Copious Notes

Yes, Kentucky, there will be a Christmas production by Actors Guild of Lexington.

The troubled theater’s next show will be a site-specific staging of David Sedaris’ The SantaLand Diaries at the site of the former Portabella Restaurant on Locust Hill Drive. It will run Dec. 10 to 20.

The show comes in the wake of a stormy summer and uncertain fall for the theater, whose funding from LexArts was eliminated and whose top two directors resigned. LexArts cut the funding, which had been about $70,000 in recent years, saying it had concerns about the fiscal management and overall viability of the theater, Lexington’s only semi-professional stage troupe for adults.

The SantaLand Diaries is Actors Guild’s first production since Beguiled Again, a Rodgers and Hart musical revue that had a two-weekend run at the Downtown Arts Center in early fall. The season schedule that Actors Guild announced last spring was to include David Hare’s The Vertical Hour and, for the holidays, a one-man version of It’s a Wonderful Life.

Associate artistic director Eric Seale, currently the theater’s only paid staff member, said SantaLand is a signal that AGL will continue presenting shows.

“If people are wondering, ‘Is there an AGL?,’ Yes, there’s an AGL,” Seale said. “If they are wondering, ‘Are they putting on shows?,’ Yes, we’re putting on shows.”

He said the theater is not ready to announce any productions after SantaLand.

A site-specific production is staged in a venue that relates to the subject matter. It’s not a new concept and has been popular in Lexington in the past year. On the Verge Productions presented Lillian Hellman’s family dramas The Little Foxes and Another Part of the Forest in historic homes downtown.

SantaLand, a one-person show about a man who plays an elf in the Christmas display at Macy’s, will be presented in the vacant retail space formerly occupied by Portabella, next to the Kroger at Richmond Road and Man o’ War Boulevard.

It will star Tim Hull, an emerging Lexington actor who recently was in Another Part of the Forest. Co-directors will be Seale and Leif Erickson Rigney, an actor last seen in Studio Players’ production of The Unexpected Guest.

AGL previously staged SantaLand in 2004 at the Downtown Arts Center.

Seale said the site-specific nature of this fall’s production was an aesthetic decision inspired by ideas he had heard at theater conferences. He said AGL explored several retail-space options before settling on the old Portabella location.

The play, based on Sedaris’ 1992 essay, looks at how people try to find holiday happiness in retail experiences, including visiting a department-store Santa. Seale said the Portabella site will be done up like a mall-Santa display to make the show “an experience.”

Seale said he expects tickets to go on sale early next week through Actors Guild’s Web site, www.actorsguildoflexington.org, or by calling 1-866-811-4111.

The managing director of Actors Guild of Lexington, Kimberly Shaw, is leaving the theater to become the stage manager of a production that will tour Europe through 2010.

Her departure leaves the embattled troupe with its top two management posts vacant and only one full-time employee remaining.

Although her departure comes at the end of a summer that saw the theater tumble into financial turmoil, the Lexington native says her resignation is not because of Actors Guild’s troubles.

“I had a meeting with the board’s executive committee Friday afternoon that was very productive and we were excited about some of the plans we were making,” said Shaw, who came to the theater in Sept. 2008 and had previously worked for the theater at Princeton University, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the New York International Fringe festival. “Then, out of the blue, I got this offer and it was personally and financially hard to turn down.”

Shaw said she is joining a show called India. It is a production of Franco Dragone Entertainment, which has produced shows such as Celine Dion in Las Vegas.

“It’s a sad loss for AGL,” said board president Jennifer Miller. “But I cannot say enough good things about Kim, and we could not possibly resent her for taking this amazing opportunity.”

With Shaw’s leaving and the departure of artistic director Richard St. Peter in August, Actors Guild now has only one full-time staffer left: associate artistic director Eric Ryan Seale.

Actors Guild produced a season-opening production — the Rodgers and Hart revue Beguiled Again, which closed earlier this month — but the theater has not announced any further productions.

