By now, most people in the Bay Area theatre community are aware that The Willows Theatre Company, after a run of 35 years, is out of business.\u00a0 The Willows Board filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on August 16.<\/p>\n
Cast members of The Willows latest (and last) production, Ibsen\u2019s A Doll\u2019s House<\/em>, were notified on August 13 that the final week of the show, August 15-18, had been cancelled.\u00a0 Cast members reported receiving a phone call giving them thirty minutes to remove their belongings from the theatre in Concord.<\/p>\n I am, that is, I<\/em> was<\/em> the publicist for The Willows, on and off, from 2004 until the sudden closing two weeks ago.\u00a0 The first I heard of the shut-down was when I read Lisa White\u2019s Contra Costa Times online article, \u201cIt\u2019s Curtains for the Willows Theatre,\u201d on Monday afternoon, August 13.\u00a0 Thank God for Google Alerts.<\/p>\n Many people knew that The Willows was on shaky financial ground, but what theatre isn\u2019t?\u00a0 The Willows had been through serious money problems before, closing its 210-seat Concord mainstage in 2009 and moving everything to its second space, the 150-seat Campbell Theatre in Martinez.\u00a0 A new artistic\/managing director team took over in 2010 and reopened the Concord stage in 2011.\u00a0 The shows, as they say, went on \u2013 in both venues.<\/p>\n And then the lights went out.<\/p>\n How could this have happened?\u00a0 Potential culprits abound: declining and ageing audiences, hard economic times, misjudging audience preferences, cannibalizing the same base of supporters with two theatres, fiscal mismanagement and overspending, corporate funding drying up, lukewarm community support, a board beset by too many problems coming at them too fast, perhaps even a publicist who couldn\u2019t build a case for 9 to 5<\/em>, the musical version of a 1980s Dolly Parton film \u2013 you can choose any or all of them all of them.<\/p>\n It\u2019s probably too early for the autopsy, but in my view, at least right now, the demise of The Willows was caused by a series of Big Ideas that proved to be unsustainable.<\/p>\n \u201cA Brief History of the Willows Theatre,\u201d which appeared in each printed program for many years, recounts that \u201cin the spring of 1977, Theatre Concord, a program of the City of Concord, began producing plays and musicals in the new Willows Theatre.\u00a0 Nine years later, Theatre Concord became CitiArts Theatre, the first company in Contra Costa County to operate under a seasonal contract with Actors Equity Association.\u00a0 In 1994 CitiArts Theatre became an operation of The Benefactors, a non-profit corporation organized in 1974 to support quality live theatre in Concord, and the company is now known as The Willows Theatre Company.\u201d\u00a0 In later years, The Willows estimated that it served over 70,000 patrons annually.<\/p>\n The Willows was dedicated to developing and producing \u201ccontemporary American plays and musicals,\u201d although it extended its reach to include works originating in the U.K., as well.\u00a0 It was, therefore, a real stretch for them to stage Ibsen\u2019s A Doll\u2019s House<\/em>, the only non-US\/UK show in their history.<\/p>\n As for Shakespeare, records indicate a production of The Taming of the Shrew<\/em> in 1987. Former artistic director Richard Elliott once told me, \u201cthere are enough companies in the Bay Area doing Shakespeare.\u00a0 We leave the Bard to them.\u201d<\/p>\n The Willows\u2019 stated mission was to \u201cstrive to perpetuate the art form of live theatre by creating relationships with playwrights, designers, actors, students and other theatre artists whose work will impact current and future audiences.\u201d<\/p>\n The next part of the mission hints at why the Willows\u2019 demise hurts the theatre community: \u201cWe provide a valuable opportunity for first employment for many developing theatre artists.\u201d\u00a0 In addition, since the Willows was an Equity house, many actors over the years were able to work their way toward their Equity card by performing there.<\/p>\n My wife and I became Willows subscribers in 1994, not long after moving to Clayton.\u00a0 The Willows was, in essence, our local theatre, and we found the shows well cast, well directed, and quite simply, fun.\u00a0 For my money, four or five of the best pieces of theatre I\u2019ve ever seen were at The Willows, thanks to excellent casts and direction by Andy Holtz (Cabaret<\/em>), Richard Elliott (On Golden Pond<\/em>), Jon Marshall (Avenue Q<\/em>), and Eric Inman (Chicago).<\/em><\/p>\n In our early subscriber days, my wife and I volunteered at the theatre. I read through stacks of unsolicited manuscripts, looking for the next blockbuster in the rough.\u00a0 Kathy organized the mailing lists, using floppy disks that Rich or Andy would drop off at the house.\u00a0 That was the state of technology then: no email, no Zip files, and disks that were truly \u201cfloppy.