Willows Theatre’s Concord, CA space to close.

Tonight’s closing night of “Barefoot in the Park” will also be final performance for the Willows Theatre in Concord, CA.  The Willows had announced a scant 2 months ago that they needed $350,000 by November 1st or else they would have to close one or both of their theatres.  They reportedly only raised half that.  While the original 210 seat Willows Theatre space will close after 34 years, the 3 year old 152 seat Willows Cabaret (Campbell Theatre) in nearby Martinez  (which also houses the scene shop, offices, and rehearsal spaces) will remain open. This certainly makes sense fiscally, as the original Concord space costs $40,000 per year to rent, while the Martinez property is owned by the company.  However, the company was “organized in 1974 to support quality live theatre in Concord,” so this change is at odds with the 35 year old company’s original intent.  In addition, two-thirds of Willow’s 3400 subscribers were attending the original theatre, and polls showed that only 45% of them were willing to go to Martinez.  Ironically, the main cause of the financial problems seems to be the construction/remodeling of the Martinez locations.

Tags: economy, problems, Ransom Demand, theatre, Willows Theatre

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 8th, 2009 at 9:09 pm and is filed under General, economy, history. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.