Miller said the theater will be making some announcements about its future, including upcoming productions, soon.

Shaw said she is confident “the theater is poised to make it.

“The board is ready to answer the tough questions. It’s been a rough summer for AGL, but through that process, people have come on board and the staff is committed to work.”

What do you think of Lexington’s inventory of theaters and other venues for live performances?

Currently, leaving aside our behemoth of Rupp Arena, our major arts and entertainment venues are the Singletary Center for the Arts, which seats about 1,500, and the Lexington Opera House, which accomodates just under 1,000. Then, in the seats-a-few-hundred category, you have the black box theater in the Downtown Arts Center, the Lyric Theatre, which is currently being rennovated, and the Kentucky Theatre. There are also venues such as Studio Players’ Carriage House Theatre and the Lexington Children’s Theatre that are almost exclusively used by the groups that occupy them, and University spaces such as the University of Kentucky’s Guignol Theatre and Transylvania University’s Haggin Auditorium that are primarily used by the institutions.

Am I leaving any Big Kahunas out?

So, is that a good inventory. What do we lack?

Some lament we never got the major performing arts center that was supposed to happen where the courthouses now stand at Main and Limestone. Others say Lexington isn’t ready for a venue of that caliber. Others look at smaller spaces such as the Woodford Theatre’s venue in Falling Springs Arts and Recreation Center and wonder why Lexington couldn’t have something like that for groups that may see the Opera House as too big for their needs.

Still others say creativity trumps venues, and point to places such as Charleston, S.C., that have built vibrant performing arts scenes without an ideal inventory of venues. Here, we have examples such as Balagula Theatre at Natasha’s Bistro and Bar and the chamber music festivals that bookend the summer taking place in  an old tobacco barn at Shaker Village and Fasig-Tipton’s horse sales pavilion showing a creative use of non-traditional spaces in town.

Here’s another fly I’ll throw in the ointment: I just attended a concert last week in a new, state of the art 2,400-seat Lexington venue that would have been the envy of many area arts groups: Quest Community Church’s new sanctuary. If there is a desire for a new theater or theaters in town, do you need to have public funds to build it, or can the arts community come together to make something happen like, oh, Quest or a little baseball park near Broadway and New Circle that was built with private funds.

That’s sort of a distillation of conversations and thoughts I’ve had over the last several years about Lexington’s theater space.

So, what do you think? Hit the comment button and let’s talk.

Six veteran Lexington musical theater performers team up with director Stephen Currens for Beguiled Again, a musical revue of the songs of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. It plays Sept. 24-Oct. 4 at the Downtown Arts Center. We caught up with the cast at a rehearsal Sept. 22. The lights and set weren’t quite together, but we got a good idea what it’s going to look like.

Over the weekend we found out that Actors Guild of Lexington artistic director Richard St. Peter will be leaving at the end of this season, at the latest, to pursue a doctorate degree in theater.

AGL board chair Jennifer Miller said the theater would not be in a rush to name a successor, as the theater has other immediate issues to deal with and initiatives to embark on such as working with a consultant to help right the theater’s financial ship and point it in the right direction.

But, just like when the Cats make a coaching change, you mention a theater is changing its artistic chief, and interested parties cannot help thinking about who or what type of person that next director may be?

The last time AGL made a change at the top, the theater took the unprecedented step of conducting a nationwide search, which resulted in St. Peter’s hire. Should it do the same thing this time, or maybe look for a more familiar face to area theater fans and practitioners? Late in the spring, Actors Guild announced plans to expand its offerings and become a more professional theater by signing a small professional theater contact with Actors Equity. Good moves, or maybe over-reaching?

I want to hear what you think. Actors Guild of Lexington is undeniably a theater at a crossroads. What directions do you think it should steer into?

Hit the comment button, below, and let’s talk about it.

