A theater company’s budget grows rather quickly.
The cost of putting on a show can include paying for script rights, space rentals, set construction, props, lights, costumes, publicity and, when necessary, stipends for actors, designers and stage technicians.
“As a nonprofit, we have to be mindful of where the resources go,” said Debbie Chinn, managing director of Centerstage in Baltimore.
About 90 percent of Baltimore-area theaters operate as nonprofits, meaning they rely heavily on ticket sales, donations and grants for funding, said Elaina Telitsina, executive director of the Baltimore Theatre Alliance, a nonprofit itself dedicated to supporting and promoting Baltimore theater.
“Fundraising is very important,” Telitsina said. “At least once a year, a theater will host a gala fundraising event to show what goes into a performance and the financial challenges they’re facing.”
In addition to individual donors and groups like the Baltimore Community Foundation and the Aaron & Lillie Straus Foundation, the Maryland State Arts Council and the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts provide funds in the form of grants for the area’s theater community.
This year, Gov. Martin O’Malley proposed an operating budget close to $16.5 million for the MSAC, an increase of more than 8 percent from the previous year.
In 2007, nonprofit arts organizations and arts programs that received operating support from the MSAC contributed more than $1.2 billion to the state’s economy and provided about 15,000 jobs to Maryland residents, according to a study from the Department of Business and Economic Development.
“The arts play a tremendous role in the lives of every Marylander,” O’Malley said in a statement. “When we invest in the arts, we invest in our communities, our businesses and our citizens.”
An estimated 14 million people attended arts events sponsored by the MSAC across the state last year, according to the DBED study. In the Baltimore region — Baltimore City and Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Harford and Howard counties — an estimated 1.87 million people attended performing arts events in 2007.
Those audiences in the Baltimore region generated about $25.8 million in state and local tax revenues last year.
“We in the arts provide an economic driver,” Chinn said. “I don’t think people understand that’s a very key piece in holding a city together.”
Staff writer Emily Campbell contributed to this article.
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