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May 28, 1999/13 Sivan 5759, Vol. 51, No.35
Theater will use recent grant for set-building shop
TAMI BICKLEY
Staff Writer
Almost anyone associated with the performing arts will tell you that during a show, two scenes take place simultaneously - the one on-stage, and the one backstage.
No one knows the chaos that hovers over the weeks leading up to a dramatic production better than Janet Arnold. As founder and producing director of the Arizona Jewish Theatre Company, she has experienced everything from near opening night disasters to financial ruts.
"We often scramble," says Arnold. "(Aside from) getting the sets, lights, sound, and everything else ready, we have to then get the casts used to the set. This is all in one week. It's tough."
It's even tougher, she adds, when her company has nowhere in which to build a set.
Since its formation 11 years ago, AJTC has rented space at Phoenix College, and a number of venues, in which to build their elaborate sets. But occasionally, these venues need the space for their own productions, leaving AJTC without a set - sometimes days before a production.
However, a recent $25,000 grant from Phoenix's Flinn Foundation will enable AJTC to rent and secure a fixed location for a so-called "scenic shop" for up to one year. It is the largest grant ever received by the company, which depends heavily on donations.
"It's so exciting," Arnold says. "This (grant) should really move us to the next step of stabilizing us and helping us to ensure the integrity of our sets."
AJTC is a medium-sized professional company that currently has office and performance space at the Herberger Theater in downtown Phoenix. It is there where cumbersome sets must be shipped a week before an opening night performance.
While most performances require only one set, some call for two or three, notes Arnold. The sets are built off site and then shipped to the Herberger, where they are erected by special technicians Arnold hires for each production.
In the past, when space has been limited, crews sometimes have resorted to desperate measures in order to get a set built before opening night.
"For one show this year, we ended up having to build (the set) at three different locations," Arnold explains. "It was awful, and the set went way over budget. It causes incredible stress, and it's a lot of money. The only way you can stabilize those costs is by having a place you can count on."
Arnold is in the process of looking for a warehouse-type facility of about 4,000 square feet. So far, she says, she has her eye on a few places in the vicinity of 35th Street and Indian School Road in Phoenix, as well as some locations in the downtown area. She would like to rent space that is close to the Herberger, to ease the task of carefully transporting sets.
AJTC plans to set up the set-building shop by Sept. 1, 1999. The foundation will then begin making grant payments on a quarterly basis for up to one year, according to Brad Halvorsen, communications officer of the Flinn Foundation. The foundation is a private, nonprofit philanthropic trust that has made donations to the arts, health care organizations, universities and scholarship programs since 1965.
Each year, the foundation sends out applications to various qualified art groups around the state, and then selects donation recipients from the pool. Until this year, the foundation concentrated on large organizations.
"Being able to expand our funding through this initiative to mid-sized groups is a wonderful development," Halvorsen says.
When AJTC was chosen as a recipient in February, Arnold was informed about two conditions of the grant. Firstly, AJTC must jointly rent the space with another company or artist. Secondly, the theater must commit to try to continue renting the space itself after the year is up.
"That will be a trick," says Arnold. She estimates that the rental fees will amount to $18,000 per year. In the first year, the remaining $7,000 of the grant will be used to purchase set-building equipment.
"We need to find people to join us (in renting space) to offset (the costs)," she says. "We only do four shows a year, so really, we only need the space for four months out of the year. It's tough to be paying for (the space) when it's just sitting there."
Once AJTC does find a location for its scenic shop and a co-renter, Arnold is confident that at least some of the mishaps of the past will never be repeated. For example, two days before the November 1998 "Kuni Leml" performance opened, Arnold doubted the set would be ready in time.
"(The grant) will improve my sanity," she says. "It will also improve the efficiency of our sets, and there will be much less stress on all of us. Our final product has always been wonderful as far as the audience knows. But what they don't know is the hell we've been through getting there."
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