Alltech announced the lineup for its 16-day Fortnight Festival Sept. 25-Oct. 10. Like last year, the event will kick off with a country concert at Applebee’s Park and feature performances around the state, many of which are associated with series by other venues and organizations.

Unlike last year, the event is confined to just over two weeks. Sept. 25 is significant as it will mark exactly one year until the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games.

The lineup is:

• 

  Ricky Skaggs performs in Ashland Oct. 8 and Owensboro Oct. 10.

  Sept. 25 - Jason Aldean and Miranda Lambert, Applebee’s Park, Lexington

• Sept. 26 - Bettye LaVette, Singletary Center for the Arts, Lexington
• Sept. 26-27 - Beguiled Again by Actors Guild of Lexington, Downtown Arts Center, Lexington
• Sept. 28 - Fairplay Collective, Downtown Arts Center, Lexington
• Sept. 29 - Singer/Songwriter Night, Downtown Arts Center, Lexington
• Sept. 30 - Marc Smith Poetry Slam, Downtown Arts Center, Lexington
• Oct. 1 - Makem & Spain Brothers, Lexington Opera House, Lexington
• Oct. 2 - Mary Chapin Carpenter, Equus Run Vineyard, Midway
• Oct. 3 - 38 Special & Kansas, Murray State University Regional Special Events Center, Murray
• Oct. 6 - The Decemberists, Singletary Center for the Arts, Lexington
• Oct. 6-7 - Battle of the Bluegrass, Tin Roof, Lexington
• Oct. 8 - Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, Paramount Arts Center, Ashland
• Oct. 9 - John Sebastian of The Lovin’ Spoonful, Grand Theatre, Frankfort
• Oct. 10 - String Band Day, Appalshop, Whitesburg
• Oct. 10 - Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, RiverPark Center, Owensboro
• Oct. 10 - Ronan Tynan with the Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra, Singletary Center for the Arts, Lexington

Visit the Alltech website for tickets to each event.

Brandon Moore reflects on selecting Eric Bogosian’s ­subUrbia for Apprentice Players’ third production.

“The main component of Apprentice Players is theater for young adults and theater that is edgy and ­contemporary,” Moore says during an early afternoon chat at Common Grounds ­Coffee House. “That’s exactly what subUrbia is. It sort of chronicles the lives of a group of ­twentysomethings who just don’t know what to do with ­themselves.”

Funny thing: The play is being presented by a group of teens and twentysomethings who know ­exactly what to do with ­themselves.

Apprentice Players is ­becoming something of a regular feature on the summer theater scene in ­Lexington.

The group was formed in 2007 as a collection of high school students to present Dog Sees God, a twisted take on the Peanuts gang that had ­Charlie Brown, Linus and company ­dealing with teen issues such as sex and drugs.

Last summer, the group ­re-formed — several members now coming home from college — to present Alan Bennett’s History Boys.

Now, Apprentice Players is ­riding again, and there are new members coming into the group as some of the founders age out.

Read the rest of this entry »

The past few weeks have brought about some interesting Lexington arts headlines.

Lexington Ballet hires executive director: The Lexington Ballet reached, ­almost literally, across the fourth-floor lobby of ArtsPlace to hire the Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra’s education director, Joe Tackett, as chief business officer.

The ballet’s board president, Michael Potapov, said, “Over the past several years, the board has worked to position the organization to once again become a pillar of the cultural landscape in Lexington.”

The ballet begins auditioning for a new professional company this week.

LexArts cuts Actors Guild’s funding: After what LexArts says has been several years of trying to work through financial travails with Actors Guild of Lexington, the united arts fund’s allocations committee cut off funding for Lexington’s only semi-professional theater for adults.

AGL had requested a $70,900 allocation from this year’s Campaign for the Arts, a figure comparable to the theater’s allocations in recent years. Actors Guild has appealed the de-funding.

That Actors Guild and the Lexington Ballet almost simultaneously made arts news in Lexington is familiar.

