Portland Center Stage Needs Your Money

[February 9th, 2005] The good news for Portland Center Stage is that it sold more tickets last year.

The bad news is it didn't sell enough.

The organization's tax return, filed last week with the Department of Justice, shows that expenses at the city's largest theater company rose far faster than revenues last year, leading to a deficit of nearly $700,000 for 2003-2004, on a budget of $4.7 million.

The underlying details don't bode well for Center Stage's ambitious Pearl District building project (see "The Great White Hoax," WW, Jan. 7, 2004)—or for Portland taxpayers, who are backstopping the project's debt.

Under artistic director Chris Coleman, who arrived in 2000, the company has replaced a stolid lineup of old chestnuts with a combination of edgy revisions of classics and new work. Recent productions, including The Santaland Diaries and 21 Dog Years, have generated some buzz but have not regularly filled the 880-seat Newmark Theatre.

The biggest change from the previous year was a $700,000 drop in fundraising. Historically, Center Stage has depended heavily on gifts and grants to fund operations, far more than its peers around the country, according to a 2003 consultant's report.

Center Stage managing director Edith Love says the fundraising decline reflects the completion of a major three-year grant and the prior year's one-time gift to buy a computer system.

The challenge to replace the large grants comes on top of Center Stage's campaign to raise cash for its new $28 million home in the Pearl's historic First Regiment Armory building.

But fundraising for that project, which Love says will require Center Stage to secure gifts totaling nearly $20 million—is way behind schedule.

Center Stage raised $2 million in the fourth quarter of 2003 to get the project rolling. Since then, fundraising for the project has dried to a mere trickle, with less than an additional million dollars raised.

"The total raised from private sources to date is $2.9 million. We need to raise $19.2 million to complete our fundraising," Love says. "Our goal is to reach this amount in pledges by the fall of 2006, when the building is scheduled to open."

Love says delays in completing the Armory's financing package set fundraising back by several months.

Bottom line: Like a lot of wannabe homeowners, Center Stage needs to jack up its income and find a bigger down payment.

If Center Stage comes up short, taxpayers are on the hook. The Portland Development Commission loaned the organization $4.6 million to buy the building and the Portland City Council provided what amounts to a guarantee for $10.7 million in bank debt used to pay for renovations.

City finance director Ken Rust says he's aware Center Stage is behind schedule but notes the city's obligation to cover the debts does not kick in until 2014. "It's a little early for this to be a big issue on our radar screen," Rust says.