a SetWear script bag, containing 3 rolls of spike tape (red, blue, and yellow), a roll of glow tape, mobile phone/device holder (fits iPhone and Blackberry), a china marker, and a Sharpie.

Purchased separately, these items would cost approximately $85.00.  Chicago Spotlight is offering the whole package for just $45.00.

Want this gift set?  E-mail Chicago Spotlight by clicking here, or here’s the rest of their contact info:

They are located within walking distance of the Ashland/Lake stop on the CTA Green Line.

Do you know of a great gift deal available at one of your vendors?  Let me know!

Sound familiar?  Probably because you’ve already heard it from theatres such as About Face, House Theatre of Chicago, Paper Mill Playhouse, North Shore Music Theatre (which failed), Magic Theatre, and a few others just in the past 2 years.   I’m calling it the Ransom Demand, and frankly, I’m sick of it.

No, I’m not advocating kicking a struggling theatre when it’s down. And I do feel for those involved with a theatre in financial trouble.  But lets be honest: we’ve all known the economy was in the toilet for several years.  Those first blindsided by sudden drops in funding, regardless of your opinion of their financial operations, at least had the excuse of being the first.  “We-lost-our-two-biggest-donors-please-give-us-half-a-million-bucks-or-we-close-next-week” was  understandable a few years back.  Not anymore.

Here in Chicago, we had suffered for years with our public transit system not receiving adequate funding from the state.  A few years back, it got so bad that the system was in danger of shutting down before the fiscal year was over because the state government hadn’t bothered to to find the funding it had promised at the beginning of the year.  At the last second, the state “bailed out” the public transit with exactly enough money to complete the year.  But this was just a one time infusion: it didn’t fix the fact that the funding had not changed in nearly 20 years.  So the next year, once again, the transit system was on the brink of shutting down. Again the state offered a “bail out”, but that would not solve the problem.  No one wanted to simply be thrown a new bucket every year, they wanted the leaks patched and the boat upgraded.  Finally a new funding plan was approved, and the bail-outs could stop. (granted, the plan didn’t work out as well as hoped, due to interference from the now impeached Governor, as well as the economy causing fewer tax revenues than expected.  But at least the plan was upgraded from the antique one of the past).  Continuing on as usual and expecting to be bailed-out at the last second is no way to sail a leaky ship, and no way to continue to get donors to trust you with their cash.

It is nearing the end of 2009, and it is the beginning of the new show season for most theatre companies.  Any company that has not bothered to look at its finances and start patching the leaks in the last few years will most likely not be able to stay afloat simply due to a sudden, one-time cash infusion now.  The warnings have all been there.  You would have to be blind, and deaf, not to notice them.  I understand that sometimes things don’t play out the way they were planned, and sometimes emergency action must be taken.  But lets have Willows Theatre be the last one to ask for a ransom to save itself.

There have been years of warnings, and watching other theatres try the same tactic.  Any theatre resorting to ransoming itself risks creating an unsympathetic hostage.