In spring 1998, a six-figure financial meltdown devastated the Lexington Ballet, which until then had been one of Lexington’s leading cultural institutions. In 1997, it received more than $80,000 in the Campaign for the Arts from what was then the Lexington Arts and Cultural Council.

Less than two weeks later, revelation of a $20,000 financial shortfall prompted the Actors Guild board to fire all three members of its management team.

Both groups ended up initially shut out of funding from the Campaign for the Arts.

But from there, the paths diverged.

Shortly after its house-cleaning, Actors Guild hired Deb Shoss as its new producing director, and she quickly brought the troupe back into the council’s good graces. When Shoss retired in 2002, then-LACC director Dee Fizdale said, “The LACC got behind the organization because it came to us with a solid plan that it carried out.”

The Lexington Ballet? Not so much, as far as the LACC was concerned.

The ballet’s management chafed at moves to monitor its attempts to recover. Officials had a stormy relationship with a consultant hired with support from LACC, and they vehemently opposed suggestions to merge Lexington Ballet with Kentucky Ballet Theatre, which was formed by dancers and the assistant director who were fired from the Lexington Ballet.

Actors Guild and Lexington Ballet are both still in business, but the dance group has never resumed receiving allocations from the LACC, which is now LexArts.

Nothing is black and white. Lexington Ballet did have successes in the ensuing years, and Actors Guild has had problems.

But the recent headlines show how much things can change over time.

The none-too-subtle subtext of ballet board president Potapov’s statement about the troupe’s latest move: We want to return to our former glory.

LexArts president and chief executive Jim Clark says the ballet has a way to go before it will be considered for allocations again, but that under the leadership of artistic director Luis Dominguez, the ballet has made strides in programming and presenting guest artists, including a collaboration with Dance Theatre of Harlem this spring.

The addition of a business leader and a professional company, reportedly comprising four dancers, could build on that.

Actors Guild also has shown ambition recently. It just wrapped up its season with one of its biggest hits: The world-premiere production of Kentucky author Silas House’s play Long Time Traveling. And the theater has moved its offices into the burgeoning Distillery District and announced plans to create a second stage series and a cabaret series and to enter into an agreement with ­Actors Equity, the stage actors union. All of these moves have been cited as revenue-generating initiatives.

But all that was before the LexArts allocations committee’s patience with Actors Guild’s financial travails seemed to come to an end.

Actors Guild is appealing the decision. And even if it does not get the LexArts funds, leaders say the theater can continue, although after losing $70,000, it’s hard to imagine that it would be the same type of organization.

And hiring new people in the front office and for the stage at the ballet is no guarantee of success.

But for now, 11 years after some of the most tumultuous days in Lexington arts, the toe shoes seem to be on different feet.

Click here for a PDF of LexArts original letter to Actors’ Guild.

We just received the letter that Actors Guild of Lexington’s board directors and artistic and managing directors have sent to LexArts, in response to the LexArts allocations committe cutting AGL’s funding from its annual Campaign for the Arts. We are working on a story for later today to get LexArts response, but here is the letter (if you are having trouble seeing the letter, click here for a PDF):

June 23, 2009

Patrick O’Donovan, Chair, Board of Directors

Barbara Edelman, Esq., Chair, Allocations Committee

James M. Clark, President & CEO

Cc:  LexArts Board of Directors

Dear Mr. O’Donovan, Ms. Edelman and Mr. Clark:

As the leaders of LexArts and Actors Guild of Lexington (AGL), we bear considerable responsibility for allowing misunderstandings to turn a long collaborative relationship into a climate of mutual distrust.

We write to clarify facts about AGL’s financial situation and about our satisfaction of the conditions set by LexArts for AGL’s receipt of the full $70,000 allocated for fiscal year 2009.  Further, we dispel LexArts board members’ misperceptions that have come to our attention in the days since we learned that LexArts chose not to fund AGL for fiscal year 2010.  Finally, we request a rehearing and reconsideration of LexArts’s denial of funding in accordance with appeal procedures.

