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WPCNR STAGE DOOR. By John F. Bailey. June 4, 2003: The Common Council set the “Playbill” for the management of the White Plains Performing Arts Center Monday evening by approving the Memorandum of Understanding between the city and independent producers, Tony Stimac and Jeffrey Rosenstock, of the Helen Hayes Theatre Company and Queens Theatre In the Park, respectively.
No financial terms of the arrangement were disclosed in the memo, however, Benjamin Boykin, in his comments said, Mr. Stimac and Mr. Rosenstock “offered the best financial package.” The Memorandum states the city has budgeted $100,000 for each of years one and two of the theatre operation, plus a $25,000 loan.
To come in the weeks ahead on a timetable of the city’s design are selection of a Board of Directors by the producers, (with heavy city and citizen representation), a selection of a Performing Arts Center Community Advisory Committee of artists and art organizations by Mayor Joseph Delfino, to define community access, negotiate rents and eligibility.
Department of Parks and Recreation Has Responsibility for the Theatre
In Common Council President Benjamin Boykin’s remarks about the Performing Arts Centre at the Common Council Monday evening, he credited and thanked City Parks and Rec Commissioner Arne Abramowitz for bringing the two producers, Stimac and Rosenstock to the attention of the city, adding them to the first three organizations who had originally replied to the City’s Request for Proposal, Professional Facilities Management, Westco, and Centerpoint Stage.
Mr. Abramowitz, when he was managing Flushing Meadow Park for the City of New York, worked with Mr. Rosenstock in developing the Queens Theatre in The Park who was then and still remains, its Artistic Director. Abramowitz’s department, will also “represent the city’s interests” in the new Performing Arts Center.
Stimac & Rosenstock Handle Day-to-Day Management and Fundraising
In the Memorandum of Understanding approved unanimously by the Common Council Monday evening, the two new producers will produce or co-produce theatrical events, schedule live entertainment, arrange to lease the facility to local arts groups, and rent theater, lobbies and rehearsal rooms.
The two veteran empresarios have the responsibility for fundraising to “sustain the operations of the Center,” in addition to maintenance of the Center and its equipment, and will manage Box Office and “House Operations, and liason with City Center management and National Amusements, which will run the theater’s concessions, taking 80% of the proceeds, according to a National Amusements spokesperson.
You, too, Can Be a Board Member.
Stimac and Rosenstock will be expected to form a Board of Directors to “govern” the new theater, with the city supplying a short list of candidates whom the city feels have an interest and expertise to set theater policy. The city will have three representatives on the Board of Directors from the Department of Public Works, Department of Recreation and Parks, and the Department of Planning.
It is not spelled out in the Memorandum whether Stimac and Rosenstock have to clear their programming and policies with the Board of Directors, the Department of Recreation and Parks, or whether they have a free hand.
Calling all Cultural Leaders. Calling All Cultural Leaders.
The show business duo has committed to “support community access to the new facilities by committing to provide a number of dates for community groups for each fiscal year.” The duo are committed to give adequate lead time to community groups in announcing those dates, which are defined to include “late-week and week-end dates.”
To achieve this delicate balance, the Memorandum states Mayor Joseph Delfino will appoint a “Community Advisory Committee” made up of “local artists, representatives of arts organizations and other cultural leaders.” This committee will work with Stimac and Rosenstock to hammer out a theater policy on community access to the theater, the costs of rental, and what defines a “resident organization.”
Scaled Rents to be Determined.
The Memorandum makes it very clear that community organizations will pay rents for performances, rehearsals, user fees, which will be “scaled” for different days of the week or prime show times during the year. The Memorandum states: “The operating success of the Center will be based partly on the ability to earn revenues from operations, with an efficient means of allocating time in the spaces of the building.”
$100,000 Operating Budgets
Rosenstock and Stimac will be signed to a three year contract with an option to renew. The Memorandum of Understanding notes that the contract is to be signed by June 15, and that “The City and the Operator are in the process of finalizing a budget” but does not disclose the fees or royalty arrangements, if any being negotiated with the producers. The two producers are given the authority to negotiate royalty and residual income from “successfully produced plays” for the White Plains Performing Arts Center. How those fees accrue to the Center after the Operator leaves will be spelled out in the final contract.
The city commits to budgeting $100,000, plus services for operation of the theater iuneach of the first two years, with a $25,000 city loan, to be secured and repaid over three years. The purpose of the loan is not stated.
Option to Renew
The operator, according to the Memorandum, will be given a contract to run the Center for three years with an option to renew “to be exercised by the Operator.”
The Memorandum acknowledges that “more specific direction on booking policy, rental rates, user fees, scheduling horizons and other community access issues” will be forthcoming.
“White Plains Mystery Theater”
Meanwhile, the theatre in the developing City Center remains under construction. The interior design of the theatre is a mystery, though structure and physical plant have been specified by a professional theatre architectural firm, there is not at this time a definite interior decorating scheme that anyone in the city is willing to show WPCNR, if indeed it does exist. Repeated inquiries by WPCNR as to what the theatre will look like visually, not physically, have been met with assurances that there is a design, but who and what firm or person is designing it has not been disclosed. No interior designs have been shown to WPCNR despite repeated requests.
