Shakespeare as they like it

Press, 24 August 1976, Page 20

Shakespeare as they like it

The American Shakespeare Theatre, after surviving a financial tempest that threatened to wreck the company, now believes that all’s well that ends well, writes David Finch, of Reuter.

The theatre opened its 22nd season with “The Winter’s Tale,” “As You Like It” and Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible,” after raising S3OO,OGJ in two months, and is confident it is now on a sound financial basis. What could have been a winter’s tale wi. a sad ending has turned out to be a midsummer night’s dream.

Konrad Matthaei, president of the theatre, said the company found itself in an intense financial crisis in the middle of January, when several corporations, their profits reduced by the business recession, failed to contribute to expected grants. He pointed out that unlike the other Stratfords, which get a major part of their revenue from the Government — about 25 per cent in England and 30 per cent in Ontario — the Connecticut Stratford receives only 7 per cent. The trustees found that they had to raise $300,000 by the beginning of April, or the theatre would have

to close. They decided to adopt a policy of “If ’tis done when ’tis done, then ’twere well it were done quickly,” and the battle began. One of the first moves was to appeal to the media for help. Some members of the press thought the theatre was making much ado about nothing, and it was just a publicity stunt. However, once these shrewish sceptics had been tamed, Mr Matthaei said the media were whole-nearted tn their co-operation. The merchants of Connecticut, far from demanding a pound of flesh, provided a valuable contribution. One major store when asked if volunteers could solicit contributions from its premises, went even further and gave 10 per cent of a day’s taxings.

The United States Government and the Ford Foundation helped measure for measure. The Government contributed $1 for every $3 raised in the individual and corporate sector, while the Ford Foundation gave a grant on condition that it could be matched by fundraising schemes. Gentlemen of Connecticut, including several Congressmen, made ap-

peals for contributions, but most impressive of all, Mr Matthaei said, was the response of the ordinary public. Students, who may trudge like snails to school, showed no lack of enthusiasm in helping to save the theatre. One class of tots in an elementary school raised 84c all in cents; a wolf cub pack sent in one month’s dues; one class raised $2OO, and when this was stolen from a locker made good the sum from their own pockets.

An 11-year-old girl distressed that the theatre might close, sent a letter to the “New York Times,” saying “It’s a shame, for just when I get to the age where I can enjoy Shakespearean plays, which will add greatly to my education, it is getting impossible to see them.”

A nine-year-old girl even provided the name for the campaign to preserve the theatre — “Save our Shakespeare.” The Connecticut Teachers’ Union ran a raffle to raise funds, and gifts came from as far away as Texas and' Oregon, from a housing estate for elderly people, even from a barber who sent in one day’s earnings.

In fact, the money came

from 30,000 sources, Mr Matthaei said. He believed that in the past the threatre had been too dependent on one source for its income, and had not considered what would happen once this support ended.

It was a comedy of errors that could have had tragic consequences, but Mr Matthaei said the theatres finances where now much broader based and he was confident of the future.

So the theatre, which Mr Matthaei describes as a “stylised replica of the Globe Theatre”, opened its doors on the banks of the Housatonic River, as planned. It’s a labour of love that was not lost, and you can see Shakespeare in Connecticut for as long as you like it.