AGL’S PAST AND CURRENT DEBT

We are open about AGL’s past problems, and regret that LexArts has not acknowledged the responsible and productive corrective actions that we have taken.

Your letter denying 2010 funding read in part: “Your current status of insolvency presents problems we are unable to disregard.”

By definition, this statement is correct: AGL’s financial liabilities exceed our tangible assets.   Nevertheless, we are concerned that LexArts has ignored the fact that over the past year we have reduced our debt, and have a plan to eliminate it entirely.

LexArts CEO Jim Clark told the Lexington Herald-Leader this weekend that AGL had in the relatively recent past a debt totaling more than $80,000, and he estimated a current debt of approximately $40,000.  After this month, AGL will have finished three of the last four fiscal years “in the black”.  We are willing to make public our financial audits from the last four years in support of this statement.  We have formulated a plan to eliminate our debt by June 30, 2012, which we believe to be a realistic time frame given the current economic recession.

It bears noting the source of our debt.  In 2002, AGL made what has proven to be an imprudent decision:  AGL spent $79,000 on physical improvements (bathroom, electricity, fixtures, etc.) to the fourth floor of the Downtown Arts Center, a government-owned building for which LexArts is the lessor.  For that expenditure, AGL depleted its reserve funds and took a bank loan, with a present balance of approximately $17,000.  We are current with this obligation.  In a sad irony, however, this fourth floor office space has been essentially unusable most of the last two years.  Though AGL has paid rent, LexArts has failed to provide heating or air conditioning for the last 22 months, despite repeated requests from AGL.  This is contrary to the clear terms of the lease agreement which obligates LexArts to repair and keep in good order the HVAC system.

Our current debt includes approximately $12,000 owed to the Internal Revenue Service.   AGL has been paying monthly installments set by the IRS.  This unfortunate matter was discussed at great length during last year’s LexArts allocation hearing.  Finalized in December 2008, AGL’s installment agreement with the IRS requires monthly payments toward payroll taxes owed for the quarters ended December 31, 2007, and March 31, 2008.  Not being able to satisfy these taxes was a regrettable occurrence and due in part to circumstances beyond AGL’s control.  AGL voluntarily contacted the IRS to make arrangements for monthly payments toward the prior taxes.  The installment agreement also requires that AGL remain current with the payment of payroll taxes.  Both of these conditions have been and continue to be met.  A copy of the finalized installment agreement was provided to Mr. Clark, as were printouts from the IRS website showing the history of payments.

Rumors that the IRS is suing AGL board members are false.  The IRS did send each Executive Committee member a letter dated October 31, 2008 “to discuss your duties and responsibilities as an officer/employee of Actors Guild of Lexington Inc and your potential personal liability for unpaid trust fund taxes due and owing” for two fiscal quarters.  Further, a condition of our IRS agreement states: “If you do not make timely payments and keep your federal tax deposits current, this agreement will default and a trust fund penalty will be assessed against each responsible officer immediately.”  This is not a threatened lawsuit.  AGL has fully complied with the IRS agreement and will continue to pay past and current payroll taxes as stipulated.  We have repeatedly documented our compliance to LexArts.

FULL SATISFACTION OF THE LEXARTS ALLOCATIONS COMMITTEE’S CONDITIONS

The LexArts 2010 allocation denial letter also asserted: “While we tried to give AGL every opportunity this year to become a more stable organization we have not seen acceptable progress.”

This declaration is the core of our misunderstanding.

In June 2008, LexArts set three firm conditions for AGL’s receipt of our 2009 allocation, specifically withholding $21,000 with the promise to release $7,000 each time we met a benchmark; the conditions were repeated in a LexArts letter dated September 2, 2008.  Each condition was a reasonable exercise of LexArts’s fiduciary responsibility.  We will address individually each condition, and its satisfaction.