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2004, after I\u2019d started Rising Moon, Andy Holtz, the managing director, and Rich Elliott, the artistic director, contracted with me to do publicity for the revival of the theatre\u2019s outdoor musical, John Muir\u2019s Mountain Days<\/em>, at the amphitheater in Martinez.\u00a0 I was asked to stay on to publicize the next show, the musical version of The Night of the Hunter<\/em>.\u00a0 Both were stretches for a small East Bay theater \u2013 Mountain Days<\/em> was a huge undertaking, with more than 50 in the cast, along with a team of horses. Hunter<\/em> was based on the very creepy film that starred Robert Mitchum as an itinerant preacher who menaced two children and killed their mother. It\u2019s the movie where Mitchum has the words \u201cLove\u201d and \u201cHate\u201d tattooed on his fingers \u2013 hardly a show for the Hello, Dolly!<\/em> Crowd, but it showed The Willows wasn\u2019t afraid to take chances on a show that its Los Angeles producer was planning to take to New York.<\/p>\n In 2008, I was again contracted to do publicity for The Willows.\u00a0 By this time, Andy Holtz had left for the Arizona Theatre Company in Tucson, and I worked with Rich Elliott and general manager Chris Marshall, the lady who wore a dozen hats and held the place together.\u00a0 I was there from Brighton Beach Memoirs<\/em> and Pageant<\/em>, to the closing of the Concord theater in 2009, the restructuring under David Faustina and Eric Inman, the reopening of the mainstage in 2010\u2026to what would be the last shows, Vaudeville<\/em> at the Campbell and A Doll\u2019s House<\/em> at the original Willows Theatre.<\/p>\n So, The Willows is gone, joining the now defunct American Musical Theatre of San Jose, which died in 2008.\u00a0 SF Chronicle critic Robert Hurwitt points out that, \u201ca few years earlier AMTSJ had more subscribers than either A.C.T. or Berkeley Rep.\u201d More recently, we\u2019ve seen the departure of the Hapgood in Antioch, Arclight in San Jose, and Woman\u2019s Will in Berkeley.<\/p>\n For many theatre companies, survival is day-to-day, show-to-show.\u00a0 As one artistic director I know told me, \u201cyou\u2019re only one flop away from closing the doors.\u201d<\/p>\n Why did The Willows close?\u00a0 Earlier, I listed a series of \u201cculprits\u201d that might have led to its going under, and to varying degrees, they are all probably to blame.\u00a0 But I see the major problem as more than just running out of money.\u00a0 That\u2019s a symptom, not the cause.\u00a0 In my opinion, The Willows went under because it was too ambitious, perhaps even too creative, and certainly too willing to follow a Big Idea.<\/p>\n The first Big Idea was getting a theater space of its own.\u00a0 The Willows had for years been leasing its space in Concord\u2019s Willows Shopping Center and grew tired of paying rent, along with all the associated issues renters face.\u00a0 (Side note:\u00a0 one positive for a theatre in a suburban shopping center \u2013 it solves the parking problem.)\u00a0 As early as 2006, they were negotiating to move to the YMCA building in Danville.\u00a0 While that idea remained on the back burner, Willows management looked north to Martinez and made plans to convert the old train station into a theatre, a plan that at the time found favor with the city of Martinez.\u00a0 The Willows got as far as hiring an architect, developing blueprints and renderings, and starting a fundraising drive.\u00a0 Why Martinez?\u00a0 Rich Elliott and Andy Holtz lived there, liked the town, and thought it \u2013and the train station \u2013 would be the ideal place for a theatre.<\/p>\n After the train station idea stalled, the Big Idea focused on another location \u2013 an unused auto parts warehouse on Ward Street. Thus, the Campbell Theatre came to be, thanks to a raft of donors led by the very generous Campbell family.<\/p>\n Every successful theatre has (or should have) a guaranteed moneymaker, a \u201cChristmas Carol,\u201d a \u201cNutcracker,\u201d a \u201cSound of Music.\u201d\u00a0 Or an \u201cAnnie,\u201c\u00a0 the show that guarantees that every parent, grandparent, aunt, and uncle of the kids in the cast will buy tickets \u2013 and twice that number if you double-cast.<\/p>\n For The Willows, it was the Nunsense<\/em> series, seven slapstick musicals by Dan Goggins (Nunsense, Nunsense Jamboree, Mushuga-Nuns,<\/em> etc.) featuring five loony nuns. Ending the season with a Nunsense<\/em> show pretty much paid for the rest of the year.\u00a0 Nunsense<\/em> became part of the Big Idea – the original proposal for the Campbell Theatre was for it to showcase nothing but Nunsense<\/em>, year \u2018round.\u00a0 It would make money.<\/p>\n The all-Nunsense<\/em> idea was soon abandoned, but the cabaret concept at the Campbell remained.\u00a0 Was Martinez the right town for it?\u00a0 Would Willows\u2019 subscribers attend both theatres?\u00a0 Or would the finite audience pie be divided in two?\u00a0 Would a cabaret concept have to be marketed differently than a standard theatre?<\/p>\n As the theatre\u2019s fortunes spiraled downward in 2009, the board and management decided the only way to save the company was to close one of the theatres \u2013 they chose to shutter the mainstage and move everything to the Campbell.