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32 n e w h a v e n B I Z | O c t o b e r 2 0 1 8 n e w h a v e n b i z . c o m the best way for us to engage residents down- town is to be there." e proposal is for the facility to be open 288 days a year and present more than 500 per- formances on the two stages. Borenstein said there's already interest from Gateway Com- munity College and the International Festival of Arts and Ideas in using the stages, too. If approved by the city, a $6 million renovation will follow. A decision is expected some time in October. (Also bidding is the non-profit New Haven Center for the Performing Arts that operates the College Street Music Hall across the street.) "It's such a good thing for downtown and an expansion of each of our organization's missions," says Borenstein. "is is a good way to expand our operations downtown without moving everything." Lease Expiring At least for the time being. e long-term lease the theater has with its New Haven Food Terminal landlord expires June 30, 2022. "e terminal folks are deciding what they want to do — whether to sell the property or renew the leases — because all the leases will be up at the same time," Borenstein says. "In the meantime, we are looking at other spaces but this [downtown] space could be part of our solution if the Terminal properties are sold." In the field of education, the theater's relation- ship with Albertus Magnus will also deepen, of- fering additional opportunities for its students. "ey would like to rebuild their theater major and there could be a lot of synergy among the three organizations," Borenstein explains. Long Wharf 's Studio School, which has classes for youngsters from elementary to high school, will also be expanded. Borenstein says the theater is already increasing its ticketing operation to include the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, which will help subsidize the theater's box office bottom line. ough he is cautious in pointing out that not any single new project will financially sustain the organization, one possible revenue stream he is not counting on is royalties from works that begin at Long Wharf. "Unless you transfer a big Broadway-style musical like Jersey Boys, it's not really significant revenue," Borenstein says. "It adds to your organization's patina and helps attract artists — and that matters — but in terms of revenue and effort, it's more Vegas than Vanguard." Financial Challenges Driving the need for additional programming and revenue streams is the financial strain of the last few years of deficits. For the last fiscal year reported, LWT had a deficit of more than $1 million and the latest, which ended June 30, is similarly in the red. "eaters across the country are struggling financially and we are no exception," says Pap- pano. "If you don't come up with new ways of doing things you'll just be doing the same old things, and we know they don't work. ere is a plan for us to program and do things in a way that will get us back in the black. But it's going to take a few years." ough some LWT donors took a "pause" in the months following the Edelstein crisis, support for the most part held steady during the transition, though some held off increasing their contributions or in their deferral of multi-year gis — until the new artistic director is named and future plans are laid out. Subscriptions, however, are up over the same period last year. Working in Long Wharf 's favor is a $14 million endowment — begun more than 30 years ago — which generates about $700,000 a year and which significantly supplements its $6 million annual budget. "But the key thing is audience-building. At the end of the day it all comes down to how do you get more people to come see what we do," says Borenstein. "I think we can be welcoming to everybody. But we also have to offer different things that might appeal to different people and think of ourselves in a big-tent way." Says Pappano: "e more people you touch, A RT S & C U LT U R E Continued from previous page the broader your constituency is and the more likely you are to make more friends. e solu- tion is not less, but more." A lot rests on the new face of Long Wharf and the start of its re-branding. But whoever succeeds Edelstein, she or he will be a different type of leader. "We want a different style of artistic leadership which is about consensus building," Borenstein says. "We are no longer interested in an impre- sario coming with everyone else working to implement that one person's vision." Adds Pappano: "It's not as if this one person has all the answers. is new person will be part of a culture. is leader's artistic vision will be important, but it's not everything. Selling tickets is not just about who the [artistic director] is, but about what you're offering people and whether or not they find it interesting and compelling. Is there a danger of swinging too far in the opposite direction? "We don't want to do a 180," says Borenstein. "It's probably going to a 45- or 55-degree pivot from who we are now. We do went maintain the core values of artistry and collaborative. It's really about the recognition that where we need to be successful looks very different than where we used to be. "is moment requires it." n Frank Rizzo of New Haven has covered the arts in Connecticut for more than 40 years, writing for the Hartford Courant, Variety, the New York Times and American eatre magazines, among others. Managing director Borenstein: 'We are no longer interested in an impresario coming with everyone else working to implement that one person's vision.'

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