Condition 1: ” A qualified general manager has been hired;”

In response to the significant loss that AGL incurred in fiscal year 2008, LexArts wisely urged that AGL hire a theatre management professional.  Beginning in June 2008, AGL conducted a national search for a Managing Director to function as an organizational equal to Artistic Director Rick St. Peter.  After interviewing multiple qualified candidates, we ultimately hired Kimberly Shaw, whose academic credentials (BA, Spelman College; MFA, Columbia University) and extensive professional experiences plainly qualify her.

Ms. Shaw began full-time work at AGL on October 1, 2008, and has remained so to this date.  On October 15, 2008, LexArts agreed to release in three monthly installments the $7,000 withheld until satisfaction of this condition.  LexArts paid us one third of the amount owed in October.  LexArts paid us the balance of $4,666.67 on January 10, 2009.

We have been informed through secondary sources that the LexArts Executive Committee believes we have deceived it about hiring a Managing Director.  Allegedly, “Kim” told one of your board members that she works for AGL only one day per week.  In fact, it is our new Development Director, not Kimberly Shaw, who has worked for AGL one day a week since December 2008.  It concerns us that the Allocations Committee failed to exercise minimal due diligence to clear up this significant factual misunderstanding.

Condition 2: “$110,000 in sponsorships has been secured;”

On January 19, 2009, AGL presented LexArts CEO Clark with documentation of having secured $111,000 in sponsorships.  In an e-mail message dated February 20, Mr. Clark requested that in-kind and cash gifts be clarified and said that he suspected we would not receive the $7,000 until we physically collected $110,000. On February 24, Mr. Clark received a new document showing that we had by then secured $126,600 and collected $102,983, with an additional $10,000 as an in-kind gift to be realized on May 9 for the Scene and Be Seen event.

On February 26, 2009, Mr. Clark responded that the information “looks good”, that he would be meeting with the Chair of the Allocations Committee that day, and he would get back to us shortly.

On April 10, 2009, AGL met with Mr. Clark with a copy of the Profit and Loss Statement to show the sponsorship income on our official financial documents.

Ultimately, LexArts paid AGL $7,000 for satisfying this condition on May 8, 2009.

Condition 3: “$30,000 is raised through special events.”

Since an event scheduled for November 2008 had to be cancelled because of superseding obligations on Tony award nominee Laura Bell Bundy, this was inevitably the last of the conditions we would fulfill.  As you know, LexArts beneficiaries are prohibited from fundraising during the active part of the LexArts annual campaign, extending this year into April.

Our first 2009 special event money, $10,000 allocated to AGL from proceeds of the 2009 Beaux Arts Ball, derived from extensive AGL staff and board work on the event, which netted more than $40,000.  AGL’s Managing Director and Vice President joined the Beaux Arts Ball planning committee in November 2008.  One or both of them attended every organizational session with the University of Kentucky College of Design students, and they collectively spent more than 40 hours helping to plan the Beaux Arts Ball and a prior fundraising reception at the home of Jim Gray (which was their idea).  Half a dozen AGL staff and volunteers worked for hours at the Beaux Arts Ball itself.  LexArts CEO Clark was kept apprised of these facts well in advance and gave our staff repeated assurances that the $10,000 would count toward this third condition.

Scene and Be Seen, AGL’s 2nd annual major fundraising event, took place on May 9, 2009, earning a total of $19,023 through event sponsorships (not including a $10,000 in-kind gift counted toward the $110,000 benchmark of Condition 2, above), ticket sales, raffle ticket purchases, and silent auction bids.

In April, a fundraising reception at a private home earned $400, and a small amount of money was raised at the Give into the Groove charity event.  In May, an AGL board member set up her birthday party as an elaborate AGL fundraiser, collecting $2,642 in donations; notably, LexArts received $1,400 in fees for this event, held in the Downtown Arts Center.