<\/p>\n This turned out not to be a solution.\u00a0 By 2010, a new management team was in place, led by managing director David Faustina and artistic director Eric Inman.\u00a0 They saw that the only hope for sustaining the company was to return to Concord and reopen the theatre there, where the bulk of their patrons were.\u00a0 Which they did, thanks to a fundraising campaign and a lot of volunteer hours, along with a big boost from the local IBEW, who donated the rewiring of the entire mainstage venue.<\/p>\n But for many reasons associated with the city of Martinez, the company wasn\u2019t able to leave the Campbell behind; it had to sustain both theatres.\u00a0 The Campbell was starting to find its audience, but it was too late.\u00a0 What began as a Big Idea ended as Too Big a Task.<\/p>\n Another Big Idea was the amphitheater in Martinez, which was planned to be home to a whole series of outdoor historical musical dramas.\u00a0 John Muir\u2019s Mountain Days<\/em> was only the first, and at first it was extremely successful.\u00a0 It attracted a large audience when first staged at the amphitheater in 2005, but it was very expensive to produce.<\/p>\n Nevertheless, plans took shape under Andy and Rich for a series of seven musicals that would play in repertory at the amphitheater.\u00a0 The next was Sacajawea<\/em>, the tale of the Lewis and Clark expedition centering on the Native American woman who was their guide.\u00a0 The book and lyrics for Sacajawea<\/em> were by New York playwright\u00a0 Mary Bracken Phillips, with music by San Jose native Craig Bohmler, the same team who had done Mountain Days<\/em>.\u00a0 Sacajawea<\/em> was staged in 2008, but at the Alhambra Arts Center in Martinez, because the amphitheater was in disrepair.<\/p>\n The next in the amphitheater series was to be about the \u201cBig Four,\u201d the industrial barons (Leland Stanford, Collis P. Huntington, Charles Crocker, and Mark Hopkins) who brought the railroads to California.\u00a0 However, the script for it and the other four shows in the series was never commissioned.\u00a0 The amphitheater remained, however, as a continuing burden.\u00a0 The upkeep was too much for the Willows, and the city of Martinez shied away from pumping municipal funds into the venue.\u00a0 Another Big Idea foundered.\u00a0 In retrospect, the historical drama project would have needed a Disney Corporation to make it work.<\/p>\n A third Big Idea is banking on a show to be a hit, or even artistic triumph that will lift the company to new heights and at least break even\u2026and then seeing the show fail.\u00a0 The Willows suffered its share of \u201cone flop away from closing\u201d events. The Kentucky Cycle<\/em>, a two-part, six-hour production asked the audience to come to the theatre twice to see the story work out.\u00a0 It was a wonderful piece, but it asked too much of its audience.\u00a0 On another level, there was the afore-mentioned 9 to 5: the Musical \u2013 <\/em>Dolly Parton brought no cachet. <\/em>\u00a0Neither did two other musicals based on movies, The Night of the Hunter<\/em> and The Wedding Singer<\/em>.<\/p>\n Ironically, two weeks before The Willows closed, it was named one of the \u201cBest Theatre Companies in the East Bay\u201d by critic Charles Kruger in the Examiner.com and the CBS-5 web site. Kruger placed it in the company with Berkeley Rep, Shotgun Players, Aurora Theatre, and Central Works. Indeed, The Willows has, over the years, won more than its share of Drama-logue, Shellie, and Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle awards.<\/p>\n Kruger praised the theatre for \u201cspecializing in the great American tradition of the Broadway musical\u2026delivering the old razzle dazzle with grace and style, presenting both classics and new musicals\u2026constantly trying to take theatre to the next level.\u201d<\/p>\n But it\u2019s difficult, if not impossible, to rise to a new level when you\u2019re tied to three very disparate venues – a proscenium house, a cabaret, and an outdoor amphitheater \u2013 at a time when the political and economic cards are stacked against you.<\/p>\n It will be interesting to see what rises from the ashes of The Willows\u2026which shards will be reassembled, and by whom.<\/p>\n Like Ishmael in Moby Dick, I am only here to tell the tale from my perspective.\u00a0 Others with deeper experience on the voyage of the good ship Willows are welcome to add their comments, corrections, and insights. – GC<\/em><\/p>\n Contact:<\/em><\/strong> Gary Carr, (925) 672-8717, <\/em>carrpool@pacbell.net<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0 Learn more about Rising Moon Marketing & Public Relations at <\/em>www.risingmoonarts.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By now, most people in the Bay Area theatre community are aware that The Willows Theatre Company, after a run of 35 years, is out of business.\u00a0 The Willows Board…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[837],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2688","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-joe-cillo"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"