertain:
We are a not-for-profit
(501(c) (3)) community theatre located on the azure
waters of the Intracoastal Waterway in Clearwater,
Florida. The playhouse boasts a rich history of
entertaining the community and beyond for 78 consecutive
seasons. Today, the Francis Wilson Playhouse has 1,065
loyal members and during the 2007/2008 season 15,800
additional audience tickets were sold. The Playhouse
presents eight shows during a typical season, consisting
of three or four musicals along with comedies, mysteries
and dramas. Each show runs for 12 performances over two
weeks in the 180 seat theatre, with occasional hold over
performances for popular musicals such as Sweet
Charity, The Unsinkable Molly Brown and
Oliver. Classic dramas such as The Miracle Worker
and Neil Simon comedies like The Odd Couple often
play to sold-out houses.
To Educate:
Children’s theatre
classes are offered twice each week, on Saturday
mornings and Tuesdays after school; additionally, three
popular summer camps are offered. A total of
approximately 100 young people, between the ages of
seven (7) and seventeen (17) attend these classes, which
culminate in the presentation of three or four shows
annually to an estimated combined audience of 600
individuals. In 2008, the FWP Youth Theatre will be
presenting shows based on Tom Sawyer, Godspell
and Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew.
Our Current Demographic
For many years both the
Playhouse’s audience and front of house volunteer
demographic has been predominantly white and 50 years of
age and older. While the volunteer actors and actresses
are widely distributed over all age groups, they are
predominantly white. In comparison, the population of
Clearwater has demographics of 30% between the ages of
20 and 50, and 14% non-white. This disparity reflects
that a significant segment of the community is
underserved by the Playhouse.
Our Vision For Change
The Playhouse currently
enjoys a fresh perspective beginning with its newly
elected officers and board of directors, which
recognizes the importance and value of diversity within
the community and embraces the development and
implementation of an outreach program as a means to
build a more racially, ethnically, and age diverse
theatre and to encourage and foster involvement from
members of all segments of the population.
Specifically, we must
change our vision from the myopic traditions of the past
to focus on our promising future:
o
We must
reach out to a wider demographic for our audiences, our
actors, our technical staff and our volunteers.
o
We must
provide more venues for local playwrights’ works.
o
We must
offer show productions of more timely, artistically
thought-provoking content than those which have been our
staple.
o
We must
offer productions of shows which have significant roles
for African American and Latino actors.
o
We must
develop a year-round youth theatre program with much
wider appeal than our current offerings.
o
We must
partner with other community organizations to foster a
true culture of outreach and inclusion.
The Partnering
Challenge
Partnering programs with
other community organizations must be thoughtfully
planned and entered into with both parties willing to
adapt and compromise. Successfully partnering
organizations enjoy a culture of mutual respect for
their different but equal needs and expectations; they
recognize that change brings diversity and in diversity
lays strength. We must embrace the process
wholeheartedly.
Physical
Structural Challenges
At present, it is not
feasible to schedule many more activities at the
Playhouse as we struggle today to satisfy the scheduling
needs for rehearsals, classes, set building and actual
productions. Constraints such as a single stage and one
rehearsal hall often force us to conduct classes,
auditions and other activities in the lobby.
To facilitate growth and
enable us to transition ourselves into an organization
which is more closely aligned with our community, we
require more space!
Infrastructure in the Long Term
We are actively
developing a plan to raise a substantial amount of
private funding to construct a new playhouse with
additional performance and rehearsal spaces, meeting
rooms, classrooms and more efficient support spaces. In
addition, this new facility will not be limited to
traditional theatre, but will include facilities for
other visual and performing arts. This plan to provide
Clearwater with a privately financed Community Arts
Center is long term and we anticipate that it will take
some years to reach fruition.
The board of directors,
as part of its strategic plan to achieve this goal, is
actively compiling a Request for Design document
that will form the basis of an architectural design
competition for design of the new theatre. The
competition will be launched in the late summer, and
architectural students from schools in the southeast
will be invited to participate. The successful student
will win a substantial prize.
Infrastructure in
the Short Term
In the near term, in
order to provide an environment where we can truly be a
community resource for all members of our community, we
must find a nearby facility where our visions for the
future can be transformed into reality today. We seek a
facility to which some of our existing programs can be
relocated that can also accommodate additional
programming to increase our reach. In itself, this will
be no easy task.
One feasible option
would be to purchase or lease a 5,000 to 8,000 sq. ft
property in the Clearwater Redevelopment District. This
should be a large, open, two-story space which can be
converted to a small (up to 100 seats) theatre with
associated support spaces. The property should be
capable of being zoned appropriately and eligible for
being granted all required permits.
A
possible alternative would be to find an existing public
facility (such as a school) which is no longer used for
its original purpose, and partner with the owner and
other arts organizations to create a multiple use
facility, perhaps modeled (in a smaller fashion) after
the Fort Mason project in San Francisco (see
www.fortmason.org). In an outstanding example of the
effective re-use of public space, the National Park
Service, performing artists, visual artists, the
conservation corps, and many other groups have come
together to provide that community with an invaluable
resource.
Financial
Stability
Annual revenues are
approximately $350,000, of which 85% is generated from
regular and season ticket sales, the remainder being
from hold over and benefit performances, program
advertising, snack bar and other donations. After season
members have been accommodated, if all other theatre
seats were sold at full price, and no shows were held
over, the maximum ticket sales revenue would be $310,000
annually. Currently, seat occupancy averages 81%, which
compares favorably with other community theatres.
The Playhouse has assets
valued at approximately $900,000 ($750,000 in liquid
investments, the remainder being property and equipment
net of depreciation). The Playhouse enjoys the benefit
of a 99-year land lease from the City of Clearwater,
which will expire on December 17, 2034. Without the
benefit of that support, expenses would be significantly
higher.
According to the
Americans For The Arts economic impact calculator,
the Playhouse generates annually $736,310 in local
expenditures, 21.5 FTE (Full Time Equivalent) jobs,
$395,424 in local household incomes, $32,156 in local
government revenues and $35,032 in state government
revenues.
The Playhouse has a
single full-time employee – the box office clerk. Other
individuals are contracted part-time year-round.
Historical Notes
For 78 years, the
Francis Wilson Playhouse has been serving Clearwater by
providing a venue for high quality community theatre. In
that time, the theatre has presented in excess of 4,000
performances of more than 600 shows. Many thousands of
local residents have taken part in those performances,
as audience members, actors and actresses, production
staff and other volunteers. Some of those actors and
actresses have found fame – Charles Napier, Liz Vassey
and Flip Kobler are three of our local actors who went
on to Hollywood and beyond. Most, however, stayed in
Clearwater doing what they love – performing live
theatre.
Francis Wilson Playhouse
is fortunate to have hundreds of dedicated volunteers
who donate their time and talents each season. Each
year about 300 actors, actresses and technical staff
volunteer their time directly in play production. In
addition, another 200 volunteers take care of the front
of the house and building maintenance, etc. In all,
these 500 people contribute more than 30,000 hours
annually to their community theatre, for which we are
eternally grateful.
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