Notwithstanding his repeated assurances, Mr. Clark last week raised the concern that the check we received from Beaux Arts did not qualify as special event money.  Although Mr. Clark has now verbally assured us that this amount will be credited, LexArts has not yet agreed to release the $7,000 withheld pending satisfaction of this condition, which was fully satisfied earlier in the month.

AUDITOR’S “GOING CONCERN” FOOTNOTE

Given the significant loss incurred by Actors Guild in fiscal year 2008, a “going concern” footnote was included in the disclosures to the audited financial statements.  The going concern note summarizes the financial condition of AGL on one date in time, June 30, 2008.  The note explained that unless circumstances changed during the next year, AGL would not be able to withstand another year of losses such as the loss incurred in fiscal year 2008.

The note in the audited financial statements also explained the corrective measures that were being taken:  hiring a managing director, hiring a development professional, reduction of expenses and creation of additional revenue streams.  All of these measures were accomplished during the current fiscal year and AGL is projecting a profit for the year, assuming that LexArts releases the remainder of AGL’s 2009 allocation.

In the allocations hearing, Mr. St. Peter explained these corrective measures in response to the going concern note.  AGL Treasurer Tammy Farley, a CPA/CFP who regularly audits nonprofit organizations, explained a going concern note from an accountant’s perspective, including the manner in which that type of note may be presented and why the note was applicable to AGL.

ADDITIONAL FACTS ABOUT AGL FINANCES AND THE LEXARTS ALLOCATION PROCESS

In addition to satisfying all of the revenue targets set by LexArts, under the expertise and hard work of Managing Director Shaw, AGL has cut its operating and production expenses by approximately 30 percent.  Ms. Shaw initiated money-saving changes to the 2009 performance schedule, including: reduced runs of plays in February and March, and replacement of an extremely costly production.  She advocated fiscally responsible changes in all areas of AGL’s budget and introduced strategies to diversify AGL’s revenue stream, such as locating free rehearsal space and soliciting donations from ticket buyers at the point of purchase.  Through creative marketing as well as artistic excellence, the season’s final production became AGL’s best-selling show in five years.

One important change supported by the Managing Director was the hiring of a professional Development Director.  AGL hired Brenda Psotka, formerly a fundraiser for Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre and the Lexington Children’s Theatre.  Ms. Psotka started working for AGL one day a week because her salaried position was not in AGL’s fiscal year 2009 budget; she begins full-time work July 1, 2009.  Despite the abbreviated work schedule, the Development Director has already enhanced AGL’s fundraising success, and has exciting plans for increasing revenue in the coming months.

In late April, LexArts circulated a one-page outline titled “Criteria for assessment of funding for Partner Organizations (formerly Beneficiary Groups)”, and specifying the relative importance of each criterion.  We briefly address each, in the order presented by LexArts:

“Fulfillment of Mission Statement                                                                         40%”

All AGL programming, from main stage to education, is mission-driven, a fact not challenged by LexArts.  At the same time that AGL has exercised greater fiscal controls, the theatre has succeeded in expanding audience diversity, media recognition and national support.  AGL would be thrilled to discuss this at length.

“Effective and Responsible Fiscal Management and Governance             30%”

Above, we dispelled numerous factual misunderstandings in this area.  AGL has also informed LexArts that we do not satisfy two of ten items in the list: “Directors and Officers insurance” and “Board approved conflict of interest statement”.   We have made progress toward correcting both deficiencies.  We take our financial condition very seriously; however, it should be noted that solvency and lack of debt are not listed among the LexArts funding criteria.

“Community Outreach and Public Service                                                           20%”

AGL has several programs to provide free and reduced cost tickets to underserved audiences.  Our Education Director, who is both a theatre professional and a licensed clinical psychologist, has led Page to Stage and Journal to Stage programs focused on at-risk youth.  AGL has partnered in the last several years with: the Lexington Public Library, Hospice of the Bluegrass, Fayette County Public Schools, and the Florence Crittenton Home.  We have also taken the Apprentice Players under our banner and have active youth and college internship programs.

