Shakespeare & Company here for the long haul

By Tony Simotes
Printed in the Berkshire Eagle, Wednesday, Oct. 28, Page A5

What a ride.

I’m one of that plucky gang who came up to the Berkshires and founded Shakespeare & Company back in 1978, and I’ve been back as an artist and teacher almost every year since. By any measure, I arrived this summer as Shakespeare & Company’s second-ever artistic director, taking over the reigns from founding Artistic Director Tina Packer, right in the thick of things with our season at full force.

I came back at a key moment in our history, when a fresh approach — informed always by the hard-earned wisdom of the past — is absolutely necessary. Change is hard, but it’s also necessary. And it’s an opportunity as well.

Many media outlets have reported on the bad news we’re currently confronting. They’ve done so responsibly and fairly, given some of the stark numbers floating around in a financial report prepared by the Nonprofit Finance Fund, in response to the request we made to the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

The big picture presented by this report is indeed correct: We need to re-organize ourselves to find a better way to keep doing what we’re doing on our Kemble Street property. The accompanying part of this, one we’re not so sure has made it into the zeitgeist thus far, is that we’re already taking action, and are deep into the needed process of re-organization.

We’re facing some extraordinary financial stresses, largely as the result of management decisions made in the thick of battle that in hindsight were clearly not the best moves to make. Much of it has flowed from our unique position as a Berkshire cultural organization operating nearly full-tilt all year round, evolving our business model from the one we employed as tenants at The Mount to one that better suits our responsibilities as owners of a 33-acre property in the heart of historic Lenox.

We fully intend to be here for another 32 years, and beyond. To that end, we’ve drastically cut our budget, reduced our year-round staff from 45 to a lean crew of 34, instituted an across-the-board pay cut of 10 percent, and done more with less all season long. This summer we produced more shows than we have since our days at The Mount, and did so with $300,000 less then we spent the previous season. Nevertheless, we are on track to earn the highest box office revenue in our history by the conclusion of our 2009-2010 season in March. A comprehensive reorganization plan is in the works that builds on these and other positive steps, including efforts to solidify a re-financing agreement with our primary lender. We’re also examining dozens of good ideas coming to us from all quarters.

In short, we’re facing major challenges, but we see the path we need to follow. And though we have a journey ahead of us, we’re indeed on our way.

Another misapprehension is that there is a clock ticking loudly, counting down the moments until our imminent financial demise. The NFF’s report is a projection of what would happen if you put Shakespeare & Company in a freeze-frame, taking no corrective action while our financial obligations continue to accrue.

It’s a picture of what would happen if we made no changes. It employed an economic model based on a series of assumptions: that we must end the current fiscal year with zero accounts payable and that we pay a full year of debt service in advance on the first day of our next fiscal year. The report also implies that we need to pay off our entire line of bank credit and our 30-year mortgage by 2010 (we are currently in our ninth year of our mortgage obligation).

Whatever the accounting correctness of these assumptions, they are unrealistic expectations for any functioning organization. Nonetheless, it was important to receive an independent, clear-eyed view of what it would take for us to be totally clear all of our financial obligations, as an academic baseline for future planning. But it does not mean that to remain open we must raise some unrealistic number of millions of dollars this week, this month, or this year.

Is this an excellent time for us to raise the additional $1 million that will trigger an $800,000 grant from The Kresge Foundation and finish off our $10 million capital campaign? Absolutely.

Would any additional support from the community at this time — be it from parents of children who’ve taken our education programs, alumni from our actor training programs, or patrons who have enjoyed the transformative experience we aim to offer here — be timely and much appreciated? Absolutely.

But are we on our last gasp, in need of an immediate bailout, or mere moments away from closing? Absolutely not.

It won’t take a miracle to save Shakespeare & Company. It will take hard work and good decisions. It will take fearless leadership from our Board right on down, to work with me as we build on what we do well and we change what’s broken. It will take a lot of sweat, love, and passion. But that’s the business we’ve always been in.

On behalf of all my comrades-in-arms, I thank everyone who has picked up the phone, sent a letter, or just dropped by our office in recent weeks to express their concern in this difficult time, and to celebrate the memories we’ve shared together for so long.

I thank our elected officials like state Rep. Smitty Pignatelli, state Sen. Ben Downing, and state Rep. Dan Bosley, as well as the Massachusetts Cultural Council and others from across the state who understand Shakespeare & Company’s continued viability is not a Lenox issue, not a Berkshire County issue, but an issue facing everyone who understands the economic importance of the creative economy in Massachusetts — and Shakespeare & Company’s role within that sector.

And now, as I’ve said on stage about a hundred times since June: Thank you so much for your support, and we hope you’ll come back and visit us again soon.