“Participation in Campaign                                                                                           5%”

Each employee and all but two AGL board members contributed to the just-concluded LexArts fundraising campaign.  AGL has duly promoted LexArts in all of its public materials, including four pages listing LexArts donors in each playbill.

Presentation of Allocations Request                                                                        5%

We will not quarrel with the Allocation Committee’s opinion of the presentation quality of AGL’s written application and oral hearing.  We note only that LexArts valued this criterion at 5% relative importance in the allocation assessment.

MOVING FORWARD

Without doubt, many of your donors contributed money to you with the understanding that LexArts funds theatre for adults - and AGL specifically.  At the same time, LexArts prohibited AGL from raising funds independently.  Regardless of whether the LexArts board chooses to reverse its allocation decision based on the facts we have laid out in this letter, AGL deserves a substantial portion of funds LexArts purported to raise on our behalf during the 2009 campaign.

On a personal level, we wish to express our disappointment in how LexArts has chosen to handle what should have been a respectful severance of a financial relationship that has been in existence for nearly two decades.  LexArts notified AGL after sending out a press release - in a letter that was dated June 15 yet went through the LexArts postage meter on June 19.  We learned about the allocation denial from a June 19 Business Lexington e-mail blast, and have since read in the media unnecessarily derogatory quotations from LexArts representatives.  Still, we believe it is possible to have an amicable relationship in the future regardless of the decision your Board of Directors may make in response to this letter.

In these difficult economic and social times, there is no place for antagonism among arts groups, or individuals within them.  We share similar missions to educate, inspire, entertain and challenge ever-wider audiences in Central Kentucky.  We all increasingly partner with schools, social service charities, health care providers and other arts organizations, in the common pursuit of enriching citizens’ lives through exploration and enjoyment of visual and performing arts.

AGL supports your mission:  ”LexArts promotes high quality arts experiences for the benefit of the people of central Kentucky through funding, advocacy, technical assistance, communication and programming initiatives.”  We applaud your well-publicized innovations, we express gratitude for the support you have given AGL and other local nonprofits, and we support your leadership.  We hope, however, that you can understand the frustration of facing an injurious decision by your board which we believe was based on inaccurate allegations - and of being forced to respond in such a public manner.

We are confident that LexArts will pay AGL the $11,083.34 currently due to us: $4,083.34 for the June 2009 monthly allocation, and $7,000 recognizing satisfaction of the special event fundraising condition.  We are hopeful that, based on the facts in this letter, LexArts will reconsider its vote to eliminate funding to AGL.  And we respectfully entreat you and your fellow board members to cease further public indictments of our worthy organization and its leaders.

Thank you for taking the time to review this information thoughtfully.

Sincerely,

James Dickinson, Esq.                                    Tammy D. Farley, CPA, CFP

President, Board of Trustees                      Treasurer, Board of Trustees

Kimberly M. Shaw                                           Richard St. Peter

Managing Director                                          Artistic Director

Click the play button to hear our interview with Silas House:

Copious Notes podcasts are available on iTunes.

There’s just one weekend left in the world-premier production of Silas House’s new play, Long Time Travelling at Actors Guild of Lexington. It’s been an indisputable hit, with AGL having to add performances to accommodate the sell-out crowds.

We couldn’t let this production go without giving you a chance to hear some of our conversation with House — and simply a chance to hear that distinctive voice. In our podcast, House talks about Long Time Travelling’s theme of change, and how it applies to the play, his life and some of the causes he’s taken up, such as his opposition to mountaintop removal coal mining.

In addition to his fiction, House recently published Something’s Rising: Appalachians Fight Mountaintop Removal, a non-fiction book about mountaintop removal with co-author Jason Howard.

Long Time Travelling has four more performances this weekend, and House will give a pre-show chat at 7 p.m. Saturday, prior to the 8 p.m. performance.